A skim of titles in this 180+ sampling of links to fairly readable medical journal articles emphasizing 2014 (with some earlier and later) illustrates professional grasp and understanding of national and global health issues specific to women, as well as illnesses in which female patients outnumber males, and related factors/elements. Medscape is the access for most (see intro after the orange-peel) and all are free. Most Medscape pages link to related news, research reportage, and reference material, and include a search bar (hit return/enter key ↵ after typing search terms - the magnifying glass is not 'clickable').
Exerpts are by editorial indiosyncracy, exerpts aren't necessarily summaries, and unexerpted articles are not less valuable. Numbering is a convenience for reference in discussion, with no other significance. Most emphasis was added by editor. Occasional clumping by topic is fortuitous: similar and related articles are scattered thru'out. Inclusion does not indicate editorial agreement - objectionable articles can be very illuminating, as can articles whose titles look off-topic, e.g., #91 "Patriarchy Is Bad for Men's Health..." (And some titles are worded...oddly). All links should smoothly open parallel browser tabs rather than navigate away from this diary.
FIND SPECIFIC KEYWORDS BY HOLDING DOWN CONTROL KEY & TAPPING F KEY TO GET A SEARCH BAR.
First up, Gender Differences in Pharmacokinetics Full text at the link. Abstract:
In most clinical trials, women are underrepresented, and gender-specific analysis is uncommon. Sex differences in metabolism ... are believed to be the major cause of differential pharmacokinetics between men and women. Many CYP450 enzymes ... show a sex-dependent difference in activity. Most ... phase II enzymes have a higher activity in men than in women; [and in women] can also change during pregnancy and with the use of oral contraceptives. Sex differences are also found in other pharmaco- kinetic parameters such as drug absorption, drug distribution, and excretion. Despite these differences between men and women, sex-specific dosing recommendations are absent for most drugs. Therefore, [a woman may consistently experience less therapeutic effect and/or more adverse effects from a drug]...
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Next: Puberty Education: A Globally Unmet Need - An Expert Interview With Marni Sommer, DrPH, MSN, RN Exerpts:
How puberty disrupts girls' academic performance
... [in many countries] the pedagogy is that when you respond to a question in class, you have to stand up. A girl might be afraid that she will have a stain on the back of her skirt. This may cause her to move to the back of the class [or] interrupt her ability to concentrate. Not having access to pain medication for really bad cramps also disrupts concentration...
There are amazing girls out there who soldier on, make it through, and do really well, but that doesn't speak to every girl's needs. There are probably girls who skip half a day of school or a day or two because they don't want to deal with the fact that there is no toilet or water or only have tissue paper and are afraid of having an accident. We don't know enough yet, and it has been very difficult to get funding to research this issue.
My fundamental belief is that schools are gender-discriminatory. They are not equal playing fields when somebody who is menstruating doesn't have access to the toilet. Boys don't experience this. Until we address the aspect of inadequate toilets and water, girls' performance in school is affected.
Whether parents are assumed to have these discussions with their daughters
It depends on the country. In some... a girl keeps quiet. In [others], traditionally, she would go to her aunt or her grandmother. In many... there is a taboo about talking to your parents about this. ...as families change with urbanization... aunties and grandmothers are not necessarily nearby anymore, and they lose that source. There is growing pressure on parents to start talking to girls and boys, but [even] in America, it is an uncomfortable thing.
The Grow and Know puberty education outreach books
... in every country [where] we have published a book, [we hear parents] say, "Oh, thank God for this book because now I can just give it to my daughter or my son, and they come to me with questions." [The books] open a door of communication.
... female teachers can be a wonderful support [but in most countries where we have done research], girls are not comfortable going to [them and] female teachers don't necessarily want [them to ... there seem to be] lingering taboos on the topic [and because teachers have to be disciplinarians], the students don't go to them as a confidant...
[This makes it necessary] to both engage parents and let them know that they need to talk to young people and be supportive, not punish them. But parents may need resources if they don't know what to say. The whole idea of [a books is to be a resource] for a girl to learn about her body, to share it with a girlfriend, to share it with her brother. In Ghana, the girls said, "We think that our fathers should read these books." In Tanzania, they said, "We think that our aunties and mothers should read these books." That is telling. You have great mothers and fathers in all of these countries, but if we are hearing that, they recognize that parents need a little bit more help talking to them.
[In Ghana, 95% of girls say they sometimes miss school because of menstruation. In Ethiopia, 39% of girls say they don't perform as well in school during their periods. Statistics like these have spurred new effort from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to educate school-aged children in low-income countries about puberty.]
Marni Sommer, DrPH, MSN, RN, Exec. Dir., GrowAndKnow dot org, Assoc. Prof. of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia Univ...School of Public Health (brief bio and at the Columbia Population Research Center) has developed books about puberty for children in Tanzania, Ghana, Cambodia, and Ethiopia; worked on menstrual hygiene management educational efforts in these countries; and served as an advisor on a UNICEF-Emory University project that studied puberty education in [developing world countries]. In March 13, 2014, UNESCO announced partnering with Procter & Gamble's Always® brand [on] a new booklet [pdf online:] "Puberty Education & Menstrual Hygiene Management."to help anyone involved in education, including principals, teachers, and parents, learn to talk to girls and boys about puberty. Adding puberty and menstrual hygiene management education to a curriculum has been shown to help girls' academic performance, according to UNESCO.
More articles follow.
Medscape's topic alerts in ob/gyn were dominated by articles relating to cancers and to assisted reproduction often technically difficult to read and therefore not extensively sampled here but can easily be searched by key words at the site. See also:
The Adverse Drug Effects Discussion in the Medical Community
Med Journal etc articles on Nonconformist Gender Health Care Issues,
Med Journal etc articles on the effects of gender-based violence and sexual assault,
Med journal etc articles on the effects of violence, abuse and neglect of children
Med Journal etc articles on obesity, diabetes, & related topics,
More diaries at
KosAbility back through the months and years,
This Week in the War on Women group series,
and articles available at
Medscape from
Women's Health, a professional medical journal
1. ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) Steps Up Advocacy for Access to Contraception (Articles linked at this page: "European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use Favors OTC Access to Emergency Contraceptive ellaOne" and "Teen Pregnancies Plummet With Free Contraception, Education".)
...recommendations include: ■ access to acceptable alternative contraceptive coverage for women whose health insurance plans exclude contraceptive coverage; ■ age-appropriate and medically accurate education programs; ■ prompt referral TO appropriate care BY...religiously affiliated hospitals, clinicians and others who do not provide contraceptive care; ■ payment and practice policies that support 3- to 13-month supplies of hormonal methods to provide contraceptive continuation, rather than a restriction to a month's supply at a time...
Related:
■
Perforation rates are low with both levonorgestrel and copper intrauterine devices (IUDs), according to the European Active Surveillance Study for Intrauterine Devices
[61,448 women age 18 and older were] recruited from a network of approximately 2000 gynecologists [in] in Austria, Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom ... 2006 to 2013 [and followed for one year]. "Breast-feeding is a risk factor, as is time since last delivery..."
■
Birth Control Access Key Means of Reaching Climate Goals United Kingdom,
..."We're not talking about population control. We're talking about giving people the choice to limit their family size and all the good things that go on from that" such as better health and education...
...Some countries, such as Ethiopia, already have included family planning among the activities they want to undertake on climate change, using international climate finance, according to an analysis by the London-based Population and Sustainability Network.
"They themselves identified population as a factor making it more difficult for them to adapt. We in the north are worried about, 'Is it fair to make this connection?' when people in the south are already making it," said Karen Newman, coordinator of the network...
2. "ADHD in Girls and Boys: Gender Differences in Co-existing Symptoms and
Executive Function Measures"
3. Adverse Effects of Antidepressants During Pregnancy This is an unusual article well worth reading by anyone interested in clinician thinking during medical appointments and how clinicians (and anyone with a computer connection) step-by-step can use the Clinical Queries function of PubMed for office visit follow-up.
4. American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Position Statement [on] Concussion in Sport Full text 18 pp. Sections include (but are not limited to): — Signs and Symptoms — Management of Concussions — Prolonged Concussive Symptoms/Postconcussion Syndrome — — Long-term Sequelae of Sports-related Concussions — Education — Legislation.
...In sports with similar playing rules, the reported incidence of concussion is higher in female athletes than in male athletes...
Related:
■
Fight Exposure Linked to Reduced Brain Volume
■
...an epidemic... of college women and teenage girls "blowing out their ACL" at 4-10 times the rate of males.
5. Another Step Forward for Migraine Biomarker
6. As Caregiving Shifts to the Home, Scrutiny Is Lacking (See also: Assisted Living Facilities Need More Medical Oversight: CDC) This story from Kaiser Health News(not associated with the KP HMO) was produced in partnership with Southern California Public Radio 89.3 KPCC, and can be republished free (see details).
Yolanda Farrell lay mostly paralyzed in a nursing home, unable to feed or dress herself, when her homeless daughter persuaded her to move out.
Linda Maureen Raye, who relatives say had been living in her car with her dog, used her mother’s Social Security to pay for a one-bedroom Riverside apartment and took over as Farrell’s sole caregiver in 2010.
Over the next two years, according to police and court records, Raye took her elderly mother to the doctor once. As her mother’s health declined, Raye stopped cooperating with a nurse sent to advise her on preventing bedsores.
