Vaccines have low risk of serious side effects: study

WASHINGTON: Some childhood vaccines are linked to serious side effects, but they are quite rare and do not include autism, food allergies or cancer, said a review of scientific literature Tuesday.

A host of vaccines commonly given to children under age six were the focus of the systematic review of rigorously conducted studies, published in the peer-reviewed US journal Pediatrics.

The report seeks to address a rising trend of vaccine hesitancy among parents in the United States and Europe, which has led to a resurgence of measles and whooping cough in some parts of the world.

"We found that serious adverse events that are linked to vaccines are really rare, and that when they do occur they are often not necessarily severe," said study co-author Courtney Gidengil, a pediatrician at Boston Children´s Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School.

"We think this adds to the body of evidence that the benefits really do seem to clearly outweigh the low risk of serious side effects from vaccines," she told.

The study expands on a 2011 report by the Institute of Medicine that also pointed to some side effects linked to vaccines but found "few health problems are caused by or clearly associated with vaccines."

The Pediatrics report includes several vaccines that were not studied by the IOM, including those against hepatitis A, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), polio, rotavirus and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

Side effects
Side effects of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and pneumococcal vaccines included the potential for fever and seizures.

The MMR and hepatitis A vaccines were also linked to a side effect called purpura, when small blood vessels leak under the skin.

There was some evidence that immune-deficient children given the varicella vaccine against chicken pox could develop infections or have an allergic reaction.

The rotavirus vaccines, RotaTeq and Rotarix, were associated with a risk of intussusception, a condition in which one part of the intestine slides into another part.

However, the risk of this condition was rare, amounting to between 1-5 in 100,000, the researchers said.

"Clinicians who immunize children regularly may have encountered these adverse events in their practices, particularly seizures associated with fever," said an accompanying editorial by Carrie Byington, vice chair for research in the pediatrics department at the University of Utah.

"Fortunately, the adverse events identified by the authors were rare and in most cases would be expected to resolve completely after the acute event."

 

US drone strikes set ‘dangerous precedent’: study

WASHINGTON: America´s reliance on secretive drone missile strikes against terror suspects has set a "dangerous precedent" that could be imitated by other countries and trigger wider wars around the world, former senior US officials said in a report Thursday.

The ex-officials acknowledged that the robotic aircraft are a useful tool that is "here to stay," but urged President Barack Obama to lift the veil of secrecy that surrounds their use, introduce stricter rules for the strikes and take a hard look at whether the bombing raids were genuinely effective.

"The increasing use of lethal UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) may create a slippery slope leading to continual or wider wars," said the report by a bipartisan panel sponsored by the Stimson Center think tank.

The employment of drones for attacks outside of traditional battlefields "is likely to be imitated by other states as well," fueling instability and increasing "the risk of widening conflicts in regions around the globe," it said.

"US practices set a dangerous precedent that may be seized upon by other states -- not all of which are likely to behave as scrupulously as US officials," it said.

In the eyes of the rest of the world, the United States has essentially claimed the legal right to kill anyone it believes is a member of the Al-Qaeda network or its allies "in any state on earth, at any time, based on secret criteria and secret evidence," the report said.

The pervasive secrecy made it difficult for lawmakers in Congress to serve as a check on executive power and threatened to undermine traditional legal principles that underpin international law, it said.

Obama has promised to curb the secrecy around the strikes and in May said that any operation should not "create more enemies than we take off the battlefield."

The number of strikes in Pakistan and Yemen have decreased since 2010, according to unofficial tallies based on media reports, but the level of secrecy has changed little.

But the US president has faced criticism that he has failed to live up to his own pledges on drones to "uphold standards that reflect our values."

Call to acknowledge strikes
The report called on the Obama administration to adopt a more transparent stance and acknowledge drone strikes after they have been carried out in a foreign country. At the moment, US officials barely acknowledge the existence of the drone raids and do not reveal who was targeted and whether civilians were injured or how many killed.

"While secrecy may be required before and during each strike, strikes should generally be acknowledged by the United States after the fact," it said.

