Research reported in the International Journal of Health Geographics 2011, 10:43 explored the relationship between access to food outlets (convenience stores, grocery stores, and fast food) and BMI in elder Japanese citizens.
Results: In contrast to previous reports, we found that better access to supermarkets was related to higher BMI. Better access to fast food outlets or convenience stores was also associated with higher BMI, but only among those living alone.
The logistic regression analysis, using categorized BMI, showed that the access to supermarkets was only related to being overweight or obese, but not related to being underweight.
Conclusions: Our findings provide mixed support for the types of food environment measures previously used in western settings. Importantly, our results suggest the need to develop culture-specific approaches to characterizing neighborhood contexts when hypotheses are extrapolated across national borders.
Is this health related? The paper is titled "Web GIS in practice X: a Microsoft Kinect natural user interface for Google Earth navigation" and was published in the Intl Journal of Health Geographics. It details different ways to link a Kinect to drive software included Google Earth. That's not news nor exactly medically related. What is interesting in the paper (open access, pdf) is how this sort of interface may be useful in medical situations - especially those that allow the surgeon to control a medical device without touching button/touchscreen or keyboard.
In connection with Cord Blood Awareness month, Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation, the leading online resource educating parents about their cord blood storage options, has announced the first in a series of new tools and resources being made available to parents on its revised website: the nation's first searchable map of cord blood donation sites throughout the U.S.
