MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christina R. Prescott, M.D., Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology
Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Prescott: I wanted to look at the most common causes of severe ocular injuries, with the hope of helping to focus injury prevention strategies.
From 2002 to 2011, the mean hospital charge for inpatient hospitalizations due to eye injuries increased from $12,430 to $20,116, when controlling for inflation. This increase paralleled the increase of mean hospital charges for all inpatient stays during the same time period, even when controlling for length of stay, which actually decreased slightly. Costs were highest at large hospitals and for older patients. Race, insurance, and gender were less strongly correlated to cost.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Bindu Kalesan PhD MPH
Director
Evan’s Center for Translational Epidemiology and
Comparative Effectiveness Research
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology
Department of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine
Boston, MA 02118Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Kalesan: Firearm injuries are one of the 3 major causes of death in children in the US. for every 7 pediatric firearm deaths there are 8 children non-fatally injured by a gun. Those that survive will live with disability and severe morbidity. From our earlier studies, we found that this burden of survivorship and injury is different according to race/ethnicity. There is also evidence that Injury related hospitalizations are also associated low-income households and neighborhoods. In the background of gun (violence) control, frequently comparisons are drawn between firearm injuries and motor vehicle accidents.
In this study we use nationally representative hospitalization data and compared pediatric firearm-related hospitalization and pedestrian motor vehicle accident hospitalizations to assess whether the risk of firearm related hospitalizations among minorities varies depending on the neighborhood they live.
We found that black children were at substantially greater risk of firearm hospitalization as compared to pedestrian motor vehicle hospitalization. This greater risk of firearm hospitalization among black children persisted across neighborhoods. Simply put, the risk of firearm hospitalization versus pedestrian motor vehicle hospitalization among black children was high, regardless of whether they lived in low income or high income neighborhoods.We also found that all minority race children (black, Hispanic and other race) as compared to white children were at a greater likelihood of homicide-firearm hospitalization than of pedestrian motor vehicle hospitalization and all minority race children were significantly less likely to be hospitalized for unintentional firearm than pedestrian injuries in comparison to white children. Therefore, overall we found a minority race disadvantage regardless of whether they lived in high and low-income neighborhoods.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Matthew S. Thiese, PhD, MSPH
Assistant Professor
Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
University of Utah School of MedicineMedical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Thiese: The nearly 3 million truck drivers in the United States face many challenges including a lack of physical activity, limited healthy food choices, work-related stress, high physical job demands of loading and unloading trucks and a high risk of being involved in crashes. The purpose of the study was to describe truck driver health and assess relationships between both personal and occupational factors and risk of being involved in a crash. This is why it is important to get yourself checked out by a doctor before carrying out any activity involving being on the road. Depending on your job, you can be driving for a long period of time and it is most likely that you'll become tired. A tired driver being a wheel is at a high risk of being involved in an accident. If you are soon to visit your local doctor for any problems you may have, it may be good to look into something like jj keller eld reviews to give you another way of staying safe on the roads and to help you prevent any accidents that could occur. The main thing for anyone to do before driving is checking they are physically fit to get behind the wheel. The next step though is to make sure that you can actually drive a truck. There are loads of places that you can training from, for example, you could just check out a website like MyCDLTraining.com to help you learn how to drive a truck.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Thiese: There were many personal and occupational factors that were significantly related to being involved in a crash. Among the personal factors assessed, drivers were more likely to be involved in a crash if they used a cell phone regularly, drank alcohol regularly, had a prior diagnosis of heart problems, reported snoring at night, had low back pain in the past year and if they had a high pulse pressure, which is the difference between the systolic and diastolic measures and is indicative of cardiovascular disease. Occupational factors related to being involved in a crash included how long subjects had been a commercial truck driver and how physically exhausted they felt after work; drivers reporting higher physical exhaustion were more likely to be involved in a crash. If you have been involved in a crash check out an Atlanta Truck Accident Lawyer.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Tracy Mehan, MA
Manager of translational research
Center for Injury Research at Policy
The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?Response: We noticed an increasing number of ziplines popping up all over the United States and wanted to see if there were any potential safety concerns. In 2001 there were only 10 commercial ziplines. By 2012, there were more than 200. If you include the number of ziplines now seen in backyards and in places like outdoor education programs and camps, the number skyrockets to over 13,000.
