Health Research | SilverScorpio.Com

The More Frequently You Log On, the More Weight You Can Keep Off

July 28, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

PORTLAND, Ore., July 27 /PRNewswire/ — The more people used an interactive weight management website, the more weight loss they maintained, according to a Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study published online today in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

The National Institutes of Health-funded study evaluated an Internet-based weight maintenance intervention involving 348 participants. Consistent website users who logged on and recorded their weight at least once a month for two-and-a-half years maintained the most weight loss, the study found.

“Consistency and accountability are essential in any weight maintenance program. The unique part of this intervention was that it was available on the Internet, whenever and wherever people wanted to use it,” said study lead author Kristine L. Funk, MS, RD, a researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.

“This study shows that if people use quality weight management websites consistently, and if they stick with their program, they are more likely to keep their weight off,” said study co-author Victor J. Stevens, PhD, senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. “Keeping weight off is even more difficult than losing it in the first place, so the fact that so many people (in the study) were able to maintain a good portion of their weight loss is very encouraging.”

This weight maintenance intervention was part of the Weight Loss Maintenance Trial, one of the largest and longest-running weight maintenance trials ever conducted – lasting three years and including more than 1,600 people at four study sites across the United States. To enroll in the trial, participants had to be overweight or obese based on their Body Mass Index and taking medication for high blood pressure or high cholesterol. For the first six months, participants attempted to lose weight by attending weekly group meetings at which they were weighed, encouraged to keep food diaries, and given extensive information about exercise and healthy eating.

Participants had to lose at least nine pounds to remain in the trial for the weight loss maintenance phase, which lasted an additional two-and-a-half years and included three groups of randomized participants: those with no intervention, those who had monthly contact with a personal health coach, and those given unlimited access to a weight-maintenance website created specifically for the trial.

The Internet group included 348 participants who were encouraged to log in at least once a week. If they didn’t, they received e-mail reminders and follow-up automated phone messages. Once on the website, participants were prompted to record their weight, their minutes of exercise, and the number of days they kept food diaries. If they went longer than seven days without recording their weight other parts of the website were disabled until the weight was recorded. The website included an interactive bulletin board on which participants could talk with others involved in the study and pose questions to nutrition and exercise experts.

During the first six months of the trial, while they were attending group sessions and before they had access to the website, participants who ended up in the Internet group had lost an average of 19 pounds. Once they were given website access, their objective was to keep off as much of that weight as possible. Consistent users who logged in and recorded their weight at least once a month for 24 months maintained the greatest weight loss – keeping off an average of nine of the 19 pounds they’d lost during the initial phase of the trial. Those who logged on less consistently – at least once a month for 14 months – kept off an average of five pounds. Those who logged on even less kept off an average of only three pounds of their original weight loss.

At the end of the study, 65 percent of the participants were still logging on to the website. The study authors were encouraged by this level of participation, noting that it is rare to see that kind of commitment – even in shorter-term weight maintenance studies involving the Internet.

While the study website is no longer available, there are many useful weight management websites that people can access. The study authors advise consumers to look for sites that:

* Encourage accountability by asking users to consistently record weight, exercise and calories consumed
* Offer tailored or personalized information
* Have interactive features that allow users to communicate with each other and with nutrition and exercise experts
* Provide accurate health information.

View a PDF of the study website here:

http://www.kpchr.org/research/public/documents/MultimediaAppendix1.pdf

This study was funded by a grant from the National Health, Lung and Blood Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. Authors include Kristine L. Funk, MS, RD, Victor J. Stevens, PhD, Alan Bauck, Jack Hollis, PhD, and William M. Vollmer, PhD, from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.; Lawrence J. Appel, MD, Janelle W. Coughlin, PhD, Arlene T. Dalcin, RD, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore; Phillip J. Brantley, PhD, Catherine M. Champagne, PhD, Betty M. Kennedy, PhD, and Valerie H. Myers, PhD, from Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.; Jean Harvey-Berino, PhD, RD, from the University of Vermont in Burlington; Gerald J. Jerome, PhD, from Towson University, Department of Kinesiology, Townson, Md.; and Lillian F. Lien, MD, Carmen D. Samuel-Hodge, PhD, and Laura Svetsky, MD, from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