To ensure more accountability for a campaign largely conducted behind closed doors, the report urged Obama to create "a non-partisan independent commission to review lethal UAV policy."

The panel also said the Obama administration should fulfill its plan to transfer most of the drone strikes from the Central Intelligence Agency to the military, which operates under more transparent legal parameters compared to the spy service.

The authors questioned the overall efficacy of the drone strikes, saying it was not clear that the government had ever conducted a thorough analysis of the strategic advantages and disadvantages of using the robotic aircraft for counter-terrorism efforts.

It was time for the administration to conduct a "rigorous strategic review and cost-benefit analysis" of the drone raids, looking at the effect of past strikes on terror groups, local communities, public opinion and the cooperation of allies and partners, it said.

The ten-member task force that examined the controversial drone attacks included former senior intelligence and legal officials and was led by retired four-star general John Abizaid, who served as head of US Central Command, and Rosa Brooks, a former legal adviser at the Pentagon who is now a law professor at Georgetown University.

Human rights groups have long denounced the drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere as an unaccountable air war that operates virtually without scrutiny from Congress or the courts.

But the Stimson report was unusual as several of the authors were former high-ranking officials working in intelligence and counter-terrorism, including former legal advisers at the CIA, the State Department and the White House´s National Security Council.

Study finds link between pesticides and autism

WASHINGTON: A California study out Monday found that pregnant women who lived near farms where pesticides are applied had a two-thirds higher risk of having children with autism. The findings in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives examine the association between living near commercial pesticide applications and having offspring with autism, but do not show cause-and-effect.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that ranges in severity and has been on the rise in recent years. Health authorities say it now affects as many as one in 68 children in the United States.

The latest research was based on data about commercial pesticide applications in California, combined with residential addresses of about 1,000 participants in a study of families with an autistic child.

"We mapped where our study participants´ lived during pregnancy and around the time of birth," said principal investigator Irva Hertz-Picciotto, vice chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at University of California, Davis. California law requires detailed records on what kinds of pesticides are applied, where and when and how much. "What we saw were several classes of pesticides more commonly applied near residences of mothers whose children developed autism or had delayed cognitive or other skills."

About one-third of study participants lived within 1.25 to 1.75 kilometers (about a mile) from a site where commercial pesticides were applied.

Researchers found risks of autism were highest when the chemicals were applied during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.

The study authors said the developing fetal brain may be particularly vulnerable to pesticides.

"This study validates the results of earlier research that has reported associations between having a child with autism and prenatal exposure to agricultural chemicals in California," said lead study author Janie Shelton, a UC Davis graduate student. "While we still must investigate whether certain sub-groups are more vulnerable to exposures to these compounds than others, the message is very clear: Women who are pregnant should take special care to avoid contact with agricultural chemicals whenever possible.

‘Plastic-eating’ microbes help marine debris sink: study

PERTH: Microscopic creatures could be helping reduce marine garbage on the ocean surface, not only by "eating" plastics but by causing tiny pieces to sink to the seafloor, Australian researchers said Thursday.

The plastic-dwellers appear to be biodegrading the millions of tonnes of debris floating on waters worldwide, according to oceanographers at the University of Western Australia.

They analysed more than 1,000 images of material drifting along Australia´s coast in a study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

The study is the first to document the biological communities living on the tiny particles of debris known as microplastics, and recorded many new types of microbe and invertebrate for the first time.

"Plastic biodegradation seems to happen at sea," oceanographer Julia Reisser said.

"I am excited about this because the ´plastic-eating´ microbes could provide solutions for better waste disposal practices on land."

Scientists have warned that microplastics -- particles smaller than five millimetres (0.2 of an inch) -- are threatening to alter the open ocean´s natural environment.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimated in 2012 that around 13,000 pieces of microplastic litter were found in every square kilometre of sea, with the North Pacific most badly affected.

While there has been previous research on microbes eating plastic at landfills, Reisser said her research found early indications that their marine counterparts could be just as effective on ocean garbage.

