It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Philippine studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints has just published its latest issue, Bulul and Healing
The June 2025 issue of Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints features a range of scholarly articles and book reviews exploring indigenous healing traditions, state welfare misdiagnoses, and the evolving landscape of Philippine Studies in China. Highlights include Armand Nicod-am Camhol’s study on the multifunctionality of the bulul, Marie Bembie A. Girado’s critical analysis of conditional cash transfers among the Palaw’an, and Ma Yuchen’s cross-border perspective on Philippine Studies. The volume also reviews recent publications on indigeneity, colonial religious devotion, conflict in the Bangsamoro, Filipino leadership, and the historical impact of typhoons. Access is available via the Philippine Studies website, Ateneo’s Rizal Library E-Resources, Project Muse, JSTOR, and Archium Ateneo.
Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints is an internationally refereed journal that publishes scholarly articles and other materials on the history of the Philippines and its peoples, both in the homeland and overseas. The journal is published quarterly by the Ateneo de Manila University through the Rosita G. Leong School of Social Sciences.
Home accidents as important as road traffic crashes – study finds
Accidents occurring in the home are a substantial cause of non-fatal injuries requiring medical care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) – with women disproportionately affected, a new study reveals.
While global health agendas often focus on Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs), researchers discovered that non-RTC injuries were nearly three times as common, with a prevalence of 5.6% compared to 1.7%. For non-RTC injuries, falls were the most common mechanism, with most occurring at home, but a substantial proportion also occurring on or around roads.
Homes were the most frequent location for non-RTC injuries (38.1% of non-RTC injuries occurred in the home). These were especially seen among women, for whom 51.6% of non-RTC injuries occurred at home. In contrast, men experienced more injuries at workplaces and on roads.
Researchers analysed data from 47,747 people, aged 15 to 64, from 12 LMICs across four WHO regions - Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Guyana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine - to understand the causes of injuries requiring medical attention.
Researchers noted that being female, married, or older was associated with a lower likelihood of being injured, while having at least primary education increased the likelihood. Urban residents had a higher injury rate than people living in rural areas.
Lead author Dr Leila Ghalichi, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “Our findings challenge the assumption – held by many - that road traffic crashes are the greatest cause of injuries in the world. We highlight falls as the largest issue causing injuries – a factor likely to cause more issues as people age and are prone to falling.
“Falls and other non-RTC injuries, especially those occurring at home, are a substantial and neglected burden in LMICs. Women face significant risks in the domestic environment, which must be addressed through targeted prevention and health system strengthening.”
The researchers call for a broader injury prevention agenda that includes all mechanisms and settings, not just RTCs. They advocate for targeted interventions such as home safety improvements, public education, and better data collection to inform policy, identify high-risk groups, and tailor interventions accordingly.
Co-Senior Author, Dr Michaela Theilman of Harvard University said: “Integrating injury surveillance and care into universal health coverage frameworks is essential. There is an urgent need to broaden the global injury prevention focus beyond RTCs to include non-RTC injuries.”
Senior author Professor Justine Davies, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “The large burden of falls on the roads is particularly concerning – these were not related to RTCs, and suggest the need for investment in infrastructure to improve road conditions for non-vehicular users. This is especially pertinent to the drive to improve active transport to help reduce obesity and overweight and assist with climate change mitigation.”
The researchers note that, with non-fatal injuries requiring medical attention affecting nearly 7% of adults annually, health systems must allocate resources for emergency, critical, and rehabilitative care, not just trauma from road accidents.
ENDS
For more information,please contact the Press Office at University of Birmingham on pressoffice@contacts.bham.ac.uk or +44 (0) 121 414 2772.
Notes to editor:
The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
Participating institutions: University of Birmingham, UK; Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique; University of Michigan, USA; Stanford University, USA; Ministry of Health, Bhutan; Ministry of Health, Kenya; University of Göttingen, Germany; Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA; Harvard Medical School, USA.
Journal
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Article Title
Unintentional injuries requiring medical attention in low-income and middle-income countries: Evidence from nationally representative surveys in 12 countries
Sleep apnea will become more common and more severe due to global warming, leading to increased health and economic burdens across the globe, warn Flinders University sleep experts.
