High-pressure careers can affect spouses

People coping with the stresses of high-intensity careers can transmit their stress to their spouses, increasing the probability they will suffer from mental health issues, according new research from the Yale School of Public Health. “Much previous research has shown that spouses have similar mental health characteristics, but my paper demonstrates that work-related stress can ripple through the family,” Jason Fletcher, assistant professor at YSPH and lead author on the study, said in a press release.

Adults more likely to change habits after health crisis

A recent Yale School of Public Health study found that a serious health diagnosis brings about “a window of opportunity” during which older adults are much more likely to reform their poor health habits. Adults recently diagnosed with a stroke, cancer, health disease or diabetes were 3.2 times more likely to quit smoking than their healthy peers, while those diagnosed with lung disease, health disease or diabetes lost, on average, two or three more pounds than their counterparts, the study found.

Medical School building achieves LEED Gold

Yale Medical School’s Amistad Street building has been awarded LEED Gold certification, officials announced last week. The building has bike racks and showers to encourage employees to leave their cars at home, as well as a system that collects overflow storm water from the roof for plumbing and irrigation. It also makes use of locally-produced construction materials, a system to collect condensation from air handling units that cuts potable water usage by 80 percent, efficient light bulbs and occupancy sensors.

New Site is a ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxies’

Yale scientist Kevin Schawinski, working with scientists around the world, has founded an online citizen science project, called Galaxy Zoo 2, which launched last week. The site, at www.galaxyzoo.org, involves ordinary web users in the task of spotting galaxies and answering questions about their shapes, sizes and directions of rotation. Its predecessor, the hugely successful Galaxy Zoo project, found that users were just as good at finding galaxies as professional astronomers — in fact, over 150,000 people from around the world submitted 80 million clarifications of 1 million galaxies in the 18 months that it was up and running.

Yale Launches Global Health Leadership Institute

Yale has just created the Global Health Leadership Institute in an effort to offer aid developing nations around the world strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of their healthcare systems. Created by Elizabeth Bradley, professor and director of Global Health Intitiatives at the School of Public Health, GHLI is a collaboration between the YSPH and the Macmillian Center and will involve faculty and staff from across Yale interested in global health. The GHLI will hold its first annual conference, Strategic Problem-Solving in Global Health, June 15 to 19th, 2009.

Gender Difference in Outcomes after a ‘Mini-Stroke’

Elderly women who survive a mini-stroke are less likely than their male counterparts to be readmitted to a hopistal, a recent Yale School of Public Health study gound. Follow-up research shows that women had various other preferential outcomes: thirty days after the mini-stroke, they were 30 percent less likely to have a stroke, 14 percent less likely to have heart-related problems and 26 percent less likely to dire.