underwriting

No Age Limit on Benefits of Eating Well

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Older people who eat properly are likely to live longer.

That’s the implication of a study looking at mortality and eating habits among a cohort of nearly 4,000 people 65 and older, according to Luis Afonso, MD, of Wayne State University in Detroit, and colleagues.

After an average follow-up of 13 years, participants with a good diet had lower rates of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, compared with those who had a poor diet, Afonso and colleagues reported in the Feb. 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

via Medical News:No Age Limit on Benefits of Eating Well – in Primary Care, Diet & Nutrition from MedPage Today.

I’ll take fries with that.

Biomarkers May Help Heart Failure Risk Prediction

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After accounting for the clinical risk score, several echocardiographic findings were independently associated with incident heart failure HRs 1.11 to 2.91, P≤0.001 for all:

  • Reduced left ventricular ejection fraction
  • Abnormal mitral inflow E/A peak velocity ratio a measure of diastolic function
  • Enlarged left atrium Increased left ventricular mass

These variables were used to create an echocardiographic score.Elevated levels of NT-proBNP also were independently associated with heart failure risk HR 1.61 as a continuous variable and HR 2.7 for values greater than 190 pg/mL, P

via Medical News:Biomarkers May Help Heart Failure Risk Prediction – in Cardiovascular, CHF from MedPage Today.

Patient Access to Core Attributes of Primary Care Linked to Lower Mortality

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Specifically, authors of “Primary Care Attributes and Mortality: A National Person-Level Study” found that patients who reported three attributes in their usual source of care — comprehensiveness, patient-centeredness and enhanced access — had lower mortality during up to six years follow-up than patients reporting less access to those three attributes.

via Patient Access to Core Attributes of Primary Care Linked to Lower Mortality — AAFP News Now — American Academy of Family Physicians.

50-Year-Olds Get New Knees in Record Numbers

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During the past three decades there has been a dramatic, 130-fold increase in knee replacement surgeries, particularly among individuals in their 50s, a Finnish study found.

via Medical News: 50-Year-Olds Get New Knees in Record Numbers – in Surgery, Orthopedics from MedPage Today.

Knee replacement cost – cost of knee replacement surgery.

After reading about the dramatic increase in the number of knee replacements I did a Google search for “average cost knee replacement” without the quotation marks in the search string.  At the top of page one was the second link above.

Taiwan anyone?

Meaningful Treatments

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Thankfully, we’ve learned from our mistakes. Opening blocked vessels is useful in really only two general areas:

Heart attack, where the rule of thumb is to open the tightest blockage (we refer to it as the “infarct-related artery”) and leave the rest as is.

Symptomatic blockages such as the 99% plug that caused my patient his troubles. If, on the other hand, a person has no chest pain or breathing difficulty associated with the disease, we provide no benefit by uncorking it—even if the blockage is 100%.

via Meaningful treatments in the battle against coronary disease.

Binge Drinking in Adults United States 2010

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  • Binge drinking causes more than half of the 80,000 deaths and three quarters of the $223.5 billion in economic costs caused by excessive drinking.
  • Approximately one in six (38 million) U.S. adults binge drink, and do so approximately four times a month. On average, the largest number of drinks consumed by binge drinkers is eight drinks per occasion.
  • Prevalence and intensity of binge drinking was highest among persons aged 18–34 years, but the frequency of binge drinking was highest among binge drinkers aged ≥65 years. Binge drinkers with annual household incomes ≥$75,000 had the highest binge drinking prevalence, but binge drinkers with household incomes <$25,000 had the highest frequency and intensity of binge drinking.

via Medical News: Binge Drinking Common Among Adults, CDC Finds – in Public Health & Policy, Public Health from MedPage Today.

Vital Signs: Binge Drinking Prevalence, Frequency, and Intensity Among Adults — United States, 2010.

The first link takes you to the MedPage Today article.  The second link takes you to the source article which is also available in a downloadable PDF format.  This report is well worth sharing with your underwriting staff.

Medical News: Death Rate High Long After VTE – in Cardiovascular, Venous Thrombosis from MedPage Today

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The risk of death for patients with thrombosis was highest in the first year after the event, with a hazard ratio of 14.4 95% CI 7.1 to 29.2, according to Frits R. Rosendaal, MD, PhD, and colleagues from Leiden University in the Netherlands.But the risk remained elevated eight years later HR 3.8, 95% CI 0.5 to 30.8, the researchers reported in PLoS Medicine.

“Remarkably,” the mortality rate was five times higher among patients with malignancy and thrombosis than among those who had a malignancy without thrombosis (SMR 5.5, 95% CI 5 to 6.1), the researchers observed.

via Medical News: Death Rate High Long After VTE – in Cardiovascular, Venous Thrombosis from MedPage Today.

The Advantages of the Middle-Age Brain -TIME.com

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A study in the British Medical Journal lit up the Internet last week with the conclusion that cognitive decline begins at age 45. While it’s true that some innate skills like memory and speed of reasoning fall off as we age, other aspects of intelligence related to learning and experience actually improve.

via Patricia Cohen: The Advantages of the Middle-Age Brain | TIME Ideas | TIME.com.

Positive proof the older brain improves with time.  I found an article on some positive aspects of the aging brain.

Now if I could only remember where I put my car keys…