Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. For most, research shows, neither diets nor moderate exercise brings significant long-term weight loss.
Dienstag, 28. August 2012
College Fitness: 5 Tips for Staying in Shape
Many college freshmen are flocking to campuses this month, in cars packed with dorm accessories—and perhaps tearful parents. After students say goodbye to their families and hello to their new roommates, the enormous lifestyle changes of college life will start setting in: Tougher classes. All-nighters. Shared rooms. Parties. Because of these newfound freedoms, distractions, and a slowing metabolism, it's common for students to become unhealthy and perhaps gain weight. Some may know it as the dreaded Freshman 15, others as the Freshman 25.
"In high school, [students] may have played sports or taken P.E. classes, so they had activity built into their lives," says Dixie Stanforth, fitness expert and lecturer in the University of Texas—Austin's kinesiology and health education department. Now, she says, students have many more decisions that they're allowed to make on their own. "Nobody's telling them to study; Nobody's telling them to exercise and eat right," notes Stanforth. "[Before college], they didn't get to choose Wendy's for lunch."
By exercising regularly and eating healthfully, both freshmen and older college students can stay fit. Here are some tips:
Make a plan.
Stanforth suggests students map out a specific fitness schedule at the beginning of the semester. "If all I do is think, 'Oh, I really should exercise,' [then] I'm not going to exercise," she says. "It's just not going to happen."
Students should examine their fall semester course load and determine exactly how and when they will make time for exercise. Will they bring their swim suit to that noon history class and head to the aquatic center afterward? Will they bike to and from the dining halls? Will they hit the elliptical after filing stories for the student newspaper? The trick is to be realistic, says Silvia Baage, a group fitness instructor and Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland. "If you have an 8 a.m. class every day, you're probably not going to work out at 6 a.m."
Join a club (or make your own).
When students find friends who also want to exercise regularly, those friends will likely hold them to it, says Stanforth."Doing some type of team activity or intramural sport—or something in which other people are counting on you—that's very powerful," she adds.
Often, dorm lobbies and recreation center bulletin boards include flyers for like-minded exercisers who want to create cycling clubs, swim teams, rock-climbing crews, or just about anything else, says John Katsares, personal training coordinator at the Ohio State University. Students should look for these flyers, and if they don't see anything of interest, make their own club.
Joining a fitness club can also help students make friends, says Megan Alexander, a graduate assistant who works with Katsares in Ohio State's department of recreational sports. "Coming into college as a freshman, you're sort of looking for that place to belong," she says. "So having that group can help you feel a lot more supported."
[See U.S. News's Eat + Run blog, which serves up fresh diet and fitness advice daily.]
Sign up for an intramural sport.
Andrew Dubs, an assistant track and field coach at the University of North Carolina, trains and conditions varsity athletes. But for students who want to go a different route, Dubs suggests signing up for an intramural sport.
Intramurals are a great way to bond with classmates and try different sports, such flag football, dodgeball, and disc golf. Plus, he says, with a league-organized game schedule, students can more easily plan their workouts. "With intramurals, that's an hour [of exercise] at night maybe once or twice a week," he says. "Then two or three other times a week, you can do something on your own.
Embrace the dorm workout.
Ideally, says Baage, students should get out of their living quarters to exercise—be it in the gym, on a bike path, in a pool, or wherever. But with bad weather and crammed study schedules, that's not always an option.
For working out in a small space, such as a dorm room, Baage suggests using a resistance band. (They're sold at Target, Walmart, and most major retailers.) With a resistance band, which is ultimately an oversized rubber band that sometimes has handles, "you can do squats, lunges, bicep extensions, bicep curls—you can do everything," she says.
A stability ball—a large, inflatable, rubber ball—can also help students work their abs and other muscles, as sitting on the round surface requires balance. "You could be sitting in front of your computer, and by sitting on the ball instead of the chair," she says, "you're working on your core at the same time."