About the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (http://www.kpchr.org)

Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research, founded in 1964, is a nonprofit research institution dedicated to advancing knowledge to improve health. It has research sites in Portland, Ore., Honolulu and Atlanta.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.6 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.

http://www.kaiserpermanente.org

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: body mass index, co-author, consistency, group meetings, health research, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kaiser permanente, Management Website, Medical Internet Research, Ms Rd, National Institutes of Health, Portland Ore, Quality Weight, Trial Participants, two and a half years, Weekly Group, Weight Loss Maintenance, Weight Maintenance Program, Weight Management

Five-minute screening test could cut risk of developing bowel cancer

April 28, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, Apr 28 (ANI): A five-minute screening test has been developed, which researchers say, could cut the risk of developing bowel cancer by a third.

The research led by Imperial College London has been published in the Lancet.

According to the 16-year study, funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and Cancer Research UK, a single flexible sigmoidoscopy examination in men and women aged between 55 and 64 reduced the incidence of bowel cancer by a third, compared with a control group who had usual care.

Screening with flexible sigmoidoscopy (named the ”Flexi-Scope test” by the research team) was particularly effective in the lower bowel, where it halved incidence of the disease.

Over the course of the study, bowel cancer mortality was reduced by 43 percent in the group that had the Flexi-Scope test compared with the control group.

The randomised trial followed 170,432 people over an average period of 11 years, of whom 40,674 underwent a single Flexi-Scope exam.

Professor Wendy Atkin from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, who led the research, said: “Our study shows for the first time that we could dramatically reduce the incidence of bowel cancer, and the number of people dying from the disease, by using this one-off test. No other bowel cancer screening technique has ever been shown to prevent the disease. Our results suggest that screening with Flexi-Scope could save thousands of lives.”

The Flexi-Scope test works by detecting and removing growths on the bowel wall, known as polyps, which can become cancerous if they are left untreated. Flexi-Scope is able to prevent cancer from developing by removing polyps before they become cancerous. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: 11 years, atkin, Bowel Cancer Screening, Bowel Wall, cancer mortality, Cancer research uk, control group, Could Save Thousands, Flexible Sigmoidoscopy, health research, Imperial College London, lancet, Medical Research Council, National Institute For Health, polyps, randomised trial, Screening Technique, screening test, Test Works, wendy

12-week program can make binge eaters eat less

April 1, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 1 (ANI): A self-guided, 12-week program could make binge eaters eat less for up to a year and even save money for those who participate, according to a new study.

Conducted by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Wesleyan University and Rutgers University, the first-of-a-kind study found that more than 63 percent of participants had stopped binging at the end of the program – compared to just over 28 percent of those who did not participate.

The program lasted only 12 weeks, but most of the participants were still binge free a year later.

Another study found that program participants saved money because they spent less on things like dietary supplements and weight loss programs.

“It is unusual to find a program like this that works well, and also saves the patient money. It”s a win-win for everyone. This type of program is something that all health care systems should consider implementing,” said study author Dr. Frances Lynch.

“People who binge eat more than other people do during a short period of time and they lose control of their eating during these episodes. Binge eating is often accompanied by depression, shame, weight gain, loss of self-esteem and it costs the healthcare system millions of extra dollars. Our studies show that recurrent binge eating can be successfully treated with a brief, easily administered program, and that”s great news for patients and their providers,” said the study”s principal investigator Dr. Ruth H. Striegel-Moore.

The new diagnosis could focus more attention on binge eating and how best to treat it, according to the researchers.

It also could influence the number of people diagnosed and how insurers will cover treatment.

This randomized controlled trial, conducted in 2004-2005, involved 123 members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan in Oregon and southwest Washington.

By the end of the 12-week program 63.5 percent of participants had stopped binging, compared to 28.3 percent of those who did not participate.