"If you use terrestrial microbes, you need fresh water to grow them and the process can be very expensive," she told AFP. "But if you find marine microbes, they are growing in saltwater and that might be a cheaper way (to reduce landfills)."

Reisser said the research showed diatoms -- tiny algae that were the most commonly found microbe living on the microplastics -- were using the little pieces as a "boat" to move around on the surface of the ocean.

As more and more diatoms -- which are made of silica -- gathered on a plastic piece, they appeared to make it sink to the bottom of the ocean floor, she said.

The actions of the microbes could explain why the amount of plastic floating on the seas has not been expanding as fast as scientists expected, Reisser added.

But the researchers also found evidence of possible tiny bite marks on the microplastics, raising concerns that other small organisms could be consuming toxins found in the litter.

"It seems we have tiny animals grazing on these plastic inhabitants -- but we are not sure if this is good or bad," Reisser said.

"That´s a hazard that we are very worried about, but we need far more research to see how big this problem is." (AFP)

Bariatric surgery yields higher diabetic remission: study

WASHINGTON: Stomach-shrinking bariatric surgery beats other forms of treatment in bringing about remission of type 2 diabetes in the obese, according to a Swedish study out Tuesday.

The study, to appear in Wednesday´s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), also found that the procedure was linked to fewer diabetes-related complications in the severely overweight. The findings come at a time when obesity and diabetes have reached epidemic proportions, creating a costly public health problem.

In the United States, more than 29 million people -- or 9.3 percent of the population -- had diabetes in 2012, up from an estimated 26 million two years earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

Treating the disease and related complications amounted to $245 billion in medical expenses, as well as lost pay in 2012, up from $174 billion five years earlier.

Carried out by a team led by Lars Sjostrom of the University of Gothenburg, the findings to appear in JAMA involved a follow-up of the Swedish Obese Subjects study.

The median follow-up time was 18.1 years for people who had had surgery and 17.6 years in the control group in an effort to determine the long-term effects of bariatric procedures, diabetes remission and diabetes-linked complications.

The authors found that the proportion of people with type 2 diabetes who had bariatric surgery and were in remission was 72.3 percent two years after the procedure, compared to 16.4 percent in the control group.

Fifteen years on, the diabetes remission rates were 30.4 percent for those who had surgery, significantly higher than the 6.5 percent remission in the control group. All kinds of bariatric surgery -- including gastric bypass and adjustable and nonadjustable banding procedures -- "were associated with higher remission rates compared with usual care," said a release announcing the study.

What´s more, according to the authors who say the findings require confirmation through randomized trials, this type of surgery is also linked to a lower incidence of micro- and macrovascular complications.

According to Tuesday´s CDC data, one in four people with diabetes in the United States aren´t aware they have the disease.

What´s more, 86 million US adults aged 20 and older have what is known as prediabetes -- that´s when blood sugar levels are above normal but not high enough to be deemed type 2 diabetes.

Without shedding pounds and engaging in moderate physical activity, 15 to 30 percent of this at risk group could develop the full-blown disease within five years, the CDC warned.

It said 208,000 people younger than 20 have been diagnosed with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. "These new numbers are alarming and underscore the need for an increased focus on reducing the burden of diabetes in our country," said CDC official Ann Albright.

"Diabetes is costly in both human and economic terms. It´s urgent that we take swift action to effectively treat and prevent this serious disease." (AFP)

 

Salting roads cuts lives short for butterflies: study

WASHINGTON: Covering icy roads with salt can save the lives of human drivers, but US researchers said Monday the practice may be cutting butterfly lives short.

Sodium chloride, the cheapest salt, is the most common used to melt ice and snow on slippery winter roads. Previous studies have already shown that salting roads can have an impact on plant and animal life in nearby lakes and rivers. But this latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, said pouring the substance over roads in winter could also affect the lives of butterflies and other invertebrates that forage for food near the asphalt.