Walk the campus.
"Students should try to walk as much of their campus as they can," says Stanforth. Whenever possible, she suggests forgoing the ride to class or cross-campus bus service, and walking to classes instead.
Another simple, everyday fitness tip from Stanford: Take the stairs in classroom buildings instead of the elevator. "Build those routine levels of activity," she says, "All those calories add up."
How Lying Affects Your Health
To tell the truth, honesty may be the best policy, for physical and mental reasons
The best time to invest in gold shares
Those who read the magazine or watch this website know that we like both gold and gold mining shares.
However, in recent years gold miners haven’t done that well. Indeed, in the last year, the FTSE Gold Mines Index has gone down by 25%.
We think this presents an opportunity for investors who get their timing right. To understand the best time to invest, I recently spoke to Georges Lequime of Earth Resources Investment Group (ERIG). He helps run the award winning Earth Gold Fund.
The cost of exploration and mining are rising
The core reason why we’re bullish on gold is as a hedge against inflation. Whether it works to do anything for growth or not, we can expect the US and Europe in particular to print a lot more money over the next few years. At the same time, interest rates will remain rock bottom in nominal terms, and negative in real terms. We also think Asian demand, especially from an imploding China, will play a major role.
However, the costs of finding gold and getting it out of the ground are starting to rise. Ten years ago the major producers spent $194 in cash and $66 in capital expenditures for each ounce of gold produced. In the first quarter of this year, this had risen to a $627 in cash and $603 in capital. In total, each ounce of gold now costs $1,384 in Q1 2012, compared with $253 in 2002.
ERIG also note that along with increased costs, the remaining reserves of gold are harder to mine. In the 1950s, a ton of ore would yield 6g of solid gold on average. By 1980, the same amount would have only produced 2.32g. The average is now 1.1g – and is still falling. Lower grades mean that more machines and tools are needed. In turn this has led to the rise of highly capital-intensive mega-mines, which attempt to take advantage of economies of scale.
Any company that has, or is able to find, cost-effective gold reserves should still do very well. But the pressure is mounting on the smallest players.
The three stages of gold companies
When investing in gold shares, or any mining or resource companies, it is important to find the right point to jump in. Most companies go through four stages.
In the first stage, companies try to find gold deposits. During this period they tend to have a very low value. These companies either run out of cash and fold, or manage to uncover evidence that there might be some gold reserves.
In the second stage, they try to examine these reserves and see whether they can be turned into a viable mine. These shares typically surge as investors pile in, attracted by the story. However, they quickly become bored with the lack of news. By the time the feasibility study is completed, they are usually back down to the level they were at the end of stage one.
If the report indicates that it is worth building a mine, then the final stage begins. During this period the firm tries to raise more capital and starts building the mine. As construction starts, gold starts coming out of the ground, and the company starts making money, brokers and institutions start becoming interested. The share price starts rising again.
Finally, the mine starts nearing the end of its natural life as reserves become exhausted. While the firm may be making large profits, and paying high dividends, it will need to find new opportunities in order to survive. This can be either through expansion, exploration or buying other mines.
While it is possible to make money during any part of the cycle, the best time to invest is at the end of stage two, or at the start of stage three. This is because the shares are cheap, thanks to bored investors, but the company is much closer to starting production.
In contrast, the most risky time to invest is at the start and middle of stage two during the 'hype' phase. While profits can be made in this period, you will need to be very good at reading sentiment, and predicting when it will change.
A gold miner to tuck away
One company that fits the profile is Eldorado Gold (NYSE: EGO). While it is technically a mature company, it has used the cash received from operations to takeover other firms that are in the process of building mines. In effect, it has transformed itself into a late second stage/early third stage company.
Of course, this doesn’t come cheap. M&A costs and the capital investment involved in developing its new reserves have hit profits (the firm now trades at a price/earnings ratio (p/e) of 25). It also means that a large part of its business is now in Greece. Due to fears about the consequences of a possible Greek exit, shares in Eldorado have been hit badly.