Six months later, 74.5 percent of program participants abstained from binging, compared to 44.1 percent in usual care.

At one year, 64.2 percent of participants were binge free, compared to 44.6 percent of those in usual care.

They also found that participants in the intervention group spent less on weight loss programs and over-the-counter medications and supplements.

The study has been published in the April issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Binge Eaters, Binge Eating, Dietary Supplements, Dr Ruth, Frances Lynch, great news, health care systems, health research, healthcare system, kaiser permanente, Patient Money, principal investigator, Program Participants, randomized controlled trial, Recurrent Binge, rutgers university, Southwest Washington, Striegel, study author, Wesleyan University

Pneumonia leading cause of child death in China

March 27, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, Mar 27 (ANI): A new study claims that pneumonia is the leading cause of death amongst Chinese children.

The condition accounts for 17 per cent of deaths in under-5s, according to the study.

But the number of children in China who die before reaching the age of five has dropped by 70 per cent since 1990 – from 6.5 per cent of live births to 1.9 per cent.

The research, published in the Lancet journal, was led by the University of Edinburgh.

Harry Campbell, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Within international health community, China has been a “black box” for the past several decades regarding the information on health problems of its large population, particularly for children and infants. We welcome their immense efforts in recent years to digitalize their health research reports produced during the 20th century by Chinese researchers. We have now learned that health research conducted in China has been of a very high quality. Our study will also bring attention to some neglected causes of child death, such as accidents and congenital abnormalities, on which we had hardly any information from other low and middle income countries.” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Cause Of Death, Child Death, Children In China, Chinese Children, chinese researchers, Congenital Abnormalities, genetic epidemiology, Harry Campbell, Health Community, health problems, health research, International Health, Lancet Journal, leading cause of death, live births, middle income countries, pneumonia, public health, University Edinburgh, university of edinburgh

Women more likely than men to claim they are in poor health

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, Mar 26 (ANI): A new research has found women are more likely to claim they are in poor health than men.

However, according to the report, Population Trends, females are less likely to die than men who suffer from the same illnesses, reports The Daily Express.

To reach the conclusion, boffins studied the 2001 Census and found that women aged 35 to 74 who said they were unwell were more likely to be alive five years later than men who also said they were in poor health.

Women were more likely than men to report that they were in “not good” or “fairly good” health.

The research was done by the Office of National Statistics. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: census, conclusion, daily express, females, good health, health research, Health Women, illnesses, London, Office Of National Statistics, poor health, Population Trends

Frequent heavy drinkers have worse health care habits

March 23, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 23 (ANI): Risky drinkers are less likely to take good care of themselves, a new study has found.

The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study has been published in the journal Addiction Research & Theory.

For the study, researchers surveyed 7,884 members of the Kaiser Permanente Northwest integrated health plan in Oregon and Washington. They found that risky drinkers have attitudes and practices that may adversely affect their long-term health and that people who drink at hazardous levels were less likely than other categories of drinkers to seek routine medical care.

Risky drinking was defined in three different ways to account for both short and long-term alcohol-related risks: 1) those who, on average, drank three or more drinks per day, 2) women who consumed four or more drinks during one sitting, or men who drank five or more drinks during one sitting, or 3) people identified as at-risk drinkers using a commonly used screening tool.

“The main finding here is that risky drinkers also engage in other behaviors–such as relieving stress with alcohol and cigarettes, not wearing seatbelts, unhealthy eating and not regularly seeing their doctors–that put their health at risk,” said study lead author Carla Green, a senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. “Physicians should not only be concerned about patients” heavy drinking, but also these other health-related practices.”

The study is the first to examine the relationship between drinking patterns and health while taking into account a wide-range of other factors that might influence that relationship.

Those factors include diet, exercise, stress management, sleep practices, seat belt use, income, education, obesity, as well as feelings about seeing the doctor, skepticism toward medical care, and attitudes about personal ability to influence health.

“Our study found that men and women who drank the most had less collaborative relationships with their doctors and were more likely to dislike going to the doctor. They were also less confident they could change their own health-related practices and more likely to think health is a matter of good fortune,” Green said.