"Salt is normally limited in availability, and sodium plays an important role in development," said lead author Emilie Snell-Rood, a biologist at the University of Minnesota.

She focused in particular on the monarch butterfly, a migratory insect that feeds on the milkweed plants that grow both along the roadside and in the open prairie.

Her team found that road-side milkweed had up to 30 times more sodium than normal in their tissues.

When butterflies eat those leaves, their sodium levels go up as well.

Among males, the increased sodium led to increased development in muscles used for flight, while among females, the opposite was true. And in female butterflies, the excess sodium led to gains in brain size, but that was not the case for males.

Although increased sodium levels can have beneficial impacts, too much can be deadly -- and Snell-Rood´s research found a markedly higher mortality rate among butterflies exposed to excessive sodium.

Likewise, the survival rate for monarch caterpillars -- the immature form of the butterfly -- along roadsides with high sodium concentrations was just 40.5 percent, compared to nearly 60 percent for caterpillars feeding on plants in the prairie.

Snell-Rood said similar studies should be conducted in urban areas where even more salt is used during the winter than on the county roads where she conducted her study, in order to test the impact on other creatures.

Other research has already shown that road salt can damage leaves, dry out roots, and change soil properties. (AFP)

Sheep genome shows links between wool, health: study

WASHINGTON: Scientists have mapped the entire genome of sheep, paving the way to improve the health of the humble farm animal for better meat and wool.

After eight years of work on the entire genetic makeup of the species, the researchers also found the secrets of the sheep´s digestive system and unique fat metabolism process that allows it to produce and maintain its thick coat.

Sheep became a species distinct from goats and other ruminants about four million years ago, with a four-compartmented stomach that can convert rich plant materials into animal protein, according to the study.

That digestive feature allows sheep to easily feed on a diet of low-quality grass and other plants.

The study published in the journal Science was the culmination of a project involving 26 institutions from eight countries that is part of the International Sheep Genomics Consortium.

Researchers hope their findings will help develop DNA tests to improve stock through accelerated breeding selection programs, and to further research to mitigate diseases affecting the animals.

"Given the importance of wool production, we focused on which genes were likely to be involved in producing wool," said Brian Dalrymple, project leader at Australia´s national science agency the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

"We identified a new pathway for the metabolism of lipid in sheep skin, which may play a role in both the development of wool and in the efficient production of wool grease (lanolin)."

There are about a billion sheep around the world -- including around 70 million in Australia alone. So the researchers predicted their work could have a "massive impact" for the rural economy due to the sheep service as a significant source of meat, milk and wool products.

Researchers from Australia, Britain, China, France, Denmark and New Zealand participated in the study. (AFP)

More evidence that Earth collision formed Moon: study

WASHINGTON: German scientists said Thursday that moon samples collected during the 1960s and 1970s have shown new evidence that the moon formed when a young Earth collided with another celestial body.

The smashup between an early form of Earth and a planetary body named Theia some 4.5 billion years ago is put forth by what scientists call the Giant Impact Hypothesis of moon formation.

While most experts support the notion, they say the only way to confirm such an impact is to study ratios between the isotopes of oxygen, titanium, silicon and others.

Until now, researchers studying lunar samples that arrived on Earth via meteorites have found that the Earth and moon were quite similar in makeup.

But using samples collected from the lunar surface by NASA´s Apollo 11, 12 and 16 moon missions, and more advanced scientific techniques, scientists found something new.

"They were able to detect a slightly but distinctly higher composition of the oxygen isotope in the lunar samples," said the study in the journal Science." This very small difference supports the Giant Impact Hypothesis of moon formation."

According to theoretical models of the collision, the moon would have formed mostly from Theia, at between 70-90 percent, with some 10-30 percent coming from Earth.

But researchers now say the moon could be a 50/50 mixture of Earth and Theia remnants, though more study is needed to confirm.

"The differences are small and difficult to detect, but they are there," said lead author Daniel Herwartz of Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen.

"We can now be reasonably sure that the Giant collision took place."

