It’s a novel idea, but joining a choir at work might lower your stress levels while on the job, a new British study suggests. It included 58 people who were part of workplace choirs in different organizations. They completed questionnaires that assessed their work-related demands, control and support. Being part of a workplace choir was associated with lower levels of work-related stress and a feeling of having more support from co-workers, according to researchers from the University of Leicester. “Previous research has found that group singing can improve physical and mental health. Our study investigated whether singing with colleagues in a workplace choir can reduce workplace stress and enhance feelings of support,” said study co-author Joanna Foster. “We found that participants felt less stressed about their work and more socially connected after singing,” Foster said in a news release from the British Psychological Society. The findings were to be presented Wednesday at the society’s Division of Occupational Psychology annual conference, in Chester, England. “In fact, they gained more support from the choir than from other social interactions at work, Foster said. “Overall, there was a 96 percent reduction in work-related stress and an 86 percent reduction in feelings of social isolation.” However, the study only saw an association between singing and stress levels, rather than a cause-and-effect link. “Singing in groups is known to have…  read on >

Every day they help feed, bathe and care for the frailest Americans. But female health care workers in the United States often get shortchanged on wages and health insurance, a new study finds. In fact, about one-third of female health care workers made less than $15 an hour, and that number rose to half when these workers were black or Hispanic. The study authors estimated that about 5 percent of all female health care workers live in poverty, including nearly 11 percent of black women and 9 percent of Hispanic women. “Our findings were really quite striking. Overall, 1.7 million women health care workers and their families are living in poverty,” said study author Dr. Kathryn Himmelstein. She is a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital and a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Himmelstein began this research as a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. The report also showed that about 7 percent of female health care workers didn’t have health insurance. Additionally, many had to rely on government programs, such as Medicaid, food stamps and public housing. About 20 percent of women in the United States are employed in the health care industry, according to background information in the study. Women hold more than 85 percent of health care positions, such as nursing, home health, and personal…  read on >

Losing a job or taking a big pay cut is hard on more than just your checkbook — it might drastically increase your risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure or death. A new study finds that people who endure large swings in income over the years are much more likely to develop heart disease or suffer a premature death. “We found that individuals in the highest third of income volatility — the individuals with the most fluctuation in income — had an almost double risk of cardiovascular disease and death in the subsequent 10 years, compared with people who had the least fluctuation in income,” said lead researcher Tali Elfassy. She is an assistant professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. People who had the most volatile incomes between 1990 and 2005 were a little more than twice as likely to develop heart disease and 78 percent more likely to die from any cause during the following decade, compared with people with the most stable incomes, Elfassy and her colleagues found. Further, people who suffered two or more income drops during that same period were 2.5 times more likely to develop heart disease and 92 percent more likely to die from any cause, compared with those who never had their income go down, the study findings showed. The study only found…  read on >

After having a stroke, heart attack or cardiac arrest, people are less likely to be employed than their healthy peers, new research shows. Even if they are working, they may earn significantly less than people who haven’t had a stroke or heart event, the investigators found. Although the majority of people who have one of these serious health scares do end up back at work, about 20 percent of those who had a stroke weren’t back at work three years later. Meanwhile, about 5 percent of those who had a heart attack hadn’t gone back to work, while 13 percent of those who’d had cardiac arrest weren’t back on the job after three years. (Cardiac arrest is when your heart suddenly stops beating.) The study also found an average drop in yearly earnings of more than $13,000 after a stroke, about $11,000 after cardiac arrest and nearly $4,000 after a heart attack. “When we look at the impact of health events, we need to look not only at short-term, easy-to-measure outcomes like life and death. Quality of life and economic well-being are equally important to people,” said study author Dr. Allan Garland. He is a professor of medicine and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba and Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg in Canada. Garland said that most people want to work, so it’s important…  read on >

Add another danger that e-cigarettes pose to teenagers: A new study finds secondhand exposure to vaping may raise the chances of asthma attacks in adolescents with the respiratory condition. Middle school and high school students with asthma were 27 percent more likely to have suffered an asthma attack if they’d been exposed to vapor from someone else’s e-cigarette use, the researchers found. “While we cannot definitively say these products worsen asthma, I think if I was a parent, I wouldn’t want to risk my kids being around people using these products,” said lead researcher Jennifer Bayly. She is a student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J. These findings and others belie the general perception that e-cigarette emissions carry no risk, said Dr. Karen Wilson, chief of general pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. “Contrary to the idea that it’s a harmless water vapor, it actually contains some of the same chemicals that we find in tobacco smoke, along with particulate matter that can be very irritating to people with asthma,” Wilson said. There is moderate scientific evidence that e-cigarette use causes increased cough and wheeze in teenagers, and an increase in asthma symptoms, according to a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report cited by the study authors. For their…  read on >

For many city-dwelling teens with asthma, their chronic lung disease may go undiagnosed and untreated, a new study finds. According to a survey of more than 33,000 New York City high school students, 20 percent reported having asthma-like symptoms, but were not diagnosed with the illness. The researchers also found that teenage girls and Asian-Americans were more likely to have undiagnosed asthma. “Potentially, there are a lot of these kids out there who are undiagnosed,” said lead researcher Sharon Kingston. She is an associate professor of psychology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. “There is a need for more public health education and outreach, not only for adolescents and their families, but also for health care providers who could screen adolescents for asthma,” she said in a college news release. In people with asthma, their airways become inflamed. This causes the airway to narrow and swell and make extra mucus, making it difficult to breathe. Asthma is the most common chronic illness among children, and it can lead to school absences, reduced physical activity and quality of life, and the need for health care services. Earlier studies have shown that 8 percent to 49 percent of kids aged 7 to 18 with asthma symptoms were not diagnosed. In teens, undiagnosed asthma is especially problematic, Kingston said. That’s because they are less likely to see a…  read on >

Moving from one community to another can be difficult for everyone in the family, especially if leaving friends and relatives behind. But the problems can be magnified for kids who have to switch middle or high schools. Studies show that, for high school students, moving just once in a 12-month period can cut in half the likelihood of their getting a high school diploma by age 25. And these findings hold true whether students move to a poorer or richer neighborhood. When moving is inevitable, you can better help your child if you understand his or her temperament. If he or she has had difficulties with transitions in the past — such as moving from elementary to middle school or going through physical changes like puberty — know that he or she will need more help adjusting to a new school. And that it will be even harder if going through another one of those transitions at the same time. The key is to start early, well before the first day of class, and to get school administrators to partner with you. For instance, find out if you and your child can visit the school and meet teachers a few days in advance. Also, let your child know he or she can stay connected to friends left behind with age-appropriate social media and technology like…  read on >