Culture | Page 2438 | Science Codex

Best way to boost adult immunizations is through office-based action, study finds

Promoting immunizations as a part of routine office-based medical practice is needed to improve adult vaccination rates, a highly effective way to curb the spread of diseases across communities, prevent needless illness and deaths, and lower health care costs, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Increasingly, vaccinations are being offered outside of physician offices at pharmacies, workplaces and retail medical clinics. Even so, office-based medical practice continues to be central to the delivery of recommended vaccinations to adults.

'I feel your pain ...'

Imagine the following scenarios: a co-worker is spoken to condescendingly, excluded from a meeting, or ignored by a supervisor. How does it make you feel? Do you feel differently depending on whether your co-worker is a man or a woman? According to a new study, workers who witness incivility towards colleagues feel negative emotions – especially when the incivility is aimed at workers of the same sex.

Hip fracture guidelines tackle 'considerable variations' in UK and Irish hospital care

All patients with hip fractures should be fast-tracked through hospital emergency departments and operated on within 48 hours of admission, according to new consensus guidelines developed by UK experts in anaesthesia, orthopaedics, geriatrics and emergency medicine and published in the January issue of Anaesthesia.

Increasing need for rehabilitation for eye disease

Visual rehabilitation will continue to increase in importance in the near future, particularly because the number of older patients is rising. Susanne Trauzettel-Klosinski summarizes the present state of knowledge in the current issue of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108[51/52]: 871-8).

Global study sheds light on role of exercise, cars and televisions on the risk of heart attacks

A worldwide study has shown that physical activity during work and leisure time significantly lowers the risk of heart attacks in both developed and developing countries. Ownership of a car and a television was linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Gut hormone leads to weight loss in overweight or obese patients

Giving overweight or obese patients a gut hormone that suppresses appetite leads to clinically beneficial weight loss as well as reduced blood pressure and cholesterol levels, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a hormone that is secreted from the intestine when we eat. GLP-1 based therapy was recently introduced as a new treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes because of its ability to regulate blood sugar levels.

How can we improve global access to pain relief?

Jason Nickerson and Amir Attaran of the University of Ottawa, Canada examine in this week's PLoS Medicine the vast inequities in medical pain relief around the world, arguing that the imbalance has arisen from restrictive drug laws designed to prevent access to illegal substances, and proposing that the global control of licit narcotics be shifted from the International Narcotic Control Board to WHO.

Self esteem aplenty: Young women fail to notice weight gain

Despite popular belief about women's weight concerns and exaggerated statements that the media are making females self conscious, it turns out the opposite is true; young women commonly fail to even recognize, much less be concerned about, recent gain of as many as 11 pounds, putting them at risk for cardiovascular disease and other obesity-related conditions. Self-perception of weight gain also appears to be significantly influenced by race, ethnicity and contraceptive methods, according to a study in Journal of Women's Health.

Asian-Americans getting better heart attack care

Care for Asian-American heart attack patients improved between 2003 and 2008, according to a study published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. The study found Asian-Americans and whites received about the same level of care, and that differences in care between the two groups decreased over time. The study is significant because little is known about the treatment and outcomes of Asian-Americans who've suffered a heart attack.

Study examines accuracy of prognostic tools used to predict mortality among older adults

CHICAGO – A review of 16 prognostic indices used to predict risk of death in older adults in a variety of clinical settings, such as in nursing homes and hospitals, found that there is insufficient evidence to recommend the widespread use of these indices in clinical practice, according to a study in the January 11 issue of JAMA.

Persons with dementia have higher rate of hospitalizations

CHICAGO – Compared to individuals without dementia, persons who developed dementia subsequently had a significantly higher rate of hospital admissions for all causes and admissions for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions for which proactive care may have prevented hospitalizations, according to a study in the January 11 issue of JAMA.

Study evaluates blood potassium levels after heart attack and risk of in-hospital mortality

CHICAGO – Patients hospitalized after a heart attack who had blood potassium levels of between 3.5 and less than 4.5 mEq/L (milliEquivalents per liter) had a lower risk of death than patients with potassium levels that were higher or lower than this range, according to a study in the January 11 issue of JAMA. Clinical practice guidelines recommend maintaining serum potassium levels between 4.0 and 5.0 mEq/L in patients after a heart attack.

People with dementia have more preventable hospitalizations

SEATTLE–Compared to individuals without dementia, people who subsequently developed dementia had a significantly higher rate of hospital admissions for all causes. They also had more admissions for "ambulatory care-sensitive" conditions, for which proactive care may have prevented hospitalizations. This suggests opportunities for improving outpatient care of seniors with dementia, according to research in the January 11 Journal of the American Medical Association.

High rates of disability and health care use found in older Americans with cirrhosis

Older patients with cirrhosis have significant functional disability, require twice the amount of informal caregiving, and contribute added strain on the health care system, according to U-M research published in Hepatology.

Given the increase in obesity and aging of those with hepatitis C (HCV), researchers expect the prevalence of cirrhosis to climb among older Americans..

Lower risk of death linked with access to key attributes of primary care, UC Davis study shows

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —Greater access to features of high-quality primary care -- comprehensiveness, patient-centeredness and extended office hours -- is associated with lower mortality, according to a new national UC Davis study. Published in the January-February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine, the research is the first to link the availability of three specific attributes of primary care with reduced risk of death.