The findings will be presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in California on June 11. (AFP)

 

More evidence that Earth collision formed Moon: study

WASHINGTON: German scientists said Thursday that moon samples collected during the 1960s and 1970s have shown new evidence that the moon formed when a young Earth collided with another celestial body.

The smashup between an early form of Earth and a planetary body named Theia some 4.5 billion years ago is put forth by what scientists call the Giant Impact Hypothesis of moon formation.

While most experts support the notion, they say the only way to confirm such an impact is to study ratios between the isotopes of oxygen, titanium, silicon and others.

Until now, researchers studying lunar samples that arrived on Earth via meteorites have found that the Earth and moon were quite similar in makeup.

But using samples collected from the lunar surface by NASA´s Apollo 11, 12 and 16 moon missions, and more advanced scientific techniques, scientists found something new.

"They were able to detect a slightly but distinctly higher composition of the oxygen isotope in the lunar samples," said the study in the journal Science." This very small difference supports the Giant Impact Hypothesis of moon formation."

According to theoretical models of the collision, the moon would have formed mostly from Theia, at between 70-90 percent, with some 10-30 percent coming from Earth.

But researchers now say the moon could be a 50/50 mixture of Earth and Theia remnants, though more study is needed to confirm.

"The differences are small and difficult to detect, but they are there," said lead author Daniel Herwartz of Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen.

"We can now be reasonably sure that the Giant collision took place."

The findings will be presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in California on June 11. (AFP)

Rise in Type 1, 2 diabetes among US youths: study

WASHINGTON: Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are rising significantly among young people in the United States, according to new research that warns of a growing epidemic in American youth.

Type 1 diabetes rose 21 percent among children and teenagers from between 2001 and 2009, said the study in based on three million children and adolescents.

Type 2 diabetes increased 30 percent over the same period, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Saturday.

Type 1 diabetes appears most often in children and is a disorder in which the pancreas does not make insulin, leading to too much glucose in the blood. Those with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin for the rest of their lives.

Type 2 diabetes is more common, and occurs when blood sugar levels are too high and the body doesn´t make insulin well enough. It can be controlled through healthy diet, exercise and medications.

The population studied came doctor-diagnosed cases from five centers in California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina, and Washington state, and included some American Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

Type 1 diabetes was studied in youths aged 0 to 19, and Type 2 in those aged 10-19.

Researchers said more study is needed to determine the reasons for the rise.

Previous studies have found similar rises of Type 1 diabetes, and some scientists have projected that the population with this disease would nearly triple -- from 179,387 in 2010 to 587,477 in 2050.

The JAMA study also found that type 1 diabetes was on the rise among minority youths as well as whites.

"The increase in prevalence among US minorities documented herein is of concern, given that minority youth are more likely to have poor glycemic control, known to be associated with the serious complications of type 1 diabetes."

The study also projected that type 2 diabetes would increase four-fold -- from 22,820 in 2010 to 84,131 in 2050.These increases "are important because such youth with diabetes will enter adulthood with several years of disease duration, difficulty in treatment, an increased risk of early complications," the study said, cautioning that the disease could be even more common in generations to come. (AFP)

Diabetic heart attacks, strokes falling: study

5  1

NEW YORK: In the midst of the diabetes epidemic, a glimmer of good news: Heart attacks, strokes and other complications from the disease are plummeting.

Over the last two decades, the rates of heart attacks and strokes among diabetics fell by more than 60 percent, a new federal study shows. The research also confirms earlier reports of drastic declines in diabetes-related kidney failure and amputations.

The drop is mainly attributed to better screening, medicines and care. The improvements came even as the number of U.S. adults with diabetes more than tripled in those 20 years.

"It is great news," said Dr. John Buse, a University of North Carolina diabetes specialist, of the drop in rates.

"The prognosis for folks with diabetes has improved dramatically over the last two decades, at least for those with good access to care," Buse said in an email. He was not involved in the study.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research is reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Diabetes is a disease in which sugar builds up in the blood. The most common form is tied to obesity, and the number of diabetics has ballooned with the rise in obesity. Today, roughly 1 in 10 U.S. adults has the disease, and it is the nation's seventh leading cause of death, according to the CDC.