We found that from 1997 through 2012, there were just under 17,000 non-fatal zipline-related injuries treated in US emergency departments. Almost 70 percent of these injuries occurred in the last four years of the study indicating that this is a growing problem. In 2012 alone, there were more than 3,600 zipline-related injuries, nearly 10 a day.
The majority of the injuries were the result of a fall (77 percent) or a collision (13 percent) into a tree, a support structure, or another person. Close to half of the injuries were broken bones (46 percent) and one of every ten (11.7 percent) patients were admitted to the hospital.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Russ S. Kotwal, M.D., M.P.H.
United States Army Institute of Surgical Research
Joint Base San Antonio-Ft. Sam Houston
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Kotwal: The term golden hour was coined to encourage urgency of trauma care. In 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates mandated prehospital helicopter transport of critically injured combat casualties in 60 minutes or less. The objectives of the study were to compare morbidity and mortality outcomes for casualties before vs after the mandate and for those who underwent prehospital helicopter transport in 60 minutes or less vs more than 60 minutes. A retrospective descriptive analysis of battlefield data examined 21,089 US military casualties that occurred during the Afghanistan conflict from September 11, 2001, to March 31, 2014.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Kotwal: For the total casualty population, the percentage killed in action and the case fatality rate (CFR) were higher before vs after the mandate, while the percentage died of wounds remained unchanged. Decline in CFR after the mandate was associated with an increasing percentage of casualties transported in 60 minutes or less, with projected vs actual CFR equating to 359 lives saved. Among 4542 casualties with detailed data, there was a decrease in median transport time after the mandate and an increase in missions achieving prehospital helicopter transport in 60 minutes or less. When adjusted for injury severity score and time period, the percentage killed in action was lower for those critically injured who received a blood transfusion and were transported in 60 minutes or less, while the percentage died of wounds was lower among those critically injured initially treated by combat support hospitals. Acute morbidity was higher among those critically injured who were transported in 60 minutes or less, those severely and critically injured initially treated at combat support hospitals, and casualties who received a blood transfusion, emphasizing the need for timely advanced treatment.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nadine Parker M.Sc
Injury Prevention Research Office
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
Keenan Research Centre
St. Michael’s Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: TV toppling injuries in children have become increasingly more common in recent years. Including in countries with developing economies where televisions are becoming more affordable. Unfortunately, most people don’t recognize televisions as a hidden home hazard. These easily preventable injuries can be severe or even fatal. Of the deaths due to TV toppling 96% were caused by a head injury. Most of these injuries occur at home with 75% of them unwitnessed by a parent or caregiver. Often furniture such as dressers are used as TV stands but they are not designed to support the weight of TV sets making them unstable. Unfortunately, curious and resourceful young children like to climb these unstable support furniture leading to a toppling event. Play or pushing and pulling the TV set are also common causes of tip-overs.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Alvin Thomas, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Associate Director Center For Excellence in Diversity
Palo Alto University
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Walking Away Hurt, Walking...
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Avik Chatterjee, MD, MPH
Physician, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
Instructor, Harvard Medical School
Associate Epidemiologist, Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, MA
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Chatterjee: Substance use, sexual activity and violent behaviors are common during adolescence. Understanding risk factors for these behaviors will improve our ability to prevent them and their sequelae. The Chaos, Hubbub and Order Scale (CHAOS) is a measure of household physical and social disorder, and higher CHAOS score, as reported by parents, has been shown to be correlated with less self-regulatory behavior in children. Thus, CHAOS could be a risk factor for the above behaviors in adolescents. We used data from the RISE study, in which 929 adolescents completed face-to-face and computer-assisted (for sensitive questions) interviews about their health behaviors to analyze the relationship between CHAOS score and risky health behaviors. We found that students with highest CHAOS score, compared to those with zero CHAOS score, had elevated odds for tobacco use (3x), alcohol use (2.5x), any substance use at school (6x) and fighting in the past 12 months (2x).
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Ziming Xuan ScD, SM, MA
Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
School of Public Health
Boston UniversityMedical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Xuan: With respect to background, among the 15000 some teenagers died annually in the US, the 3 leading causes of death were unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide. Among these fatal youth injuries, 83% homicides were gun-related, and about half of suicides involved a gun (45%).
