LIDIA WASOWICZ UPI Science Writer
NEWLN: ------
URBAN KIDS HEALTHIER: Children in rural Canada are more likely to be hospitalized for respiratory illness, injuries, perinatal conditions and gastrointestinal illness than their urban counterparts. The study indicates the reasons for the disparities are unclear. Dr. Ivan Pless of McGill University in Montreal says the study was an attempt to discover whether geographical and environmental factors play a role in the occurrence of the four leading causes of hospitalization among children under the age of 19. The disparities were highest in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. ------
LEARNING DISABILITY MISUNDERSTOOD: Although 2.25 million U.S. schoolchildren suffer from learning disabilities, a poll by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation of Connecticut shows the problem is woefully misunderstood. A learning disability is a neurobiological disorder affecting 10 percent to 15 percent of the entire population, in which a person of normal or above normal intelligence has problems in understanding spoken or written language. It is often confused with mental retardation, autism, physical disability and behavior affected by social conditions. The foundation plans to use the findings to launch a nationwide campaign to raise public awareness about learning disabilities. Between 60 percent and 85 percent of those questioned incorrectly identified a number of conditions, such as blindness, as a learning disability. A similar number of respondents identifying themselves as teachers misidentified the conditions. ------
TEENS FEAR GETTING AIDS FROM DOCTORS: Even though only one medical practitioner has ever been implicated in transmitting the AIDS virus to his patients, Philadelphia teenagers fear that routine medical examinations expose them to catching the deadly disease from doctors. A study of teenagers' perceptions of health care providers and sites finds the fear of catching AIDS is a top concern. The findings of the study, involving 7,500 ninth-graders, cut across racial and economic lines. It was designed to identify characteristics of the providers and sites that would affect teenagers' decision to seek care. Researchers say the teens' fears could prove to be a barrier to health care, especially counseling on how to avoid AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases through unsafe acts. ------
ALZHEIMERS GENE FOUND: Researchers have found a 'novel gene' that appears to cause Alzheimer's disease in younger people. Dr. P.H. St. George-Hyslop of the University of Toronto said, 'What we found is an apparently aggressive gene that is involved in Alzheimer's disease particularly for people between the ages of 40 and 50.' Linda Nee, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, called the finding 'a huge breakthrough in terms of getting a handle on this disease.' Now that a gene, located on chromosome 14, has been linked to the disorder, 'you can clone it and study it in the laboratory, which is a big step forward,' Nee said. An estimated 4 million Americans, most of them over the age of 65, suffer from Alzheimer's disease, but that number is expected to reach 14 million by the year 2050. It is the fourth-leading cause of death and the most common form of dementia. ------
(Editors: For more information about KIDS, call 514-398-6258; about LEARNING, call 203-639-5544; about TEENS, call 215-590-1000; about GENE, call 415-962-8111. Please do not publish these numbers.)