The obese are already at higher risk for heart attacks and strokes. But diabetics seem to have more narrowing of their blood vessels - a condition that can further foster those problems.

In the 1990s, key studies showed that diabetics could keep their blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol under control. The research suggested that vision and heart problems, leg and foot amputations and other diabetes complications were not necessarily inevitable.

Meanwhile, insurance programs expanded coverage of blood sugar monitors and diabetes treatment. Gradually, larger numbers of diabetics were diagnosed earlier and with milder disease.

For the new study, the CDC tallied complication rates from 1990 to 2010 for diabetics ages 20 or older.

During that time, the heart attack rate fell 68 percent, from 141 to 45.5 per 10,000 diabetics, according to hospital records.

The decline was so great that, despite the growing ranks of diabetics, the actual number hospitalized with heart attacks dropped from more than 140,000 to about 136,000.

The stroke rate fell less dramatically - but still declined by more than half, finishing at 53 per 10,000. The heart attack and stroke rates for diabetics are essentially even now, lead author Edward Gregg noted.

The researchers saw declines in hearts attack and stroke rates for non-diabetics as well, but those improvements weren't nearly as big as they were for diabetics.

Amputation rates also fell by more than half. However, like strokes, the actual number increased over the two decades.

The growth in the number of diabetics "wiped out most of the gains" from the declining rates, so the number who ended up in the hospital for strokes or amputations swelled, said Dr. Robert Gabbay, of Boston's Joslin Diabetes Center.

The study also found that the rate of kidney failure dropped by 28 percent. But that wasn't true for all ages - the rate in those 65 and older actually increased, for reasons that aren't clear. That could be a sign diabetics are living longer - long enough to get kidney disease, Gregg speculated.

The researchers also looked at a less common complication, death caused by dangerous levels of blood sugar. The rate of such deaths dropped by 64 percent; the numbers also declined by 18 percent. In 2010, those deaths totaled 2,361.

 

Snoring as a risk factor for type II diabetes mellitus: Study

NEW YORK: To examine the association between snoring and risk of developing type II diabetes mellitus, the authors analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study cohort.

This analysis included 69,852 US female nurses aged 40–65 years without diagnosed diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at baseline in 1986. Snoring patterns were ascertained by questionnaire.

During 10 years of follow-up, 1,957 women were diagnosed with type II diabetes. In analyses adjusted for age and body mass index, snoring was associated with risk of diabetes (for occasional snoring vs. nonsnoring, relative risk (RR) = 1.48 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.29, 1.70); for regular snoring vs. nonsnoring, RR = 2.25 (95% CI: 1.91, 2.66); p for trend < 0.0001).

Further adjustment for other diabetes risk factors and sleeping-related covariates only slightly attenuated the risk (for occasional snoring, RR = 1.41 (95% CI: 1.22, 1.63); for regular snoring, RR = 2.03 (95% CI: 1.71, 2.40); p for trend < 0.0001). Analyses stratified by body mass index, smoking history, or parental history of diabetes showed a consistent association between snoring and diabetes within the categories of these variables.

These results suggest that snoring is independently associated with elevated risk of type II diabetes.

Actually, kids are getting heavier in the US: study

WASHINGTON: Contrary to recent reports, America's children are still struggling with obesity and there has been no decline in the epidemic among young people, US researchers said Monday.

In fact, the problem is getting worse in a small subset of the heaviest children, among whom the trend has about doubled, said the findings in JAMA Pediatrics, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Childhood obesity is of particular concern because it can lead to lifelong health problems, including high cholesterol, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, experts say.

"The total number of kids that are overweight or obese hasn't changed," said co-author Joseph Skelton, a pediatrician at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

"It does seem overall, though, that some kids are getting heavier," he told AFP.

The latest study was based on the same data set as that released in late February, in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hailed a 43 percent drop in obesity among the country's preschoolers in the past decade.