A new study, published in leading journal, Nature Communications, found that rising temperatures increase the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and that under the most likely climate change scenarios, the societal burden of OSA is expected to double in most countries over the next 75 years.
Lead author and sleep expert, Dr Bastien Lechat, from FHMRI Sleep Health says this is the first study of its kind to outline how global warming is expected to affect breathing during sleep and impact the world’s health, wellbeing and economy.
“This study helps us to understand how environmental factors like climate might affect health by investigating whether ambient temperatures influence the severity of OSA,” says Dr Lechat.
“Overall, we were surprised by the magnitude of the association between ambient temperature and OSA severity.
“Higher temperatures were associated with a 45 per cent increased likelihood of a sleeper experiencing OSA on a given night.
“Importantly, these findings varied by region, with people in European countries seeing higher rates of OSA when temperatures rise than those in Australia and the United States, perhaps due to different rates of air conditioning usage.”
Sleep apnoea – a condition that disturbs breathing during sleep – affects almost 1 billion people globally and, if untreated or severe, increases the risk of dementia and Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression, reduced quality of life, traffic accidents and all-cause mortality, previous research has found.
In Australia alone, the economic cost associated with poor sleep including sleep disorders like OSA has been estimated at $66 billion a year.
The study analysed sleep data from over 116,000 people globally using an FDA-cleared under-mattress sensor to estimate the severity of OSA.
For each user, the sensor recorded around 500 separate nights of data. The researchers then matched this sleep data with detailed 24-hour temperature information sourced from climate models.
They conducted health economics modeling using disability adjusted life years, a measure employed by the World Health Organization that captures the combined impact of illness, injury, and premature mortality, to quantify the wellbeing and societal burden due to increased prevalence of OSA from rising temperatures under several projected climate scenarios.
“Using our modelling, we can estimate how burdensome the increase in OSA prevalence due to rising temperature is to society in terms of wellbeing and economic loss,” says Dr Lechat.
“The increase in OSA prevalence in 2023 due to global warming was associated with a loss of approximately 800,000 healthy life years across the 29 countries studied.
“This number is similar to other medical conditions, such as bipolar disorder, Parkinson’s disease or chronic kidney diseases.”
Similarly, the estimated total economic cost associated was ~98 billion USD, including 68 billion USD from wellbeing loss and 30 billion USD from workplace productivity loss (missing work or being less productive at work).
“Our findings highlight that without greater policy action to slow global warming, OSA burden may double by 2100 due to rising temperatures.”
Senior researcher on the paper, Professor Danny Eckert, says that while the study is one of the largest of its kind, it was skewed towards high socio-economics countries and individuals, likely to have access to more favourable sleeping environments and air conditioning.
“This may have biased our estimates and led to an under-estimation of the true health and economic cost,” says Professor Eckert
In addition to providing further evidence of the major threat of climate change to human health and wellbeing, the study highlights the importance of developing effective interventions to diagnose and manage OSA.
“Higher rates of diagnosis and treatment will help us to manage and reduce the adverse health and productivity issues caused by climate related OSA,” says Professor Eckert.
“Going forward, we want to design intervention studies that explore strategies to reduce the impact of ambient temperatures on sleep apnea severity as well as investigate the underlying physiological mechanisms that connect temperature fluctuations to OSA severity.”
The article, ‘Global warming may increase the burden of obstructive sleep apnea’ by Bastien Lechat (Flinders University), Jack Manners (Flinders), Lucía Pinilla (Flinders) Amy Reynolds (Flinders), Hannah Scott (Flinders), Daniel Vena (Harvard Medical School), Sebastien Bailly (Univ. Grenoble Alpes), Josh Fitton (Flinders), Barbara Toson (Flinders), Billingsley Kaambwa (Flinders), Robert Adams (Flinders), Jean-Louis Pepin (Univ. Grenoble Alpes), Pierre Escourrou (Centre Interdisciplinaire du Sommeil), Peter Catcheside (Flinders), and Danny J Eckert (Flinders), has been published in the journal Nature Communications. First published 16 June DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60218-1.