So, The purpose of the study was to investigate the association between state gun law environment and youth gun carrying in the United States, and whether this association is mediated by adult gun ownership.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?Dr. Xuan:
Among 38 states in our study, 5.7%of high school students living in the 19 states with stricter gun laws carried a gun in past 30 days while 7.3% of students living in states with the weaker gun laws carried a gun.
A 10-point increase in the strictness of the state gun law score was associated with a 9% decrease in the odds of youth gun carrying.
Across states, restrictive gun laws may reduce youth gun carrying by limiting adult gun ownership.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Xiaohu Xia Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Xia: Peroxidases, a family of enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of certain compounds with peroxides, have found widespread use in areas such as biomedicine and environmental protection. Over the past several years, researchers have found that certain inorganic nanomaterials (such as nanoparticles made of metal, metal oxides, and carbon) possess intrinsic peroxidase-like activities. As the major advantage over their natural counterparts, these peroxidase mimics are much more stable because they are less vulnerable to denaturation and protease digestion. In spite of the superior stability of the mimics, improvement in their catalytic efficiency has been met with limited success. The catalytic efficiencies for most of the previously reported peroxidase mimics with sizes 1-100 nm are limited to the range of 101-104 s-1 in terms of catalytic constant (Kcat, which measures the maximum number of chemical conversions of substrate molecules per second per enzyme/mimic).
Our research team have recently developed a new type of peroxidase mimic with a record high efficiency that was engineered by coating ~18 nm palladium (Pd) nanocubes with ultrathin iridium (Ir) skins of a few atomic layers (i.e., Pd-Ir core-shell cubes, see Figure). The catalytic efficiency of our Pd-Ir cubes could reach a level of Kcat = 106 s-1.
In view of the substantially enhanced efficiency, we applied our Pd-Ir cubes to the colorimetric enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of human prostate surface antigen (PSA) by functionalizing their surface with antibodies. The detection limit of the Pd-Ir cubes-based ELISA of PSA was determined to be 0.67 pg/mL, which is over 100-fold lower than that of the conventional horseradish peroxidase(HRP)-based ELISA using the same set of antibodies and the same procedure (see Figure).
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Tahereh Orouji Jokar, MD
International research fellow and
Dr Joseph Bellal Joseph, MD
Division of Trauma, Emergency Surgery, Critical Care, and Burns
Department of Surgery
University of Arizona, Tucson
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Response: Domestic violence is a social evil and bears significant social, financial, medical, and personal implications. Frequently victims of domestic violence, present in a trauma center due to injuries from domestic violence. However, despite bearing such grievous significance, there is no standardized practice to screen for domestic violence. In this study we sought out to identify the incidence and trends of domestic violence to highlight the burden of the disease.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Response: In our study we reported an overall incidence of domestic violence to be 569.564/100,000 trauma admissions. Over the study period the rate of domestic violence increased from 490/100,000 (2007) to 680/100,000 (2012) trauma admissions. We observed an increasing trend of domestic violence in children, adults, and elderly. On sub-analysis of adults, we observed an increasing trend of violence in both male and female victims.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Antti Latvala PhD
Post-doctoral researcher
Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki
Helsinki, Finland
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Latvala: Motivation for the study came from the fact that antisocial and aggressive behavior has been associated with lower resting heart rate in children and adolescents. Heart rate, being regulated by the autonomic nervous system, has been viewed as an indicator of stress responding or autonomic arousal, and the association has been hypothesized to indicate low levels of stress or a chronically low level of autonomic arousal in antisocial individuals. However, empirical evidence for such an association in adulthood has been very limited.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Latvala: We found that men with lower resting heart rate had an increased risk of violent and nonviolent criminality. Specifically, men in the lowest fifth of the heart rate distribution had an estimated 39% increased risk for violent criminality and a 25% increased risk for nonviolent crimes compared with men in the highest fifth. These are estimates after adjusting for physical, cardiovascular, cognitive and socioeconomic covariates. When we further adjusted for cardiorespiratory fitness, which was available in a subsample, the associations were even stronger.