However, the new study spanned a longer period of time, a wider age range and used 1999 as its starting point, rather than 2003 when an unusual spike in obesity was observed for reasons that are unclear, Skelton said.

- Severe obesity on the rise -

The new study examined records from at 26,690 children, aged between two and 19, who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2012.

Just over 17 percent were obese in 2011-2012, meaning their body mass index (BMI) was greater than or equal to the 95th percentile for their age and sex.

That was slightly higher than the figure in 1999-2000, when 14.5 were obese, but the margin of error could make the difference as small as one percent.

When researchers looked more closely at severe obesity, they found this trend was becoming more common, and had about doubled from 1999 to 2012.

Severe obesity was defined as having a BMI that was 20 to 40 percent higher than the 95th percentile of their peers.

In other words, a 10-year old boy weighing 95 pounds (43 kilgrams) at a height of 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) would be considered obese.

If he added 10 pounds (4.5 kg) to his already obese frame, he would reach Class 2 obesity. If he added 25 pounds (11 kg), he would be considered Class 3.

Nearly six percent of youths now meet the definition for Class 2 obesity, and about two percent are Class 3, said the study.

- Lots of work ahead -

The United States, where one in three people is obese, spends about $160 billion per year just treating the medical complications of carrying around too much weight, previous research has shown.

Most doctors and nurses working with children did not see February's report of sudden progress in toddlers reflected in their work, said Stephen Pont, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics provisional section on obesity.

"We are seeing increases in rates of people who are challenged by severe obesity, who are more likely to already have a number of medical complications that are worsened and caused by their weight," said Pont, who was not involved in either study.

Research that trumpets a sudden improvement should always be taken with a grain of salt, he added.

"I would hate for people to think that all of a sudden we have stopped the adult and childhood obesity epidemic, because we most certainly haven't," he told AFP.

Experts say the problem is complex, and that it will require an all-out effort to improve eating and exercise habits across society.

Lowering costs and making healthy foods more available are also key challenges, particularly in impoverished neighborhoods.

"I think we need to take this really seriously," said Marlene Schwartz, director of the Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

"It is easier and more convenient and less expensive to get unhealthy foods. All the factors that influence your behavior are pushing you in the wrong direction."

US seniors see slow migration to tech: study

WASHINGTON: American senior citizens are gradually finding their way to the Internet, but lagging the overall population in online usage, a survey showed Thursday.

The Pew Research Center report showed that 59 percent of US adults age 65 or older use the Internet -- up six percentage points from a year ago. And 47 percent have a high-speed broadband connection at home.

But that leaves 41 percent who do not use the Internet at all, and 53 percent lacking high-speed connectivity, the researchers found. For the overall US population, Pew estimates 86 percent use the Internet.

"We've been reporting on tech use among older adults for more than a decade, but this particular study is unique because it was based on a large survey that allows us to look at seniors in a more detailed way than we have in the past," researcher Aaron Smith said.

"Although technology use among older adults overall remains low, there is actually quite a bit of diversity within the senior population."

The researchers found that the relatively young -- under 70 -- affluent, and highly educated segment of this population "is actually quite connected," Smith said.

"These seniors own a fair number of technology assets, have integrated the Internet into their daily lives, and have positive attitudes towards online life."

Some 74 percent of those in the 65-69 age group used the Internet, and two-thirds of them said they had a high-speed connection.

But the percentage going online drops to 37 percent for those over 80, the survey found.

Among seniors with an annual household income of $75,000 or more, 90 percent go online; and 87 percent of those with a college degree use the Internet.

Pew said many seniors have physical conditions or health issues that make it difficult to use new technologies. Others find the technology challenging and some are skeptical about benefits.

In the survey, just one-sixth of the older adults said they would feel comfortable learning to use a new technology device such as a smartphone or tablet on their own, while 77 percent would prefer someone to help walk them through the process.

But when they get online, most seniors keep using the Internet. Among Internet-adopting seniors, 71 percent are online every day or almost every day.

