Conclusions – Compared with pravastatin, treatment with higher potency statins, especially atorvastatin and simvastatin, might be associated with an increased risk of new onset diabetes.
via Risk of incident diabetes among patients treated with statins: population based study | BMJ.
A total of 117 deaths were reported on Red Cross mortality forms. The source of information for the mortality forms was a medical examiner/coroner for 94 (80.3%) cases and the family of the decedent for 10 (8.5%) cases (Table). Most deaths occurred in New York (53 [45.3%]) and New Jersey (34 [29.1%]); the other deaths occurred in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Maryland. The deaths occurred during October 28–November 29, 2012 (Figure 1). Approximately half of the deaths (60 [51.3%]) occurred on the first 2 days of the storm’s landfall, with a peak of 37 deaths on October 30, 2012.
Decedents ranged in age from 1 to 94 years (mean: 60 years, median: 65 years); 60.7% were male, and 53.8% were white. Of the 117 deaths, 67 (57.3%) were classified as directly related deaths, and 38 (32.5%) were indirectly related to the storm. Of the directly related deaths, the most common mechanism was drowning (40 [59.7%]), followed by trauma from being crushed, cut, or struck (19 [28.4%]). Poisoning was the most common indirectly related cause of death; of the 10 poisonings, nine were caused by carbon monoxide. Most directly related deaths occurred during the first few days of the storm, whereas indirectly related deaths continued from the day before the storm into the middle of November.
Comparing the 40 drowning deaths to all Sandy-related deaths, the age, sex, and race distributions of decedents were similar (Table). The majority of drowning deaths (29 [72.5%]) also occurred in the initial phase of the storm, during October 29–31. Twenty-one (52.5%) drowning deaths occurred in the decedent’s home, and 11 (27.5%) occurred outside; one person drowned in a flooded commercial building lobby, and another person drowned while intentionally swimming off a storm-affected beach. For six deaths, circumstances of the drowning were not available. The location of drowning deaths by state was significantly different (p<0.05) compared with all Sandy-related deaths. The majority of drowning deaths (32 [80.0%]) occurred in New York, whereas deaths in New York accounted for only 27.3% of nondrowning deaths. Twenty decedents drowned in flooded homes in New York, and home addresses for 18 (90.0%) of them were located in Evacuation Zone A (Figure 2); the other two decedents’ homes were in or near areas of flooding and near Evacuation Zone A. Notes written by Red Cross volunteers on these 20 deaths captured decedents’ reasons for not evacuating, such as “afraid of looters,” “thought Hurricane Irene was mild,” and “unable to leave because did not have transportation.”
via Deaths Associated with Hurricane Sandy — October–November 2012.
And while we’re on the topic of nasty weather…
Oklahoma May 20, 2013 Tornadoes | News OK.
The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne On the Devastating Oklahoma Tornado – The Daily Beast.
I want to thank everyone who called, emailed, and/or text messaged asking if my family and I were OK. The storms have left us shaken but otherwise we are well. Thank you.
I have lived to underwrite another day.
E-books Now Make Up 1/5 of U.S. Book Sales.
A reader questioned why I did not read E-books several years ago. I grew up in a dead tree book world and preferred paper books. This despite a growing dependence upon computers and the internet for work where most of my reading was done.
I am now equipped with a smart phone and an E-book reader. When reading a book I now have my choice of four different devices. I like this a lot. So while I continue my love for paper books, E-books have found a place on my digital shelf.
In a significant about-face, the American Urological Association (AUA) recently published clinical guidance that recommends against performing all routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening for prostate cancer, as well as all screening in men older than 70, men younger than 40 and average-risk men ages 40-54.
via AUA Recommends Against Routine Prostate Cancer Screening — AAFP News Now — AAFP.
Life insurance companies will undoubtedly continue to run PSA tests. Think about how long it took us to stop ordering CXR’s.
Results: Of 217,755 persons newly reported, 107,209 (49.2%) were HCV antibody positive only, and 110,546 (50.8%) were reported with a positive HCV RNA result that confirmed current HCV infection. In both groups, persons were most likely to have been born during 1945–1965 (58.5% of those who were HCV antibody positive only; 67.2% of those who were HCV RNA positive). Among all persons newly reported for whom death data were available, 6,734 (3.4%) were known to have died; deaths were most likely among persons aged 50–59 years. In 2011, across all sites, the annual rate of persons newly reported with HCV infection (positive HCV antibody only and HCV RNA positive) was 84.7 per 100,000 population.
The research is almost unanimous, which is very rare in social science, and it says that people who chronically multitask show an enormous range of deficits. They’re basically terrible at all sorts of cognitive tasks, including multitasking.
So we have scales that allow us to divide up people into people who multitask all the time and people that rarely do, and the differences are remarkable. People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted.
They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. And even – they’re even terrible at multitasking. When we ask them to multitask, they’re actually worse at it. So they’re pretty much mental wrecks.
via The Myth Of Multitasking : NPR.
For your reading pleasure I’ve offered up just a few quotes from the transcript of a wonderful interview with Clifford Nass, author of “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop,” professor of communications at Stanford University. Listen to the entire interview. It is well worth your time.
Six out of 10 patients do not take their medications as prescribed by their physicians, and patients with multiple chronic conditions have the lowest medication adherence rates, according to AAFP Board member Rebecca Jaffe, M.D., M.P.H.
Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League, the oldest consumer organization in the United States, talked about barriers to adherence, saying that “there are many reasons why patients are not adherent.”Some patients may be reluctant to remain adherent because of medication side effects, such as sleeplessness or weight gain. Others may be unconvinced about the need to take medications because they do not have symptoms associated with their chronic illness, Greenberg said.Forgetfulness is another issue for some patients, making it difficult for them to remember to take their medications. Out-of-pocket costs may be a challenge for some patients, as well, creating barriers that discourage patients from filling prescriptions, according to Greenberg.
via Poor Medication Adherence Rates Prompt Formation of Broad-Based Coalition — AAFP News Now — AAFP.
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