Global warming may increase the burden of obstructive sleep apneaby
Article Publication Date
16-Jun-2025
COI Statement
Competing interests P.E. serves as a consultant for Withings. Outside the submitted work, B.L. has had research grants from Withings, Medical Research Future Fund and NHMRC. Outside the submitted work, D.J.E. has had research grants from Bayer, Apnimed, Takeda, Invicta Medical, Eli Lilly and Withings. D.J.E. currently serves as a scientific advisor/consultant for Apnimed, Invicta Medical, Takeda, SleepRes and Mosanna. A.C.R. has received research funding from the Lifetime Support Authority, Sleep Health Foundation, Flinders Foundation, Medical Research Future Fund, NHMRC, the Hospital Research Foundation, Compumedics, and Sydney Trains, and speaker and consultancy fees from Teva Pharmaceuticals, Sealy Australia, and the Sleep Health Foundation for work unrelated to this study. H.S. reports consultancy and/or research support from Re- Time Pty Ltd, Compumedics Ltd, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation, and Flinders University. R.J.A. reports research support from the NHMRC, Flinders Foundation, the Hospital Research Foundation, Big Health, Philips Respironics, ResMed Foundation, Flinders University, Sydney Trains and, and speaker and consultancy fees from SomnoMed. P.C. reports grants from NHMRC, Medical Research Future Fund, Flinders Foundation, Invicta Medical, Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation, Defence Science and Technology Group. None of the other authors have any potential conflicts to declare.
“Our participants created a complete lighting survey for public spaces with a total surface area of about 22 square kilometers,” Kyba says proudly. After co-developing the “Nachtlichter” app (“nightlights”), they counted and classified almost a quarter million light sources. In addition to the type of lighting, they documented additional information such as the level of shielding or size of the source. The counting campaigns took place in 33 municipalities in pre-defined areas that match the footprint of a night-time light observation satellite. The areas included city centers, residential neighborhoods, and urban locations that are commercial or industrial in character.
Signs and shop windows
“By comparing these data with the satellite observations, we identified a correlation between the number of counted lights per square kilometer and the radiance observed by the satellite sensor,” says Kyba. “By scaling our results up to cover all of Germany, we estimate that just over one light per person stays on after midnight.” Streetlights are in the minority: In heavily developed areas, there is about one illuminated sign and one illuminated shop window for each streetlight. The group also learned that private lighting is very important. Private windows were the most frequently observed light source by far, even after midnight. Other light sources, such as bright floodlights and illuminated doorbells to decorative lights in yards and gardens, made up about a quarter of the lights observed.
“These results show significant potential for future light and energy savings in German municipalities,” says Kyba. “Both energy and lighting policy as well as research on the effects of artificial light on the environment have generally focused on street lighting. Our findings indicate that a broader approach that considers all lighting is necessary in order to understand and reduce the environmental impacts of light in cities.”
A recent study led by the University of Turku, Finland, analysed the DNA map of more than 14,000 gut metagenomes in a global dataset and found that there are differences in antibiotic resistance between genders. In high-income countries, women had more antibiotic resistance genes than men.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most serious global health threats. Antibiotic resistance causes antibiotics to lose their effectiveness, which can make it difficult or in some cases impossible to treat bacterial infections. The resistance is estimated to cause more than 1.3 million deaths annually, and the number is growing rapidly.
This recent study is the first to examine the differences of antibiotic resistance between the genders in a large international dataset.
Researchers at the University of Turku analysed a global dataset of 14,641 publicly available human gut metagenomes encompassing 32 countries. The study was carried out in a research group led by Professor of Data Science Leo Lahti. In high-income countries, an average of nine percent higher total antibiotic resistance gene load was observed in women than in men. This suggests that women may be more frequently exposed to antibiotics, bacteria resistant to antibiotics, or are more often carriers of resistant bacteria.
In low- and middle-income countries, men had a higher load of antibiotic resistance genes than women. However, the difference was not statistically significant when covariates such as age and differences in living conditions between countries were taken into account. Interestingly, the differences emerged in adulthood.
