Obama to chart ambitious health care plan. How would an Obama administration affect your health care. Candidate Barack Obama made several promises to improve health care for children and working families. To see how those improvements might shake out, go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

Debt-linked stress may cause more premature deliveries.  A women’s worry over financial matters can increase a woman’s risk for preterm delivery, but most kinds of stress have no effect, a new study finds. The study, released by the research institute RTI International, looked at 18 types of stressful situations and concluded that only four may be associated with preterm birth: being in debt; being injured by a partner; having someone close attempt suicide; and being divorced. Women in debt were the most consistently at risk for preterm delivery, reports HealthDay. They were 9 percent more likely to deliver at 35 to 36 weeks of gestation, 14 percent more likely to deliver at 33 to 34 weeks, and 16 percent more likely to deliver at less than 33 weeks, the study said. On the other hand, having a partner who lost his or her job was associated with a decreased risk of preterm delivery, said study author Nedra Whitehead, an RTI epidemiologist who examined stressful events such as legal conflicts, changes in relationships, financial problems, physical conflicts, and family illness or death. “Stressful life events have been associated with preterm delivery in some studies but not in others. This study provides some limited support for an association of some life events with preterm delivery, but it is not clear why only these four of the 18 events studied were associated with preterm delivery as they are not similar in type of stress or expected severity,” Whitehead said in an RTI news release. For more on handling finance-related stress, go to Vital Signs.

Women are the most stressed over the economy. If you’re biting your nails or feeling tired or simply stressed out more than ever, you’re not alone. A new study says that as many as 80 percent of Americans are stressed out over their personal finances and the economy. The top source of stress is worry over how to pay for everything, jobs and issues related to raising children,  according to the annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association. “”This year, the jump was marked in that the No. 1 concern is both money and the economy,” Dr. Katherine Nordal, the association’s executive director for professional practice, told CNN.  ”In my 30 years of experience, in the past, this was not the thing that would be high in complaint lists. Most people are driven to counseling because of relationship problems with marriage and children, depression and anxiety. But what we’re seeing today is that the economy and finances are viewed as significantly more stressful, by more than eight out of 10 Americans. Nearly 7,000 Americans took the survey between April and September of this year. Within five months, anxiety about the economy had jumped from 66 percent to 80 percent. The poll was conducted before the passage of the $700 billion bailout bill last week and Monday’s stock market tumble. Half of the respondents in the survey said they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family’s basic needs. More than half, 56 percent, expressed concerns about job stability. This has translated into less productivity at work, because of anxieties about salary, heavy workload and job security.  Women are more worried than men, in terms of their personal finances, the economy, work, housing costs and job stability, the survey found. “The declining state of the nation’s economy is taking a physical and emotional toll on people nationwide, and it is women who are bearing the brunt of financial stress,” according to the survey. For simple ways to handle the stress, go BET.com/Body & Soul.
 

Don’t give children under age 4 cold meds. As cold season approaches, medical experts are warning parents not to give children over-the-counter cold meds. The reason: recent reports show such medications don’t work and may even cause health problems, says The Academy of Pediatrics. In fact, in some cases, children under the age of 2 have suffered adverse effects from cold medicine, including seizures and a rapid heart rate. The makers of cold and cough medicines also said yesterday that they will stop marketing over-the-counter remedies to children under 4 – acting amid an extensive federal review of whether the drugs are safe and effective for children under 12. Yesterday, the president of the group representing the makers of the products maintained that the medicines are safe and said the industry is making the change “out of an abundance of caution and in an effort to promote the safe and appropriate use of these medications.” The voluntary move by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which includes Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth, Novartis AG and Procter & Gamble among its members, follows earlier recommendations that products be banned for children under 6, saying they don’t work and that the risks to kids outweigh the benefits. The Food and Drug Administration, which advises parents against giving such medicines to children under 2, said it supports the move by the industry even while it has undertaken a highly publicized evaluation of cough and cold medicines. The FDA has yet to give its own guidance but worries that parents would give adult doses if it instituted a ban of products for children under age 6.