Patients at hospital-based primary practices more likely to get unnecessary tests and services

Harvard: Patients with common conditions such as back pain, headaches and upper respiratory infections are more likely to receive tests and services of uncertain or little diagnostic or therapeutic benefit—so-called low-value care—when they seek treatment in primary care clinics located at hospitals rather than at community-based primary care clinics, according to a nationwide study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The key factor driving this disparity appears to be clinic location rather than clinic ownership, the research showed. Indeed, aside from referring patients to specialists slightly more often, hospital-owned community clinics delivered care otherwise similar to physician-owned community clinics.

Sugar, salt and fat taxes could save billions in health costs

Melbourne: Australia could save $3.4 billion in healthcare costs by introducing a package of taxes on sugar, salt and saturated fat, and sugary drinks, while subsidising fruits and vegetables, University of Melbourne modelling shows. This package would result in an additional 2.1 years of healthy life for every 100 Australians alive in 2010, according to research published today in PLOS Medicine.

America’s Youngest Children Most Likely to Live in Poor Economic Conditions

Columbia: Out of all age groups, children are still most likely to live in poverty, according to new research from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Using the latest available data from the American Community Survey, NCCP researchers found that in 2015, while 30 percent of adults have low incomes, more than 40 percent of all children live in low-income families — including 5.2 million infants and toddlers under 3. Despite significant gains in household income and reductions in the overall poverty rate in recent years, 43 percent (30.6 million) of America’s children are living in families barely able to afford their most basic needs, according to Basic Facts about Low-Income Children, the center’s annual series of profiles on child poverty in America.

Why repealing Obamacare may not be as easy as Trump thinks

TheConversation: Candidate Trump repeatedly called for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act during the campaign, but it is unclear what President Trump will actually do about the ACA. It is not clear even with President Trump, and Republican majorities in the House and Senate, whether full repeal is possible and what replacement might look like. There are several reasons for this. First, Trump would face political and financial fall-out from repeal. Second, even with Republican majorities now in the House and Senate, it would be hard to repeal the entire bill. It includes not only the establishment of the exchanges, in which people buy insurance, but also cost-saving and quality-improvement measures. Many health care professionals, systems and tax payers welcomed these.

Examining cardiovascular disease among the marginalized

Hanyang: Pr Seon Young Hwang of the Department of Nursing is a professor whose main research interests lie in the population based prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Hwang also conducts extensive studies on self-care and interventional strategies to enhance their treatment among the hospitalized patients with acute myocardial infarction or heart failure, and various clinical researches. Hwang’s recent paper titled “10-Year Risk for Cardiovascular Disease Among Male Workers in Small-Sized Industries” was published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, which is a prominent journal in the field, and was chosen as one of the thesis papers of the week in the month of May, and provided a deeper insight into the understanding of the causes of cardiovascular diseases. In her paper, Hwang evalutated the 10-year risk for cadiovascular disease among workers in small-sized industries.

Antibiotic pack sizes don't fit

Scimex: Australian researchers have looked at why Australians are often prescribed not enough to too many antibiotics, and report that packaging size is at fault. They found that in 32 common antibiotic prescribing scenarios, 10 patients had doses left over in surplus and 18 had a shortfall, leaving only four in which the packaging size matched the duration recommended by The Australian Therapeutic Guidelines.

Study Shows Global Warming Is Unlikely to Reduce Winter Deaths

Columbia: A study by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health debunks the assumption that global warming will lead to a decline in the number of deaths in winter. Findings by Patrick L. Kinney, ScD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences and director of the school’s Climate and Health Program, showed that a warming climate trend led to much smaller reductions in cold-related mortality than some experts have anticipated. Among 39 cities in the U.S. and France, there was no evidence that cities having warming temperatures experienced any less winter mortality than did cooler cities. Findings are online in the journal IOP Science.

Cancer overtakes cardiovascular disease as UK’s No 1 killer—but only among men

BMJ: Cardiovascular disease still primary cause of death among women and kills more young women than breast cancer. Cancer has overtaken cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease and stroke, as the UK’s No 1 killer—but only among men, reveals research published online in the journal Heart. Cardiovascular disease is still the most common cause of death among women, and kills more young women than breast cancer, the figures show. The researchers used the latest nationally available data (2012- 13) for each of the four UK countries and the Cardiovascular Disease Statistics 2014 report compiled for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to quantify the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, and find out how it’s treated, how much it costs, and how many deaths it causes.

Anti-smoking legislation reduces serious respiratory tract infections in children

Maastricht: Anti-smoking legislation has led to a demonstrable reduction in the number of children being admitted to hospital with respiratory tract infections. This was shown in a study conducted by Jasper Been, paediatrician at Maastricht UMC+. The researcher, who also works at Edinburgh University and Erasmus MC, examined how anti-smoking legislation has affected child health in England. In order to study the effect of such measures, Dr Been has been granted a three-year personal subsidy from the Dutch Lung Foundation.

Five-year 'death test' for older adults launched online

NHS: "Are you dying to know? Scientists develop death test to predict if you'll make it to 2020," The Daily Telegraph reports. The test is based on analysis of data collected from the UK Biobank. This is essentially a huge ongoing cohort study that collected data from almost 500,000 middle- to older-age adults in the UK over an average of five years. This data was then used to create an online death risk calculator. The researchers looked at around 650 different measurements, including blood tests, family history, health and medical history to work out which were most strongly associated with risk of death over the next five years.

