Casting for the Cure

Male infants in developed nations are more likely to die than female infants, a fact that is partially responsible for men’s shorter lifespans, reveals a new study by researchers from University of Pennsylvania and University of Southern California.

The paper, which will be published online in the Monday, March 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzes 15 countries spanning three continents and hundreds of years. It finds that the gender gap in infant mortality was as high as 30 percent at its peak around 1970.

The disparity has narrowed in recent decades due to medical advancements that have helped more baby boys survive, specifically, caesarean sections and the spread of intensive care units for premature babies, the study found.

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Keeping middle schoolers from alcohol is a tougher task in the inner city than in rural areas, even for experts armed with the best prevention programs, a new University of Florida study shows.

A three-year, three-pronged prevention program did little to keep Chicago middle schoolers from drinking or using drugs, despite its prior success in rural Minnesota, where the program reduced alcohol use 20 to 30 percent, UF and University of Minnesota researchers recently reported in the online edition of the journal Addiction.

“The intervention found to be effective in rural areas was not effective here, which really surprised us,” said Kelli A. Komro, a UF associate professor of epidemiology in the UF College of Medicine and the study’s lead author. “This is an important finding to realize this program was not enough. The bottom line is this: Low-income children in urban areas need more, long-term intensive efforts.”

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The March of Dimes Foundation awarded $3.5 million to 10 scientists who are trying to stem the growing pace of preterm birth by studying the role genes and heredity play in premature births and how the rate of fetal lung development, infection and other factors may trigger labor.

Since 2005, the March of Dimes has committed more than $11 million to its four-year-old Prematurity Research Initiative grant program.

The March of Dimes unveiled the names and the projects of the 10 scientists who are the 2008 grant recipients, including two whose work was funded in the first round of grant awards in 2005.

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