In addition to the crime outcomes, we found that low resting heart rate predicted exposure to assaults and accidents, such as traffic crashes, falls and poisonings, in a very similar fashion.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Benjamin N. Breyer MD, MAS, FACS
Associate Professor in Residence
Department of Urology
University of California, San Francisco
Chief of Urology, San Francisco General Hospital
Director, UCSF Male Genitourinary Reconstruction and Trauma Surgery Fellowship
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Breyer: Our group has studied genitourinary-specific injuries associated with bicycles using a national surveillance injury database called NEISS (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System), that monitors injuries associated with specific products. In the current study, we examined trends in all bicycle-related injuries from 1997 to 2013. We found an increase in bicycle-related injuries over the study period, even after adjusting for growth in the US population. Even more concerning, we found the percentage of bicycle-related injuries resulting in admission increased 120%, suggesting the injuries sustained while cycling are becoming more severe. These trends appear to be driven by a substantial rise in both injuries and admissions in individuals over 45 years of age, which likely reflects a change in the demographic of cyclists in the US - multiple studies have shown an increase in the cycling participation of adults over the age of 45.
Bicycles are no longer children's toys - they are increasingly being used by adults as a means of transportation and physical activity. The rise in cycling in adults over the age 45 appears to be driving both the increase in injuries and admissions, suggesting that older individuals are at increased risk for sustaining severe injury while cycling.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Shannon K. Barth MPH
Department of Veterans Affairs
Office of Public Health, Post Deployment Health
Epidemiology Program
Washington, District of Columbia
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Response: This study used data from the “National Health Study for a New Generation of U.S. Veterans,” a population-based health study of 20,563 Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Veterans and their non-deployed counterparts, conducted in 2009-2011. A two-question measure of sexual harassment and sexual assault based on an existing clinical screen used by Veterans Health Administration (VHA) providers was included on the survey. Consistent with use in clinical settings, a veteran was considered to have experienced MST if they responded affirmatively to either of the two questions. While estimates of the prevalence of MST based on the clinical screener are available, these estimates only provide information about veterans who use VHA services and may not generalize to the broader OEF/OIF veteran population. This new survey provides a unique opportunity to assess MST experiences among a representative sample of OEF/OIF veterans in a confidential setting. Additionally, we were able to assess responses to the sexual harassment and sexual assault questions separately and collectively.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Response: The main findings from our study are that 41% of women and 4% of men reported experiencing MST. Veterans who reported using VHA services had a higher risk of MST compared to those who didn’t receive VHA services. The relationship between deployment to OEF/OIF and experiencing MST differed between men and women. Combat-exposed veterans had greater risk of reporting MST compared to those not exposed to combat, while controlling for deployment status.
Among women, approximately 10% reported experiencing sexual assault. In contrast, 0.5% of male participants reported experiencing sexual assault.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
April M. Zeoli, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University
Lansing, MI 48824
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Zeoli: My team and I are interested in whether an infectious disease model can be applied to homicide. In other words, can homicide be described as being “contagious” and does it spread through a city in a systematic pattern? In our previous research, we showed that homicide did spread through Newark, New Jersey, in a manner similar to an infectious disease (http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2012/homicide-spreads-like-infectious-disease/). However, not all types of homicide may be “contagious.” In this research, we looked at seven motive types of homicide to determine which, if any, of them clustered and spread from one place to another over time.
Of the seven types of homicide we examined, only gang-motivated homicides displayed a pattern of clustering and spreading through Newark, NJ. However, while drug-motivated and revenge homicides did not spread, they did cluster in the same general geographic areas during much of the same time that gang-motivated homicides clustered together.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Joanne Klevens, MD, PhD
Division of Violence Prevention
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Klevens: The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends women of reproductive age be screened for partner violence but others, such as the World Health Organization and the Cochrane Collaborative conclude there is insufficient evidence for this recommendation. Our randomized clinical trial allocated 2700 women seeking care in outpatient clinics to 1 of 3 study groups: computerized partner violence screening and provision of local resource list, universal provision of partner violence resource list without screening, or a no-screen/no resource list control group. No differences were found in women’s quality of life, days lost from work or housework, use of health care and partner violence services, or the recurrence of partner violence after 1 year. In this three-year follow-up, no differences were found in the average number of hospitalizations, emergency room visits or ambulatory care visits.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Conrad Earnest, PhD, FACSM
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Earnest: The study presented here is a thesis project performed by Robbyne Smith and Sammy Licence, under the direction of Professor Conrad Earnest. We were curious to about the effects of walking, texting and doing both while simultaneously being cognitively distracted by common tasks - in our case a maths test.
