Will you ring-in 2011 with a resolution?

As 2010 comes to a close, there is a lot of discussion about New Year’s resolutions, but how many Americans actually plan to make a change?

According to this year’s Marist Poll of 1,029 U.S. residents, 56 percent of Americans say they are not likely to set a goal for themselves going into 2011, while 44 percent report it is likely that they will make a resolution. The poll also revealed that an equal amount of men and women, 44 percent, plan to make a resolution. For those under the age of forty-five, 58 percent claim they plan to make a New Year’s resolution, compared to only 34 percent of those forty-five and older.

Of course keeping a resolution is easier said than done. The Marist Poll also revealed that out of those who made a resolution last year, 60 percent reported that they kept their resolution for at least part of the year, while 40 percent did not.

What are some of this year’s most popular resolutions? USA Today outlines a survey by Tweetbeat, which analyzed over 5,000 New Year’s resolution tweets. The most popular were:

Personality improvements/ philosophical outlook on life: 23%

Relationships (getting into a relationship, getting over an ex): 9%

Twitter and Facebook (more/fewer tweets, quitting certain sites): 7%

Learning or improving a skill: 6%

Work/career/school goals: 6%

Finances: 4%

Meanwhile, the top two resolutions in the Marist Poll were quitting smoking (17%) and losing weight (16%).

For those of you who do plan to make a New Year’s resolution, an article by The Wall Street Journal suggests helpful tips. Some of those recommended include planning early, strengthening your self control, reducing stress, focusing on positive new behaviors and rewarding yourself when you succeed.

Vital Statistics

A roundup of some unusual studies making news. As always, a mention here doesn’t mean an endorsement.

Can staring at the computer during lunchtime cause you to eat more later?

New research from the University of Bristol in England shows that those who played a computer game while eating lunch ended up eating more later in the day.

Forty-four men and women participated in the study. Half ate lunch consisting of nine different foods while playing a computer game; the other half ate the same lunch without any distractions.

A half hour after lunch, the computer group consumed twice as many snacks as members of the other group. That wasn’t all – after being asked to recall what they ate for lunch, the gamers had much more difficulty. Lead researcher Jeffrey M. Brunstrom tells Reuters: “When our memory is poor, then at a subsequent meal we tend to select and consume a greater amount of food”.

Study shows kids are consuming large amounts of caffeine daily

A new study in the Journal of Pediatrics finds 75 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 12 consume caffeine. Not surprisingly, the study found the more caffeine the children consumed, the less they slept.

Children between the ages of 5 and 7, consumed an average of 52 milligrams per day, and children between 8 and 12 consumed about 109 milligrams. According to WebMD, that’s the equivalent of almost three 12 ounce cans of soda. The researchers found that the caffeine in the children’s diet came mainly from the consumption of soft drinks.

Study finds everyone really does need their beauty sleep

New research finds that beauty sleep not only affects your appearance, but also how others perceive you. The Swedish study analyzed 23 adults, taking photos of each participant twice. One photo was taken after getting a full eight hours of sleep and one after being awake for 31 hours after only getting five hours of sleep.

Sixty-five observers (who knew nothing about the amount of sleep the subjects had received) then randomly reviewed the photos and rated their perceptions of the participants. The photos of the sleep-deprived resulted in lower marks on both the health and attractiveness scales.

Crime data forces rethink of economic link

By Cindy Merrick

Should we be surprised to find that, in these tough economic times, crime rates continue to fall steadily? Two key reports this year have shown that violent crime in America continues to retreat. In May, the FBI released its annual crime statistics for 2009, which showed “violent crime” offenses – murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault – were 5.3 percent lower than the rates from 2008. And in October, the Bureau of Justice Statistics published the results of at 10-year study that showed a decline in violent crime victimization from 19.3 to 17.1 persons per 1,000. Interestingly, much of the reporting on these new statistics has revolved around a presumed correlation between economic recession and a growth in crime rate.

Reflecting this presumption, The Wall Street Journal reported that “some gun owners cited an expected crime increase for the surge in weapons sales.” According to the The Huffington Post, the new crime numbers are “bucking a historical trend that links rising crime rates to economic woes.”  The Christian Science Monitor suggests that “recessions can be the perfect storm for crime,” before presenting the surprising evidence to the contrary. The discussion following these observations varies widely, however, with many interpretations from sociologists and criminal justice experts expressing doubt that any direct correlation exists.

Richard Rosenfeld from the University of Missouri suggests that difficult economic times in the past have corresponded, as they did in the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic, with “street level drug activity,” and that no such correspondence is found in this decade. He also suggested that economic stimulus funds given to the Justice Department, much of which was granted directly to police departments, allowed staffing to be unaffected by the economic downturn. Shawn Bushway from the University of Albany, was quoted as saying that “crime is not a cyclical beast, like business… It experiences big long ups and big long downs, unlike the up-down-up-down of the business cycle.” He went on to observe that crime was very high during the 1960s, when the “economy was booming.” Policing, in general, is credited by many experts as a primary force in crime reduction. Bushway says it is more proactive, and Rosenfeld says that crime trends are identified and addressed more quickly.

James Alan Fox, criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston, says any connection between crime and economic downturn is essentially an indirect one, citing potential increases in crime when policing and crime-prevention programs receive less funding. He told The Washington Times: “People don’t go out and rob a bank because they’ve lost their job…The decision to pursue a life of crime is made independently of the economy.”

Just a spoonful of…?

A new study reveals that dosing instructions on 200 of the best-selling children’s liquid cold, cough, allergy and GI medicines are inconsistent and difficult for parents to follow. The products were examined following the release of voluntary guidelines recommended by the FDA in 2009, such as including a dosing device and using consistent abbreviations and units of measurement.

The research team examined the over-the-counter liquid medications for children under the age of 12 years old. All medications were sold in the year following the release of the FDA recommendations.

Almost 75 percent of the products included a measuring device but for 98.6 percent of those, the directions did not match the markings on the device, HealthDay reports. The necessary markings were either absent or there were unnecessary markings present.

WebMD reports some of the other major findings:

• One-in-four liquid drugs examined did not contain a dosing device, such as a cup, dropper, or syringe.
• Just about all of those that did (99%) had markings on the enclosed device that were inconsistent with the label instructions. Some of these inconsistencies were small, but others made correct dosing very difficult, the researcher noted.
• More than half the medicines did not use standard abbreviations for terms such as teaspoon or milliliter.

Lead study author Dr. H. Shonna Yin, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the NYU School of Medicine, tells HealthDay:

“We’re pretty concerned that voluntary guidelines won’t be able to fix the problem. The FDA may need to set standards and regulate products.”

This study is published in the December 15^th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.