The elite fantasy of a silent libertarian majority appreciative of success and yearning for the right David Brooksian candidate is a total delusion, as swing voters are just as populist as Democrats. Plus, white folks don't like Obamacare and middle income folks do like Mitt Romney. Here's our guide to today's polls and which ones matter.
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Libertarian hero living the dream
Rory Westmoreland seems a true Libertarian hero. Unfazed by government rules, the complaints of petty bureaucrats, meddling environmentalists and lesser businessmen, he pursues his capitalist destiny. [Junker boats owner often in hot water, page one, June 4.]
Hopefully, courageous tea-party, property-rights and, most of all, Ron Paul supporters will rally to the defense of someone who actually animates the philosophy they espouse: life unshackled by regulations and the social protections that only serve the weak.
So what if the rest of us law-abiding citizens are left to suffer the consequences. After all, which is more important, the health of society or economic freedom. Westmoreland is, after all, just living the dream.
Ron Paige, Bellevue
State agencies ineffective
Thank you for your well-written front page article today, regarding the fouling of Penn Cove after the sinking of the vessel Deep Sea last month.
Your watchdog article I thought made two points rather well.
The obvious one is bringing Rory Westmoreland out of the dark shadows he operates in and providing us with the ultimate definition of a scofflaw.
Just as important, you have illuminated the perfect storm that exists when you match a repeat offender of environmental laws with several state agencies including the departments of Ecology, Natural Resources and Health that demonstrate nothing more than institutionalized impotence and collective hand-wringing when it comes to dealing with these problems.
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EVANSVILLE Libertarian party candidates acknowledge it's a battle for them to gain and maintain voter interest in the face of the country's fierce two-party system. And that point was driven home Tuesday afternoon when an hourlong meet-and-greet session for local and state Libertarian candidates at Evansville's Central Library attracted fewer than five nonfamily members or campaign workers.
The meet-and-greet is a start of a campaign series the local party hopes to continue through the general election, said Kurt Clement, the party's county co-chairman.
Clement, a Vanderburgh County Council at-large candidate, is a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Southern Indiana where he majored in biology. Clement said his area of focus at school will bring a different perspective to the office, unlike that of the typical "attorney politician."
Photo by Erin McCracken
ERIN McCRACKEN / COURIER & PRESS Rupert Boneham, Libertarian candidate for Governor, talks with Connie Whitman, an Evansville resident, about issues concerning the state of Indiana at a Libertarian Candidate meet -and-greet on Tuesday afternoon at Central Library. Whitman came out to show her support for Boneham and other Libertarians because she is not happy with the other two parties and believes that Indiana needs something different.
He says while it is difficult for Libertarian candidates to get their name out to the public, it is a little easier for those running in local races to meet more of the people that will be voting, than a state or national candidate could.
Gubernatorial candidate Rupert Boneham and his running mate, Brad Klopfenstein, who were in attendance, discussed the importance of job creation initiatives and "empowerment programs," to help people get jobs.
Boneham and Klopfenstein said as Libertarian candidates, it is also a struggle to compete financially with Democratic and Republican candidates because they have interest group backing.
"It's oftentimes the people who put money into campaigns, they're buying influence as opposed to actually supporting someone that represents their interests," Klopfenstein said. "And when you have two candidates like us that are about giving power back as opposed to taking more power for our supporters, it's a little harder to get people to pony up."
The last Libertarian candidate for governor, Andrew Horning, received 2.1 percent of the statewide vote in 2008 against Gov. Mitch Daniels and Democrat Jill Long Thompson. Horning is currently running for U.S. Senate seat against Republican Richard Mourdock and Democrat Joe Donnelly.
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Libertarian candidates battle to gain share of voter interest
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Chris Wood's 14th minute goal from a volley put New Zealand up 1-0.
Chris Wood (centre) is congratulated on his goal against the Solomon Islands. by Tim Payne (left) and Shane Smeltz.
All Whites captain Tommy Smith goes up for a header against Nelson Sale Kilifa of the Solomon Islands.
Midfielder Tim Payne sliders in to make a tackle on Jeffery Bule of the Solomons.
Chris Wood (right) celebrates his goal against Papua New Guinea with Shane Smeltz.
