Starting in the mid-1850s, humans began living longer due, researchers believe, to improvements in living conditions, nutrition, income levels and medicine. But two USC gerontologists have found an invisible cause that could have important implications for modern-day health care. In a paper published in the Sept. 17 issue of the journal Science, Caleb Finch and Eileen Crimmins firmly link this gradual yet steady increase in human life span to lower childhood rates of exposure to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. The key to their theory lies in one word: inflammation.

The health of U.S. children is worse in virtually all categories when compared to children in other industrialized countries, according to new research from a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researcher. The United States can improve the health of American children by changing some of our health care policies and adopting new Institute of Medicine recommendations concerning how child health should be viewed and developing information systems that better reflect the health needs of children and their distribution in the population.

Nursing home residents across the country have benefited from improvements in pain management as a result of a two-year project sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Interim quality measures data indicate the participating homes have improved their management of residents’ pain by about 45%, according to CMS officials leading the project. ”This effort shows quantitatively what we can accomplish when we all share our knowledge and data across disciplines and organizations to improve the care people receive in nursing homes.” Among the findings: Non-pharmacological approaches to reduce pain could be effective, including exercise, physical therapy, music and aroma therapy, hydro-therapy (whirl pools), use of comfort items like a treasured blanket, and massage.