Yet in 2012, Raye was hired officially: She began collecting about $900 a month from taxpayers under the state’s in-home care program for poor people, according to law enforcement authorities.
By the end of that year, Farrell, an 85-year-old former real estate underwriter who loved to travel, had died of septic shock resulting from severe bed sore infections. Originally charged with murder, Raye, 60, pleaded guilty to elder abuse...
Related:
Systematic Review of Outcomes From Home-Based Primary Care Programs for Homebound Older Adults Full text conclusion paragraph
:
This systematic review has demonstrated that specifically designed HBPC programs for homebound older adults can reduce hospitalizations and long-term care admissions while improving individual and caregiver quality of life and satisfaction with care. This has been recognized elsewhere, with the most recent U.S. health-care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, including a provision to test a remuneration incentive and operational model for HBPC, known as the Independence at Home program... The current review has also highlighted how much of the evidence supporting HBPC is observational and that there is a pressing need for further well-controlled studies of home-based primary care. In spite of this, policy-makers grappling with the needs of a rapidly aging population should recognize that HBPC could help maintain quality of life and function in older adults, as well as the overall sustainability of healthcare systems.
Related:
Preventable Death Among Seniors Varies by State "...and much of this variation can be explained by behavioral and community support factors that can be changed, according to
America's Health Rankings Senior Report..."
...The lowest premature mortality rate was in Hawaii, followed by Colorado, Connecticut, California, and Minnesota. Mississippi had the highest... death rates in seniors 65 to 74 years in Mississippi were 1.8 times those of seniors in Hawaii...
7. Bad News, Good News [on] Fibromyalgia Drug
A new sublingual drug that specifically targets nonrestorative sleep, a key feature of FM, failed to change average daily pain scores at week 12, the primary endpoint of the study, compared with placebo, a phase 2b trial shows.
[But it] did lead to improvement in [some] secondary endpoints, including measures of sleep, an effect on pain by a 30% responder analysis (P = .030), as well as the overall burden of symptoms, compared with placebo.
Investigators anticipate that the drug's effect on nonrestorative sleep in patients with FM may improve sleep disturbances in patients with PTSD as well, a disorder in which nightmares are a key feature...
Related:
■
Chronic Pain Associated With Brain Glial Activation and
Fibromyalgia Imaging Study Shows Unique Brain Connectivity
■
The Relationship Between FM, Stress and Depression (This
Continuing Medical Education activity can be read without enrollment.)
■
PTSD Boosts Obesity Risk in Women
■
Insomnia 'Extremely' Common in Female US Veterans
8. Binge Drinking Prevalent, Yet Underestimated in [American women and girls]
9. Biological Pathways for Common Psych Disorders Identified Includes link to free-access preview/abstract of the reportage and data charts published online at Nature Neuroscience (nature.com).
New biological mechanisms involved in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder (MDD) have been identified.
The research implicates pathways related to histone methylation (molecular changes affecting proteins associated with DNA molecules) and immune and neuronal signaling...
(from the nature.com article: "Our study indicates that risk variants for psychiatric disorders aggregate in particular biological pathways and that these pathways are frequently shared between disorders. Our results confirm known mechanisms and suggest several novel insights into the etiology of psychiatric disorders.
Related:
Exploring Psychosis and Bipolar Disorder in Women: A Critical Review of the Qualitative Literature 6 pp. Conclusion from the abstract
:
Women reported negative illness consequences relating to stigma, loss of self-determination and changes to relationships. They employed various strategies in order to cope with illness. Barriers to strategy use and clinical recommendations are presented.
10. Caffeine Affects Girls and Boys Differently After Puberty
11. Cancer Deaths Fall in EU, Except for Pancreatic and Lung in Females
Related: Stark Differences in Cancer Survival Across the Globe includes link to Lancet abstract "Global surveillance of cancer survival 1995–2009: analysis of individual data for 25 676 887 patients from 279 population-based registries in 67 countries (CONCORD-2)".
...The investigation focused on 10 [adult] types ― cancer of the stomach, colon, rectum, liver, lung, breast (in women), cervix, ovary, and prostate in adults, as well as leukemia in both adults and children. Forty countries provided national data with 100% population coverage. For the remaining 27 countries, the coverage ranged from 1% in India to 91% in Australia.
...the lowest survival for [colon, rectal, and breast cancers] was recorded in Mongolia. Within Europe, Russia has the lowest survival for all three cancers, whereas Iceland had the highest for colon and rectal cancer (65% and 77%, respectively), and France and Finland had the highest for breast cancer, at 87%.
12. Cardiac Bioenergetics [are] Impaired in Subclinical Hypothyroidism
13. Career Tips From Female Physician Leaders
14. Cervical Cancer Is Preventable--Too Many Missed Opportunities
Related: Knowledge of Cervical Cancer and Attendance at Cervical Cancer Screening: A Survey of Black Women in London
15. The Changing Demographic Profile of Eating Disorders
Related: Childhood Abuse Linked to Food Addiction (in women)
16. Child's Genes Affect Mom's Risk for Rheumatoid Arthritis
17. Chronic-Condition Combinations and Health Care Expenditures and Out-of-Pocket Spending Burden Among Adults, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2009 and 2011 (This Continuing Education activity can be read without enrollment. Release date is January 29, 2015 - uncertain whether cost improvements under 'Obamacare' were figured/revised into this material, but the information is still pretty informative.).
18. Chronic Fatigue: NIH [workshop] Literature Review Faulted
...the patient advocate community and some experts [say] the [literature used in the document] does not reflect the reality of the illness [nor the wide range of flaws in research studies upon which treatment recommendations are based]...
[Critics include] Kenneth J. Friedman, PhD, a former associate professor of pharmacology and physiology, New Jersey Medical School in Newark, and a coauthor of the International Association for CFS/ME's 2012 ME/CFS: A Primer for Clinical Practitioners.
Dr Friedman and others also question whether ME/CFS [whose very name is the subject of debate] should even have been included in [this workshop series designed for topics of incomplete or underdeveloped research but generally not controversial], which involves a "jury model," in which a panel of non-experts hear expert "testimony"... [in order to] produce another draft document...
Related:
■
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Linked to Early Menopause (cf. #24, 3rd & 4th related item.)
■
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Wrong Name, Real Illness 6 pp. with links. Sections: [Overview] — A
Real Condition — What Is ME/CFS? — Physical Findings & Biomarkers — Clinical Approaches — Federal Efforts, Funding, & Future Directions — References.
■
Cost-effectiveness of [brief cognitive behavioral therapy] Chronic Fatigue Self-management Versus Usual Care: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial Full text, 6 pp.
...Conclusion: The brief two-session CBT-based fatigue self-management intervention appeared to be cost-effective in this pilot study, in that the intervention cost was more than offset by cost savings generated from reduced health services utilization during the 1 year follow-up. However, due to the small sample size and high attrition rates, interpretation of the findings should be cautious. Nevertheless, less labor-intensive modalities of CBT such as the brief nurse-led self-management approach reported here should be tested in future studies in primary care.
■
IOM Gives Chronic Fatigue Syndrome a New Name and Definition FEBRUARY 10, 2015
19. Circle of Sisters: raising awareness of Native American women to breast cancer.
Related:
■ Partnering in research: a national research trial exemplifying effective collaboration with American Indian Nations and the Indian Health Service.
■ History/Timeline of the Treatment of Breast Cancer: Quiet 100 Years and Then Boom
■ Myriad Settles Its Patent Lawsuits [in its battle for control of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes]
■ Effects of progressive relaxation exercises on anxiety and comfort of Turkish breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
20. Colonoscopies Explain Why U.S. Leads the World in Health Expenditures
Related:
■ Hurtling Down the Road to Ruin
■ ...Linx on Colon Cancer Screening [Alternatives]...
20a. Cuba Ups Healthcare Sector Pay, Says Medical Export Earnings to Rise
Related: The Cuban Medical System — More With Less - 2009 Videoblog
20b. Cuts in Government Health Spending Linked With Extra Maternal Deaths (in The association between government healthcare spending and maternal mortality in the European Union 1981–2010, the authors found that)
each 1% drop in government health spending corresponded to a 10.6% increase in maternal mortality, or 89 extra maternal deaths" and "it is likely that the identified associations exist in other high-income countries...
Related:
Spending [US-equivalent]$25 per woman per year on full sexual health services [in developing countries] would dramatically reduce mother and baby deaths and give women the choice of smaller, healthier and more productive families, according to a UN report...
21. Detecting Domestic Violence: When a Patient With a Black Eye Claims Everything Is Fine... Related: Examining the Intersections Between Child Maltreatment and Intimate Partner Violence
22. Determinants of Diet for Urban Aboriginal Youth: Implications for Health Promotion. Canada
...Aboriginal youth...are a quickly growing population who experience high rates of obesity... a complex condition with many contributing factors, diet being one of the primary contributors. In this article, we discuss the findings from an ethnographic study that examined determinants of diet for urban Aboriginal youth. Results revealed two themes: (a) Traditions and Sharing, and (b) The Struggle. The findings with Traditions and Sharing showed that food-sharing networks are often used to acquire traditional food. Traditional foods were believed to be healthy and desired by the participants. The theme The Struggle provides insight into the daily challenges the participants faced with food insecurity. Health promotion professionals need to consider the multiplicity of determinants of diet for urban Aboriginal youth in order to plan and implement culturally appropriate health promotion programs.
