Regular churchgoers will have to wait significantly longer to meet their maker, according to a report conducted by the University of California at Berkeley. According to the newly released study, attending religious services once a week or more will decrease one’s risks of death and health problems, even after modifying for health problems, age and other risk factors.
Researchers from Berkeley’s School of Public Health and the Public Health Institute concluded that churchgoers have 21 percent less chance of dying from a circulatory disease, while there was no significant difference in the death risks caused by cancer.
The study also shows that those attending services less than weekly have a 66 percent greater risk of dying from a respiratory disease and a 99 percent greater chance of death caused by a digestive disease than weekly attendees.
Data from the study was taken from 31 years of longitudinal examination of over 6,500 adults from Alameda County, Calif., an ethnically, economically and religiously diverse community allowing researchers to make their findings relevant because of its comparability to the population of the United States.
Funding for the study was made possible by grants coming from the California Department of Health Services, the National Institute of Aging, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The report will be published in the April 4 edition of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine.
Professor makes psychiatry look easy, receives award
UCSD School of Medicine’s Stephen M. Stall, a professor of psychiatry, will be awarded the 2002 Prize for Education in Psychology and Neurology by the Lundbeck International Neuroscience Foundation. Stall will receive his award June 23, 2002, in Montreal, Canada, at the 23rd Congress of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
According to LINF, Stahl has developed teaching materials that “”present the essential concept of psychopharmacology and psychiatry in a simple visual form.””
Stahl, who believes that most adults are visual learners, developed teaching methods for his medical students so they could visualize concepts of the basic groundwork first and then apply the data and facts they learned in lectures and readings. The professor integrates teaching icons, animation and computer slideshow presentations into his teaching to help lay the visual groundwork down.
In 1996, Stahl sought to extend his success in teaching by visuals, repetition and interaction by authoring “”Essential Psychopharmacology,”” a textbook and CD-ROM that emphasize learning in an interactive matter.
UCSD develops new smallpox treatment
Researchers at UCSD school of medicine and the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System have developed an oral drug that blocks deadly agents causing smallpox and other orthopox diseases.
Hexadecyloxypropyl-cidofovir, or HDP-CDV, is an antiviral medication that halts the growth and spread of variola, the virus responsible for causing smallpox and orthopox strands.
HDP-CDV was developed as part of a national effort of drug developers to design an antiviral substance for people infected with smallpox. Currently, HDP-CDV is not available for human use. The drug must continue safety trials in animals, and ultimately in healthy humans. Testing is being conducted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases.
African literature conference comes to UCSD April 3-7
The African Literature Association’s 28th annual meeting will be hosted by UCSD’s department of literature and held April 3 through April 7 in various sites around San Diego.
The theme for the 2002 conference will be “”African Diasporas: Ancestors, Migrations, and Boundaries.”” More than 200 presenters and speakers will be in attendance. The meeting will include events for both registered attendees and the general public.
The public is invited to attend a reading by South Africa’s Sindiwe Magona on April 3 at 8 p.m. in San Diego’s Malcom X Library.
Jack Mapanje of Malawi will be presented the Fonlon-Nichols Award for excellence in literature and work in supporting human rights. The presentation will take place April 5 at 8 p.m. in the Graduate School for International Studies and Pacific Relations at UCSD. This event is free and open to the public.
Registration, which is required for all of the other ALA conference events, is free for UCSD undergraduate students and $20 for others. Registration fees do not include additional conference-related events such as the luncheon, banquet and dance fees.
Other speakers and performers include Lillia Momple of Mozambique and Okey Ndibe of Nigeria on April 4 at 12:40 p.m.; and Osonye Tess Onwueme of Nigeria on April 5 at 12:40 p.m. Both will be at the Radisson Hotel La Jolla.
Kamau Brathwaite of Barbados will appear April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the UCSD Faculty Club, and Afro-pop stars Dr. Thomas Mapfumo and Blacks Unlimited will appear April 6 at 9:30 p.m. at the Price Center Ballroom.