However, it should secure the firm’s long-term future. A Greek exit should be positive for exporters since it will bring down real wages more quickly than if Greece stayed in the euro. Unless Athens quits the EU altogether, it will still benefit from access to the European market.
“Look at me – I’m a thieving enemy of the people”
If you lived in Italy today would you buy a new super yacht? I suspect you would not. Why? Because the taxman might see it and if he did he might pop round to ask exactly how you paid for it.
And given the size of the black economy in Italy, that might be a question you didn’t want to answer.
But it might not be just yachts you are shying away from splashing out on. And your reluctance to spend may have nothing to do with being Italian or owning Italian assets.
Across the globe there are signs that high-end buyers of luxury goods are closing their wallets. Tax is one reason. Another is that ostentatious wealth is no longer admired or accepted in the way that it was. And that’s bad news for luxury goods shares.
The Italian government takes no prisoners
If you are in any doubt about the scale of the super yacht exodus have a quick look at this report on empty marinas across Italy.
Meanwhile who’d want a new Ferrari after last year’s campaign against tax evaders – which involved tax inspectors raiding the owners of luxury cars in smart ski resorts and visiting Ferrari-owner events to check the tax returns of every single driver?
And who’d want a luxury car at all given that not only will the taxman be checking your old tax returns if he sees you in a Lamborghini, he’ll also be asking for more: new taxes mean that, owners of the €316,000 Lamborghini Aventador now pay about €8,400 a year in tax.
The answer it seems is no one: according to the blogging hedge fund manager at www.macro-man.blogspot.com the “persecution of Ferrari owners” has become so severe that they are selling them in their thousands. You can now pick one up for the “price of a new VW Polo”.
This is nasty news for Ferrari and its competitors. Not only are sales being hit by general austerity and shocking enforcement of the law, but global second hand prices are likely to be hit by the new exodus of cars from Italy (note that the number of high performance second hand cars exported from Italy tripled to 13,633 in the first five months of 2012 on numbers from auto industry group Unrae).
This is going to be “a vicious value collapse” says Macro Man.
This isn’t just an Italian theme
But it isn’t just in Italy that the luxury goods market is beginning to look a little shaky.
The market’s worriers have this week turned their attention to Chinese jewelry firm Hengdeli – the leading retailer of Swiss watches in China.
I’ve written here before about John Hempton at Bronte Capital and his idea that sales tax receipts from Hong Kong suggest falling sales of the likes of jewelry and watches in Hong Kong. Recent results from Hengdeli back up his argument.
Investors in the US are about to be bitterly disappointed
Every year around this time, the world’s most powerful market movers gather in a US holiday resort and make their plans for the global economy.
I’m not talking about some conspiracy-theory-laden offshoot of the Bilderberg Group here. I’m talking about the annual central bankers’ shindig in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
This Friday, Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke will be delivering his big speech.
Plenty of investors are holding their breath, hoping he’ll make some hint at injecting a load of new money into the US economy.
But I think they’re in for a big disappointment...
The Fed needs to keep its powder dry
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) last met to discuss the state of the US economy at the start of this month. The minutes from that meeting came out last week, and got everyone very excited. That’s because the FOMC suggested that it might be ready to do more “fairly soon” unless the US economy improved.
By ‘more’, everyone assumes they mean more money printing. So they’re hoping that this Friday, Fed chief Ben Bernanke might give a hint about just how much more printing they plan to do.
But there are many reasons why anyone betting on a third batch ofquantitative easing (QE3) from the Fed this year might be disappointed.
There’s Europe, for starters. Plenty of tripwires lie ahead of the eurozone in the next month or so. There’s the German constitutional court’s decision on whether or not the eurozone’s big bail-out mechanism is legal or not. And there’s the usual to-ing and fro-ing over Greece’s financial situation.