23. Dominican Republic Moves to Ease Abortion Ban, Challenges Remain - Rights Group
24. A Drink a Day? In Middle Age, It Might Lower Risk of Heart Failure Related:
■ Elderly Women With Heart Failure Unseen, Unheard or Simply Forgotten? 13 pp.
■ Beetroot Juice ups Exercise Capacity in Heart Failure
■ [Early] Age at Natural Menopause and Risk of Heart Failure [increased risk for developing heart failure, and smoking increases the risk...]
■ Early Menopause Linked to Chemical Exposure in Women
...In their analysis of women in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), published online January 28 in PLOS One, Dr Cooper and colleagues identified 15 EDCs that they say warrant closer evaluation "because of their persistence (long half-life) and potential detrimental effects on ovarian function" — nine polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), three pesticides, a furan, and two phthalates were significantly associated with earlier ages of menopause on at least one type of analysis...
"The observed magnitudes of effect of these 15 chemicals...are larger than those previously documented for primary exposure to tobacco smoke," they state. Tobacco smoke has been shown in prior NHANES studies to be associated with 0.8 to 1.4 years of earlier-onset menopause.
Asked to comment on the study, Dr Andrea Gore (University of Texas, Austin), editor-in-chief of Endocrinology, said it is difficult to avoid exposure to some of these chemicals. "In many cases, these chemicals were banned 40 years ago in the US, yet we know that they are very persistent in the environment, and if persistent chemicals were found in people's bodies in 2008 [the last year Dr Cooper's team analyzed], they are still being found in people's bodies in 2015..."
25. Emergency Contraception May Not Be Available to All Young Men
Related:
■ Pregnancy prevention among American Indian men ages 18 to 24: the role of mental health and intention to use birth control.
■ A Clinician Guide to Emergency Contraception
26. Endocrine Disruptor BPA Increases Fetal Oxidative Stress Related:
■ [handling of] Receipts [printed on thermal paper, which commonly is made with BPA] May Be [an additional] Source of Endocrine Disruptor BPA: Study
■ BPA and Reproductive Health: Reviewing the Current State of the Science
■ Plastic-additive bisphenol A linked to diabetes and cardiovascular events in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey published September 2008.
27. Epidemiology of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalitis in Children
28. Evidence of Effective Delivery of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine Through a Publicly Funded, School-based Program - The Ontario [Canada] Grade 8 HPV Vaccine Cohort Study 6pp. Abstract conclusion paragraph:
"Our study demonstrates that delivery of the HPV vaccine through a free, school-based program is an effective method of ensuring high completion and on-time dosing, but may not be sufficient to guarantee high coverage."
Related:
■
Performance of 21 HPV Vaccination Programs Implemented in Low and Middle-Income Countries, 2009–2013 (pub'd Aug 2014) Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Haiti, Lesotho, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Cameroon, Georgia, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal.
■
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC)
■
Is Expanding HPV Vaccination Programs to Include School-aged Boys Likely to be Value-for-Money: A Cost-Utility Analysis in a Country With an Existing School-Girl Program New Zealand
29. Examining the Relationship Between Subjective Sleep Disturbance and Menopause: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis 5 pp. From the abstract's conclusions:
The prevalence of sleep disturbance is higher in perimenopausal, postmenopausal, and surgical menopausal women than in premenopausal women. There is an independent relationship between menopausal stages and sleep disturbance beyond the effects of aging and other confounders, although the magnitude of the relationship is small. Culture, ethnicity, or both might affect the levels of sleep disturbance at various menopausal stages.
30. Female Interventionalist cardiologists 'Very Rare,' Work in Isolation
31. Female Mutilation a Means of Male Power Over Women: UN Rights Chief See also this limited PubMed search and this limited Medscape search.
32. Female Smokers' Menstrual Cycle May Dictate Best Time to Quit
33. Females Better Protected Against ASD Risk Factors (from 12th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) May 2013; San Sebastián, Spain.
34. Fractures Are Major Cause of Older Women's Hospitalizations
Related: Elder Abuse: Research, Practice, and Health Policy
Elder abuse, also called elder mistreatment or elder maltreatment, includes psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, neglect (caregiver neglect and self-neglect), and financial exploitation. Evidence suggests that 1 out of 10 older adults experiences some form of elder abuse, and only a fraction of cases are actually reported to social services agencies. At the same time, elder abuse is independently associated with significant morbidity and premature mortality. Despite these findings, there is a great paucity in research, practice, and policy dealing with this pervasive issue. ...Interdisciplinary and community-based efforts are needed to devise effective strategies to detect, treat, and prevent elder abuse in our increasingly diverse aging populations.
35. Free Contraception Slashes Abortion Rates
October 5, 2012 ...almost half (49%) of pregnancies in the United States from 2006 to 2008 were unintended, with a cost to taxpayers of about $11 billion annually for 1 million unintended births... When adolescent and adult women were offered no-cost contraception for 3 years (2007 - 2011, St. Louis, MO) abortion rates fell 62% to 78% below national levels, according to a prospective cohort study of 9256 adolescent and adult women [16% recruited at abortion facilities] desiring reversible contraception...
...Long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods (IUDs and implantable contraception) are more effective than other methods, but they also are more expensive initially, and many women cannot afford them...
Participants were counseled on contraceptive methods and their effectiveness, and offered the reversible contraceptive method of their choice for 3 years. They were able to switch methods during the study, if they desired...
...The teenage birth rate (births per 1000 females aged 15 to 19 years) within the CHOICE cohort was 6.3 per 1000. This is far below the national level of 34.3 per 1,000 reported in 2010, note the authors. They used this rate as a proxy for unintended pregnancy, which makes up as much as 80% of teen pregnancies.
Between 2008 and 2010, there was a 20.6% (P < .001) drop in the number of abortions performed at Reproductive Health Services among adolescents and women who lived in St. Louis City and County, compared with no appreciable change (0%, P = .39) in the number of abortions among adolescents and women living in the rest of Missouri...
Related:
Kids With Behavior Problems Have Earlier Sex In an Australian study following almost 3,000 children through age 17, parental reports of internalizing behaviors
(such as significant withdrawal, physical complaints, anxiety, and depression
) and externalizing behaviors
(such as aggression and criminal behavior
) were found to independently predict earlier age of first sexual intercourse and increased risk for teen pregnancy, partner violence, sexually transmitted infections, and other adverse health impacts.
36. French Birth Rate Falls Below 2 Children per Woman
37. [Girls'] Perceptions of Male Partners' Pregnancy Desire 2008. 4pp. From the abstract:
...Our objective was to examine the relationship between pregnancy desire among female adolescents and their perception of desire for pregnancy in their male partners. This is an observational cross-sectional study which examined 92 surveys administered to adolescent women between the ages of 14 to 19 years at two obstetrical care services serving a population from limited socioeconomic backgrounds. Participants were all pregnant or awaiting pregnancy test results...
38. Grandmothers and Caregiving to Grandchildren: Continuity, Change, and Outcomes Over 24 Months
39. Heart Rate Variability New Window in Lupus Disease Activity
Related: Lupus May Be Twice as Common as Previous Estimates Suggested "...afflicting 128.7 of every 100,000 women, data from 2 new studies show..."
40.Helminth Infections in Pregnant Women
Related:
■ Treat Helminthiasis Before Repairing Obstetric Fistula
■ Kenya Gets 'Game Changing' Record Donation for Fistula Treatment
41. The History of 'Female Sexual Dysfunction' as a Mental Disorder in the 20th Century
42. How to Manage an Adolescent Girl Presenting With Features of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS); An Exemplar for Adolescent Health Care in Endocrinology
43. How Women Manage Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections: An Analysis of Postings on a Popular Web Forum "This analysis of posts on a popular health web site indicates that recurrent urinary tract infections have a far greater impact on the quality of women's lives than is commonly believed."
44. Hypothyroidism: Higher Risk Seen in Women Exposed to PFCs (perfluorinated chemicals) - see also Environmental and health concerns [about perfluorinated compounds]
45. Hysterectomy Overused for Benign Conditions
46. In Abenomics' Shadow, Japanese Women Fight [workplace] 'Maternity Harassment'
47. Increased Waist Circumference Is Independently Associated With Hypothyroidism in Mexican Americans: Replicative Evidence From Two Large, Population-Based Studies
48. Introducing 'Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause'
Related:
■ DHEA for Urogenital Atrophy and Sexual Function?
■ Midlife Female Health Recommendations Released by the NAMS, Oct 2014
49. Is Religion Why Docs Are Against Assisted Suicide/Dying?
Related:
■ Spiritual but Not Religious from Medscape Nurses > Case Challenges in Pain and Palliative Care (The Save and Proceed button can be clicked to move to page 2 without clicking any choices on page 1.)
■ Physician Suicide 101: Secrets, Lies, and Solutions by Pamela L. Wible, MD "...adapted from a lecture presented at the 2014 American Academy of Family Physicians..."
50. "It will always continue unless we can change something": consequences of intimate partner violence for indigenous women, children, and families. Abstract only.
...OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this article is to identify US indigenous women's perspectives about the impact of IPV on women, children, and families.
METHOD:Data were collected with 29 indigenous women affected by violence from a Southeastern tribe in the United States. As part of a larger critical ethnography, pragmatic horizon analysis of life history interviews revealed the consequences of IPV across multiple levels...
51. Judge Urges Settlement in Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuits
[against C.R. Bard, Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon, Boston Scientific Corp, and several other manufacturers being sued by over]70,000...women who said the mesh [for treating stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse] caused painful infections, bleeding and other complications...
