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Mike Stobbe

In this April 26, 2012 image released by ABC, Robin Roberts, host of "Good Morning America," right, talks to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, during an interview in Menlo Park, Calif., airing Tuesday, May 1, on "Good Morning America." Zuckerberg says U.S. and U.K. users will be able to enroll as organ donors via links on the world's biggest social networking site. Zuckerberg says his friendship with Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who had received a liver transplant before he died last year, helped spur the idea. (AP Photo/ABC, Rick Rowell)

100,000 Facebook users use new organ donor option

Last updated Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - 11:47am

ATLANTA -- An organ donation group says more than 100,000 people used a new Facebook feature the first day to declare they are donors.

Business, Facebook, Organ donors Read more Comments

Kelly Andrus plays with her son Bradley, in his classroom at Children’s Choice Learning Centers Inc., in Lewisville, Texas. Bradley, who turns three in a couple of weeks, was diagnosed a year ago with mild autism. For the first time in nearly two decades, experts want to rewrite the definition of autism. Some parents fear that if it’s narrowed and their kids lose the label, they may also lose out on special therapist. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

After $1B, experts see progress on autism’s causes

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, April 9, 2012 - 10:46am

ATLANTA — More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade searching for the causes of autism. In some ways, the research looks like a long-running fishing expedition, with a focus on everything from genetics to the age of the father, the weight of the mother, and how close a child lives to a freeway.

Autism, Health, Medical, Research, National Read more Comments

Utah at high end for autism rates

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, March 29, 2012 - 4:28pm

ATLANTA — One child out of 88 in the U.S. is believed to have autism or a related disorder, an increase in the rate attributed largely to wider screening.

Advocacy groups seized on the new number as further evidence that autism research and services should get more attention.

Features, Autism, CDC, Health, Medical research Read more Comments

(JACK DEMPSEY/The Associated Press) This April 2010 photo shows Melissa Orlando as she feeds her twin daughter Mallory at her Parker, Colo., home. Orlando gave birth to premature twins Mallory and Fiona last year.

Premature birth preventives to spike from $10 to $1,500

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - 11:24pm

ATLANTA -- The price of preventing preterm labor is about to go through the roof.

A drug for high-risk pregnant women has cost about $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the price shoots up to $1,500 a dose, meaning the total cost during a pregnancy could be as much as $30,000.

That's because the drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved.

Birth Defects, Federal Government, Health, Health Care, Medicine, News, Pregnancy, Featured Read more Comments

Bill Hughes,Bloomsburg Press Enterprise/The Associated Press file photo
In this June 3, 2008 file photo, Liberty Valley Elementary School, Danville, Pa., kindergarten student Tianna Swisher attempts to drink from the water fountain at Montour Preserve, near Washingtonville, Pa., during the school's outdoor field trip. Fluoride in drinking water, credited with dramatically cutting cavities and tooth decay, may now be too much of a good thing. It's causing spots on some kids' teeth. A reported increase in the spotting problem is one reason the federal government will announce Friday, Jan. 7, 2011, it plans to lower the recommended limit for fluoride in water supplies, the first such change in nearly 50 years.

US says too much fluoride in water

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, January 7, 2011 - 4:23pm

ATLANTA -- Fluoride in drinking water -- credited with dramatically cutting cavities and tooth decay -- may now be too much of a good thing. It's causing spots on some kids' teeth.

A reported increase in the spotting problem is one reason the federal government will announce Friday it plans to lower the recommended limit for fluoride in water supplies -- the first such change in nearly 50 years.

About 2 out of 5 adolescents have tooth streaking or spottiness because of too much fluoride, a surprising government study found recently. In some extreme cases, teeth can even be pitted by the mineral -- though many cases are so mild only dentists notice it.

Fluoride, Health, Water, National Read more Comments

US teen birth rate at all-time low

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - 11:09am

ATLANTA -- The U.S. teen birth rate hit an all-time low in 2009 -- a decline that stunned experts say is partly because of the economy.

The birth rate for teenagers fell to 39 births per 1,000 girls, ages 15 through 19, according to a government report released Tuesday. It was a 6 percent decline from the previous year, and the lowest rate since health officials started tracking that data in 1940.

Features, Birth Rate, Teen sex Read more Comments

Sex, drugs more common in hyper-texting teens

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 10:57am

ATLANTA -- Teens who text 120 times a day or more -- and there seems to be a lot of them -- are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than kids who don't send as many messages, according to provocative new research.

The study's authors aren't suggesting that "hyper-texting" leads to sex, drinking or drugs, but say it's startling to see an apparent link between excessive messaging and that kind of risky behavior.

Teen sex, Texting, National Read more Comments

Fatal car crashes involving teen drivers drop

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 2:26pm

ATLANTA — Fatal car crashes involving teen drivers fell by about a third over five years, according to a new federal report that partly credits the drop to tougher state limits on younger drivers.

Report, Teens, Accident, Fatality Read more Comments

In U.S., Hispanics outlive whites and blacks by years

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - 11:11pm

ATLANTA -- U.S. Hispanics can expect to outlive whites by more than two years and blacks by more than seven, government researchers say in a startling report that is the first to calculate Hispanic life expectancy in this country.

Demographics, Economy, Health, Hispanic, Immigration Read more Comments

(The Associated Press) Kevin Acocella, market strategist for IBM Systems & Technology Group, poses outside of the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. on May 20.

Dieting for dollars? More US employees trying it

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - 6:39pm

ATLANTA -- How much money would it take to get you to lose some serious weight? $100? $500?

Many employers are betting they can find your price. At least a third of U.S. companies offer financial incentives, or are planning to introduce them, to get their employees to lose weight or get healthier in other ways.

Business, Health, National Read more Comments

Swine flu fears push seasonal shots to record high

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 8:32pm

ATLANTA -- Fears of swine flu helped boost vaccination for ordinary seasonal flu last year, with a record 40 percent of adults and children getting the vaccine, federal health officials said Thursday.

H1N1, Health, Swine Flu, National Read more Comments

CDC: E.coli food poisoning down last year

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 1:51pm

ATLANTA -- Americans suffered a bit less food poisoning last year.

There were significant drops in illnesses from shigella and the most dangerous form of E. coli, according to a government report released Thursday. But overall, food poisoning rates have been flat for more than five years.

Health, National Read more Comments

Discounts often offset taxes on cigarettes

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, April 8, 2010 - 6:54pm

ATLANTA -- Fourteen states, the nation's capital and the federal government hiked their cigarette taxes last year, but health officials worry that tobacco company discounts are keeping prices down.

Taxes, Tobacco, National Read more Comments

In down economy, older moms' births still up in US

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - 9:37pm

ATLANTA -- U.S. births fell in 2008, probably because of the recession, updated government figures confirm. The one exception to the trend was the birth rate among women in their 40s, who perhaps felt they didn't have the luxury of waiting for better economic times.

Economy, National Read more Comments

CDC: New England tops in swine flu vaccinations

Mike Stobbe The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 2:40pm

ATLANTA -- New England leads the nation in swine flu vaccinations, while the South has the lowest rates, U.S. health officials said Thursday in the first state-by-state report on turnout.

H1N1, Health, Swine Flu, National Read more Comments