Any nasty surprises on these fronts could send the markets into a spasm of panic. So it strikes me that the Fed will probably want to keep its powder dry, in case of emergencies.
Also, the Fed will want to keep the pressure up on Europe. If the European Central Bank (ECB) follows through on its promise to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro, more QE in the US may be unnecessary.
But if the US prints more money, it takes some of the pressure off the Europeans to get their act together.
AAP: Health benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- American Academy of Pediatrics says circumcision should be covered by insurance
- Many parents choose the procedure for religious, hygiene or cosmetic reasons
- AAP's previous policy took a more neutral stance on circumcision
(Parenting.com) -- Revising its policy on circumcision for the first time in 13 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics now says that the preventative health benefits of infant circumcision clearly outweigh the risks.
The AAP is also emphasizing that the procedure should be covered by third party payers, including Medicaid, so more families have access to it. However, the organization stopped short of recommending circumcision routinely for all infant boys, saying it's still up to parents to weigh the health, cultural, and religious implications to make the best decision for their child.
Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin, a small flap of skin that covers the tip of the penis, generally performed in the days after birth. Many Jews and Muslims circumcise their sons because of their religious beliefs. Other parents choose to snip for hygiene reasons, believing it's easier to keep a circumcised penis clean, or cosmetic ones, wanting junior to "look like dad."
The AAP's previous policy statement, published in 1999 and affirmed in 2005, took a more neutral stance on circumcision, noting "potential medical benefits," but saying it's "not essential to the child's current well-being."
However, an AAP task force formed in 2007 examined scientific studies conducted between 1995 through 2010 to evaluate if a revision was needed. The new, stronger language is a result of emerging evidence that found links between circumcision and decreased risk of urinary tract infections, some kinds of cancer, HPV, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases.
"The evidence was becoming clearer, and it's now obvious there's a preventative effect," says Dr. Michael Brady, chairman of the department of pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and a member of the AAP task force.
The circumcision controversy
Once routine, circumcision rates have been declining since the 1980s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that a little more than half of all infant males are circumcised now, although that figure is likely low since it only counts in-hospital circumcisions.
Globally, about 30% of men are circumcised, although rates range drastically from country to country.
Passionate opponents of circumcision, who sometimes describe themselves as "intactivists," call the procedure barbaric and liken it to female genital cutting. The internet, and its increasing use as a resource for medical decisions, has helped anti-circumcision groups get their message out.
"We believe that circumcision of children violates numerous legal rights of the child and is highly unethical, if not unlawful," said a public notice posted by Doctors Opposing Circumcision in anticipation of the AAP's announcement.
Some groups have even tried to make the practice illegal. Activists in San Francisco proposed a measure to ban circumcision, but it was struck down by California Governor Jerry Brown. Courts in Germany recently called circumcision "grievous bodily harm," and ruled that the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents."
Because circumcision is such a sensitive issue, moral or religious concerns might be more important than medical studies to many parents. "It's a reduction of risk, not an elimination," says Brady. "We recognize some people have very strong personal feelings about this issue, and those should be used in any decision-making."
What the research revealed
Many studies on the benefits of circumcision have been performed in Africa, where, because of the prevalence of HIV and other STDs, the effect can be seen more quickly. The task force found evidence that circumcision has a preventative effect on:
HIV: Studies in Africa and a CDC math model study found that circumcision reduces HIV infection among heterosexual men.
HPV: Another African study found that circumcision reduces the spread of human papillomavirus, some strains of which can cause cervical cancer in women.
Other sexually transmitted diseases: A variety of studies suggest that circumcision is linked with decreased risk of contracting syphilis and genital herpes.
Urinary Tract Infections: Although still uncommon for boys, UTIs are more common among uncircumcised males in the first year of life. Treatment at this age can be painful and require hospitalization.
Penile cancer: An association was found between circumcision and decreased risk of this rare type of cancer.
