New colorectal cancer screening recommendations for African Americans
Bethesda, MD, March 21, 2005 Physician experts from the American College of Gastroenterology have issued new recommendations to healthcare providers to begin colorectal cancer screening in African Americans at age 45 rather than 50 years. Colonoscopy is the preferred method of screening for colorectal cancer and data support the recommendation that African-Americans begin screening at a younger...Community care tops medical care at preventing heart disease in black Americans
Upgraded community health services, including checkups by phone or in person with a local nurse practitioner at a neighborhood clinic, and free charge cards for medications are almost nine times more likely to benefit black Americans at greater risk of heart disease than full-service physician care alone. The analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins, to be published in the journal Circulation on...Researchers say breast cancer in Africa may provide clues to the disease in African-Americans
A new review finds similarities between the clinical presentation and course of breast cancer in Africans and African-Americans, suggesting that genetic factors may play a significant role in the racial differences encountered in the epidemiology of breast cancer in America. The article, published in the April 15, 2005 issue of CANCER ( ), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, a...African-Americans receive less aggressive heart attack treatment
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. According to a study at the Maya Angelou Research Center on Minority Health at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, African-Americans continue to receive less aggressive treatment for heart attack than whites....... Alain G. Bertoni, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine at Wake Forest Baptist, and his colleagues found that nearly 60 percent of every 100 whi...Americans support most uses of reproductive genetic testing, report on US attitudes reveals
A majority of Americans believes it is appropriate to use reproductive genetic testing to avoid having a child with a life-threatening disease, or to test embryos to see if they will be a good match to provide cells to help a sick sibling, a new report of the Genetics and Public Policy Center reveals. However, most Americans believe it would be wrong to use genetic testing to select the sex or o...90 million Americans are burdened with inadequate health literacy
WASHINGTON -- Nearly half of all American adults 90 million people have difficulty understanding and using health information, and there is a higher rate of hospitalization and use of emergency services among patients with limited health literacy, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Limited health literacy may lead to billions of dollars in avoidable hea...UM outreach programs increase kidney transplants among African-Americans
Transplant surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center say they have successfully reduced barriers to kidney transplantation for African-Americans to cut the median waiting time for transplant in half. Their achievement stems from a comprehensive program that includes patient education and efforts to increase living donation and improve overall kidney graft survival. Results of the...African-Americans may need more medication to control asthma
(NORTHBROOK, IL, February 7, 2005) - Racial differences may play a significant role in determining a patient's response to asthma medications. A new study in the February issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), shows that asthmatic and nonasthmatic African-Americans required higher doses of glucocorticoids to suppress lymphocytes, which play...Good medicine, good economics: African-Americans need equal treatment for pain, SLU study finds
ST. LOUIS -- As if doing the right thing isn't enough, Saint Louis University researchers have found another reason African-Americans and the poor should receive equal medical treatment and compensation for occupational back pain. ......It's actually cheaper in the long run, concludes study author John T. Chibnall, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at Saint Louis University School of Medi...Beliefs may hinder HIV prevention among African-Americans
CORVALLIS, Ore. A new study suggests that a number of African Americans are distrustful of the government's role in the origin and treatment of HIV/AIDS and that African American men who have such beliefs also have more negative attitudes toward condoms and use them less consistently.... The study was funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National...African Americans half as likely to receive surgery for esophageal cancer
Alexandria, VA-- African Americans with esophageal cancer are half as likely as whites to be seen by a surgeon and to receive life-prolonging surgery, a new study shows. The study, which examined racial disparities in access to surgical evaluation, receipt of surgery, and survival among older patients with esophageal cancer, found that only 25% of African-American patients received potentially cu...Study suggests obesity has lesser financial impact on African-Americans
BOSTON Obesity may impose a smaller healthcare cost on African-Americans than other demographic groups, according to a study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) that found spending on obesity-related problems becomes progressively higher as adults grow older....... The study published in the January 2005 issue of the Journal of American Public Health is among the f...Few Americans are aware they have chronic kidney disease
Ten to 20 million people in the United States have kidney disease but most don't know it, according to researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findi...Few Americans aware they have chronic kidney disease
Ten to 20 million people in the United States have chronic kidney disease but most don't know it, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Health Statistics. The findings are published in the January 2005 print edi...Money issues leading cause of holiday stress for Americans
