News in brief - Aug. 21, 2006

Shopping cart mishaps land thousands of children in EDs - Flu vaccine gets OK from FDA - Moderate alcohol consumption has health benefits for older adults, study finds

Shopping cart mishaps land thousands of children in EDs

More than 24,000 children were treated in emergency departments last year for shopping cart-related injuries, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The group recommends that parents refrain from placing children in the carts until safety improvements are made.

Most of the injuries occurred when a child fell from a cart, the cart tipped over, the child became entrapped in the cart or fell while riding on the outside, according to a new AAP policy statement. Three-quarters of the injuries were to the head and neck, and most of the children treated in emergency departments were younger than 5.

The academy recommends that parents arrange to have another adult come with them to watch the children while shopping, put children in strollers, wagons or front packs instead of the carts, allow older children to walk, leave children supervised at home or shop on the Internet. The group also warns against leaving a child alone in a cart, placing an infant carrier on top of the cart or allowing a child to stand in a cart or ride on the outside.

Flu vaccine gets OK from FDA

Vaccines that are expected to provide protection from seasonal flu in the Northern Hemisphere during the approaching season were approved on Aug. 2 by the Food and Drug Administration. Each year vaccine manufacturers submit information and samples of the viral strains to the agency for review and testing.

This season's approved formulation includes one strain that was used in last year's vaccine and two new strains. The four vaccine manufacturers approved to market their products in the United States are on track to deliver a total of 100 million doses, 20 million more than last year, according to the FDA.

Each year 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized because of complications and 36,000 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Moderate alcohol consumption has health benefits for older adults, study finds

Older adults who consume one to seven alcoholic beverages a week may live longer and have a reduced risk for cardiac events than those who do not drink -- an association that appears to be independent of the anti-inflammatory effects of alcohol, according to an article in the July 24 Archives of Internal Medicine.

Although alcohol use may worsen some chronic diseases and the overall effect of drinking on survival is not clear, several studies have shown that alcohol may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and heart failure and contribute to a lower death rate, said researchers who studied the effects of alcohol on 2,487 adults without heart disease. Compared to those who never or only occasionally drank, those who had one to seven drinks a week had a 26% lower risk of death overall, or 20 deaths versus 27 per 1,000 person-years, and an almost 30% lower risk of cardiac events, or 21 deaths versus 29.

The participants ranged in age from 70 to 79 years old and were classified according to how many drinks they had in a typical week. Almost half of the participants never drank alcohol or had less than one drink per week. During 5.6 years of follow-up, 397 participants died and 383 had a cardiac event.