All Whites central defender Ivan Vicelich heads the ball away from danger.
Kosta Barbarouses chests down a ball against Papua New Guinea.
New Zealand's Tim Payne challenges Papua New Guinea's David Muta.
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Russia invites Japan to discuss the disputed Kuril Islands without preconditions, Russian Ambassador to Japan Yevgeny Afanasiev said at a news conference on Wednesday.
We are ready to talk on the basis of bilateral agreements, one of which is the Joint Declaration between the USSR and Japan signed in 1956 and on the principles of legitimacy and justice," Afanasiev said.
"Despite the different approaches (of our countries), movement forward is possible. But there is one condition: a rejection of unilateral preconditions and historical associations. I would like to emphasize that this is a two-way process, Afanasiev said.
Our goal is to find mutually acceptable solutions, the ambassador said, adding that he saw "a positive agenda" in relations between Russia and Japan.
The Kuril Islands dispute has clouded relations between Moscow and Tokyo for decades. Japan claims the four islands Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai, based on the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda, the first Russo-Japanese agreement addressing the status of Sakhalin Island and the Kurils.
The return of the islands is one of Tokyos conditions for finally signing a peace treaty with Russia to end World War II.
Moscow argues that the islands became part of the Soviet Union following the war and there can be no question about Russian sovereignty over them.
A 1956 Joint Declaration signed by the Soviet Union and Japan that ended the state of war between the two countries raised the possibility of the Soviet Union returning the two southernmost Kurils, Shikotan and Habomai, to Japan once a peace treaty was signed. But 56 years later, no peace treaty has been signed.
Afanasiev was recently appointed ambassador to Japan. He presented his credentials to Emperor Akihito on April 26.
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ASHLAND, MaineSeven Islands Land Co. says it has acquired MooseWood Premium Hardwood Flooring from Kelly Lumber Sales Inc. of Ashland.
Seven Islands, a family-owned forest and timber management company in Bangor, says it intends to keep MooseWood's current workforce of 16 employees while investing in operations and strengthening distribution of the premium hardwood flooring.
Lumber used in the production of MooseWood flooring is harvested from land managed by Seven Islands and milled by Maine Woods Co. in Portage Lake.
Seven Islands President John McNulty says the acquisition of MooseWood brings a value-added component to its timber resources and supports jobs in the heart of Maine's northern forest.
MooseWood Premium Hardwood Flooring was established in 2004.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The Solomon Islands came from behind to clinch a hard-fought 1-1 draw against New Zealand in OFC World Cup qualifying on Wednesday.
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23 May 2012 Last updated at 09:33 ET
The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel off the Normandy coast of France. They are divided into two British Crown Dependencies, the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey. The former also includes the islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm, and smaller islands are divided between the two bailiwicks.
The islands are not part of the United Kingdom or European Union, but rather are possessions of the British Crown with independent administrations. Their inhabitants are British citizens.
The Channel Islands were owned by the Duchy of Normandy, and passed to the English Crown when William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066. While England lost mainland Normandy in 1204, the islands remained possessions of the Crown and were divided into the two bailiwicks later that century.
Since then the bailiwicks have maintained separate institutions, laws and media, with the exception of a common independent TV station, Channel TV.
Profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
During the Second World War the islands were occupied by Germany, causing considerable suffering to the locals. Some were deported as slave labourers, Jews were sent to concentration camps, reprisals for partisan activities were harsh, and many were reduced to near starvation by the end of the war. Accusations of collaboration and cover-up poisoned relations between many islanders for decades.
The total population is about 160,000, of whom the overwhelming majority is made up of native islanders of Norman French and British extraction. There are also groups of European Union citizens, with a prominent community from Portugal.
As Crown Dependencies the islands are not part of the United Kingdom or European Union, nor are they colonies or overseas territories of the United Kingdom like Gibraltar. They are possessions of the British Crown with independent administrations. Their assemblies pass their own legislation with the assent of the Crown granted in the Privy Council.
The Crown is responsible for defence, diplomatic representation and citizenship, although the islands maintain their own controls over housing and employment that apply to British as well as other citizens.
