HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Home is where healthy food is

Adolescents who eat large amounts of food away from home are heavier and more likely to have a poor-quality diet. Among 14,355 children surveyed over three years, researchers from Harvard's Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (DACP) found that 9- to 14-year-olds who increased their consumption of fried food away from home over the course of a year gained weight above the normal rate. This research was conducted at the DACP Center for Child Health Care Studies and is reported in this month's Pediatrics journal.

"Doctors should encourage teens to limit their intake of food prepared away from home and to eat family dinners together, the benefits of which appear to include improved diet quality," said lead author Elsie Taveras, instructor in ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

For full story, http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/html/10_3tavares.html.

Catheter procedure does not increase mortality in advanced heart failure patients

Pulmonary artery catheterization (PAC), an invasive diagnostic procedure used to guide treatment for patients with critical illness, has remained one of the most controversial topics in critical care medicine, following publication of a major observational study that suggested it may unintentionally increase risk of death in severely ill patients. Some physicians urged the procedure be banned all together.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Duke University put an end to many aspects of an ongoing debate over PAC's use specifically for heart failure patients. Hospitalized patients whose therapy was guided by PAC experienced the same survival and rehospitalization outcomes as patients whose therapy was evaluated with expert physical assessment. The findings are published in the Oct. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the full story, http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/294/13/1625.

- Compiled by Alec Solomita