WASHINGTON, December 7, 2004 -- What causes the most stress during the holiday season? Money issues were the top vote getters for holiday stress, according to a recent poll by the American Psychological Association (APA). ... ...The Survey found that 61% of Americans listed lack of money as the top cause of holiday stress followed by the pressures of gift giving, lack of time, and credit c...More than 41 million Americans need colorectal cancer screening
Bethesda, Maryland (Dec. 1, 2004) More than 41 million Americans who are candidates for colorectal cancer screening have not been screened for this second-leading cancer killer, the first time the unscreened population has been quantified. According to a study published today in the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) journal Gastroenterology, sufficient capacity exists to screen the...'Sobering' disparity: African-Americans receive less compensation for job-related back injuries
ST. LOUIS -- African-Americans with work-related back injuries have less money spent on their medical care and receive less compensation for their injuries than Caucasians, according to a Saint Louis University study in the December issue of Pain....... "The implications of these differences are sobering," said Raymond C. Tait, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry at Saint Louis University School of...Federal forum reports Americans aging well, but gaps remain
Most older people are healthier, wealthier, and better educated than previous generations, but these gains have not been equal among todays older Americans. ... ......In 2003, there were almost 36 million people age 65 and over living in the United States, accounting for just over 12 percent of the total population. Most of these older Americans reported better health, greater wealth, and higher...White physicians slower to prescribe HIV medications for African-Americans than for whites
A new UCLA study shows that African-American HIV patients treated by white doctors receive life-saving HIV medication less than those who have an African-American doctor. ...... "Does Racial Concordance Between HIV-Positive Patients and Their Physicians Affect the Time to Receipt of Protease Inhibitors?" is published in the November issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. ...... The cl...Socio-economic factors sway African-Americans
Socio-economic factors are a major influence on why Blacks are less likely than Whites to quit smoking once they have started, although Blacks are more likely to be lifetime nonsmokers than Whites, according to researchers. ... Differences between Black and White cessation rates are reduced considerably when comparisons factor in gender, educational levels, age, marital status and geographic regi...NIA establishes new demography centers to enhance knowledge about older americans
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has established four new Centers on the Demography of Aging at Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of North Carolina, and Pennsylvania State University. The new programs, which join nine ongoing Centers at institutions around the U.S., will focus on social and behavioral research on health, savin...Breast cancer in Asian Americans is rising faster than in any other ethnic group
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- The incidence of cancer among Asian Americans in California has dropped 5.9 percent and deaths from the disease have dropped 16.3 percent since 1988. Both declines are more rapid than those seen in any of the other major ethnic groups, according to research reported today at the 5th Asian American Cancer Control Academy. The meeting is sponsored by the National Cancer Inst...(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Low-income Asian and Pacific Islander children in California are becoming overweight at an alarming rate -- and will soon catch up to low-income white, black and Latino children in the proportion who are overweight or obese, according to research reported today at the 5th Asian American Cancer Control Academy. ...The percentage of low-income Asian and Pacific Islander chi...Americans pay for unethical medical expert witnesses
PHILADELPHIA With medical liability insurance premiums skyrocketing, the role of a physician expert witness and how they can contribute to increasing malpractice costs is certainly controversial. Love them or hate them, expert witnesses are a necessary component of the United States' legal system. Untruthful testimony, however, can punish good doctors and push the medical community's overall med...Millions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at increased risk for type 2 diabetes
SAN DIEGO - About 40 percent of adults ages 40 to 74 or 41 million people - have pre-diabetes, a condition that raises a person's risk for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Studies show that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who are overweight are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, and some groups, including Native Hawaiians, Filipinos, and Japanese Americans living...Many drugs prescribed for elderly Americans are risky
DURHAM, N.C. -- Many Americans over the age of 65 hold prescriptions for drugs considered potentially risky for elderly patients, according to a new study by Duke University Medical Center researchers. The finding emphasizes a need for greater awareness among physicians about the risks presented by commonly prescribed medications as people age and for additional measures to monitor prescription d...Eye drops may delay or prevent glaucoma in African Americans at higher risk
Eye drops that reduce elevated pressure inside the eye can delay or possibly prevent the onset of glaucoma in African Americans at higher risk for developing the disease, researchers have found. This makes it more important to identify African Americans at higher risk for developing glaucoma so they can receive prompt evaluation for possible medical treatment. These results are reported in the Ju...African-Americans respond poorly to hepatitis C treatment