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04-06-2012 16:51 At the House Summit on Community Solutions for Disconnected Youth, Council members and leaders from a range of local and national non-profit, philanthropic, business, government, and national service organizations discuss innovative community-developed initiatives that connecting young people to critical education and employment opportunities. June 4, 2012.
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Local exchanges and markets will be better for health care costs than Washington price-fixing.
Jim Bourg/Reuters
It is nobody's fault, but our health finance system has long been a disaster. Since World War II it has slowly evolved, with all the best intentions, into not one but at least three wholly separate entities--each with different infrastructures and different sets of perverse incentives for hospitals, doctors, and other providers. This nutty system of finance is the reason that health care expenses are swallowing the U.S. economy (and federal and state budgets), and that health care is our biggest domestic policy issue. The health care profession has always been quite honorable, but the reality is that these professionals--physicians, nurses, hospital administrators alike--aren't immune to financial incentives, and the incentives created by our current system are completely out of whack.
So what does the average local health care market look like?
1) Medicare: The almost 50 million Medicare beneficiaries (seniors and the disabled) make up about 16 percent of the U.S. population--but account for over 40 percent of the spending for the average health-care system, public or private. Medicare drives everything in local health economics, because seniors consume lots of health care and they are in the hospital often. For three-quarters of Medicare beneficiaries, traditional Medicare programs fix prices nationally. Think about that--every hospital and every doctor gets paid the same thing! Recently there have been minor variations through "Accountable Care Organizations" and other "pay-for-performance" models--but for the vast bulk of services, the worst hospital in town gets paid the same as the best.
Not surprisingly, this crazy pricing scheme incentivizes volume. Physicians try to see more patients; therapists try to do more therapy; hospitals try to book more surgeries. It is predictable human nature, and has been in every society in history. Health care is the only service in the U.S. where the government fixes prices--is it a surprise that volume has exploded?
2) Medicaid: Medicaid is the program for low-income Americans, including the disabled and the elderly (usually in long term care). Actually, Medicaid is not one program, it's 50 totally different state programs. Seventy-seven million Americans were on Medicaid at some point in 2011--almost 25 percent of the population, at a cost of $440 billion. And we plan to begin adding 18 million more Americans on January 1, 2014, for another $120 billion a year, under the Affordable Care Act.
Talk about a mess! Every state provides different coverage, and Medicaid is a chaotic hodgepodge of policy. Even worse, virtually all the states have succeeded in transferring much of the cost to the federal government over the past 25 years through "provider taxes," "intergovernmental transfers," and "upper payment limits," so that no state actually pays anything remotely close to its statutory "match rate." The entire program is a giant state refinancing scam. What initially was a 50-50 federal program, is now more than 70 percent federally financed, with some states, most notably New Hampshire, not contributing a single nickel of state general revenue. This lack of program integrity is a problem, because it makes the program unreformable. There is no policy equity among the states, so any reform proposal will create some winners and some losers, unless you spend even more money. So it will never happen.
States have increasingly moved to Medicaid managed care, but the bulk of daily health services are still paid in the old "fee-for-service" methodology. And guess what: those states also fix prices and pay all providers the same amount, almost always using the Medicare system as the reference payment. If you are a hospital or a health system, you already have 40 percent of your payment coming from Medicare, and in addition you probably have another 12-15 percent of your revenue coming from Medicaid. So 50-55 percent of your payments come from two giant price-fixed national programs--and you get paid the same rates, no matter the performance. How's that for an incentive structure?
3) Commercial Insurers/Blue Cross/Employer Plans: Private insurance generally makes up another 35-40 percent of the health care spending total (the uninsured fill in the remainder). There are a few markets with dominant Blue Cross plans that actually have leverage. But in most markets there are a handful of insurers: rarely does any one player have more than 20 percent of the market, and often it is far less. So why would a hospital care intensely about improving performance, or cutting prices to meet the demands of Aetna, Cigna, or United, when those companies rarely wield significant market share and are bit players compared to Medicare and Medicaid? In fact, most commonly, insurers still pay a percentage of--you guessed it--the Medicare fee schedule. Ask a doctor or hospital what an insurer pays them, and you will likely get "105 percent of DRGs" (the Medicare hospital fee) or "103 percent of RVUs" (the Medicare doctor schedule).