Prostate cancer: A new study suggests that circumcision could be tied to a slightly lower rate of prostate cancer. While critics say circumcision decreases sexual pleasure, there are currently no scientific studies to support this claim. In fact, study participants in Africa who had been circumcised as adults reported either no effect or increased pleasure.
Insurance implications
One major impetus for new policy, according to Brady, was to send a message to state lawmakers that circumcision should be an option for all families. Currently, Medicaid programs in 18 states in the U.S. do not provide coverage for routine circumcision of infant boys, and so "families who could not afford it were having the decision made for them," says Brady.
In fact, over time, a higher circumcision rate might actually save money. A new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins found that not circumcising would result in an average of $313 per person in related health costs over a lifetime -- an extra $2 billion at current circumcision rates. However, opponents of circumcision may take issue with taxpayer dollars being used to pay for a procedure they find immoral.
Despite the AAP's recommendation, universal coverage is unlikely to be a reality any time soon, as states look for ways to cut back.
"I'm concerned 2012 is not the best environment for getting state lawmakers add additional health care costs to Medicaid," says Brady.
What to ask your doctor
For many new parents, this is the first medical decision they are making for their child, and it's a tough one. The new policy states that parents should get clear, unbiased information from their OB/GYN or pediatrician during pregnancy, which is when the decision on whether to circumcise is usually made.
Brady suggests discussing with your doctor the health benefits and risks, and doing your homework to make sure that if you're considering circumcision, whoever is performing it has been properly trained. It should be performed in a sterile environment with analgesia for pain relief. Parents should be clear on how to care for their newborn's penis, cut or uncut.
Then, after talking to your doctor, it's up to you.
"Parents need to make the decision they feel is the best for their child," says Brady. "We don't want to put anyone in a position where they are being told what they have to do."
The new policy statement will be published in the September issue of Pediatrics. It is also endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
This article was originally published on Parenting.com:
AAP: Health benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks
Can pro-anorexia websites help heal some eating disorders?
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Pro-anorexia websites are largely banned online
- The blogs may provide social support to those struggling with eating disorders
- They provide an anonymous and judgment-free spot for sufferers
- Most bloggers actively try to reduce harm to others, researcher says
(Time.com) -- Websites and blogs that support anorexia — known as pro-ana sites — have been widely banned online by sites like Pinterest, Yahoo and Tumblr.
For anyone who's ever visited a pro-ana site, the reason is clear: the content exchanged in these online communities is often shocking. They use images of emaciated models and celebrities as "thinspiration" for vulnerable girls, and include frank discussions of the best methods for achieving extreme weight loss.
Anorexia is the most deadly of all psychiatric disorders, and pro-ana websites can be especially distressing to family members and friends of those who are suffering from it.
But it is precisely because anorexia is so devastating -- and so stigmatized -- that such websites may be a boon to some of those who visit them. Like similar groups for addicted people who are not ready to give up drugs, they can provide a rare source of nonjudgmental support for people with eating disorders.
According to Daphna Yeshua-Katz, a doctoral student at Indiana University, who co-authored a new study on pro-ana sites appearing in the journal Health Communication, a close look at these sites reveals certain benefits: behind the exhortations to achieve bodily perfection or to glorify an often-fatal psychiatric illness, there are communities of people, mainly women, who understand each others' demons.
These communities provide an anonymous, judgment-free place for sufferers to talk about their struggles with a highly stigmatized disorder for which few effective treatments are available.
For her new study, Yeshua-Katz interviewed 33 pro-ana bloggers.
"Out of 300 bloggers we contacted, 33 were willing to be interviewed," says Yeshua-Katz. She says that the highly controversial nature of the sites and the bloggers' fears of their real identities being revealed kept many from participating.
Because the sample was not random, the findings cannot be applied to all pro-ana bloggers, but they offer a rare insight into a hidden world.