While the study clearly showed a negative relationship between health and daily, heavy drinking, it also found that moderate drinking was associated with better health. In fact, on a standard health status survey, people who drank one-to-three drinks daily reported slightly better health than all other categories of drinkers, including life-long abstainers, former drinkers, light drinkers (less than one drink a day) and heavier drinkers (three or more drinks per day). People who drank moderately were also more likely to have better health-related attitudes and practices, and more likely to seek routine medical care.

“Even after taking these other health-related attitudes and practices into account, there was still a small but independent relationship between moderate drinking and better self-assessed health,” said Michael Polen, study co-investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. “Previous research has linked moderate alcohol drinking with cardiovascular benefits, so that might be the underlying reason moderate drinkers report better health. It”s also possible that there are additional factors we didn”t measure that account for this positive relationship.”

The study was conducted by reviewing mail-survey responses of 7,884 Kaiser Permanente members from 2002 and 2003. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: addiction research, Diet Exercise, Exercise Stress, Hazardous Levels, health research, heavy drinkers, income education, Integrated Health Plan, Journal Addiction, kaiser permanente, long term health, Personal Ability, relieving stress, Research Physicians, Research Theory, Routine Medical Care, screening tool, stress management, term alcohol, Unhealthy Eating

Roxon ‘uncomfortable’ over parents picking children’s sex

March 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says she would be very uncomfortable about allowing parents to choose their children’s sex.

The Health and Medical Research Council is reviewing whether to allow any parents who use IVF to select their baby’s gender.

The practice is currently only allowed when there is a risk that parents will pass on genetic diseases.

The Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the Government has no plans to overturn the ban.

“I must say on a personal level I am very apprehensive about such a change,” she said.

“I’m happy to see any review of the science and the arguments that people might want to make for and against the case.

“But I need to flag that the governments had not set down the path because we want to make any changes, and at a personal level I’m very uncomfortable about the suggestions that a change might be made.”

Leading IVF specialist Professor Gab Kovacs says that is ridiculous and not allowing parents to choose the sex of their child could have negative results.

“If a couple are determined enough to go through IVF rather than natural pregnancy to have a child of one particular sex, then it’s possible that if they have a child of the opposite sex, that child may not be as appreciated and well looked after,” he said.

Professor Kovacs says parents can already travel to countries like the US and Thailand to choose their child’s gender.

He says if parents are willing to pay up to $15,000 for the technique, then they should be allowed.

“There are a small number of couples who are so determined they want a child of a particular sex, they’re prepared to go for the cost and the difficulty of IVF to get pregnant, rather than just do it naturally,” he said.

“I can’t see any reason why it should be forbidden. I’ve seen a number of couples who have maybe three or four children of one particular sex and they’re very keen on family balancing. That’s the type of couple that most often ask about sex selection.”

Dr Sandra Hacker, chair of the council’s Australian Health Ethics Committee, says the review will consider all sides of the controversial and emotive issue.

She says previous consultations have found the majority of Australians are opposed to the practice being widely available.

“There is considerable interest from the general public about this,” she said.

“But on the other hand, the idea that gender selection should be available for reasons other than genetic abnormalities seems to be one that has a general disaffection within the general population.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australia, contraception, couples, Federal Health Minister, genetic diseases, governments, Health, Health Medical, health research, Medical Research Council, Natural Pregnancy, nicola roxon, Opposite Sex, parents, Personal Level, pregnancy-and-childbirth, Professor Gab Kovacs, reproduction-and-contraception, reproductive-technology, risk, Science, Sex Health, sex research, Thailand

Early metformin treatment doubles chance of success for diabetics

March 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 10 (ANI): Starting metformin treatment early doubles chance of success for people with diabetes, a new research has found.

The Kaiser Permanente study, the first to compare failure rates of metformin in real-world setting, has appeared in the March issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.

According to the research, metformin, an inexpensive, generic drug that helps patients prevent dangerously high blood sugar levels, worked nearly twice as long for people who began taking it within three months of their diabetes diagnosis.