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Health Professionals Will Respond to Incentives, If We Only Let Them
Bill Roshon, healthcare focus group: Bill Roshon, Southwest Florida Works, discusses the healthcare industry focus group. By staff writer Tim Engstrom. Bill Roshon of Southwest Florida Works, was impressed by the speed at which educators focused on soft skils. / Terry Allen Williams/news-press.com
For more information on local programs organized by the Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board, log on to swflworks.org
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Published: 6/6/2012 - Updated: 33 minutes ago
BY CLAUDIA BOYD-BARRETT BLADE STAFF WRITER
A clear victory for legislation to extend health-care benefits to the domestic partners of city employees unexpectedly crashed Tuesday after Toledo Mayor Mike Bell threatened to veto an ordinance for which he spent more than a month lobbying.
The mayor's surprise turnaround came after City Council voted to amend his original proposal to include a clause allowing Toledo's main firefighters' union to reopen negotiations on its health-care contract with the city.
The vote to amend came despite vigorous opposition from city law director Adam Loukx, who said the amendment went beyond council's authority under city law.
Local 92, which represents more than 500 firefighters, operates its own health-care fund and could become financially stretched by the extension of coverage to domestic partners, councilman D. Michael Collins argued. Eight of 12 councilmen agreed with him and voted to allow renegotiation of what the city pays per employee into the union's health-care fund.
"I believe it's only fair," Mr. Collins said. He chided the administration for not telling the union during contract negotiations this year that it was considering the extension of benefits to domestic partners. "They should have known that there was going to be a policy change."
Council then approved the domestic partner legislation, 9-3. Councilmen George Sarantou, Rob Ludeman, and Tom Waniewski voted against it.
They needn't have bothered.
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By Richard Rubin and Kathleen Hunter - 2012-06-06T04:01:43Z
Senate Democrats from states including Minnesota and Pennsylvania are caught between their support for medical-device industries and their partys reluctance to make major changes to the 2010 health-care law.
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week to repeal a 2.3 percent excise tax for medical devices. To Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, the vote is part of a Republican attack on the health law. To Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat seeking a second term, the repeal is necessary to prevent harm to an industry that provides jobs in her state.
Senator Klobuchar is faced with a difficult choice between voting the kind of narrow particularistic interest of industry in her state versus voting her personal and partisan platform, said Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota.
Klobuchar, first elected in 2006, has been a knight in shining armor for a home-state industry that includes St. Jude Medical Inc. and Medtronic Inc. (MDT), Jacobs said. Medtronics employees have been the seventh-largest contributors to Klobuchars campaign this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Device companies have been lobbying to undo the tax, and the House repeal bill sponsored by Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen is co-sponsored by more than 55 percent of the House.
Congress included the tax in the 2010 health-care law as a way to help pay for expansion of health insurance coverage. The 2.3 percent excise tax will be levied on devices such as coronary stents and hip implants that arent sold directly to consumers.
Similar fees and taxes were levied on health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and the indoor tanning industry. The law passed without a single Republican vote, and the party has been trying to undo it since, even as the Supreme Court considers its constitutionality.
Efforts to pick apart the health-care legislation are finding favor with some Democrats who agreed to the measure despite misgivings about individual provisions.
Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said hes looking for ways to force a vote on the issue.
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His long hair, goatee and mutton-chop sideburns hint at his years in rock bands in the 1980s, but Erny Papay hardly fits the stereotype of the irresponsible, risk-taking musician. Now in his 50s, his main gigs are quite wholesome: playing kids' songs at preschools, old-time tunes for retirees, and contemporary worship music at a Lutheran church. He and his wife, Karen, live in Monroeville, and have two grown sons, one of whom is also a professional musician.
Papay also juggles 60 students, teaching piano, guitar and bass. It takes a lot of lessons to cover the couple's health insurance premiums, which total $1,400 every month. He's considered taking the risk of not having health insurance. "But one of us seems to end up in the hospital each year," Papay says he calls it "the $10,000 visit to the spa.'"
Whether they're piano teachers or punk rockers, part-time or full-time, musicians have a tougher time than most when it comes to finding health insurance. According to a survey by the Future of Music Coalition, one in three musicians is uninsured nearly twice the 17 percent national average.