...American Medical Systems, a subsidiary of Endo International Plc ... said last year it would set aside up to $1.6 billion to resolve 20,000 lawsuits... Danish company Coloplast A/S has also settled [with] nearly 2,000 mesh lawsuits..."
52. Juvenile [idiopathic rheumatoid] Arthritis: Adverse Events Common With Biologics
53. A large intake of high-fat dairy products appears to be associated with a reduced risk for type 2 diabetes, confirming previous findings of a possible protective effect of dairy fat...
...people who consume [over 8 portions per day in this study] of high-fat dairy products have a 23% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who consume lower levels (1 or fewer portions per day)... Low-fat dairy products do not appear to show the same effect...
Related:
Milk Intake and Risk of Mortality and Fractures in Women and Men..
54. Lateral Violence in Nursing and the Theory of the Nurse as Wounded Healer
Related: Step Away From That Nurse! Violence in Healthcare Continues Unabated
55. Lithium in Pregnancy Linked to Risk of [fetal] Cardiac Malformations
56. Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives Best Choice for Teens, Says American Academy of Pediatricians
57. Mammography: Evidence for Cutting Back Grows but Professional Bodies Stand Firm
The "mammography wars" that broke out following the USPSTF's recommendation against universal breast cancer screening with mammography in women aged 40-49 years... continued in 2014. Most of the debate was focused on the findings from the 25-year update of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study, a randomized controlled trial begun in 1980, which concluded that annual mammography does not reduce breast cancer–specific mortality for women aged 40-59 beyond that with physical examination alone or usual care in the community... The trial originally enrolled 89,835 women, aged 40-59 years, randomly assigned to mammography (five annual mammography screens) or control (no mammography). As shown in previous updates of the study, there was no difference in breast cancer mortality between the two groups. There was an excess of 106 breast cancer cases on the mammography arm of the trial compared with the control arm, implying that 22% the 484 screen-detected invasive breast cancers were overdiagnosed. This represented one overdiagnosed breast cancer for every 424 women who received mammography screening in the trial. These findings supported the authors' view that "the rationale for screening by mammography should be urgently reassessed by policy makers"...
This conclusion was largely rejected by US cancer and imaging societies... and their guidelines still recommend annual screening with mammography starting at age 40... However, with increasing evidence of fewer benefits and more potential harms associated with mammography... most organizations stress the need for women to be presented with all necessary information to make their own decisions....
58. "A Man's Gonna Do What a Man Wants to Do": African American and Hispanic Women's Perceptions About Heterosexual Relationships - A Qualitative Study full text at the link. From the abstract:
Background: HIV prevention efforts have given limited attention to the relational schemas and scripts of adult heterosexual women. These broader schemas and scripts of romantic and other sexual liaisons, partner selection, relationship dynamics, and power negotiations may help to better understand facilitators and barriers to HIV risk-reduction practices.
Methods: We conducted exploratory qualitative interviews with 60 HIV-uninfected heterosexual African-American women from rural counties in North Carolina and Alabama, and Hispanic women from an urban county in southern Florida. Data were collected for relationship expectations; relationship experiences, and relationship power and decision-making. Interview transcripts underwent computer-assisted thematic analysis...
Related:
■
Piloting an HIV Self-Test Kit Voucher Program to Raise Serostatus Awareness of High-Risk African Americans, Los Angeles
■
Contextual factors influencing health-related quality of life in African American and Latina breast cancer survivors.
59. Many Commonly Used Drugs Tied to Weight Change
Related: Obesity Epidemic Is Global...
[It] extends well beyond the developed world, according to the findings of a new ...review. Most startling of all is the fact that no country appears to have made any inroads to tackling this scourge.
Related:
New Year's Diet? One Author Has Tried Them All: Writer A.J. Jacobs Has Medscape's Eric Topol in Stitches With His...Immersive Storytelling Video interview/discussion & text.
60. Medical Leave From Work Not Guaranteed, Often Unpaid [for familial caregivers]
The U.S. is the only developed country without paid sick leave policies for all workers and their families, which increases burdens on the millions balancing work with caregiving...
61. 'Menstrupedia' [website and comic book] Aims to Break Taboo Over Periods in India
62. [Mental distress in response to ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization (IVF) may have more to do with a woman's psychological characteristics than with the hormone protocols used] Denmark
63. Mental Health Risk in Bisexual [United Kingdom] Women 'Disturbing' compared to lesbians [in large study published 13 January 2015, full text, full public access]:
[after adjusting for confounding cofactors] ...bisexual women were 64% more likely to report eating problems ... 37% more likely to have deliberately harmed themselves ... 26% more likely to report depressed feelings ... 20% more likely to have suffered from anxiety ...were also less likely to be "out" to friends, family, and work colleagues and less likely to be in a relationship. "Concealment of sexual orientation is known to be related to poorer mental health in sexual minority women, although the mental health benefits of disclosure may be mixed for bisexual women..."
Related:
Racial/Ethnic Differences in Identity and Mental Health Outcomes Among Young Sexual Minority Women. United States - "...730 (76%) White, 108 (10%) African American, 91 (9%) Latina, and 38 (4%) Asian women ages 18 to 25 years..."
64. Modern Standup Desks Coax Office Workers Back on Their Feet
Related: Even a Little More Daily Activity May Reduce Mortality Levels
65. Modulating the Vaginal Microbiome: The Need for a Bridge Between Science and Practice
66. More Mothers Depressed at 4 Years Than Shortly After Births
67. More Nutrition Education Needed in Medical Training end of page 5 in :Primary Care's 2014 Lessons: The Research Changing Practice".
...only 14% of physicians feel qualified to offer nutrition counseling to their patients... [because of overt] lack of nutrition education ...in physician training, residency programs, and continuing medical education (CME). When last surveyed, only 25% of medical schools offered a dedicated course on nutrition as required by the National Academy of Sciences. ... a group of academic healthcare professionals from around the United States [authored a paper earlier this year, noting] that the Accreditation Committee of Graduate Medical Education makes no requirement for nutrition education for training in either CVD or internal medicine residency training...
In a recent commentary, Stephen Devries, a Medscape advisor, and colleagues decried the lack of funding and dearth of trained and interested faculty necessary to address this educational gap.... The paper speculated that ... reasons include a belief that nutrition is insufficiently science-based for rigorous medical education, and the focus of training on treatment rather than prevention of disease...
The University of North Carolina has developed the Nutrition in Medicine project, which offers a free online nutrition curriculum used in a number of US medical schools, and many schools, such as University of California, San Francisco, have developed their own nutrition curricula for integration into medical education.
...In April [2014], two bills were introduced in Congress: the Expanding Nutrition's Role in Curricula and Healthcare (ENRICH) Act, which would provide funding for the integration of a nutrition curriculum in accredited medical schools... and the Education and Training for Health (EAT) Act of 2014, which would ensure that every primary care health professional employed by federal agencies has at least 6 credits of annual CME in nutrition... Each bill is sponsored by a broad coalition of organizations, including the Association of Medical Colleges, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, the American College of Preventive Medicine, the American Society for Nutrition, and the American Heart Association.
Related:
NIH Releases Dietary Supplement Database [and smartphone] Application
68. Most Serious’ [birthrate] Gender Imbalance in the World, Says China (See also: India Faces Crisis Over Dwindling Numbers of Girls and #91 below.)
January 22, 2015 BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese health authorities on Wednesday described the gender imbalance among newborns as "the most serious and prolonged" in the world, a direct ramification of the country's strict one-child policy.
...Like most Asian nations, China has a traditional bias for sons. Many families abort female fetuses and abandon baby girls to ensure their one child is a son, so about 118 boys are born for every 100 girls, against a global average of 103 to 107.
69. Meniscal Lesion [MRI] May Help [predict which] Patients With...Knee OA [will have severe pain contributed to by neuropathic pain] to help determine which patients may benefit from a treatment aimed at NP symptoms, rather than prolonged use of anti-inflammatory drugs or narcotic analgesics. See also:
■ Knee Osteoarthritis: Acetaminophen Least Effective Choice
■ Glucosamine/Chondroitin Sulfate Reduced [moderate and severe but not mild] Pain in Knee Arthritis in Randomized Controlled [clinical] Trials [in France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and U.S.] with an oral product manufactured by the study funder.
■ Knee Pain May Have Genetic Basis Australia
■ [stem cell injection from the bone marrow of healthy volunteers] Safe, Reduce Arthritis Pain After Knee Surgery
■ Are a Third of Knee Replacements 'Inappropriate?' Of the 205 knee-replacement patients whose records were analyzed in the study, almost 60% were women.
■ Development of an Outcome Prediction Tool for Patients Considering a Total Knee Replacement
70. Militants Kill Four [female] Polio Workers [and their driver] in Pakistan Dec. 2014.
Related: WHO Holds Emergency Meeting on Cross-Border Spread of Polio in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - April 2014.
71. More Nonsurgical Options for Fibroids Becoming Available (Uterine fibroid)
72. Muscle Diseases: Mimics and Chameleons
...Remember not to assume that you and the patient mean the same thing when using words like weakness, numbness and fatigue...
73. Nearly 6.5 mln People in 2015 HealthCare.gov Plans December 31, 2014
...HealthCare.gov sells plans for 37 states ... In 2014, the 37 states represented 68% of the total nationwide enrollment of around 7 million people ... the agency...is aiming for more than 9 million enrollees for 2015.