Much of our curiosity was born from watching a YouTube video and reading an article on inattentional blindness where people did not notice a unicycling clown while using their mobile phones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysbk_28F068
Several reports suggest that this type of pedestrian behavior leads to more pedestrian accidents, possibly increases the risk of tripping and increases riskier road crossing behavior due to a lack of attention.
While much of the literature has examined this question using a “straight line” model to look at walking characteristics and deviations within ones walking path, we elected to build an obstacle course that imitated common barriers that we measured in the city of Bath, England, that pedestrians might encounter during their walking day.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?Dr. Earnest: Our main findings were that people slowed their walking speed, took more steps in their approach to common obstacles, and increased the height of their step to go up steps and over curbs.
Interestingly, we did not see an increase in what we called barrier contacts, which were used as a surrogate measure for tripping.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH
Division of Emergency Medicine
Boston Children's Hospital
Boston, MA 02115
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?Response: Motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death for children and adults in the U.S. Seat belts are the single most effective protective device to decreased death and mitigate injuries in the event of a motor vehicle crash. Our study found that states with primary seat belt laws, where a motorist can be ticketed only for not wearing a seat belt, demonstrated a 17% decreased fatality rate, compared to states with secondary seat belt laws, where a motorist must be cited for another violation first before also getting ticketed for not wearing a seat belt. We found this difference was robust even after controlling for other motor vehicle safety legislation and state demographic factors. We found that although seatbelts prevent deaths, they don't completely stop injury so if you have been in an accident that wasn't your fault then you might want to look for a place like the Parnall Law Firm to see if they can help you get compensation for your injuries. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Huiyun Xiang, M.D., M.P.H.
Center for Pediatric Trauma Research
The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In the United States trauma system, the most severe injuries ideally should receive definitive treatment at level I or level II trauma centers, while less severe injuries should receive treatment at level III or nontrauma centers. “Undertriage” occurs when a severe injury receives definitive treatment at a lower level trauma center instead of a level I or level II trauma center. But no study had used nationally representative data to evaluate mortality outcomes of undertriage at nontrauma centers.
Our study found detrimental consequences associated with undertriage at nontrauma centers. There was a significant reduction in the odds of emergency department (ED) death – by approximately half – in severely injured trauma patients who were properly triaged to a level I or level II trauma center versus those who were undertriaged to a nontrauma center. We also found that patients with moderate injuries may not have a reduction in the odds of ED death when triaged to a level I or level II trauma center instead of a nontrauma center. That suggests a possible threshold of injury severity when triaging trauma patients.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Marie Crandall, MD, MPH, FACS
Associate Professor of Surgery
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, IL 60611
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Crandall: While the association between alcohol and interpersonal violence has been well established, research has been divided with respect to the direct effect of proximity to an establishment with a liquor license and violence. We used geographic regression analysis, which is a type of multivariate regression including geography as a variable, to examine the association between proximity to an establishment with a liquor license, such as a liquor store or tavern, and gun violence in Chicago.
We utilized our state trauma registry and geocoded 11,744 gunshot wounds that occurred between 1999-2009. On the assumption that different neighborhoods might experience risk differently, we used a combination of ordinary least squares and geographic regression analysis to identify homogenous areas with similar risk. We used sociodemographic variables as covariates in the analysis.
We found that the impact of proximity to an establishment with a liquor license and occurrence of gunshot wounds varied markedly by neighborhood. The areas of highest risk were found to have enormous associations, Odds Ratios (OR) greater than 500. These areas also tended to be more socioeconomically distressed areas of the city.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Claudia Sikorski
Dr. rer. med. Claudia Sikorski, Dipl.-Psych.
