Most seniors who are enrolled in a Medicare drug plan are satisfied with their plan, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll (Seniors’ Early Experiences With Their Medicare Drug Plans).

A study appearing in the August issue of Medical Care Research and Review examines the impact of employment changes and premium increases on health insurance coverage (kaisernetwork.org Daily Health Policy Report, July 26, 2006).

The Washington Post (July 24, 2006) reports on research on health disparities between foreign-born and native-born blacks in the US. The research hopes to shed light on reasons for the generally poorer health of the black population.

Baby Boomer Women: Secure Futures or Not? examines the “unique employment, financial, retirement, housing and health care challenges” faced by baby boomer women. The study is a collaboration between the Harvard Generations Policy Program and the Global Generations Policy Institute.

The population of Uganda has reached 28 million, according to a statement by the Director of the Population Secretariat (The Monitor (Kampala) via allAfrica.com, July 12, 2006).

Most Zimbabweans are choosing to have two to three children, owing to social and economic factors as well as increasing empowerment of girls, according to the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (The Herald (Harare) via allAfrica.com, July 12, 2006).

A related story looks at the role of women’s education in reducing fertility (The Herald (Harare) via allAfrica.com, July 12, 2006).

New reports from MEASURE DHS:

• Uganda 2004-05 AIS Final Report, 2006 (HIV/AIDS Sero-Behavioural Survey)
• Egypt 2005 Final Report (DHS)

This report, from the DHHS Office of the Surgeon General, indicates that smoke-free policies are the most economic and effective approach for providing protection from exposure to secondhand smoke. Progressive restriction of smoking in the United States to protect nonsmokers has had the additional health impact of reducing active smoking.

This website provides detailed information on race and Hispanic origin data from the NHIS data set.

This report examines mean NAEP reading and mathematics score differences between public and private schools when selected characteristics of students and/or schools were taken into account using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).