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A new study suggests the children of mothers who work part-time are healthier than those of their full-time or stay-at-home counterparts. Where does this take the debate on the effects of working mothers on the health and happiness of their offspring?

The study of 4,500 Australian pre-schoolers found those whose mothers worked some of the week were less likely to eat junk food, watch TV and over the course of the two-year research period were less likely to become overweight.

The authors suggested that mothers who worked part-time went to “considerable lengths” to ensure the time they did spend with their children was high quality.

“When mothers work part-time, there’s obviously something about the way the house is run, and the way parents are looking after their children that is protective,” said Jan Nicholson of Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Mothers’ messages

Her study – Do working mothers raise couch potatoes? – concluded that apparently they do if they work more than 34 hours a week, struggling to find the time for family cooking and activities.

The reasons why mothers who do not work have children with less healthy habits are not fully understood, the study says, and requires a closer analysis of “household dynamics”.

The findings are the latest in the steady flow of contradictory information on the effects on child wellbeing of the mass movement of mothers into the labour market over recent decades – in the UK some 60% of women with children under five work.

Within the course of just one month at the end of last year, two major studies were published with different, if not necessarily conflicting, messages for working mothers.

One suggested they were damaging their children’s health – with children of both full and part-time mothers less likely to eat an apple and get out and walk to school than those of stay-at-home mothers, the second that they were not harming their emotional and intellectual development in the slightest.

Meanwhile various studies have also thrown up differing perspectives on the potential pitfalls of the childcare they choose.

Nurseries have been accused of fostering anti-social behaviour and increasing stress levels in toddlers, but have also been found to improve educational outcomes and even to lower the risk of a child developing leukaemia because their immune system is stimulated through early contact with others.

Meanwhile grandparents, an increasingly attractive childcare choice for many parents as they tend to be both reliable and free, are now said to increase the chances of a child being overweight – although only in the wealthiest socio-economic groups.

“A lot of the time when you look at the actual statistical differences in these studies, they are really quite small. We see associations, but not necessarily causes,” says Prof Heather Joshi, head of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education.

“All parents should perhaps derive comfort from the fact that what these studies really demonstrate is that there are no clear relationships and conclusive answers – that there is not a one-size-fits-all policy.

“Everybody needs to think carefully about what is right for them and their children, and be prepared to change if it is not working out. You play it by ear.”

Forgotten fathers

And some may not have the luxury of choosing whether to stay at home or work, be it part- or full-time.

Limited and expensive childcare mean some who may want to work cannot afford to do so, while others need to work to financially provide for their child.

“Flexible working and better childcare is key,” says Dr Martina Klett-Davies of the Family and Parenting Institute. “It is also a shame these studies always forget the father – if there isn’t a healthy meal on the table why is that always the fault of the working mum?

“But we also need to be wary of turning parenting into a science. We like the idea that we can provide definitive proof of what is best for children, but a lot of the time all it does is make parents feel even more insecure about the way they do things and the choices they make.

“That, frankly, is not good for anyone.” By Clare Murphy, BBC News

The melting of glaciers is well documented, but when looking at the rate at which they have been retreating, a team of international researchers steps back and says not so fast.

Previous studies have largely overestimated mass loss from Alaskan glaciers over the past 40-plus years, according to Erik Schiefer, a Northern Arizona University geographer who coauthored a paper in the February issue of Nature Geoscience that recalculates glacier melt in Alaska.

The research team, led by Étienne Berthier of the Laboratory for Space Studies in Geophysics and Oceanography at the Université de Toulouse in France, says that glacier melt in Alaska between 1962 and 2006 contributed about one-third less to sea-level rise than previously estimated.

Schiefer said melting glaciers in Alaska originally were thought to contribute about .0067 inches to sea-level rise per year. The team’s new calculations put that number closer to .0047 inches per year. The numbers sound small, but as Schiefer said, “It adds up over the decades.”

While the team looked at three-fourths of all the ice in Alaska, Schiefer noted, “We’re also talking about a small proportion of ice on the planet. When massive ice sheets (such as in the Antarctic and Greenland) are added in, you’re looking at significantly greater rates of sea-level rise.”