Like many lifelong musicians, Papay held a regular job for many years; as a chemist, he received healthcare benefits through his employer. When the company eliminated his position in 2001, music became his full-time job. For 18 months, he relied on COBRA, a federally mandated program that allows people to continue with their group health plan temporarily after leaving a job. Eventually, though, he had to look elsewhere.
Papay's current policy, through UPMC, is an improvement over earlier plans inferior coverage that cost him $2,000 each month. But the Papays cut corners where they can, passing up dental insurance, for example.
Papay's experience is not unique, suggests research by the FMC, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. Its survey of 1,451 musicians found that most of those with insurance obtained it through employment outside their musical activity. And the more working hours you devote to your music, the less likely you are to have insurance. Of survey respondents who earn more than half of their income from music, four in ten are uninsured.
In some ways, a musician's challenges resemble those of any freelancer trying to obtain adequate, affordable coverage in a health-care system geared toward those with full-time employment. The FMC suggests musicians face "structural barriers" to obtaining coverage. Musicians often work on contract, "performing or composing for specific events, albums or projects." Without a steady employer, "[T]hey must seek out individual health insurance policies." And those are frequently far more expensive than insurance obtained through a group plan.
Kevin Erickson, a spokesperson for the group, says the group may take up the issue again, depending on how the Supreme Court rules on President Obama's health-care overhaul.
Even full-time, "professional" musicians are affected: 35 percent are uninsured. But for the most part, these are the lucky ones, members of a group that includes symphony musicians and others with relatively high, union-negotiated salaries and benefits. It's a group that also includes Erny Papay's 32-year-old son, Jeremy.
Jeremy Papay has spent nearly four years on the road playing drums for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Living in an RV, he drives to a new town each week to play several shows. The circus musicians carry a union card, and their employer provides competitive salaries, health insurance and other benefits.
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BOSTON As the Massachusetts House of Representatives debates a bill that some are touting as a way to rein in health care costs, one conservative-leaning think tank has raised concerns over its projected savings.
State representatives began their debate Tuesday on a bill that House leaders have said will save the state's economy more than $160 billion over the next 15 years.
The bill is designed to even out disparities in the costs of hospital services by requiring hospitals that charge more than 20 percent above the state median price for a service to pay a 10 percent surcharge into a fund to help support hospitals serving the poor and most vulnerable.
Among many things, it also would reduce premiums for patients who show they're committed to maintaining their health and overhaul medical malpractice laws by letting doctors apologize without fearing a lawsuit. It also sets guidelines for the size of "accountable care organizations" - health care networks that take a coordinated approach to medicine. There are already five such organizations in Massachusetts.
Joshua Archambault, the director of Health Care Policy at the Pioneer Institute in Boston, said much of the bill's expected savings is contingent upon other factors.
According to his analysis, only 40 percent of Massachusetts residents would be directly affected by the bill, as they are fully covered by traditional private insurance companies. Meanwhile, 60 percent of residents would not be affected because they receive coverage through Medicare, self-insured companies, are federal employees or are already on MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program.
He said while the bill aims to lower health care costs by an average of around $10 billion a year, publicly available data suggests health care costs for patients who would be affected by the legislation average around $13 billion a year. That means that either those patients would need to nearly eliminate their health care costs, or more self-insured companies would need to join the state's plan or another one affected by the legislation, in order for the plan to work, he said.
Because of this, he called the House's proposal a "faith-based initiative," adding that he believes bill increases spending through provisions like the one-time hospital surcharge for the distressed hospital fund, which he said would cost consumers millions of dollars.
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BOSTON, June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. faces major obstacles in taking advantage of "value-based health care"one of the most promising developments in health care, according to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120606/NY19587 )
BCG assessed the progress of 12 developed-world countries in adopting value-based health care, an approach to better controlling health care costs by improving health outcomes at the same or lower cost. The results of the assessment appear in a report titled Progress Toward Value-Based Health Care: Lessons from 12 Countries, which is being released today.