More than 95% of people are ill

Scimex: We're an unhealthy bunch, according to a new analysis based on the 2013 Global Burden of Disease Study by international scientists, including Australians and New Zealanders. Just one in twenty people around the world were healthy during that year, while around a third had more than five different illnesses. The top five most common causes of ill health in Australia were lower back pain, depression, musculoskeletal problems, neck pain and migraines. The top five in New Zealand were lower back pain, depression, neck pain, anxiety and musculoskeletal problems.

Don’t ban e-cigarettes, sell them under tight regulation

TheConversation: Over the past ten years, a substantial minority of cigarette smokers in many countries have turned to electronic (e-) cigarettes in an attempt to quit smoking or as an alternative to smoking some or all of the time. In 2013 around 600,000 Australian smokers had tried e-cigarettes, while there are currently around 2.6 million e-cigarette users in Great Britain. These devices avoid burning tobacco and don’t produce smoke, tar and particulate matter. Instead they use an electronic system to produce a mist containing nicotine and propylene glycol and/or vegetable glycerine that can be inhaled much like tobacco smoke to deliver nicotine to the lungs.

New way to tackle vaccine hesitancy tested, found wanting

Group Health Research Institute conducted the first randomized trial to test an intervention aimed at improving hesitancy about early childhood vaccines by working directly with doctors. Vax Northwest, a Washington state public-private partnership, developed the intervention. The results are reported in Pediatrics in “Physician Communication Training and Parental Vaccine Hesitancy: A Randomized Trial,” with an accompanying editorial: “Physician Communication with Vaccine-Hesitant Parents: The Start, Not the End, of the Story.”

Can we stub out tobacco-related disease?

Scimex: Yes - but only if we include collaborative knowledge from other disciplines and not just behavioural science, is US global health expert Thomas Novotny's answer. In an editorial, he argues for new global efforts involving a broad range of experts – from economists and policy advisors, to health researchers – in order to progress tobacco control and reduce tobacco-related diseases around the world.

Nutrition expert helps define national prescription for healthy diet

UCSD: What if there were a nearly universal prescription for better health, one that could save untold thousands of lives annually, lower health care costs and even help shrink the nation’s carbon footprint? There is. It’s called diet and exercise. Now more than ever, there is a compelling body of scientific evidence that good nutrition and physical activity are pillars of health and disease prevention. Americans, however, are not by-and-large living what the science says is good for us. UC San Diego Pr Cheryl Anderson is trying to fix that. She and other top nutrition experts recently completed more than 18 months reviewing what is known about diet-related disease prevention. In the strongest language to date, the committee, called “for bold action and sound innovative solutions” to address the nation’s health crisis. The statistics speak to the urgency.

Cold weather is a bigger killer than extreme heat – here’s why

TheConversation: Most people are acutely aware of the toll the heat can take on human life, particularly since the extreme heat of Black Saturday in 2009 and the European heatwave of 2003. So it may come as a surprise that more Australians die from the cold than the heat. A new study published in The Lancet shows 6.5% of deaths in this country are attributed to cold weather, compared with 0.5% from hot weather. Most deaths will be from cardiovascular and respiratory disease, as it’s the heart and lungs that struggle when we are outside our comfort zone.

Coronary heart disease is leading cause of avoidable deaths

British Heart Foundation: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading single cause of avoidable death, according to the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics. There were nearly 20,000 avoidable deaths from CHD in 2013, nearly a fifth (17%) of all avoidable deaths in England and Wales. Deaths are considered avoidable through good quality healthcare or wider public health interventions, such as changes to lifestyle. Figures reveal that CHD was the most common cause of avoidable deaths for males.

Study Finds High Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in U.S.

JAMA: Nearly 35 percent of all U.S. adults and 50 percent of those 60 years of age or older were estimated to have the metabolic syndrome in 2011-2012, according to a study in the May 19 issue of JAMA. The metabolic syndrome is combination of health conditions (such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, poor lipid profile) that contribute to cardiovascular illness and death. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2006 reported a metabolic syndrome prevalence of 34 percent. Understanding updated prevalence trends may be important given the potential effect of the metabolic syndrome and its associated health complications on the aging U.S. population, according to background information in the article.

Water quality: Graphene may enable faster, more durable water filters

MIT: For faster, longer-lasting water filters, some scientists are looking to graphene —thin, strong sheets of carbon — to serve as ultrathin membranes, filtering out contaminants to quickly purify high volumes of water. Graphene’s unique properties make it a potentially ideal membrane for water filtration or desalination. But there’s been one main drawback to its wider use: Making membranes in one-atom-thick layers of graphene is a meticulous process that can tear the thin material — creating defects through which contaminants can leak. Now engineers at MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) have devised a process to repair these leaks, filling cracks and plugging holes using a combination of chemical deposition and polymerization techniques. The team then used a process it developed previously to create tiny, uniform pores in the material, small enough to allow only water to pass through.

Many people are not getting the recommended cancer screening tests

CDC: Many adults in the U.S. are not getting the recommended screening tests for colorectal, breast and cervical cancers, according to data published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. For 2013, screening for these types of cancers either fell behind previous rates or showed no improvement.