Organizations, Resources
The North American Primary Care Research Group
The North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) is a multidisciplinary organization for primary care researchers. Founded in 1972 and oriented to family medicine, NAPCRG welcomes members from all primary care generalist disciplines and related fields, including epidemiology, behavioral sciences, and health services research.
UK Federation of Primary Care Research Organisations
The UK Federation of Primary Care Research Organisations (UKF-PCRO) is an organisation which brings together research networks from around the UK, facilitates their collective functioning and promotes their interests at a national level. It also supports cross-regional collaborative research in primary care. The website provides information on the organisation, its aims, activities, how it is run, membership requirements and benefits, current members, meetings, conferences, and links to sites of related interest. A range of UKF-PCRO reports and newsletters is available. Further information is provided on the four research interest groups of the organisation. These focus on cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental health and diabetes. The federation is open to any primary care research network within the UK that supports the aims of the federation.
This page contains links related to research in primary care, integrated care and collaborative care. Please feel free to submit links to be added. Just send a note to Steve Snow containing an annotated link along with the source of the link (the web address where the link originally resides).
Inverse Association Between BMI and Prefrontal Metabolic Activity in Healthy Adults
OBESITY JOURNAL: Obesity has been associated with a higher risk for impaired cognitive function, which most likely reflects associated medical complications (i.e., cerebrovascular pathology). However, there is also evidence that in healthy individuals excess weight may adversely affect cognition (executive function, attention, and memory). Here, we measured regional brain glucose metabolism (using positron emission tomography (PET) and 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG)) to assess the relationship between BMI and brain metabolism (marker of brain function) in 21 healthy controls (BMI range 19–37 kg/m2) studied during baseline (no stimulation) and during cognitive stimulation (numerical calculations). Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) revealed a significant negative correlation between BMI and metabolic activity in prefrontal cortex (Brodmann areas 8, 9, 10, 11, 44) and cingulate gyrus (Brodmann area 32) but not in other regions. ... The observed association between higher BMI and lower baseline prefrontal metabolism may underlie the impaired performance reported in healthy obese individuals on some cognitive tests of executive function. On the other hand, the lack of an association between BMI and brain metabolic activation during cognitive stimulation indicates that BMI does not influence brain glucose utilization during cognitive performance. These results further highlight the urgency to institute public health interventions to prevent obesity.
US study: HIV infects women through healthy tissue
Truthout, Dec. 16, 2008: Chicago - Instead of infiltrating breaks in the skin, HIV appears to attack normal, healthy genital tissue in women, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study that offers new insight into how the AIDS virus spreads.
Poor lifestyle linked with psychological stress and cardiovascular disease
MEDSCAPE TODAY, December 15, 2008 — The link between psychological distress and cardiovascular risk is largely explained by an individual's behavior, such as smoking and physical-activity levels, a new study has shown [1]. The findings suggest that treating psychological stress on its own might not be the best approach to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, say investigators.