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QRESEARCH Team Welcome New Validation Of QRISK formula for identifying those most at risk of developing heart disease
The University of Nottingham and leading healthcare systems supplier EMIS welcomed a new, independent validation of the QRISK formula for identifying those most at risk of developing heart disease. The two organisations worked together, through the not-for-profit partnership QResearch, to develop the ground-breaking formula which has been strongly endorsed in new research published in the BMJ .
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Kessler Foundation Research Center Study Provides Insight Into One Of The Most Challenging Symptoms Following A Traumatic Brain Injury
A recent study by Kessler Foundation Research Center published in Brain Injury, the official journal of the International Brain Injury Association, uncovered the possible cause of cognitive fatigue in patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Cognitive fatigue has been shown to be one of the most challenging symptoms following TBI, greatly affecting everyday life activities such as work and school. The study also addressed the difficult task of measuring cognitive fatigue through the use of functional MRI (fMRI), an advanced imaging technology. In addition to civilians with TBI, methodology from the study could potentially be used in VA Hospitals to improve the lives of the estimated 300,000 U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who suffer from brain injury. Cognitive fatigue is a highly prevalent condition, with 73 percent of TBI patients reporting significant levels of fatigue even five years post-injury.
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New HIV Microbicide Developed-- And A Way To Mass Produce It In Plants
In what could be a major pharmaceutical breakthrough, research published online in The FASEB Journal describes how scientists from St George"s, University of London have devised a one-two punch to stop HIV. First the report describes a new protein that can kill the virus when used as a microbicide. Then the report shows how it might be possible to manufacture this protein in quantities large enough to make it affordable for people in developing countries.
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Local Food Environments Can Lead To Obesity

Living in an area with more fast food outlets and convenience stores than supermarkets and grocers has been associated with obesity in a Canadian study. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health have shown that your local food environment can affect your weight. John Spence from the University of Alberta, Canada, worked with a team of researchers to study associations between the "Retail Food Environment Index" (RFEI) and levels of obesity. He said, "The RFEI is based upon a ratio of the number of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to supermarkets and specialty food stores in a given radius around a person"s house. We"ve shown that it correlates very well with the odds that that person may be obese". The availability of fast food and scarcity of outlets for natural ingredients within 800m of a person"s home was shown to be associated with weight, while the RFEI within a 1600m radius did not have the same effect. The researchers claim that this demonstrates that the proximity of the unhealthy environment is an important risk factor for obesity. According to Spence, "These findings may help explain the observation that geographic concentration of fast-food restaurants is associated with mortality and hospital admissions for acute coronary events in Canada". Fast-food is cheaper and more energy-dense per measure of weight than other healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables that are purchased in a grocery store. If governments want to reduce people"s intake of these energy-efficient, but ultimately unhealthy "meals", the authors recommend that they intervene to limit the creation of areas where tempting junk-food outlets are so much more prevalent than other shops. They write, "A plausible policy option for decreasing the prevalence of obesity among adults is improving the retail food environment, possibly through zoning by-laws". Notes: Relation between local food environments and obesity among adults John C Spence, Nicoleta Cutumisu, Joy Edwards, Kim D Raine and Karen Smoyer-Tomic BMC Public Health (in press) Article available at journal website. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central"s open access policy. BMC Public Health is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of epidemiology and public health medicine. BMC Public Health (ISSN 1471-2458) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, Scopus, EMBASE, Thomson Scientific (ISI) and Google Scholar. Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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