Most Americans lacking in heart attack knowledge
Relatively few Americans have the knowledge to recognize and properly react to a heart attack, a government study suggests.
In a survey of nearly 72,000 U.S. adults, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that only 27 percent were aware of all five major signs of heart attack and would call 911 if they thought someone was having a heart attack or stroke.
The findings point to a need for better public education, the CDC authors’ conclude in the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. This is especially true for men, minorities and less-educated Americans, who were particularly lacking in heart attack knowledge, the researchers write.
Obese kids at higher respiratory risk post-surgery
Obese children who undergo elective surgery typically have more additional medical conditions than their normal-weight peers do and are also at greater risk of developing adverse respiratory events after the procedure, U.S. researchers report.
“Many anesthesiologists may suspect that obese children have a ‘rockier’ anesthetic course than normal-weight children,” lead investigator Dr. Alan R. Tait told Reuters Health. “We have now confirmed that these children do indeed have an increased risk of adverse events.”
The study findings also show the obese children tend to have more illnesses than other children do “which, in and of themselves, may increase their anesthetic risk,” he added.
Persistence key to treat depressed teens
Teenagers whose initial drug treatment fails to combat depression, which happens in 4 out of 10 cases, can be helped by switching medicine and adding psychotherapy, a U.S. study published on Tuesday said.
“The findings should be encouraging for families with a teen who has been struggling with depression for some time,” said Dr. David Brent of the University of Pittsburgh who headed the research.
“Even if a first attempt at treatment is unsuccessful, persistence will pay off. Being open to trying new evidence-based medications or treatment combinations is likely to result in improvement,” he added.
Rise in midlife stroke in women linked to obesity
The rapidly rising incidence of stroke among Americans is primarily due to the increasing number of middle-aged women who are having strokes. The increasing incidence is also associated with abdominal obesity, investigators told attendees here at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2008.
“The incidence of stroke is two-times higher in women than men between the ages of 35 and 54,” announced Dr. Amytis Towfighi of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Towfighi and colleagues analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Surveys (NHANES) collected between 1988 and1994 that included 5,112 participants, as well as NHANES data collected between 1999 and 2004 that included 4,594 participants.
Joslin study finds restricting insulin doses increases mortality risk
A new study led by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has found that women with type 1 diabetes who reported taking less insulin than prescribed had a three-fold increased risk of death and higher rates of disease complications than those who did not skip needed insulin shots. The new research appears in the March issue of Diabetes Care.
The study highlights the dangers of insulin restriction and concludes that mortality associated with the behavior appears to occur in the context of eating disorder symptoms often exhibited in women with diabetes – sometimes referred to as “diabulimia” in the media.
This 11-year follow-up study of 234 women is one of the first to show an increased risk of mortality as well as higher rates of kidney and foot problems in those who restricted their insulin intake. In addition, the average age of death was younger for those involved in insulin restriction: 45 years of age as compared to 58 years for those who did not restrict.