“This suggests that lifestyle, biological differences or healthcare-related factors may influence these differences more in adulthood than in childhood,” says Postdoctoral Researcher Katariina Pärnänen from the University of Turku.
In addition, a slightly higher diversity of resistance genes was found in women in high-income countries compared to men, suggesting a broader resistance variation in the gut microbiota.
Antibiotic resistance varies by age and geography
Age and country of residence were strongly associated with the number and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes. These were particularly high in infants and the oldest age group.
High antibiotic use was associated with higher resistance gene loads and diversity. High levels of resistance were also found in low-income countries, which may be explained by factors such as poor hygiene and sanitation.
The study highlights the complex interaction of gender, age, socio-economic status, and geography in the distribution of antibiotic resistance. The research results could help develop better ways to fight antibiotic resistance.
“Understanding gender differences in antibiotic resistance is key to designing equitable and effective healthcare interventions. Our study will lay the groundwork for further research to reduce health inequalities related to antibiotic resistance," concludes Pärnänen.
The research article "Gender differences in global antimicrobial resistance" has been published in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes on 19 May 2025.
While you’re probably not pouring your morning cup for the long-term health benefits, coffee consumption has been linked to lower risk of mortality. In a new observational study, researchers from the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University found the association between coffee consumption and mortality risk changes with the amount of sweeteners and saturated fat added to the beverage.
The study, published online in The Journal of Nutrition, found that consumption of 1-2 cups of caffeinated coffee per day was linked to a lower risk of death from all causes and death from cardiovascular disease. Black coffee and coffee with low levels of added sugar and saturated fat were associated with a 14% lower risk of all-cause mortality as compared to no coffee consumption. The same link was not observed for coffee with high amounts of added sugar and saturated fat.
“Coffee is among the most-consumed beverages in the world, and with nearly half of American adults reporting drinking at least one cup per day, it’s important for us to know what it might mean for health,” said Fang Fang Zhang, senior author of the study and the Neely Family Professor at the Friedman School. “The health benefits of coffee might be attributable to its bioactive compounds, but our results suggest that the addition of sugar and saturated fat may reduce the mortality benefits.”
The study analyzed data from nine consecutive cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2018, linked to National Death Index Mortality Data. The study included a nationally representative sample of 46,000 adults aged 20 years and older who completed valid first-day 24-hour dietary recalls. Coffee consumption was categorized by type (caffeinated or decaffeinated), sugar, and saturated fat content. Mortality outcomes included all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Low added sugar (from granulated sugar, honey, and syrup) was defined as under 5% of the Daily Value, which is 2.5 grams per 8-ounce cup or approximately half a teaspoon of sugar. Low saturated fat (from milk, cream, and half-and-half) was defined as 5% of the Daily Value, or 1 gram per 8-ounce cup or the equivalent of 5 tablespoons of 2% milk, 1 tablespoon of light cream, or 1 tablespoon of half-and-half.
In the study, consumption of at least one cup per day was associated with a 16% lower risk of all-cause mortality. At 2-3 cups per day, the link rose to 17%. Consumption beyond three cups per day was not associated with additional reductions, and the link between coffee and a lower risk of death by cardiovascular disease weakened when coffee consumption was more than three cups per day. No significant associations were seen between coffee consumption and cancer mortality.
“Few studies have examined how coffee additives could impact the link between coffee consumption and mortality risk, and our study is among the first to quantify how much sweetener and saturated fat are being added,” said first author Bingjie Zhou, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the nutrition epidemiology and data science program at the Friedman School. “Our results align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans which recommend limiting added sugar and saturated fat.”
Limitations of the study include the fact that self-reported recall data is subject to measurement error due to day-to-day variations in food intake. The lack of significant associations between decaffeinated coffee and all-cause mortality could be due to the low consumption among the population studied.
Additional authors are Yongyi Pan and Lu Wang, both of the Friedman School, and Mengyuan Ruan, a graduate of the Friedman School.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities under award number R01MD011501. Complete information on methodology is available in the published paper. The content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views the National Institutes of Health.