The remaining 14 states plus the District of Columbia have enrolled more than 600,000 people [with some states still having further enrollment data to tally]...
January 28, 2015:
...9.5 Mln People Enroll for 2015 Insurance, Beating Goal
Related:
■
Indiana Agrees to Expand Medicaid Under Obamacare
■
Indiana Medicaid Expansion May Tempt Other GOP-Led States
■
Health Insurance Startup Collapses in Iowa
74. New Biomarker Predicts PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) Response in Ovarian Cancer [over and above women with BCRA1 and BCRA2 mutations who are known responders to this drug class, new research shows.]
■ Advanced Ovarian Cancer May Someday Be Detected With Tampons
75. New Rheumatoid Arthritis Guidelines in the Works for 2015
76. Nightshift Work and Risk of Ovarian Cancer
77. North American Menopause Society Urges Docs to Ask Patients About Vulvovaginal Atrophy
78. No Evidence for Most TV Medical Advice, Study Shows
79. Novel [type 2] Diabetes Risk Markers Found in American Indians
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ... In a report online December 2 in Diabetes Care, Dr. Jinying Zhao of Tulane University School of Public Health in New Orleans and colleagues note that [Native Americans as a group] suffer from a disproportionately high rate of diabetes.
To identify possibly novel metabolic markers, the team studied data from more than 2,100 normoglycemic American Indians followed for an average of 5.5 years in a cardiovascular disease and diabetes study [and did] a metabolomics analysis of 133 participants who developed diabetes and a further 298 who did not. They measured a number of metabolites via untargeted high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry of baseline fasting plasma from the participants.
One metabolite matching 2-hydroxybiphenyl was significantly associated with an ... 80% increased risk of doing so independently of classical risk factors. Four others were significantly associated with decreased risk of diabetes ...
Most of the known metabolites, the authors write, "were not correlated with classical risk factors, such as BMI, fasting glucose, and insulin resistance, but the combination of these metabolites significantly improved risk prediction beyond standard risk factors."
One limitation of the study, the researchers point out, was that although more than 11,000 distinct features were detected "only 18% of the compounds detected had a match in the current metabolomics database."
"With the advancement of metabolomic research," they add, "we expect that the majority of these unidentified chemicals will ultimately be annotated and their associations with disease will be determined."
Related:
Needs and Concerns of Family Caregivers of Persons With Type 2 Diabetes: An Integrated Review of Cross-cultural Literature With Implications for the American Indian Population.
80. Nurse-Led Programs Improve Outcomes in Rheumatoid Arthritis
81. Nurses and employers are jointly responsible for reducing risks related to nurse fatigue, according to a new position statement from the American Nurses Association (ANA).
81a.[Nutritional] Supplements [Used by Americans] That Are Potentially Harmful in Chronic Kidney Disease Specifics are charted in Table 1 on page 3 in "Results" section.
Related:
■ Differential Scaling of Glomerular Filtration Rate and Ingested Metabolic Burden Implications for Gender Differences in Chronic Kidney Disease Outcomes
■ Diabetes in US Women on the Rise Independent of Increasing BMI and Other Risk Factors; A Trend Investigation of Serial Cross-sections
82. Older women who are satisfied with their lives have higher bone density than their unsatisfied peers, a finding that adds weight to the idea that psychological health influences physical health... cf. Depression, Other Psychosocial Distresses Linked to Stroke..."data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), an ongoing, longitudinal study investigating chronic illnesses in elderly residents of 3 adjacent neighborhoods in Chicago, who represent a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds..."
Related: Regular Walking Can Help Ease Depression
83. One in 7 Women Risk Dying in Childbirth in Ebola-Hit Countries
Related:
■ Ebola Health Workers Face Life or Death Decision on Pregnant Women
■ Post-Ebola Plan Needed to Avert ‘Double Disaster’ in West Africa- Oxfam
■ Global Health Volunteers: Educating for Change
84. One in Six Female [undergraduate] MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Students in Survey Admit Sexual Assaults
84a. Opioid Medication Prescribing to Women of Reproductive Age by Jennifer N. Lind, PharmD, MPH (Master's, Public Health), "...a pharmacist and epidemiologist with the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities [and] Lieutenant in the United States Public Health Service, where her work focuses on safer medication use during pregnancy and researching the prevention and control of risk factors for birth defects. Her general interests include maternal and child health epidemiologic research and pharmacoepidemiology." Article includes links to "Web Resources for Patients": ■ CDC: Treating for Two ■ CDC: Birth Defects ■ FDA: For Women
..We estimated that, in 2012 [one in 3 Medicaid-insured+commercially-insured] reproductive-aged women filled a prescription for an opioid-containing medication. ...More than half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and many women are not aware of their pregnancies until late in the first trimester, a critical period for [fetal] organ development.
...Given the fetal risks associated with prenatal opioid exposure, it is important that all healthcare providers, including physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, dentists, and pharmacists, discuss the potential for adverse pregnancy outcomes when prescribing and dispensing opioid-containing medications to reproductive-aged women who could become pregnant.
...Explore all treatment options before considering opioids and only use opioids after other treatments have proven ineffective... Second, be careful about duration... Third, prescribe the lowest effective dose, being sure to carefully monitor pain and treatment progress. And fourth, discuss effective contraception with women who are sexually active to reduce their risk of becoming pregnant while taking opioid medications...
Related:
Women Dying of Opioid Overdose at Unprecedented Rates - July 2013 (130+ comments at this article, in addition to the text.)
The number of women dying from overdoses of opioid painkillers increased 5-fold between 1999 and 2010, according to new data released [July 2, 2013] by the CDC... "...mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters are dying from overdoses at rates we have never seen before...directly proportional to the increase in prescribing of painkillers"...
85. Ovarian Cancer Symptom Awareness and Anticipated Time to Help-seeking for Symptoms Among UK Women
86. Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome [a complication of assisted reproductive technologies] Linked With Cardiovascular Risk in Offspring [in adult life] China
87. Parent-Infant Communication Differs by Gender Shortly After Birth
88. Pain With Sexual Intercourse Linked to Mode of Delivery (!?)
Obstetric intervention is linked to persistent postpartum dyspareunia, or pain during or after sexual intercourse, according to a prospective cohort study published January 21 in BJOG. Clinicians should also be aware that intimate partner abuse is another risk factor for postpartum dyspareunia.
"Almost all women experience some pain during first sexual intercourse following childbirth," lead author Ellie McDonald, PhD, from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, said in a news release.
"However, our findings show the extent to which women report persisting dyspareunia at 6 and 18 months postpartum is influenced by events during labour and birth...
89. Patients Self-Monitor With Wearable Diagnostics
..Under Armor's "I Will What I Want," campaign, created for athletic women, similarly aggregates data, allowing users to compare themselves not only with friends but also with celebrity athletes hired by the company....
90. Patients Tend to Listen More to Female Doctors
91. Patriarchy Is Bad for Men's Health — Report 10 Feb 2014
...Men ... have a better chance of living longer in societies where women are equal to men...
Men in the top 25% most patriarchal societies were 31% more likely to die than men in the lowest patriarchal quartile compared to mortality rates for women, according to the study, [one of the few] to examine the health effects of patriarchy on men.
"Gender inequality is inherently related to inequality in general, and this is bad for both men and women's health, though especially harmful to men in increasing the risk of death," said Daniel Kruger, the University of Michigan School of Public Health researcher who led the study.
...men in the most patriarchal societies were 20 percent more likely to die of internal causes, including disease, than those in the least patriarchal societies and more than twice as likely to die from behavioral causes, such as accidents and [violence].
Researchers noted that "In their quest for social {sic} dominance, men will go up against other men to gain power and engage in forms of competitive, and sometimes dangerous, behavior." They also pointed out that in societies where men are more socially dominant, they tend to engage in riskier behaviours that can lead to death... Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences Vol 8(1), Jan 2014, pp. 3-11
Possibly related:
■
New Insight Into the Psychopathic Brain
■
More Than Psychology May Be at Play in Pathologic Video Gaming
92. A Pattern of Unspecific Somatic Symptoms as Long-term Premonitory Signs of Type 2 Diabetes Findings From the Population-based MONICA/KORA Cohort Study, 1984-2009 (from BMC Endocrine Disorders, 2014 Full text. Abstract conclusions section:
Suffering from an elevated burden of unspecific somatic symptoms is associated with T2DM long before the onset and independent of established cardio-metabolic risk factors. Further research is needed to obtain insight in potential underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.
93. Pharmacists Can Use FRAX to Identify Osteoporosis Risk includes link to FRAX ® - the WHO (World Health Organization) Fracture Risk Assessment [Questionnaire]Tool - select from 30 languages at the top right corner.
94. Physical Activity Offsets the Negative Effects of a High-fructose Diet
95. Physician Burnout: It Just Keeps Getting Worse See also:
■ Burnout Rates Soar Among Family Medicine Physicians
■ Physician Burnout and The Patient Experience: Are We Overlooking a Crucial Element? "...the patient experience, at least as it relates to physician communication, may be intrinsically tied to the physician experience..."
■ BREATHE OUT: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Structured Intervention to Improve Clinician Satisfaction With "Difficult" Visits
■ Ob/Gyn Burn-Out Medscape slide show emphasizing female physicians.