"They were going online first of all to find support," Yeshua-Katz explains, noting that having an eating disorder is a very isolating experience. As with drug addiction, people with anorexia typically cannot discuss their condition or their feelings about it with loved ones without immediately being challenged to change.
"The Internet is a very good place for people to find support from similar others," she says.
As one blogger told the authors: "There was no one in my life that I could speak to openly about what I was feeling and experiencing. I wanted to have a voice that I didn't have to censor for fear of upsetting people I knew or having them judge me."
The bloggers also saw their sites as a means of self-expression. "They wanted a venue where they could express themselves without judgment," says Yeshua-Katz.
While they used their sites to support readers' intentions to stay thin, pro-ana bloggers were acutely aware of the potential dangers associated with the material they presented.
"The people we interviewed were actively trying to reduce harm," says Yeshua-Katz. "When you go to pro-ana blogs, the ones we looked at all used disclaimers before allowing entry into the site, saying (things like), 'This blog contains triggering information,'" and warning off children or people recovering from eating disorders.
However, about half of the bloggers -- all of whom were female -- were in high school, barely out of childhood themselves. The rest were mainly in college; overall, the surveyed group had an average age of 20. Most had suffered from an eating disorder for about seven years.
One of the key criticisms of pro-ana blogs is that they fail to present anorexia as an illness, promoting it instead as a "lifestyle choice" -- a dangerous message to young, impressionable girls.
But only 9% of the bloggers interviewed characterized anorexia that way, with nearly three-quarters viewing it as a mental illness and the rest describing it as a coping mechanism. Meanwhile, efforts to keep young girls -- or "wannarexics" as they are dismissively described -- out of the sites were made repeatedly, but it's unknown whether these hurdles are effective or may even make underage visitors more persistent.
Interestingly, nearly a fifth of the bloggers considered themselves to be in recovery from their disorder at the time of the interview. It's not clear whether their recovery could have been spurred by their participation in pro-ana sites, or despite it, because the study wasn't designed to look at the health effects of the blogs.
But as with addiction recovery, there are pros and cons to being exposed to the "people, places and things" that might trigger relapse: early exposure could provoke slips, but avoidance only increases the power of these cues; when avoidance isn't possible, it's actually better to be desensitized to the cues by repeated exposure without relapse.
One of the few studies to look directly at the health impact of pro-ana blogs found that while people who viewed them were less likely to be in recovery than those who didn't search online for information about their eating disorders. People who simply used Google or other ways of exploring the Internet to seek out such information were just as likely to be ill as those who read the explicitly pro-ana blogs.
Of course, finding community among people who are committed to engaging in self-destructive behavior can obviously reinforce an identity that involves avoiding recovery. Friendships forged in these groups may be perceived as being contingent on staying sick. "They go online to vent and they find friends. But at same time they are aware that being a pro-ana blogger might encourage their eating disorder and those of other vulnerable young girls," says Yeshua-Katz, adding that blogging "paradoxically actually adds another area of stress because now they have another thing to be secret about."
Research on harm-reduction programs for addiction, such as needle exchanges for drug users or "wet houses" for alcoholics, does not find that these seemingly "pro-drug" places prevent recovery.
In fact, needle exchanges are often a key source of referrals into drug treatment. Users cite the nonjudgmental environment of these programs as one reason they feel safe enough to reach out for help and try to quit.
But unlike harm-reduction programs, the main goal of pro-ana sites is not to reduce harm nor are they run by professionals, which leaves open the very real possibility that they can worsen users' disorders. "I'm not saying it's only beneficial or all bad; it's a double-edged sword," says Yeshua-Katz.
Nonetheless, she does not support banning pro-ana sites. For one thing, she thinks that it's technologically impossible. Secondly, what would the bans really accomplish?
