Monthly Archives: October 2018

How do middle-aged social drinkers perceive their alcohol consumption?

Celebratory drink

Research recently published in BMC Public Health found that rather than having health concerns, middle-aged drinkers who consume low-levels of alcohol, place more importance on their drinking behaviors conforming to socially acceptable narratives of their age, gender and identity. Here to talk about the research and what the findings mean for health messages directed at this demographic is lead author, Emma Muhlack.

Health
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Ancient and historical leopard DNA in the spot-light

Leopard

Understanding the geographic origins of leopard populations is a complex task. The evolutionary patterns that can be inferred from molecular data lack congruence with existing fossil evidence. New research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology studies historical mitochondrial DNA samples to provide new insights into the evolutionary history of both ancient and modern leopard populations. Here, Dr. Johanna Paijmans describes the research performed by herself and colleagues.

Biology

Improving the conversation between doctors and patients about antibiotic benefits and harms for coughs and colds

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Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest health threats our society faces and a major driving force behind this is over prescription. A recent study published in BMC Family Practice explores what conversations doctors and patients are having about antibiotics in consultations. Improving these could help reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing.

Health Medicine
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Media multitasking may be linked to altered perception of other people

multimedia

In the modern world, smartphones, tablets, and other devices have comfortably embedded themselves into our daily routines and interactions. In an article recently published in BMC Psychology, Dr. Richard Lopez and colleagues ran a study with a group of college-aged students, a population that grew up during the explosion of portable devices and media and tested whether students’ media multitasking tendencies were associated with how they formed impressions about other people.

Health Technology

Increase in non-drinking widespread among young people

Celebratory drink

New research published today in BMC Public Health, which looked at the drinking habits of 9,699 16 to 24 year olds in England, finds that more young people are not drinking alcohol, with this trend spread across social classes and geographical regions. In this post, lead author of the research, Dr Linda Ng Fat, talks us through these findings and explains why this increase in non-drinking should be welcomed from a public health perspective.

Health

Highlights of the BMC series: September 2018

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• Use of emergency contraception among women with experience of domestic violence and abuse: a systematic review • AgriSeqDB: an online RNA-Seq database for functional studies of agriculturally relevant plant species • Development of a vitrification method for preserving human myoblast cell sheets for myocardial regeneration therapy • Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation of motor cortical areas in freely-moving awake rats • Evolution within a language: environmental differences contribute to divergence of dialect groups • “I will not stop visiting!” a qualitative study of community health workers’ reluctance to withdraw household support following the end of a community-based intervention in Zimbabwe • Web of microbes (WoM): a curated microbial exometabolomics database for linking chemistry and microbes • TERMIS 2018

Biology Health Medicine Technology