Serena Lee aspires to increase our understanding of people living with “invisible disabilities.” Amy Stuyvesant wants to figure out how changes in hurricane activity are helping or hindering the forests of Puerto Rico.
Although their subjects of their research are unrelated, these two graduating seniors share a key distinction. Thanks to the Wasserman Undergraduate Scholars Program, they are pursuing high-level research that they expect to have an impact far beyond UCLA. (more…)
WASHINGTON — On average, Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than people in other high-income countries, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.
The report finds that this health disadvantage exists at all ages from birth to age 75 and that even advantaged Americans—those who have health insurance, college educations, higher incomes and healthy behaviors—appear to be sicker than their peers in other rich nations. (more…)
In his recently published book, Family Consequences of Children’s Disabilities, Dennis Hogan offers the first comprehensive account of families of children with disabilities. He talked with Courtney Coelho about his findings, including some of the more surprising ways having a child with a disability can affect the family structure.
Families of children with disabilities often face a plethora of challenges, ranging from the financial to the emotional. Still, little research has been done to document exactly how families are affected by a child with a disablity. Dennis Hogan’s recently published book, Family Consequences of Children’s Disabilities (Russell Sage Foundation), is the first comprehensive account of these experiences. Motivated by his own experience of growing up with a brother with Down syndrome, Hogan, the Robert E. Turner Distinguished Professor of Population Studies, merged existing data with interviews with more than two dozen family members of disabled children. He talked with Courtney Coelho about his findings, including some of the more surprising ways having a child with a disability can affect the family structure. (more…)
*Most patients wait until it’s too late to prevent serious disability*
While the thought of any type of surgery can be disconcerting, the thought of brain surgery can be downright frightening. But for people with a particular form of epilepsy, surgical intervention can literally be life-restoring.
Yet among people who suffer from what’s known as medically intractable epilepsy, in which seizures are resistant to drugs, only a small fraction will seek surgery, seeing it only as a last resort. As a result, they continue to suffer seizures year after year. They can’t drive, they can’t work and they lose cognitive function as the years pass. Premature death is not uncommon. (more…)
