Older black patients are three times more likely than older white patients to suffer poorer outcomes after surgery, including death, when cared for by nurses with higher workloads, reports research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. The large-scale study showed higher nurse workloads negatively affected older surgical patients generally and that the rate was more significant in older black individuals.
Culture
OAK BROOK, Ill. – October 16, 2012 – A new study shows that endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) before radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with nodular Barrett's esophagus (BE) and advanced neoplasia. The performance of EMR before RFA was not associated with a diminished likelihood of success of therapy or an increased rate of stricture compared with those with advanced neoplasia undergoing RFA alone.
ANN ARBOR—American presidential campaigns provide a unique window into our society, according to a University of Michigan anthropologist.
"It says a lot about our culture that we pay so much attention to the clothing, gestures and hair styles of presidential candidates and to their performances in highly theatrical situations, like debates," said Michael Lempert, a linguistic anthropologist at the U-M.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Contrary to what police, politicians and the public believe about the effectiveness of California's three-strikes law, research by a University of California, Riverside criminologist has found that the get-tough-on-criminals policy voters approved in 1994 has done nothing to reduce the crime rate.
DENVER (Oct. 16, 2012) – A new study by the University of Colorado Denver reveals that today's adolescents are abusing prescription pain medications like vicodin, valium and oxycontin at a rate 40 percent higher than previous generations.
That makes it the second most common form of illegal drug use in the U.S. after marijuana, according to Richard Miech, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of sociology at CU Denver.
A new paper suggests that fathers' parenting behavior influences the sexual behavior of their adolescent children. However, to date most parent-based research on adolescent sexual risk behavior has neglected the role of fathers, a missed opportunity to contribute to their adolescent children's health and well-being.
While it is well-established that parenting is closely linked with a teenager's sexual health and reproductive outcomes, it is mothers that, to-date, have drawn most of the attention of researchers, according to the article published today by Pediatrics.
(Garrison, NY) Personalized genomic medicine is hailed as a revolution that will empower patients to take control of their own health care, but it could end up taking control away from patients and limiting their treatment choices, concludes an article in the Hastings Center Report.
A computerized checklist system designed to help physicians identify and use the best methods of preventing potentially deadly blood clots in hospitalized trauma patients dramatically reduced the number of these dangerous venous thromboembolisms (VTEs), new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- An analysis of 27 studies linking psoriasis in 314,000 individuals with diabetes has found strong correlation between the scaly skin rash and the blood sugar disorder that predisposes patients to heart disease, say UC Davis researchers who led the review.
The findings appear in an article titled "Psoriasis and the risk of diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis," which is now online in the Archives of Dermatology.
"Communicating With Older Adults: An Evidence-Based Review of What Really Works," the latest report from The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), provides 40 pages of recommended guidelines for health care providers interacting with the fastest growing age segment of America's population.
A new method of using adult stem cells as a model for the hereditary condition Gaucher disease could help accelerate the discovery of new, more effective therapies for this and other conditions such as Parkinson's, according to new research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The recent outbreak of meningitis in the US—and the subsequent deaths of 15 individuals—has renewed scrutiny on the contemporary practice of pharmacy compounding. The risks to patients, and associated liability risk to prescribing physicians, largely outweigh the benefits when the practice goes beyond the traditional, extemporaneous role, according to Sarah Sellers from q-Vigilance LLC and Wulf Utian from Case Western Reserve University in the US. Sellers and Utian's opinion piece appears online in the journal Drugs, published by Adis.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Nearly half of patients taking medications for chronic conditions do not strictly follow their prescribed medication regimens. Failure to use medications as directed increases patients' risk for side effects, hospitalizations, reduced quality of life and shortened lifespans. Now, a University of Missouri gerontological nursing expert says patients' poor adherence to prescribed medication regimens is connected to their beliefs about the necessity of prescriptions and concerns about long-term effects and dependency.
PHILADELPHIA — Making uniform coatings is a common engineering challenge, and, when working at the nanoscale, even the tiniest cracks or defects can be a big problem. New research from University of Pennsylvania engineers has shown a new way of avoiding such cracks when depositing thin films of nanoparticles.
So-called Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) is even less attractive in real life than it is on paper. It is a highly aggressive type of lymphoma that generally occurs in children and young adults and that has to date proven extremely difficult to treat. It has long been known that ALCL patients frequently show a genetic alteration (a translocation) that causes expression of nucleophosmin-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (NPM-ALK), a gene known to be capable of giving rise to cancer. But how the NPM-ALK gene works has to date remained largely a matter of conjecture.