The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released new data and tables information about the types of courses that high school graduates have taken, credits earned, grade point averages, and the relationship between coursetaking patterns and NAEP achievement. Information about the new tables and data can be found here.

NCHS has announced that because of quality control issues, LBXHBS (antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen) has been removed from the NHANES Hepatitis data for years 1999-2004. This variable will be released after these issues have been resolved. The data on SodaPop and PopNet now have the LBXHBS variable removed.

What could have been a chance for Congress and the President to agree has instead turned into a debate on how to finance health care, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Legislation to renew the popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) faces a veto from President Bush, who says the proposed Senate bill is an expansion of government health care that will encourage people to forgo private coverage. Bush instead favors reforming the tax code to make private health insurance more affordable.

NPR also covers the debate.

The NCHS has announced the release of the 2006 NHIS data set. This data is available on SodaPop and PopNet.

The NCHS has prepared a web site that will allow users to get more familiar with the tobacco use and smoking variables within the NHIS dataset. There is also a link to tobacco use, its health effects, and related topics.

America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007 compiles official statistics on the nation’s young people. Among the highlights: fewer children are living in married two-parent families and fewer teens are having sex.

Fewer Zimbabwean men can afford to maintain extramarital relationships due to skyrocketing inflation, leading to a decline in HIV infections, according to a story in the Washington Post.

Many in the US assume that migrants bring HIV to the US, but research has shown that migrants are frequently exposed to HIV while in the US and then bring it back to their rural Mexican communities (New York Times).

See also:

University of California Universitywide AIDS Research Program

Melissa Sanchez, George F. Lemp, Carlos Magis-Rodriguez, Enrique Bravo-Garcia, Susan Carter, & Juan D. Ruiz (2004). The epidemiology of HIV among Mexican migrants and recent immigrants in California and Mexico. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 37(Supplement 4):S204-S214. [Penn State University Libraries holdings]

Jennifer S. Hirsch, Sergio Meneses, Brenda Thompson, Mirka Negroni, Blanca Pelcastre, & Carlos del Rio (2007). The Inevitability of Infidelity: Sexual Reputation, Social Geographies, and Marital HIV Risk in Rural Mexico. American Journal of Public Health 97(6):986-996. [Penn State University Libraries holdings]

The 2005/06 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey is the first national survey to use population-based testing to determine HIV prevalence. The survey found that 1 in 6 adults in Zimbabwe has HIV. Other findings include that children’s health is worsening as vaccination rates drop and malnutrition and anemia increase. The final report is available from MEASURE DHS.

Postpartum Care: Levels and Determinants in Developing Countries, another new report from DHS, says that postpartum care is scarce in developing countries.

And in another DHS study, researchers found that women may be responsible for spreading more HIV within marriages than previously suspected (Economist.com).

Growth in the country’s large Sun Belt cities has already received a lot of attention. The Christian Science Monitor reports about similar population booms in smaller “inner Sun Belt” cities.