Institut für Sozialmedizin, Arbeitsmedizin und Public Health (ISAP)
Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health
Universität Leipzig, Medizinische Fakultät
Leipzig
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Obesity is a highly stigmatized condition. People with obesity are often regarded a lazy, slow and sloppy. One consequence of these negative attitudes may be discrimination, e.g. the unfair treatment of individuals with obesity. This study, conducted by Jenny Spahlholz, myself and colleagues reviews observational and experimental studies that investigated the occurrence and nature of discrimination in obesity.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ahmed Gomaa, MD, ScD, MSPH
Medical Officer / Surveillance Branch
Division of Surveillance Hazard Evaluation and Health Studies
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Gomaa: In 2013, one in five reported nonfatal occupational injuries occurred among workers in the health care and social assistance industry, the highest number of such injuries reported for all private industries. In 2011, U.S. health care personnel experienced seven times the national rate of musculoskeletal disorders compared with all other private sector workers. To reduce the number of preventable injuries among health care personnel, CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), with collaborating partners, created the Occupational Health Safety Network (OHSN) to collect detailed injury data to help target prevention efforts. OHSN, a free, voluntary surveillance system for health care facilities, enables prompt and secure tracking of occupational injuries by type, occupation, location, and risk factors.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michelle Wilkinson, MPH
Doctoral Candidate Epidemiology
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health
Houston, TX 77030Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Cell phone use (CPU) while driving impairs visual awareness and reaction time, increasing frequency of near-collisions, collisions, and accidents with injuries. National prevalence estimates of driver cell phone use range from 5-10%. Medical and academic centers have large concentrations of young, ill, or elderly pedestrians and drivers, who are often unfamiliar with the congested environment. Drivers distracted by Cell phone use are a safety threat to pedestrians and drivers in these demanding environments. This study aimed to describe the prevalence and correlates of cell phone use among Texas drivers in major medical and academic centers, 2011-2013. This study found the overall prevalence of cell phone use while driving was 18%. The prevalence of Cell phone useand talking declined, while texting increased during the study period. Cell phone users were more likely to be female, <25 years old, and driving without a passenger.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Kevin Vagi, Ph.D
Division of Violence Prevention,
CDC’s Injury Center.
MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?Dr. Vagi: Although there has been research on teen dating violence (TDV) for several decades, the subject has only received attention as a public health concern in recent years. Over time, prevalence estimates of physical teen dating violence victimization from CDC’s national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) (first measured in 1999) have remained around 9% with similar rates among female and male students. Until recently, there have been no ongoing national studies of sexual TDV to our knowledge.
This article describes new physical and sexual teen dating violence victimization questions first administered in the 2013 YRBS, shares the prevalence and frequency of TDV and national estimates using these new questions, and assesses associations of teen dating violence experience with health-risk behaviors. By including questions on both physical and sexual TDV, we are able to look at those youth who experienced physical TDV only, sexual TDV only, both physical and sexual TDV, any TDV, and none. These distinctions were important when investigating health outcomes associated with different types or combinations of TDV, as some health-risk behaviors have been shown to be associated with certain types of teen dating violence but not others.
In 2013, among high school students who dated, 1 in 5 females and 1 in 10 males experienced physical and/or sexual TDV in the 12 months before the survey. The majority of students who experienced physical and sexual teen dating violence experience it more than once. Students who experienced both physical and sexual TDV are more likely to have other health-risks, such as suicidal ideation and behavior, fighting, carrying a weapon, being electronically bullied, alcohol and drug use, and risky sexual behaviors. This report also offers the first national estimate of sexual TDV. Findings suggest that comprehensive prevention efforts should focus on helping students develop healthy relationship skills to prevent teen dating violence and other risk behaviors. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Søren Dalsgaard
National Centre for Register-based Research
Aarhus University Denmark
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What...
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Joke Kieboom, paediatric intensivist
Beatrix Children’s Hospital Medical Center Groningen
University of Groningen The Netherlands
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The aim of the study was to evaluate the outcome of drowned children with cardiac arrest and hypothermia, and to determine distinct criteria for termination of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in drowned children with hypothermia and absence of spontaneous circulation.
From 1993 to 2012 in the Netherlands, 160 children presented with cardiac arrest and hypothermia after drowning. In 98 (61%) of these children resuscitation was performed for more than 30 minutes, of whom none had good outcome: 87 (89%) died and 11 (11%) survived for with severe disability or in a vegetative state (at one year after the drowning incident).
