Adolescent health ill-catered for in the NHS
...eople has improved considerably, young people have fallen through the gap in targeted services, argues Dr Russell Viner, the UK's only consultant in adolescent medicine. Mortality rates for adolescents from injury and suicide have increased fivefold over the last century - rising from 11% of total deaths fo...Routine procedure during childbirth provides no benefits, study review finds
...routine use of forceps during delivery, have since fallen out of favor due to advances in scientific understanding. However, Thorp said, many clinicians in practice today, who were trained to perform routine episiotomies as a standard of care, are reluctant to change....Decline in major heart disease offset by rise in diagnosed angina among British men
... coronary death among British middle aged men have fallen steadily since the late 1970s, but this has been largely offset by an increase in the rate of diagnosed angina, finds a study in this week's BMJ. These results emphasise the ongoing need for health service resources for angina, say the researchers. T...Fear of falling: It's not only grandpa's phobia
...is fear of falling exists in people who have never fallen before. It's an illogical fear. Yet they're so afraid of falling that they avoid activities. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They become weak and they fall." Fear of falling was "surprisingly high" among middle-aged African-Americans who live ...Statin therapy cost-effective for a wider range of individuals
..., and the price of generic simvastatin has already fallen to about 15% of the 2001 proprietary price; as has also occurred elsewhere. At this price, the cost savings from reduced hospitalisations during the treatment period would outweigh the cost of 40 mg simvastatin daily for people with a 5-year major va...CT significantly reduces the need for appendectomy
...s, the negative appendectomy rate following CT has fallen dramatically. Fewer people are having to undergo appendectomy because CT can find the normal appendix and can frequently determine what is wrong prior to surgery," said James T. Rhea, MD, lead author of the study at MGH and who is now at San Francisc...Seven deadly sins: A new look at society through an old lens
... proportion of women with one partner for life has fallen and the proportion reporting concurrent relationships has increased. At the same time, women are twice as likely as men to regret their first experience of intercourse and three times as likely to report being the less willing partner. And the majori...Rise in ICSI cycles suggests infertility could be affecting more men than women
... in twin birth rates, and triplet birth rates have fallen from 3.6% to 1.3% after IVF and ICSI. For the first time we are seeing the impact of patients and doctors choosing to implant only one embryo [elective single embryo transfer eSET], and in 70% of all transfers only one or two embryos were transferr...Tai Chi can reduce falls in older people, says new research
...taken by the exercise group to walk six metres had fallen by 25 per cent, while the control group took 14 per cent longer. "As people get older they are more likely to experience falls and this can lead to some very serious health issues" says co-author Professor Rhayun Song from the Chung Nam National Univ...Building better therapeutic vaccines for chronic infections
...ny experimental therapeutic vaccines have thus far fallen short of expectations. Now, scientists at The Wistar Institute and Emory University offer details about what may prevent the immune system from responding effectively to a therapeutic vaccine during a state of chronic infection. Their findings sugges......rtly after a fall, though many patients have never fallen but are literally paralyzed by the fear that they might fall. Patients shuffle or slide their feet along the floor and hold onto something constantly for support. Soon the abnormal gait itself becomes a problem, even to the point that a person doesn'...Smoking ban is protecting bar workers in Ireland
...moking in public venues, including workplaces, has fallen dramatically since the legislation. Smoking in restaurants fell from 85% to 3%, and from 98% to 3% in bars/pubs. Furthermore, public support for a total ban also rose from 43% to 67%. In bars/pubs, this increased to 46% from 13%. More than eight out ...Weight-loss surgery increasing, except for the poor
...24.7%) lacked private insurance. By 2002 that had fallen to one out of six (17.1%) In 1998, 32 percent of patients came from households located in zip codes with an average income greater than $45,000 a year (from 1990 census data, the highest available category). By 2002, that had nearly doubled to 60 pe...Decline in breast cancer deaths explained by use of screening and adjuvant therapies
...is no question that breast cancer death rates have fallen in recent decades, both in the United States and in other countries. In 1975, the rate of death from breast cancer among women 30 to 79 years of age, adjusted for age to the 2000 population, was 48.3 deaths per 100,000 women. By 1990, the rate had in...The case for pneumococcal vaccination of infants
...he causative agent and target of the vaccine) have fallen dramatically among children, especially for the 7 common varieties of S. pneumoniae that are covered by the vaccine. Second, there is a spillover effect among adults over 65 years of age (for whom a similar vaccine is recommended and widely used in A...Police data unreliable source for identifying trends in violent crime
...e British Crime Survey show that violent crime has fallen 36% since its peak in 1995 in Britain. Although the crime survey has its own limitations, say the authors, its reporting has been consistent. And its findings are backed up by information from hospital emergency departments in England and Wales. Th...EU and G8 countries must help Russia tackle its health crisis
... few developed countries where life expectancy has fallen in recent years, writes Rifat Atun of Imperial College London. Russia's total life expectancy of 66 years lags behind that of Japan by 16 years, the European Union by 14 years, and the United States by 12 years. High levels of death and illness from ...New cervical screening technique no better than conventional smear test
... of the test, the incidence of cervical cancer has fallen substantially. Liquid-based cytology has been developed as an alternative and has been reported to increase the sensitivity of smear tests and decrease the proportion of slides that are unsatisfactory for assessment. However, in a review of 56 studie...Rise in sudden infant death syndrome cases involving infants that sleep with parent on a sofa
...2% to 34%; and the prevalence of breastfeeding has fallen from 50% to 26%. Professor Fleming states: "Althou... babies dying whilst in bed with their parents has fallen by 50% over the past 20 years." In an accompanying Comment Dr Jacobus Van Wouwe (Netherlands Organis...... 24%. In Victoria Australia, road death tolls have fallen by some 50% in the last 15 years. In Queensland, Australia, 2,500 speed cameras were introduced between 1997 and 2001, resulting in a 31% drop in fatal crashes. The researchers found that following the introduction of speed cameras in the UK, the fa...