In terms of other technology usage, 77 percent of US seniors said they had a mobile phone, but just 18 percent had a smartphone.

Twenty-seven percent of seniors said they had a tablet or e-reader, Pew found.

The study found 27 percent of older adults use social networking sites such as Facebook, but these users were quite active: some 81 percent of the respondents who use social networking sites say that they socialize with others either in person, online, or over the telephone on a daily or near-daily basis.

The researchers said services like Facebook were helping maintain social connections in a population with limited mobility.

Still, the percentage of seniors using social networks lagged the 63 percent of the general population.

The report is based on a survey of 6,010 adults including 1,526 over 65, taken between July 18 and September 30, 2013. The margin of error for the senior group is estimated at 2.9 percentage points.

Women voters not fully registered, says study

ISLAMABAD: The issue of under-registration of women voters continuously shadowed the constitutionally promised universality and equal representation of the electorate in the 2013 general elections, albeit with varying intensity across regions.

“Of the 86.2m voters, 43.6 % were females compared to the 80m voters in 2008 with 44 % women voters,” said an analysis of the Free & Fair Election Network (Fafen).It has prepared a voluminous report, containing Parallel Vote Tabulations (PVT), compared to turnout and party trends of all the National Assembly constituencies.

The report said that at the provincial level, the ratio of man-woman voters has skewed further towards the male side in Punjab and Balochistan—percentages of female voters changed from 45.9 % to 2008 to 42.6 % in 2013 in Balochistan and dropped from 45 % in 2008 to 43.8 % in 2013 in Punjab.

The percentages of female voters have increased from 2008 to 2013 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) from 30.1 % to 34.2 %, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) from 40.7 % to 42.8%, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) from 45.8 % to 46.3 % and more marginally in Sindh from 44.2 % to 44.8 %.

The report said a key issue observed in the last parliamentary polls was the disproportionate and significant increase in the number of rejected votes—the number, while increasing from 775,720 in 2002 to 973,694 in 2008, recorded a substantial raise of 64 % to reach 1,502,717 in the 266 constituencies observed.

It said that the issue of rejected voters is critical not merely due to the numbers but also given the skewed distribution across constituencies and regions—the numbers range from zero in NA-53 to 25,908 in NA-266.

The report said the distribution of rejected votes paints a somber picture in that only 27 of the 266 constituencies have fewer than 2,000 rejected votes. Of the rest, 78 constituencies have rejected votes from 2,000-5,000, 148 ranged in 5,001-10,000, and 10 fell in the 10,001 to 15,000 category while three constituencies had rejected votes exceeding 15,000.

From the results’ perspective, the issue is highlighted further by the fact that the number of rejected votes exceeds the margin of victory in 35 of the 266 constituencies covered in this report. Of these, the rejected votes outnumber the margin of win by less than 1,000 votes in six, indicating an acquired importance of rejected votes due to close competition.

In the other 29 constituencies, the number of rejected votes outweighs the margin of victory by as little as 1,140 (NA-153) and as many as 19,701 (NA-266).

The report said that the PVT compares the observed vote count in a sample of polling stations with the compiled election result for that constituency in order to provide evidence that confirms or disputes the official poll result.

It said the PVT methodology was developed over 20 years ago and has been applied in many countries around the world by international and domestic election monitoring organizations as a proven analytical method for verifying the accuracy of government vote counts. The PVT is based on direct observation of vote counting in a scientifically verifiable, robust sample of the polling stations in each constituency.

The report noted that although the PVT cannot measure other election-related problems like vote buying, voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing or the use of ghost polling stations, the PVTs are designed to identify potential inaccuracies in the official count by comparing it with actual observed and verified vote counts at sampled polling stations.

The PVT can help detect centralized changes in vote counts if the percentage of vote in official count offers in a statistically significant way from the percentages calculated from the PVT sample.

In cases in which electoral commissions release polling station level results, the PVT counts for sampled polling station and the commission’s polling station data can be compared directly.