DURHAM, N.C. African-Americans have a significantly lower response rate to treatment for chronic hepatitis C than non-Hispanic whites, according to a new study led by Duke University Medical Center researchers....... Some African-Americans 19 percent did respond to the drug combination of peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin. But in non-Hispanic whites with the same disease, the hepatitis C gen...African-Americans more likely to die of colon cancer
African-Americans with colon cancer are more than 50 percent more likely to die of their cancer within five and ten years after surgery than Caucasians. According to a new study published May 24, 2004 in the online edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the racial differences in long-term survival may be due not to tumor stage at diagnosis or treatment i.e., f...APA poll: Most Americans have sought mental health treatment but cost, insurance still barriers
Nearly half of Americans have had someone in their household seek mental health treatment, but most still perceive cost and lack of insurance coverage as barriers according to national poll results released today by the American Psychological Association (APA). The poll also shows that stigma about seeking mental health treatment is increasingly less of a barrier to getting treatment. ...... Nea...Depressive symptoms in middle-aged inner-city African-Americans higher than expected
Middle-aged African-Americans who live in the inner city have a higher than expected level of depressive symptoms which can lead to additional health problems, according to research from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. ... ...To better understand depression in older urban African-Americans, Douglas Miller, M.D., professor of medicine at the Indiana Un...Americans spend more on health care but are not healthier
Despite spending more for health care, Americans do not have the best medical care in the world, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. The study is the first to use a universal set of standards to compare the quality of health care in the five countries surveyed. The researchers found that no country scored the best or worst over...Development of rare esophageal cancer in African-Americans may differ from whites
The development of an aggressive but rare type of esophageal cancer in African-Americans may follow a different path than the same disease in whites, and is more likely to be fatal, according to results of a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins....... Whites who develop the cancer, called esophageal adenocarcinoma, usually develop an abnormal lining of their throat condition called Barrett's met...Mexican Americans at greater risk for stroke than non-Hispanic whites
SAN FRANCISCO The first comparison study of stroke risk among Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites has shown that Mexican Americans experience a substantially greater incidence of stroke. Overall, depending on age, Mexican Americans had between 15 and 110 percent higher stroke risk compared with non-Hispanic whites. Study details and conclusions will be presented at the American Academy of...Many Americans use prayer for health concerns
CHICAGO An estimated one-third of adults use prayer, in addition to conventional medical care and complementary and alternative therapies, for health concerns, according to an article in the April 26 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.... ...According to information in the article, many Americans believe in the healing power of prayer. While there is n...Vision loss from eye diseases will increase as Americans age
With the aging of the population, the number of Americans with major eye diseases is increasing, and vision loss is becoming a major public health problem. By the year 2020, the number of people who are blind or have low vision is projected to increase substantially. These findings appear in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.... ...Blindness or low vision affects 3.3 million America...As tax deadline approaches Americans say money is number one cause of stress
As Americans rush to file taxes by April 15, many name money as the number one factor that affects their stress level. A survey commissioned by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that seventy-three percent of Americans single out money, with thirty-three percent saying it is a very significant factor contributing to stress. Work, physical health and children follow next. .........When it comes to allergies, Americans don't make the grade
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America's (AAFA) first National Allergy Awareness Test released today, allergy sufferers scored average to failing grades in the areas of awareness, triggers, symptoms, prevention, and treatment. Results from the Test show that allergy sufferers think they are knowledgeable about allergies, however there is a gap between what sufferers know about...Study findings offer new hope for the estimated 300,000 Americans infected with HIV and Hepatitis C
A Mount Sinai School of Medicine researcher reported results from a study with a drug combination that showed the highest hepatitis C treatment response rates ever reported in patients infected with hepatitis C and HIV virus at the 11th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) this week. ...... The multinational APRICOT (AIDS PEGASYS™ Ribavirin International CO...Rectal cancer treatment gaps, especially for African Americans, seen in new study
ANN ARBOR, MI Colorectal cancer may be getting a lot of attention in the public eye, but many rectal cancer patients still aren't getting the best care -- especially those who are African-American.... ...Those findings are drawn from a new study published today in the journal by a University of Michigan Health System surgeon and her colleagues.... ...The study adds to the long list of racial d...