JHUSON Associate Professor Miyong T. Kim, PhD, RN and colleagues have found there is a steeply increasing incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in developing countries undergoing rapid westernization, including South Korea.
Preliminary research indicates that several specific genetic alterations are associated with the development of smoking-related head and neck skin cancers, according to a report in the Jan. 10 issue of JAMA.
Last year a primary care trust announced it would take smokers off waiting lists for surgery in an attempt to contain costs. In this week’s BMJ, two experts go head to head over whether smokers should be refused surgery.
Four of five hospital performance measures for heart failure do not appear to accurately reflect the quality of care provided, according to a study in the January 3 issue of JAMA.
Researchers reported that all five standard hospital-based performance measures used to gauge quality-of-care for hospitalized heart-failure patients may not be the best benchmarks since none were significant predictors of patient mortality during the critical first 60 to 90 days immediately following hospital discharge.
Young adults (ages 20 to 44) with normal lung function who later develop chronic cough and phlegm have a fourfold higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins and Yale university medical schools have found that a simple blood test to measure uric acid, a measure of kidney function, might reveal a risk factor for cognitive problems in old age. Of 96 community-dwelling adults aged 60 to 92 years, those with uric-acid levels at the high end of the normal range had the lowest scores on tests of mental processing speed, verbal memory and working memory.
Smoking at 1,200 public pleasure grounds will be banned from January 1, while smoking areas occupying no more than 1% of the venue size have been specified in 195 venues and smoking will be allowed in about 60 small-scale venues, the Leisure & Cultural Services Department says.
About 45,000 Australian teenagers will start smoking in 2007 and about half of them will ultimately be killed by smoking-related diseases, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne, has warned.
Tobacco Control Inspectors (TCIs) of the Tobacco Control Office (TCO) under the Department of Health carried out operations throughout the New Year Eve and the New Year to help members of the public and venue managers adapt to the legislative changes of a smoke-free environment.