Copyright 2012 Medical News TodayLatest Health News and Medical News posted throughout the day, every day.http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/public_health/admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin)editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors)en-us Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241460.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241460.phpNo previous research has quantified and compared the costs and outcomes between total knee replacement (TKR) patients who have differing lengths of hospital stay following surgery. In new research presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), investigators identified Medicare patients who had undergone TKR between 1997 and 2009...Bones / Orthopedics Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241430.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241430.phpWhy are older drivers, especially those over 70, involved in crashes primarily at intersections? You may tend to attribute this to cognitive or physical decline, such as slower reaction time or poor sight...Seniors / Aging Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241350.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241350.phpPrevious studies have found that human behavior during a recession is remarkably different than that during a bullish economy. For example, people tend to spend more time focused on working and less time engaging in leisure and recreation activities, resulting in fewer motor vehicle and other accidents...Bones / Orthopedics Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241360.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241360.phpGay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Coloradans who smoke are not thinking about quitting or getting ready to quit, and a quarter are uncomfortable approaching their doctors for help, report University of Colorado Cancer Center researchers in a recent article published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research...Smoking / Quit Smoking Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241381.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241381.phpWar, the aftermath of war, and political violence are harmful to children's and teens' mental health and well-being. But few studies have looked at how this happens...Mental Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241377.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241377.php A new study published this week shows there has been a big drop in levels of trans-fatty acids in the US bloodstream. From 2000 to 2009 it fell by 58%. This is the first time researchers from the US Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been able to measure trans-fats in human blood. They write about their findings in a letter to the Editor of JAMA...Nutrition / Diet Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241384.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241384.php In 2008, rates of teen pregnancies in the US reached their lowest level in nearly 40 years...Pediatrics / Children's Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241330.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241330.phpCounties and parishes with a greater concentration of small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations - with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes - than do those that rely on large companies with "absentee" owners, according to a national study by sociologists at LSU and Baylor University...Public Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241331.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241331.phpHow can insurers justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient per year on "orphan drugs" - extremely expensive medications for rare conditions that are mostly chronic and life-threatening - when this money could provide greater overall health benefit if spread out among many other patients? Those spending decisions reflect the "rule of rescue," the value that o...Health Insurance / Medical Insurance Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241336.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241336.phpShark attacks in the U.S. declined in 2011, but worldwide fatalities reached a two-decade high, according to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File report. While the U.S. and Florida saw a five-year downturn in the number of reported unprovoked attacks, the 12 fatalities - which all occurred outside the U.S...Public Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241337.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241337.phpGunshot injuries are typically categorized as low- or high-energy based on the weapon's missile velocity and mass. Typically, low energy injuries are treated with simple wound care, with or without antibiotics, regardless of the presence of a fracture. In contrast, high energy injuries are treated more aggressively...Bones / Orthopedics Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241348.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241348.phpDespite a national mandate to implement electronic health records and computer order entry systems (CPOE) by 2014, only approximately 30 percent of hospitals nationwide have done so and around 40 percent of hospitals in the state of Massachusetts have made this transition...IT / Internet / E-mail Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241371.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241371.phpAlthough most of us would love to be given a straightforward solution to calculate our healthy or idea weight, unfortunately it really is not that black and white...Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241325.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241325.php More salt in the average US diet comes bread and rolls and not from salty snacks like potato chips, pretzels and popcorn, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released this week...Nutrition / Diet Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241284.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241284.phpResearchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, have successfully created and implemented an emergency general surgery registry (EGSR) that will advance the science of acute surgical care by allowing surgeons to track and improve surgical patient outcomes, create performance metrics, conduct valid research and ensure quality care for all emergency genera...Public Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241294.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241294.phpWelders who are exposed to manganese from welding fumes, risk developing increased clumsiness - and the result may remain decades after exposure has ceased. This is the finding of a study at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, of former shipyard workers...Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241305.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241305.phpContrary to current convention by which infection with the organism Clostridium difficile is regarded as an infection that is acquired by contact with symptomatic patients known to be infected with C. difficile, these may account for only a minority of new cases of the infection. These findings are important as they indicate that C...Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241263.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241263.phpThere are ways in which patients who leave the hospital against medical advice wind up paying for that decision. Being saddled with the full cost of their hospital stay, however, is not one of them. Insurance companies know this. Patients who walk out may know this. But many physicians, according to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, do not...Primary Care / General Practice Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241293.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241293.phpResearch just published by a team of demographers at the social science research organization NORC at the University of Chicago contradicts a long-held belief that the mortality rate of Americans flattens out above age 80. It also explains why there are only half as many people in the U.S. age 100 and above than the Census Bureau predicted there would be as recently as six years ago...Seniors / Aging Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241255.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241255.phpClosing elementary and secondary schools can help slow the spread of infectious disease and should be considered as a control measure during pandemic outbreaks, according to a McMaster University led study...Flu / Cold / SARS Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241148.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241148.phpBeing confined to bed... ...can have fatal consequences. Incorrect fastening of restraints and inadequate monitoring led to the death of 19 people in care. Andrea M. Berzianovich and her colleagues, forensic medicine specialists from Munich and Vienna, investigated these fatalities in patients subjected to freedom-restraining measures (Dtsch Arztebl 2012; 109(3) 27)...Public Health Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241169.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241169.phpWhat would you do if you found out that the roads you drive on could cause cancer? This is the reality that residents face in Dunn County, North Dakota. For roughly 30 years, gravel containing the potentially carcinogenic mineral erionite was spread on nearly 500 kilometers of roads, playgrounds, parking lots, and even flower beds throughout Dunn County...Asbestos / Mesothelioma Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241163.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241163.phpIn five years the NHS will require another reform, caution the editors of three leading healthcare publications. In addition, they request a public debate regarding the NHS's future to "salvage some good" from the government's "damaging" reforms. According to a second BMJ report discarding the Health and Social Care Bill, now would save more than £1 billion in 2013...Public Health Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241106.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241106.phpA new study recently published in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management (JIPM) shows that from 2003 to 2008, the use of insecticide active ingredients was reduced by about 90% in University of Florida housing buildings after an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program was implemented...Public Health Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241126.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241126.phpA new analysis of malaria mortality published in The Lancet this week suggests deaths to the parasitic disease worldwide have been grossly underestimated, especially in adults. If confirmed, the study has huge implications for how large amounts of charity money are spent in controlling the disease...Tropical Diseases