A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Depressed dads more likely to slap children
NEW DADS who feel down are much more likely to smack their children than dads in good spirits, US researchers have found.
They found 40 per cent of depressed men said they had smacked their children in the last month, compared with only 13 per cent of men without symptoms.
“This finding is particularly concerning given that children were only one year of age in our study,” Dr R Neal Davis, of Intermountain Healthcare in Murray, Utah, and colleagues write in the journal Pediatrics.
At that age, they add, slapping was more likely to cause injuries, and children probably wouldn’t understand why they were being hurt.
The study is based on interviews with more than 1,700 new fathers from 20 large cities in the US.
“There has been other research showing that moms who are depressed are more likely to spank their kids, but this is the first time it has been shown for dads,” said Elizabeth Gershoff, an expert in child development and family relationships at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr Gershoff, who wasn’t involved in the study, added that it might make sense for mothers to keep an eye on their partner if he is depressed and offer to take care of the children if things get hectic.
The new study doesn’t prove that depression leads to slapping in itself, since a host of other problems could be involved. But even ruling out some of the most obvious competing explanations, dads who felt depressed in the past year were four times as likely to smack their children as those who said they felt fine.
150 firms in Britain sign up for public health deal
ABOUT 150 companies have signed up to the British government’s responsibility deal on public health, with pledges including warnings on alcohol and cuts to unhealthy salt and fat in food.
McDonald’s announced it will display calories on menu boards across its 1,200 restaurants in the UK from September, while seven supermarket chains are among firms backing British health secretary Andrew Lansley’s pledges.
Mr Lansley hopes the new responsibility deal will improve public health while avoiding regulation for food companies and the alcohol industry.
Asda, Marks Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, The Co-operative and Waitrose are on board, while several major food firms have promised to improve labelling.
A spokeswoman for McDonald’s said it had carried out extensive research which found 80 per cent of customers think all companies should display “simple, visible calorie information”.
Yesterday, six major health organisations refused to enlist as partners on the alcohol aspects of the responsibility deal, accusing the British government of allowing the drinks industry to dictate health policy.
The pledges on alcohol include companies saying they will “ensure that over 80 per cent of products on shelf (by December 2013) will have labels with clear unit content, NHS guidelines and a warning about drinking when pregnant”.
Heineken has said it will cut the alcohol content of one of its major brands after signing up to the deal.
Supermarket chain Asda has also pledged to end front-of-store alcohol displays by the end of April.
Child aged 3 treated for alcoholism
A THREE-YEAR-OLD child has been treated for alcoholism by staff at an NHS hospital in Britain. The unnamed toddler, thought to be Britain’s youngest alcoholic, was among 13 youngsters aged 12 and under who were diagnosed as alcoholics by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust between 2008 and 2010. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act also showed that the trust admitted more than 70 children aged 13-16 for emergency treatment for alcohol abuse.