96. Pregnancy Doesn't Drive Female Residents Out of Surgical Training
97. Preemies' Social Challenges Persist in Young Adulthood Finland.
...Previous studies have found that individuals born preterm might be more cautious and less risk-taking than those born at full term, which might also be reflected [in this study's] findings of lower likelihood of romantic [and familial relationships]... Some also encounter longer term challenges such as impaired vision, hearing, and cognitive skills, as well as social and behavioral problems.
...While the results may have some relevance outside of Finland, babies born there have many advantages not as widely available elsewhere. For example, Finland has few children living in poverty and offers generous parental leave and allowances for childcare, all factors that can contribute to better outcomes for preterm infants.
"At the end of the day, one of the best predictors of outcomes is maternal income and education and socioeconomic status," said Dr. Kristi Watterberg, a neonatologist at the University of New Mexico, who wasn't involved in the study.
A preemie born to a mother living in poverty in the U.S. who works multiple jobs and has no access to affordable child care is probably going to fare worse than a baby born with more advantages in Finland"...
Related:
PTSD Linked to [likelier] Preterm Birth [on par with other known risks]
98. Prescription Medication Sharing: A Systematic Review of the Literature
...Researchers have reported a correlation between sociodemographic variables and the [trading, selling, or sharing of prescribed medicines] ...By and large, adolescent girls are more likely than adolescent boys... and younger adults...more likely than older...
Lower socioeconomic status...disparities in health care access and utilization... and having drug addiction problems are ... positive predictors of receiving medicines from others... [and] it is also possible that inappropriate drug information on the Internet inspires inappropriate self-treatment and sharing of prescribed medicines.
99. Preventing alcohol-exposed pregnancy among an american indian/alaska native population: effect of a screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment intervention.
...Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are the result of alcohol-exposed pregnancies (AEP) and believed to be the leading known cause of developmental disabilities in the United States. ...Participation in assessment alone may have been sufficient to encourage behavioral change even without the web-based SBIRT intervention. Randomization to the SBIRT did not result in a significantly different change in risky drinking behaviors. The importance of perception of other women's drinking and one's own depression/functionality may have implications for future interventions.
Related:
Providing community education: lessons learned from Native Patient Navigators.
100. [primary care providers] Should Be Consultants on Hospitalists' Team, Experts Say
101. [Prison] Inmate Sterilizations [by tubal ligation] Violated Informed Consent Rules: Audit California
102. [Proactive] Physical Therapies for Improving Balance and Reducing Falls Risk in Osteoarthritis of the Knee Full text. From the abstract:
...osteoarthritis (OA) of knee has been reported as a risk factor for falls and reduced balance in the elderly. This systematic review evaluated [research studies on] the effectiveness of physical therapies in improving balance and reducing falls risk among patients with knee OA...
Conclusion: strength training, Tai Chi and aerobics exercises improved balance and falls risk in older individuals with knee OA, while water-based exercises and light treatment did not significantly improve balance outcomes. Strength training, Tai Chi and aerobics exercises can therefore be recommended as falls prevention strategies for individuals with OA. However, a large randomised controlled study using actual falls outcomes is recommended to determine the appropriate dosage and to measure the potential benefits in falls reduction.
103. Psychiatric Disease in Late Adolescence and Young Adulthood. Foetal Programming by Maternal Hypothyroidism? Denmark - Full text. The abstract conclusion reads: "The association between maternal hypothyroidism and the use of a psychiatric drug in late adolescence and young adulthood was partly confounded by maternal psychiatric history, but foetal programming by maternal hypothyroidism may be part of the mechanisms leading to the use of anxiolytics and antipsychotics." Possible genetic/epigenetic/'inherited' maternal hypothyroidism as the origin of mothers' psychiatric history appears to be implicit but outside the scope of the research.
104. Psychotropic Drugs Can Reduce Bone Mass in Kids [too].
Related: Physical Activity During Life Course and Bone Mass
105. Rape, Abortion Ban Drives Pregnant Teens to Suicide in El Salvador
106. Rape-Prevention Program Cuts Sexual Assaults in Kenya
Related: Nearly 1 in 4 Men Admit to Rape in Asia, Pacific Region Survey
107. Redefining the Annual Physical: A (Broken) Window Into American Healthcare discusses and links to the New York Times's 8 January 2015 professional op-ed, "Skip Your Annual Physical."
108. Reduced Emotion Processing Efficiency in Healthy Males Relative to Females
109. Reducing Stroke in Women [by] Risk Factor Management Full text at the link. From the abstract:
...Stroke is a major cause of death and disability in adults worldwide. Prevention focused on modifiable risk factors, such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia, has shown them to be of significant importance in decreasing the risk of stroke.
Multiple studies have brought to light the differences between men and women with regards to stroke and these risk factors. Women have a higher prevalence of stroke, mortality and disability and it has been shown that preventive and treatment options are not as comprehensive for women.
Hence, it is of great necessity to evaluate and summarize the differences in gender and stroke risk factors in order to target disparities and optimize prevention, especially because women have a higher lifetime risk of stroke. The purpose of this review is to summarize sex differences in the prevalence of hypertension and hyperlipidemia [and] in stroke prevention effectiveness and adherence to blood pressure and cholesterol medications, and suggest future directions for research to reduce the burden of stroke in women...
Related:
■
"...Sexual abuse in early childhood is associated with hypertension in young women..." 6 pp.
■
Sugar the Real Culprit Behind Hypertension? This Continuing Education activity can be read without enrollment - click off the X of the initial window, to start.
110. Rheumatoid Arthritis Mortality Has Not Changed in 20 Years
111. Risk of Sitting, Benefit of Running: Disconnect Disclosed in Women's Health Initiative Analysis
People who exercise more to improve their cardiovascular health but rest on their laurels most other times, especially in a chair, might not be achieving the benefit they expect. And it might surprise some who can't exercise a lot that simply getting off their butts for a while could, in a different way, enhance their heart health.
That's because the negative cardiometabolic effects of prolonged sitting, increasingly seen as a risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in its own right, appear to be independent of any CV benefits from extra leisure-time exercise, suggests a study based on a Women's Health Initiative (WHI) cohort....
112. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Guidelines Revised on Chicken Pox in Pregnancy
113. Salpingectomy as a Primary Sterilization Procedure?
...Recent research findings that ovarian cancer may frequently originate in the Fallopian tube — along with advances in technology making [surgical removal of a Fallopian tube, whether remote from pregnancy or around the time of delivery] no greater risk than tubal occlusion — warrant consideration of this practice-changing move [because it is permanent and may prevent those cancers], Mitchell D. Creinin, MD, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Davis, and Nikki Zite, MD, MPH, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, write ...in their [commentary published online August 5, 2014] in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
... "If we had included the patient in the discussion, perhaps the higher efficacy of salpingectomy would have been what women desired all along."
114. San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) - December 2014; San Antonio, Texas 17 presentation/article reports linked here, also coverage for 2011, 2012, and 2013.
115. Scant Evidence for Long-Term Opioid Therapy in Chronic Pain
Related: Deaths Higher With Methadone [sustained release (SR)] vs Morphine in Chronic Pain [even with methadone doses as low as 20 mg/d...a new study shows.]
116. Screening for Sexual Assault in the Primary Care Setting
Related: Preventing STDs After Sexual Assault: A Guide for Clinicians
117. Screening Strategy Spots Ovarian Cancer Early in Average Risk Women using an algorithm based on the tumor marker CA125 and transvaginal ultrasound (TVS). See also: MedscapeCA125 overview and CA-125 (Wikipedia)
118. Seasonal Fluctuations in Serotonin Responsible for SAD?
119. Sex-Based Brain Differences Visible in Kids With ADHD
120. Sex Differences in the Prevalence, Symptoms, and Associated Features of Migraine, Probable Migraine and Other Severe Headache
121. Sexual Abuse and Military Women
122. Sexually Transmitted Infections Frequency and Risk Factors for Incident and Redetected Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection in Sexually Active, Young, Multi-ethnic Women - A Community Based Cohort Study of sexually active, young, multi-ethnic women in 20 London universities and Further Education colleges. Full text at the link. Abstract conclusions:
"One in four women with chlamydia infection at baseline retested positive, supporting recent recommendations to routinely retest chlamydia positives."
123. Shift Work Ups Type 2 Diabetes Risk Among Black Women (Links to Boston University's BLACK WOMEN'S HEALTH STUDY.)
124. Should Ovaries Be Removed at the Time of Hysterectomy?
125. Simple Saliva Swab and Early HbA1c Test [could] Predict Diabetes in high-risk patients to entrain more timely, effective medical care, according to two new studies.
...The [saliva] study identifies 1,5 anhydroglucitol (1,5- AG) in the saliva of patients as a possible marker of type 2 diabetes, and was carried out by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) and published online [January 2014] in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The [study] on earlier use of the HbA1c test, was published online in November 2013 in the European Journal of General Practice by Nataly Lerner, MD, from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel, and colleagues.
[For the saliva study], senior author Karsten Suhre, PhD, and colleagues examined a total of 2178 metabolites in saliva, blood plasma, and urine sourced from 188 [Arab, South Asian, and Filipino] participants already diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and 181 undiagnosed controls ... findings were found to be consistent across all racial groups, irrespective of body mass index (BMI), age, or gender.
The data suggest 1,5-AG in saliva constitutes a noninvasive marker for deregulated short-term glycemic control, which "can be especially useful as a screening tool for undetected type 2 diabetes..." Dr. Suhre noted... that Middle Eastern populations have exceptionally high diabetes rates overall and especially among the young...