Schiefer said the team plans to use the same methodologies from the Alaskan study in other glacial regions to determine if further recalibrations of ice melt are in order. These techniques use satellite imagery that spans vast areas of ice cover.

Previous methods estimated melt for a smaller subset of individual glaciers. The most comprehensive technique previously available used planes that flew along the centerlines of selected glaciers to measure ice surface elevations. These elevations were then compared to those mapped in the 1950s and 1960s. From this, researchers inferred elevation changes and then extrapolated this to other glaciers.

Two factors led to the original overestimation of ice loss with this method, Schiefer said. One is the impact of thick deposits of rock debris that offer protection from solar radiation and, thus, melting. The other was not accounting for the thinner ice along the edges of glaciers that also resulted in less ice melt.

Schiefer and his colleagues used data from the SPOT 5 French satellite and the NASA/Japanese ASTER satellite and converted the optical imagery to elevation information. They then compared this information to the topographical series maps of glacial elevations dating back to the 1950s.

While the team determined a lower rate of glacial melt during a greater than 40-year span, Schiefer said other studies have demonstrated the rate of ice loss has more than doubled in just the last two decades.

“With current projections of climate change, we expect that acceleration to continue,” Schiefer said. This substantial increase in ice loss since the 1990s is now pushing up the rise in sea level to between .0098 inches and .0118 inches per year—more than double the average rate for the last 40 years.

Working on the Alaskan glacial melt revision with Schiefer and Berthier were Garry Clarke of the University of British Columbia, Brian Menounos of the University of Northern British Columbia and Frédérique Rémy of the Université de Toulouse. redOrbit

Popping painkillers such as paracetamol on a regular basis can increase the danger of going deaf, new research has revealed.

Taking paracetamol at least twice a week doubles the risk of mild to severe deafness before the age of 50.

Other painkillers, including aspirin and ibuprofen, are also linked to hearing loss, the American researchers found.

Led by scientists at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US, the study, over a period of 24 years, involved a total of 26,000 men, reports The Daily Express.

The results are due to be published in the March edition of the American Journal of Medicine. The study also involved researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Sharon Curhan, of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said: “Regular use of analgesics, specifically aspirin, NSAIDs, and acetaminophen (paracetamol) might increase the risk of adult hearing loss, particularly in younger individuals.

“Given the high prevalence of regular analgesic use and the health and social implications of hearing impairment, this represents an important public health issue.”

Crystal Rolfe, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf’s Audiology Specialist, said: “Hearing loss can have a big impact on communication and many people are not aware of the effect it can have on their lives.

“If you are worried that the medication you are taking could be affecting your hearing, you should consult your doctor who will discuss your concerns with you.”

She added: “If you have any concerns about your hearing for whatever reason, you should ask for a hearing test – and the quicker you take action on the matter, the better.” Newstrack India

Activity in the housing market showed signs of picking up during February after suffering a lull at the beginning of the year, figures have shown.

There was an increase in both the number of buyers and sellers entering the market during the month, following falls in December and January, according to housing intelligence group Hometrack.

There was also a 10% jump in the number of sales agreed, after transaction levels dropped by 4% during the previous month.

The pick up in activity led to house prices in England and Wales rising by 0.3% during February.

But despite the increases in activity during the month, the group warned that 2010 had seen a slow start to the year.

Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s director of research, said: “February is traditionally a month when the Hometrack survey registers significant growth in the number of sales agreed – over the last eight years the growth in sales agreed over February has averaged 30%.

“Yet this year (the increase in) the number of sales agreed has averaged just 10%.”

He added that there had also been a below average increase in both the number of potential buyers looking for a property and the number of homes coming on to the market.

New buyer registrations rose by 8% during the month, a third less than the 24% rise typically seen during February, while there was also a 4.6% increase in the number of properties put up for sale, compared with an average of around 14% in previous years.

But despite the slower than usual start to the year, annual house price inflation still rose to 0.4% – the first time it has been positive since March 2008. York Press