Health Highlights: March 15, 2007

"The situation is dismal. My research shows that if you don't have sex for a month, you probably won't for a year," said Dr. Kunio Kitamura, director of the Japan Family Planning Association.

Busy working lives may be one reason for the lack of sex, he said. Another factor may be a loss of physical communication skills in a society that's increasingly Web-based, theAPreported.

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About a Third of U.S. Children Live With Smokers

About a third of American children age 18 or younger live with an adult smoker and are at increased risk for respiratory and other health problems, says the latestNews and Numbersreport released Wednesday by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The report, which looked at 2004 data, found that:

White children (34 percent) and black children (31 percent) were more likely than Hispanic children (24 percent) to live with an adult smoker.Children in lower-income homes were nearly twice as likely to live with an adult who smokes than children in higher-income homes -- 40 percent vs. 22 percent.Adult education levels affected children's risk of living with a smoker. About 40 percent of children in homes in which no adult had 13 or more years of education were exposed to secondhand smoke, compared with 25 percent of children in homes with an adult who had 13 or more years of education.About 36 percent of children in the Midwest and 33 percent of children in the South lived with at least one adult smoker, compared with 28 percent of children in the Northeast and 25 percent of children in the West.Children with asthma were as likely as children without asthma to live in homes with smokers.

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