The assessment evaluates national health systems along two dimensions. The first is the degree to which key supports of value-based health care are in place at the national levelfor example, common national standards and IT infrastructure, national legal and consent frameworks, the ability to link health outcomes with costs, and high engagement on the part of clinicians and policymakers. The second is the quality of a country's existing disease registries (institutions that track selected health outcomes in a population of patients with the same diagnosis or who have undergone the same medical procedure), both in terms of the richness of the data and the sophistication of the medical community's use of the data.
"When it comes to implementing value-based health care, Sweden is the most advanced country of the 12 we studied, followed by Singapore, Canada, and the U.K.," said Neil Soderlund, a BCG partner and coauthor of the report. "By contrast, Germany and Hungary have the furthest to go."
The U.S. health system, which has the highest per capita costs of the 12 nations studied and spends 17.6 percent of GDP on health care, is also one of the laggards in the group. "The U.S. has some successful national disease registries, such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Registry, the Society for Thoracic Surgeons' STS National Database, and the American College of Cardiology's CathPCI Registry," said Peter Lawyer, a BCG senior partner and coauthor of the report. "And some integrated players such as Kaiser Permanente have made considerable progress in using clinical outcomes in their own patient populations to identify and disseminate best practices across their centers."
However, the fragmented nature of the U.S. health-care system has seriously limited the collection and use of national health-outcome data. "Reporting standards and clinical outcome metrics differ substantially across the system, even within the same speciality," said Lawyer. "There currently exists no national mechanism for compelling providers to report outcomes to disease registries. Nor is there a unique patient identifier in place that would enable research to combine data across different disease states to examine the effect of complex comorbidities."
Detailed International Comparisons
The report is one of the most detailed international comparisons of progress toward value-based health care, combining a top-down assessment of national enablers with a bottom-up assessment of data quality and use at existing disease registries across 12 major health conditions. It uses 35 specific assessment criteria developed on the basis of previous BCG research in the field, a comprehensive survey of the medical literature, and 139 interviews with representatives of national health departments and with international health-outcome experts.
"We learned that a number of countries have begun to build the infrastructure and processes to support a value-based approach, but some are significantly farther along the learning curve than others," said Stefan Larsson, MD, a BCG senior partner and coauthor of the report. "Despite this differential in development and despite major differences in the structure and organization of national health-care systems, there is much to learn from each country."
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It's the single most contentious element of President Barack Obama's health care law: the requirement that nearly everyone have insurance or face a financial hit.
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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Not too long ago, knowing the organ where a cancer first takes hold was generally all a doctor needed to determine what treatments to use. Not anymore. Advances in understanding cancer at the molecular level mean doctors can better select the drugs that will most help individual patients. To do so, they must identify which genetic mutations are driving the growth of a patient ...
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Editor's Choice Academic Journal Main Category: Genetics Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness Article Date: 05 Jun 2012 - 14:00 PDT
Current ratings for: 'Genetic Risk Scores And Obesity Later In Life Among Children'
The researchers explain that obesity can be inherited and GWASs (genome-wide association studies) have started to reveal the molecular roots of heritability by identifying SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) which are associated with higher BMIs (body mass indexes).
Daniel W. Belsky, Ph.D., and team wrote:
The researchers gathered data on 1,037 New Zealanders who were members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. 52% of them were males. They were all born between April 1972 and March 1973. They were assessed every few years up to the age of 38 years.
Participants with higher GRSs (genetic risk scores) had greater BMIs between ages 3 to 38 for every age assessed. Children identified with a high genetic risk were found to have a 1.61 to 2.41 times higher chance of becoming obese during their teens to late thirties , and 1.90 times more likely to become chronically obese across over three assessments compared to the other kids.
Children at higher genetic risk experienced more severe adiposity rebound than other kids. Adiposity rebound means gaining fat after losing weight - piling the pounds back on. Adiposity rebound also appeared to occur earlier on among kids at higher genetic risk.
Children of normal weight at higher genetic risk, whose parents were overweight, were found to have faster growth and a greater chance of becoming obese.
The authors explained that genetic score risk contributed "independent and additive information" to predicting how much children might grow and/or become obese later on in life - this data went beyond family history data.
In the same journal, the authors concluded:
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Genetic Risk Scores And Obesity Later In Life Among Children