Adolescents that had been exposed to adult-themed TV shows between the ages of 6 and 8 are more likely to make their sexual debuts before the age of 14, according to Hernan Delgado and colleagues from Children’s Hospital in Boston.

Delgado’s team tracked TV and movie exposure in 754 boys and girls who were younger than age 12 using diaries and computer-based self-interviews, and then 5 years later, asked participants about the age at which they first had sexual intercourse.

Among the youngest kids in the study, who were 6-8 years old at the time, it turned out that for every hour per day spent viewing adult-targeted programming, the chances of having sexual intercourse by early adolescence (ages 12-14) jumped by 33%.

In all, 10% of study participants reported losing their virginity by this age.

Surprisingly, the correlation was not found among the cohort of children who were older than the age of 8 at study onset.

“We think it’s because the younger you are, the more immature you are, and the media might have more influence,” Delgado told MedpageToday.

“Older children might be learning from peers, social norms, and families . . . but when they are young, they are probably using the media as a reference to make decisions as to what being an adult entails and what an adult relationship means,” he added.
 
“Watching characters on ‘90210′ or ‘Glamour Girls’ engaging in promiscuous lifestyles where there are no consequences for actions is going to convey that this is an ideal way to behave to get what you want and to be popular,” said Melissa Henson, director of communication at the Parents Television Council.

The Senate Finance Committee is considering whether to levy a new federal tax on soda and other calorie-leaden drinks to help pay for the proposed remake of the nation’s healthcare system.

Early estimates for the cost of the overhaul are in the $1.2 trillion range. To date, team Obama has come up with about half that total.

A soda tax of, say, 3 cents per 12-oz. serving would contribute a bunion-sized $24 billion over the next 4 years according to the Congressional Budget office. Thankfully, it’s just one of hundreds of ideas being considered.

The proposed soda tax would exclude most diet beverages, but sugary beverages not normally considered to be unhealthy, such as Gatorade and Capri Sun would be dunned.

Soda tax advocates cite research pointing to a link between obesity and the consumption of sugary drinks.

They believe the tax would cut consumption and associated health issues, and thus contribute indirectly to reductions in medical costs.

A dozen states already tax sugar-laced drinks, according to Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“Soda is clearly one of the most harmful products in the food supply, and it’s something government should discourage the consumption of,” Jacobson told the Wall Street Journal.

Jacobson also plans to propose increased federal taxes on alcohol, and wants to legislate the elimination of artificial trans fat from the US diet, not to mention the reduction of sodium content in packaged and restaurant food.

But Susan Neely, president of the American Beverage Association worried a soda tax would have a disproportionate impact on low-income Americans.

“Taxes are not going to teach our children how to have a healthy lifestyle,” she insisted to the Journal.

Harvard scientists have found that as people age to a point where they become eligible for Medicare, the improved access to care it assures is associated with reductions in racial and socioeconomic disparities in health status.

That supports a contention made by many that universal coverage could narrow the US’ appalling gaps in the quality and outcomes of care for non-whites and the poor.
 
Before reaching these conclusions, John Ayanian and colleagues performed observational and quasi-experimental analyses of cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Data had been collected between 1999 and 2006 from adults aged 40 to 85 years old.
 
The scientists found that measures of disease control improved significantly across all racial and socioeconomic subsets during the 7-year study period, which had the effect of preserving racial disparities noted at study onset…until that is, people reached an age where they qualified for Medicare.

That’s when the gaps narrowed dramatically.

Once people with hypertension enrolled in Medicare, Black vs. white disparities in systolic blood pressure dropped by 4.2 mm Hg, a 60% reduction.

Similarly, Medicare enrollment was associated with a 70% reduction in Black-white disparities for hemoglobin A1c levels, a measure of diabetes control. There were similar reductions in disparities when people were stratified according to educational status. 

“Universal health insurance may reduce persistent disparities we’ve seen for far too long in Americans from different racial or ethnic groups,” Ayanian told BurrillReport. He’s a professor of medicine and health care policy at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
 
The write-up is in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“The results of this study make it clear that guaranteeing access to affordable insurance for all Americans is the essential first step toward…a healthier America,” said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, which funded the study.