In the [HbA1c] study, Dr. Lerner and colleagues show that [this blood test] reveals an individual's risk of developing type 2 diabetes at a stage far earlier than previously thought possible... The participants were part of a community-based historic cohort of 10,201 patients undiagnosed with type 2 diabetes who received an HbA1c test during the years 2002–2005. Data on diabetes risk factors and the onset of disease [were later retrieved] over a 5-8 year follow-up period [and showed] that individuals with HbA1c levels above 5.5% but below 6.5% had an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Furthermore, HbA1c had a stronger correlation with increased likelihood of diabetes than other risk factors investigated, including age and low socioeconomic status. The risk of developing diabetes doubled with every increase of 0.5% in HbA1c level...
126. Six Healthy Habits Can Help Women Avert 73% of Coronary Heart Disease based on analysis of data from about 69,000 participants followed for 20 years in the Nurses' Health Study II (link included).
127. Sleep Dysfunction in Women
Related: "Therapeutic Applications of Melatonin" Pg. 3 Melatonin and Sleep Disorders Other pages include: ► M & Cancer ► M & Rheum. Arth. ► M & Neurodegenerative Disorders ► ► Mode of Action ►
Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Functional Decline in Older Women
128. School-Wide Prevention Program Lowers Teen Suicide Risk in 168 high schools randomly assigned to provide one of three suicide prevention programs, or no program at all, in 10 European countries with 11,000 students total.
Related: ■ Community-based surveillance and case management for suicide prevention: an American Indian tribally initiated system.
129. Spotlight on the Role of the Arab World in Global Health Jan. 2014
Related:
■ One Million People Wounded, Diseases Spreading in Syria - WHO December 2014
■ Across Enemy Lines, Wounded Syrians Seek Israeli Care September 2013
■ Improve Diabetic Foot Care in Arab World, Slash Amputations
■ Prevalence and Complications of Diabetes Mellitus in Northern Africa: A Systematic Review
■ The United Nations closed its "Barbershop Conference" on Thursday with prominent male diplomats - and a 13-year-old boy - pledging to recruit men and boys to advance gender equality and end violence against women.
■ The World Food Program is Crowdfunding for Syrian Refugees
...For want of $64 million, the World Food Program was forced to suspend a voucher program that fed 1.7 million Syrian refugees [in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt]. Refugees used these vouchers (which are essentially debit cards) to purchase food in local shops. But on December 1 [2014], the funding for the voucher program ran dry...
Lack of funding for humanitarian operations has always been a problem for the international community, but never has the global humanitarian response system been stretched as thin as it is today. Between Typhoon Hayan in November 2013, the sudden outbreak of civil war in South Sudan and the Central African Republic last winter, and the ebola crisis this spring and summer, there have never been as many acute humanitarian emergencies in such a condensed time frame.
On top of all of this is Syria–which is the largest and most expensive humanitarian operation in modern history. In 2012, the Syrian Humanitarian appeal was the largest ever at $1.2 billion. Two years later, it has quadrupled to $4.4 billion. But of that $4.4 billion requested, only about half has been committed.
When a manmade or natural disaster strikes, humanitarian organizations have to go to donors hat-in-hand to ask for funding to provide medicines, food and shelter to provide for the basic needs of affected populations. Donors contribute, or they don’t–and people go hungry.
In the case of the WFP’s voucher program feeding 1.7 million people, donor governments are not paying up, so the WFP has done something I’ve never seen before: launch an emergency public campaign to see if they can raise $64 million in small contributions from the general public
130. Staying Active [daily] Linked to Healthy Aging [in Sweden]
A generally active life, even without regular exercise, was tied to better heart health and greater longevity in a study of...nearly 3,900 men and women over age 60 in Stockholm [and] adds to evidence suggesting that just sitting ... may be actively harmful...
Related:
Short, Easy—Not Strenuous—Jogging Gives Biggest Survival Gain: Analysis
...[and] in 2012...published data from a retrospective analysis of more than 52 000 men and women participating in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study [linked]ACLS)... showed that the benefits of running are best accumulated...at less than 20 miles per week. At longer distances, the researchers observed a U-shape relationship between all-cause mortality and running, with longer weekly distances trending in the wrong direction toward less mortality benefit. Two years later, the same researchers published another study that showed just 5 to 10 minutes of daily running [6 miles per week] even at very slow speeds, significantly lowered an individual's risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
131. Stress and Depression Mediated by Single Brain Protein
132. 'Strongest Evidence Yet' Links Anticholinergic Drugs, Dementia
...The drugs implicated are commonly used, estimated to be taken by about 20% of the older adult population for many conditions. They include popular antihistamines sold over the counter as sleep aids, ... or for allergy relief ... [drugs] for overactive bladder ... antidepressants [and others] even when used at low doses [such as] for migraine prevention or neuropathic pain.
The study, published online in JAMA Internal Medicine on January 26, 2015 ✱
published online in JAMA Internal Medicine on January 26, was conducted by a team led by Shelly Gray, PharmD, University of Washington, Seattle.
"We found an obvious dose-response relationship between anticholinergic drug use and risk of developing dementia: the higher the usage, the greater the risk," Dr Gray commented to Medscape Medical News.
EVEN LOW DOSES IMPLICATED
But people taking just the minimum effective dose of these agents for prolonged periods qualified as having high use and were found to be at greater risk for dementia compared with those not taking such medicines...
✱...Efforts to increase awareness among health care professionals and older adults about this potential medication-related risk are important to minimize anticholinergic use...
133. Subclinical Hypothyroidism Increases Early Miscarriage Risk
134. Sub-Saharan Origin Tied to Higher Maternal Morbidity [among immigrants settling in Australia, Canada, or Denmark]
135. Sympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction in Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Interstitial Cystitis: A Review of Case-Control Studies Full text at the link. From the abstract's Conclusions section (with links added):
This review [of 196 articles gleaned from all published comparative case-control studies in PubMed —"a free search engine [maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health] accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics...— and EMBASE (Excerpta Medica dataBASE) through December 10, 2012 investigating performance of the sympathetic nervous system
which is one of the two main divisions of the autonomic nervous system (a.k.a. visceral nervous system and involuntary nervous system) ▬a division of the peripheral nervous system that consists of the nerves and ganglia outside of the brain and spinal cord that influences the function of internal organs▬ which regulates the body's unconscious actions. The sympathetic nervous system's primary process is to stimulate the body's fight-or-flight response. It is, however, constantly active at a basic level to maintain homeostasis... The name of this system can be traced to the concept of sympathy, in the sense of "connection between parts"...]
...demonstrates that sympathetic nervous system predominance is common in in fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, and interstitial cystitis. This concordance raises the possibility that sympathetic dysfunction could be their common underlying pathogenesis [biological mechanisms leading to disease] that brings on overlapping clinical features. The recognition of sympathetic predominance in these 4 syndromes may have potential clinical implications. It may be worth exploring the use of nonpharmacological measures as well as drug therapies aimed to regain autonomic balance.
136. Symptoms of Chikungunya Virus Mimic Rheumatoid Arthritis
137. Tdap Uptake Low in Publicly Insured Pregnant Women
Related: Flu Vaccine May Improve Birth Outcomes for Pregnant Women
138. Teenage pregnancy rates among girls with psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder, are nearly three times that of [girls] without such diagnoses... and do
not differ significantly between girls with a primary psychotic disorder (45.0 per 1000) and those with a primary mood disorder ... Multiparity, low socioeconomic status, and rurality were all independently associated with increased birth rates...
139. Thailand to Recognise ‘Third Gender’ in New Constitution -Panel
Related:
■ In Thailand, Baby Gender Selection Loophole Draws Foreigners to IVF Clinics
■ Thai Military Government Moves to Outlaw Commercial Surrogacy - August 2014
140. Third Annual Female Sexual Function Forum: New Perspectives in the Management of Female Sexual Dysfunction - December 2000 (No clue whether puns intended or not. Also note the expression "patient management" suggesting control/dominance, and cf. relevant articles in this diary.)
The third international multidisciplinary meeting on female sexual function was held in an atmosphere of great excitement. Papers were scientifically based studies of female sexual function and dysfunction and included 9 grand master lectures, 20 podium presentations, 73 moderated posters, and 6 symposia. There were also 3 breakout sessions dedicated to discussion of patient management.
After so many decades in which there had been very little scientific progress made in understanding or treating female sexual problems, this meeting attested to a genuine movement forward in this field. There can be no doubt that at least some of the upswing and progress in research in this field reflects the interest by the pharmaceutical industry in finding and evaluating new products that can be used to treat female sexual dysfunction -- that is, a female counterpart to Viagra (sildenafil).
The need for such compounds reflects the difficulties experienced by many clinicians with the behavioral treatments such as "sensate focus," first pioneered by Masters and Johnson.........
141. To T3 or Not: What's the Story on Combo Therapy in Hypothyroidism? from Medscape reportage on the American Thyroid Association (ATA) 84th Annual Meeting in autumn 2014
142. Transcranial Bright Light Treatment Via the Ear Canals in Seasonal Affective Disorder: A Randomized, Double-Blind Dose-Response Study (which also may have application as treatment for Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder: "The majority of patients with non-24 are totally blind [whether born blind or becoming blind through illness, injury, war, etc.,] and the failure of entrainment is explained by an absence of photic input to the circadian clock... However, the disorder can also occur in sighted people for reasons that are not well understood...")