Virtually all of the "thinspiration" images used on pro-ana blogs come from mainstream fashion and gossip websites and magazines; the content isn't unique. "I think we need to provide (people with anorexia) with better ways to lead them into recovery online," she says. Perhaps the anorexia and addiction online worlds can learn from each other.
Evidence weak that vocational programs help young adults with autism
Google "vocational interventions for young adults with autism" and you'll get more than 200,000 results. But a new study finds there's little science to backup the efficacy of current methods used to help young adults with these neurodevelopmental disorders segue into the workforce.
"There's startlingly little information on the best ways to help adolescents and adults with autism achieve their maximum potential in the workplace and across the board," says lead study author Julie Lounds Taylor.
Taylor and her colleagues at Vanderbilt University sifted through more than 4,500 studies that made reference to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and therapies and found only 32 studies published between January 1980 and December 2011 that met their basic criteria, including having at least 20 study participants between the ages of 13 and 30.
But some studies were in children with autism; a lot of them were descriptive and didn't really test an intervention; and a fair number weren't really studies at all but commentaries, according to Taylor.
But some studies were in children with autism; a lot of them were descriptive and didn't really test an intervention; and a fair number weren't really studies at all but commentaries, according to Taylor.
In the end, the researchers found only five studies that focused on vocational interventions. While this handful of studies looked at certain on-the-job programs designed to support young adults with autism and suggest these "interventions" can improve quality of life and reduce symptoms of autism, the study authors concluded, "all studies were of poor quality."
They say these studies had serious flaws including the randomization or comparison groups, which makes it difficult to draw any conclusions. Lack of follow-up and the fact that most studies were small also contributed to the researchers' deeming the quality of the research as poor. The study was published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics.
Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, says she finds it remarkable that only five studies that address vocation skills were published in the last three decades and all were of poor quality.
"There is a tremendous knowledge gap regarding how to help young people with autism be successful in the work environment," Dawson says.
According to the latest CDC estimates, 1 in 88 children in the United States has some form of autism. For boys the incidence may be as high as 1 in 54. The CDC bases these latest estimates by looking at data on 8-year old children from health and special education records of living in 14 areas of the United States - part of theADDM network – during 2008. These 14 areas include 8% of the American population of 8-year-old children, according to the CDC. Health officials use this age as a benchmark because by age 8, most children with autism should be identified as receiving services.
The education system is the primary source of treatment for most families, as thegovernment is mandated to provide an education for all children - including children with disabilities.
However, once children with autism turn 21, they age out of the education system and often have nowhere to go. Parents are acutely aware of this, and what will happen to these children as they and their parents age is a huge concern.
When you consider the latest CDC prevalence data, those 1 in 88 children who were 8-year olds in 2008 are now on the cusp of adolescence. Even using 2002 CDC estimates, when the estimate for autism was believed to be one in about 150 children, that would mean there are 1 in 150 18-year olds with autism living in the United States today.
In January 2011, Lee Grossman, then president of the Autism Society, told CNN that these young people are generally unemployed, living in poverty. "Their ongoing needs are not being addressed," he said. (Grossman left the organization after nearly 20 years six months later.)
Given these statistics, finding ways to help young adults support themselves and continue to thrive becomes even more urgent. Taylor thinks this new research could be a possible wake-up call.
She says the studies that have been done and their lack of evidence show that "we're on the front-end of understanding autism and adulthood."
As an assistant professor of pediatrics and special education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Taylor's research focuses on how adolescents transition into adulthood. She believes just as parents have been a driving force in pushing for more research in the cause of autism, they too can influence where the field moves in the future.
"We need more funding to do research," she says. That research would help determine which vocational programs will work for which person with autism given the range of the spectrum, a range that spans "someone who can go to college to someone who has severe intellectual disabilities."
Taylor is hopeful that the research landscape will change and that there will be far more useful data collected in the coming decade compared to the last three. Autism Speaks as well as the National Institutes of Health have already launched several studies focused on improving quality of life for adults with autism.
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