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Judy Stevens PhDNational Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Stevens: Falls among people aged 65 and older are a serious, costly, and growing public health problem. As our population ages, falls will continue to increase unless we implement effective prevention strategies that are also cost-effective.
This study found that three evidence-based fall prevention programs, the Otago Exercise Program, Tai Chi: Moving for Better Balance, and Stepping On, were not only practical and effective but also provided a positive return on investment (ROI) or net benefit. An ROI of 150% means for each $1 spent on implementing the program, you can expect a net benefit of $1.50.
The analysis found that the cost of implementing each of these fall prevention programs was considerably less than the potential medical costs needed to care for someone injured from a fall. These research findings can help community organizations and policymakers identify and use programs that can both save lives and reduce costs.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Joseph A Simonetti, MD MPH
Research Fellow
Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center
University of Washington Seattle, WA, USAMedical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Simonetti: Studies have consistently shown that children living in households where firearms are stored safely have a lower risk of suffering firearm injuries, including lethal firearm injuries, compared to those living in households where firearms are stored unlocked and/or loaded. Safe firearm storage is widely recommended by public health experts, professional medical societies, and gun rights organizations, especially for households where children might be suffering from mental heath and substance abuse issues that put them at increased risk for suicide or unintentional injury. Our goal was to find out if those recommendations were being effectively implemented in the community. To do this, we used survey data that assessed mental health conditions and firearm access among a nationally representative sample of US adolescents.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?Dr. Simonetti: First, we confirmed previous findings that a large proportion of US adolescents have access to a firearm in the home. Of those who reported living in a home with a firearm, 40% said they could immediately access and shoot the firearm.
Second, the prevalence of most mental health diagnoses was similar between adolescents who did and did not report firearm access. However, a greater proportion of adolescents with firearm access had drug and alcohol disorders compared to adolescents who reported living in a home with a firearm but did not have access to the firearm.
The main finding was that children with mental health risk factors for suicide were just as likely to report in-home firearm access as those without identified risk factors. This finding held true even when comparing firearm access between children with no identified risk factors and those who reported a recent suicide attempt, who arguably have the highest suicide risk in this sample.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Anne McCarttPhD
Senior Vice President, Research
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Arlington, Virginia
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. McCartt: Motor vehicle crashes are a significant public health problem in the U.S., and that’s especially true for teenagers. Teen drivers have crash rates three times those of drivers 20 and older per mile driven. Immaturity leads to speeding and other risky habits, and inexperience means teens often don’t recognize or know how to respond to hazards.
The type of vehicle a teenager drives has a big effect on the degree of risk. Nevertheless, the main finding of our study is that many teenagers are driving – and dying in – the least protective types of vehicles. Nearly 30 percent of drivers ages 15-17 who died in highway crashes during 2008-12 were driving mini or small cars. Eight-two percent of the teenagers were driving vehicles that were at least 6 years old, and nearly half were driving vehicles that were at least 11 years old. Small cars are problem because they don’t afford as much crash protection as bigger, heavier vehicles. Older vehicles are less likely to have the best crash test ratings, and usually lack electronic stability control (ESC) or side airbags as standard features, despite the proven effectiveness of these technologies.
Parents are obviously concerned about safety. In a separate survey we found that safety ranked highest among the reasons for choosing a particular vehicle. Most parents knew that a midsize or larger vehicle was safer than a small one, but their knowledge about which safety features to seek out wasn’t very current. When asked what safety features they insisted on for their teen driver, people most frequently mentioned frontal airbags and safety belts. Only 5 percent of respondents mentioned ESC.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Gary A. Smith
Center for Injury Research and Policy
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?Dr. Smith: The study found that from 1990 through 2011, an estimated 3,278,073 children younger than 18 years of age were treated in United States emergency departments for toy related injuries. The annual injury rate per 10,000 children increased by nearly 40% during that time period. The increase was largely associated with ride-on toys, particularly foot-powered scooters. Ride-on toys accounted for 34.9% of all injuries and 42.5% of hospital admissions.
The study is the first to comprehensively investigate toy-related injuries among children using a nationally representative data set, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS).
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