143. Treatment of Systemic Complications in Sjögren's Syndrome
144. Trigeminal Neuralgia – A Prospective Systematic Study of Clinical Characteristics in 158 Patients Full text at the link. Exerpts from abstract:
Objective: To prospectively describe the clinical characteristics of classical trigeminal neuralgia (TN) in a standardized manner.
Results: ...TN was more prevalent in women (95; 60%) than in men (63; 40%)...
Conclusions: This, the first study in a series of papers focusing on the clinical, radiological, and etiological aspects of TN, revealed that the symptomatology of TN includes a high percentage of concomitant persistent pain, autonomic symptoms, and sensory abnormalities. These findings offer new insights to the prevailing clinical impression of the clinical characteristics in TN.
145. Understanding Motivations for Abstinence Among Adolescent Young Women
146. [Underweight and overweight] Kids in Head Start [got] Healthier During [2013 in Michigan] in study of records of 19,000 new Head Start preschoolers.
Related: Beyond Malnutrition: The Role of Sanitation in Stunted Growth
147. UK Cancer Patients Denied Access to Drugs After CDF Review
Cancer patients in the United Kingdom are to be denied access to a number of cancer drugs; funding to the controversial Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) was slashed yesterday after a major review.
These cancer drugs are already not available on the National Health Service (NHS), because they were not allowed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which is the health watchdog. The CDF had allowed some patients to have access to these cancer drugs, but not anymore.
After the review, the list of cancer indications that the CDF will pay for was reduced from 84 to 59; these changes affect 21 cancer drugs, and nine cancer drugs have been removed from the list entirely. This will be accompanied by a number of other changes to the way the CDF operates to prevent its budget from spiraling out of control. NHS England, which runs the CDF, estimates that by 2015/16, the annual CDF budget would have to be more than £400 million ($606 million), which is more than double its 2013/14 spending...
148. UK Opposition Labour Pledges Ban on Unhealthy Children's Food "...if they win a national election in May, setting out a hands-on approach to improving public health and reducing the burden on the stretched healthcare system..."
149. U.S. Court Strikes Down North Carolina Ultrasound Abortion Law - Reuters - December 23, 2014
150. US Mental Health Services Ranked by State
Although it is too soon to get a big-picture assessment of the effect the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had on US mental health services, a new report [Parity or Disparity : The State of Mental Health in America 2015] from Mental Health America (MHA, formerly the National Mental Health Association) offers a snapshot of the nation's mental health care status based on the most recent data, and it is not a pretty picture.
"[The report shows] there is tremendous variation across the states, which means that states are responsible for the mental health of their citizens and have the power to improve it if they invest in it," MHA president and CEO Paul Gionfriddo told Medscape Medical News.
"It [also] shows that political philosophy doesn't matter ― conservative and liberal states are both in the top tier," he added...
151. U.S. Nutrition Program for Mothers, Infants [WIC] Sees Falling Demand
...U.S. poverty experts say its paper voucher system is driving low-income women away from the program when they need it most ... the shrinking demand does not reflect less need [but rather] an outdated, cumbersome distribution process they say stigmatizes recipients.
Participants complain of customers "shaming" them in grocery lines, said Sarah Monje, California's Native American Health Center WIC director.
"I can feel the aura: 'Oh my god, this girl is taking forever,'" said WIC recipient Marquel Davis of Austin, Texas...
152. Universal Diabetes Testing [for pregnant women] Recommended at First Prenatal Visit
153. Unwanted Babies in China, Once Mostly Girls, Now Mostly Sick, Disabled
154. [Updated Drug Labelling] for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women and see also Suspend [sales of approx. 700 generic] Drugs Based on Flawed [clinical] Studies [conducted in India, says] European Medicines Agency [Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use] EMA website link included.
155. Use of primary high-risk human papillomavirus testing for cervical cancer screening: Interim clinical guidance Full text publicly available online, Gynecologic Oncology, 7 January 2015.
Related:
■ New Guidance Recommends HPV DNA Test for Primary Screening 9 January 2015
■ HPV Catch-up Vaccination of Young Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
156. USPSTF (US Preventive Services Task Force) Guidelines Miss Most Women With Osteoporosis
157. USPSTF (US Preventive Services Task Force): Screen Everyone 45 and Older for Abnormal Glucose
158. Use of Home Remedies: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Patients in Germany
159. Use of Hormonal Contraceptives Linked to Brain Cancer Nationwide research in Denmark.
160. Vaccine Safety Conference Session 13 (2011) (filmed professional presentation on youtube)
161. Vaginal Microbiome and Tissue Changes
162. Very Low Sodium [conferred] No Mortality or CVD Benefit [to older seniors] in 10-year follow-up of 2642 adults aged 71 to 80 years old in the NIH Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. "These results were the same for the older adults with and without hypertension at baseline, as well as among men and women and black and white participants."
163. Vitamin D Supplementation: Who, and How Much?
Related: Mortality Doubles [in women] With High Calcium Intake Plus Supplements Sweden
164. Vulvar Lichen Sclerosus: Diagnosis and Management See also: Malignant Vulvar Lesions
165. Waist-to-Hip Ratio May Beat BMI (Body Mass Index) [and] Waistline as CVD Predictor in Postmenopausal Women Korea
166. Wait Times [between endometrial biopsy and surgical staging] Do Not Affect Survival in type I Endometrial Cancer [with perhaps the exception of those with more aggressive underlying disease].
Related:
■ Genetic 'Hotspot' Found in Higher-Risk Endometrial Cancer [in younger patients]
■ Coffee Linked to Lower Endometrial Cancer Risk 2011
167. The Weaker Sex: Men With Osteoporosis Are Neglected [compared to women]
168. Weight Gain as Well as Loss Linked to Fracture in Women Linked at this page: "Three strategies currently used to identify younger postmenopausal women at high risk for breaking a bone don't work very well, according to a new study" and linked at that page "Bisphosphonates are commonly used as first-line agents in the treatment of postmenopausal bone fragility. Recently, concern has been raised regarding the risk of atypical fracture with long-term therapy. A potential solution to obtaining the benefits while minimizing the risks of bisphosphonate therapy is the use of a drug holiday, or temporary cessation of medication. For drug holidays to be an effective approach, patients must maintain fracture protection while off therapy. One way to optimize fracture protection during this time is to prevent falls. Risk of atypical fracture and bisphosphonate drug holiday will be discussed, along with a summary of the most effective fall prevention modalities."
169. Weight Loss Not a Certainty With Hypothyroidism Treatment 2011
...Hypothyroidism is commonly associated with weight gain, but contrary to popular belief, treatment of the condition does not result in weight loss in the majority of patients, according to new research" ...
170. What Nurses Would Change in 2015 with a link to a Medscape slideshow of professional nurse responses.
Related: Nurse's Refusal to Force Feed Gitmo Prisoners Triggers Debate
171. What's the Best Advice to Give a Female Smoker? (This Medscape practice "quiz" can be read without enrollment. Questions do not have to be answered before clicking "submit" to see distribution of professional responses and correct answers.)
172. "Why have geriatric certifications for nurses been 'retired'... when the population of the United States is [aging]?
173. Women Clear Out the Landmines in Mozambique and Beyond National Geographic online article (access may be limited, not sure.) See also:
■ Women in science who've been published in/supported from Nat Geo
■ "In Her Words": Sylvia Earle on Women in Science (Nat Geo)
■ Hometown Heroes: 50 Women Across America (Glamour Mag)
■ 10 Tech-Hero Women (Glamour Mag)
■ The Bravest Girls in the World
■ The Woman Who Founded I F###ing Love Science (Nat Geo)
174. Women and Smoking: A Deadly Combination
Related:
■ Women Smokers May Have Same Risk for Deadly Aneurysm as Men
175. Women Are as Old as Their Microvasculature: 10 Years Post-Go Red
176. Women Under-represented in Obstetrics, Gynecology Leadership
177. Women's Perceptions and Reasons for Choosing the Pill, Patch, or Ring in the CHOICE Study "... a cross-sectional survey that evaluated women's combined hormonal contraceptive choices before and after contraceptive counseling in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Russia, and Ukraine.
178. "Women with a history of pre-eclampsia - particularly severe pre-eclampsia or multiple episodes - are at increased risk for developing atherosclerotic [heart, renal, etc] disease, researchers from Israel observed in a population-based study" at Soroka Medical Center, published online by Heart "An international peer-reviewed journal for health professionals and researchers in all areas of cardiology ... Copyright © 2015 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Cardiovascular Society.
179. Workplace Violence in Healthcare: Strategies for Advocacy
[In 2013, OSHA reported] that over 2 million American workers are victims of workplace violence each year. Violence can strike any workplace; no area is immune. [In healthcare, violence involves] a broad spectrum of behaviors (e.g., violent acts by patients, visitors, and/or coworkers)... This article provides a brief overview of [healthcare] workplace violence; ...the direct and indirect financial impact of violent acts; ...higher than average turnover; increased requests for medical leaves; ...and stress related illnesses. Advocacy strategies for nurses are offered to address workplace violence on several levels, such as legislative advocacy, workplace policy, and education.
180. 'Yes-Means-Yes' California Campus Sexual Assault Bill "affirmative consent" language in definitions of consensual sex.
181. Zinc Sulfate and/or Ginger for Primary Dysmenorrhea [PAIN]? A Placebo-Controlled Randomized Trial