InfoTrak

In this age of smartphones, Twitter and information scrolling at the bottom of TV screens, Americans are reading faster than ever. Thomas Newkirk, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of New Hampshire believes this is a negative trend, and that readers get greater enjoyment and comprehension when they read slowly. He talked about the reasons why people tend to skim text, and techniques they can use to slow down.

Materialism may be more common than ever. Lan Nguyen Chaplin, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Illinois at Chicago led a study that tested ways to reduce materialism among young consumers. She found that a teenagers who completed a two-week gratitude journal were significantly more grateful, more generous and less materialistic.

Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine led a study that found that teens and young adults who use Juul brand e-cigarettes are failing to recognize the product's addictive potential, despite using it more often than their peers who smoke conventional cigarettes. She said the nicotine levels in a single Juul pod are the equivalent of smoking 1 ½ to 2 packs of cigarettes. She also discussed the high vulnerabilities of teens to brain changes caused by e-cigarettes, as compared to people in their twenties.

Alan Monheit, PhD, Professor of Health Economics and Chair, Department of Health Systems & Policy in the School of Public Health, Rutgers University led a study that examined the relationship between parental education and family healthcare spending. He found that parents educated beyond high school spend significantly more on healthcare, despite differences in family income and health insurance. He also discussed differences he found in healthcare decisions made by single-mother families compared to two-parent families.

Alan Monheit, PhD, Professor of Health Economics and Chair, Department of Health Systems & Policy in the School of Public Health, Rutgers University led a study that examined the relationship between parental education and family healthcare spending. He found that parents educated beyond high school spend significantly more on healthcare, despite differences in family income and health insurance. He also discussed differences he found in healthcare decisions made by single-mother families compared to two-parent families.

Air pollution in the U.S. has decreased since about 1990. Jason West, PhD, Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health led a study that found that this improvement resulted in a 47% decrease in deaths related to air pollution exposure. He noted that, despite clear improvements, air pollution remains an important public health issue in the U.S., with an estimated 71,000 deaths in 2010. He discussed the effectiveness of tree planting programs and other steps ordinary people can take to help.

Sarah Stanley Fallaw, PhD, industrial psychologist, researcher, and president of DataPoints, author of The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth wrote a follow up to her father’s classic book “The Millionaire Next Door.” She talked about several myths relating to millionaires and how they accumulate wealth. She discussed the importance of living below your means, and how to identify and develop behaviors that are conducive to building wealth.

Andrew Gewirtz, PhD, Professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University was the co-author of a surprising study that found that adding highly refined fiber to processed foods could have negative effects on human health, including liver cancer. He explained what ingredients consumers need to watch for on processed food labels. He said the simplest solution is to eat fruits and vegetables naturally rich in soluble fiber, rather than processed foods.

Deborah Thorne, PhD is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Idaho, and

Principle Investigator on the nationally-recognized Consumer Bankruptcy Project. Dr. Thorne’s research paper entitled “Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society” found that the rate at which Americans age 65 and older are filing for bankruptcy has more than tripled since 1991. She outlined a number of factors that may contribute to this problem, including rising healthcare expenses and a lack of financial knowledge or discipline to properly save for retirement, since pensions have been replaced by 401k plans.

Andrew Gewirtz, PhD, Professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University was the co-author of a surprising study that found that adding highly refined fiber to processed foods could have negative effects on human health, including liver cancer. He explained what ingredients consumers need to watch for on processed food labels. He said the simplest solution is to eat fruits and vegetables naturally rich in soluble fiber, rather than processed foods.