Recently in Research Category

The Swedish study found that social factors like living with a single parent, explained half the variation in the percentage of kids studied on ADHD medicines. Genetics also is a factor. From the article by AFP:

This interesting Associated Press "Fact Check" article looks at some of the claims that people make frequently about international comparisons, saying that U.S. kids test worse than other countries, spend less time in school and have a lower graduation rate. According to the AP, statistics tell a more complicated story, with U.S. performance - although not absolutely stellar - comparing more favorably than some education critics assume. An excerpt:

"The U.S. does trail the most high-achieving countries, mostly developed nations in Asia such as Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. But the U.S. holds its own in the group that comes next, a group of developed countries that, depending on the test, includes England, Germany and Russia. In fact, the U.S. has gained on some of its toughest competitors since 1995, making bigger strides in math than Singapore and Japan, and in science than Japan."

Researchers in Britain produced a study showing that students who get more hours of physical activity at home just cut back exercise at home, meaning the effects are a washout. An excerpt from a UPI story on the study:

Scheduling more physical education time in school does not mean children will become more fit, say researchers in Britain. The researchers, who presented their findings at the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam, said students who got more exercise at school compensated by doing less at home, and those who got little gym at school made up for it by being more active at home.

What do you think of this? Do you think this applies to American children? I imagine obesity rates differ between both countries, but I have no data to prove that. Curious to hear your thoughts.

According to this study by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, education is liked to good health. When looking at California:

Compared with college graduates, adults who have not graduated from high school are nearly three times as likely--and those who have graduated from high school are twice as likely--to be in less than very good health.

I'm a little uncertain as to how directly the two can be connected, as education is linked to income, which is linked to socioeconomic status, which has been clearly linked with health indicators. The study does acknowledge income effects. The variables seem rather linked and hard to separate.

Researchers say between 7 and 15 percent of children they studied had what they call "written-language disorder," which they say is different from dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder, according to this article on Forbes.com. An excerpt:

Education specialists define written-language disorder as the inability to write near the level expected based on a person's age, intelligence and education. People who suffer from the condition may have problems with such skills as grammar, spelling, paragraph organization and handwriting, Katusic said. For the new study, (researchers) looked at the school and medical records of 5,718 students in Rochester, Minn. The researchers found that between 6.9 percent and 14.7 percent of the children had the condition, depending on the formula used.

Have any of the readers of this blog heard about such a disorder? Anyone have an opinion about it? Feel free to make comments to this post.

According to an article in the UK Times, a study of American kids ages 8 to 18 found that one in 10 were "pathologically addicted" to video games. An excerpt:

Some young gamers show at least six symptoms of gambling addiction, such as lying to family and friends about how much they play games, using the games to escape their problems and becoming restless or irritable when they stop playing. They may also skip homework to play games or spend too much time playing and do poorly in school, the study shows.

Douglas Gentile, director of the National Institute on Media and the Family at Iowa State University, where the study was carried out, said in his report: "The present study was designed to demonstrate whether pathological gaming is an issue that merits further attention. With almost one out of 10 youth gamers demonstrating real-world problems because of their gaming, we can conclude that it does."

So what's your take on this? Are video games addicted? Is this modern-day distraction any worse than students' old-fashioned attachment to talking on the phone or watching TV?

This Wall Street Journal story reports that $2.3 trillion could be added to the U.S. gross domestic product if the achievement gap can be closed between U.S. and higher-performing nations like Finland and South Korea. An excerpt:

The report, which used a formula McKinsey - (the consultant who produced the figure ) --helped develop to link educational achievement to economic output, also estimated closing the gap in the U.S. between white students and their black and Latino peers could increase annual GDP by as much as an additional $525 billion, or about 4%.

In its report, McKinsey said existing achievement gaps have "created the equivalent of a permanent, deep recession in terms of the gap between actual and potential output in the economy."

According to this newspaper article, a recent study found that pregnant women taking even "modest amounts of Vitamin E can dramatically increase the risk of heart defects in babies." But one expert in the article cautions against overreacting to the study, saying that Vitamin E is essential to health. An excerpt:

Expectant mothers who consume only three-quarters of the recommended daily amount of the vitamin, either through food or supplements, have up to nine times the risk that their child will be born suffering a heart abnormality, a study showed.

The same link between heart damage and vitamin E was seen in women who had taken similar levels of the vitamin in the month preceding conception. Leading obstetricians said women should avoid vitamin E supplements if they are planning to conceive or are pregnant. Last night leading obstetricians said women should avoid vitamin E supplements if they are planning to conceive or are pregnant. Vitamin E, found in nuts, seeds, vegetable oils and eggs, is an antioxidant and is thought to help skin stay healthy and ease the misery of premenstrual syndrome.

A study by American researchers has concluded that mothers exposed to air pollution - such as that from traffic in nearby roads - are more likely to have underweight babies. Researchers focused on mothers living in New Jersey. Although the findings are interesting, experts quoted in a BBC news article on the study say that more research is needed to clearly establish a link. Check out a BBC article here.