Metformin is recommended as a first-line agent in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but in most patients it eventually stops working, forcing them to take additional medications to control their blood sugar. Each additional drug adds extra costs and the possibility of more side effects including weight gain, so this study is welcome news for newly diagnosed patients, said researchers.

Lead author Jonathan B. Brown, an investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore, said: “This is an important finding for the 30 million people world-wide who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every year. The sooner they start taking metformin, the better and longer it seems to work.

“This study suggests that to gain full benefit from metformin, patients should start taking it as soon as they find out they have diabetes.”

Using electronic health records scientists analysed nearly 1,800 people with diabetes in Kaiser Permanente”s health plan in Washington and Oregon for up to five years. Metformin failed at a rate of only 12 percent a year for the patients who began taking it within three months of diagnosis. That compares to a failure rate of 21.4 percent per year for patients who started taking metformin one to two years after diagnosis, and 21.9 percent per year for those who didn”t start taking the drug until three years after they were diagnosed.

Co-author Gregory A. Nichols, an investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, said: “We believe that starting the drug early preserves the body”s own ability to control blood sugar, which in turn prevents the long-term complications of diabetes like heart disease, kidney failure, and blindness.

“The American Diabetes Association recommends that patients start taking metformin and make lifestyle changes as soon as they are diagnosed. This study provides more evidence to back up that recommendation.”

In the study, patients were considered to have failed metformin when their hemoglobin A1C, a test that monitors glucose control, went above 7.5 percent or when they started taking a second anti-hyperglycemic agent. Only patients who initially controlled blood sugar (to less than 7 percent on the A1C test) with metformin were included in the study.

To reduce the possibility that factors other than delay in starting metformin influenced the results of the study, researchers controlled for age, gender, and how well blood sugar was controlled prior to treatment. Consequently, an even stronger relationship emerged between the time a patient started on the drug, and the amount of time it remained effective. Still, the authors caution that other unmeasured factors could have influenced the results. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: American Diabetes Association, B Brown, blood sugar levels, diabetes care, Diabetes Diagnosis, Electronic Health Records, failure rate, failure rates, generic drug, health research, health-plan, high blood sugar, high blood sugar levels, Kaiser Permanente Study, Metformin, Portland Ore, treatment of type 2 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, weight gain, Welcome News

Underweight and extremely obese people die earlier that those of normal weight

June 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 24 (ANI): An international study conducted by Canadian and American researchers suggests that underweight and extremely obese people die earlier than those having normal weight.

The same study, however, also shows that overweight people actually live longer than those having normal weight.

“It’s not surprising that extreme underweight and extreme obesity increase the risk of dying, but it is surprising that carrying a little extra weight may give people a longevity advantage,” said Dr. David Feeny, co-author of the study and senior investigator for the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.

“It may be that a few extra pounds actually protect older people as their health declines, but that doesn’t mean that people in the normal weight range should try to put on a few pounds.

Our study only looked at mortality, not at quality of life, and there are many negative health consequences associated with obesity, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes,” said Mark Kaplan, co-author and Professor of Community Health at Portland State University.

Dr. Keith Bachman, a weight management specialist with Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute, added: “Good health is more than a BMI or a number on a scale. We know that people who choose a healthy lifestyle enjoy better health: good food choices, being physically active everyday, managing stress, and keeping blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels in check.”

The study examined the relationship between body mass index and death among 11,326 adults in Canada over a 12-year period.

The researchers observed that underweight people had the highest risk of dying, and the extremely obese had the second highest risk.

According to them, overweight people had a lower risk of dying than those of normal weight.

The researcher claim that theirs is the first large Canadian study to show that people who are overweight may actually live longer than those of normal weight.

For the study, the researchers used data from the National Population Health Survey conducted by Statistics Canada every two years.

They say that during the study period, from 1994/1995 through 2006/2007, underweight people were 70 percent more likely than people of normal weight to die, and extremely obese people were 36 percent more likely to die.

However, overweight people were 17 percent less likely to die. The relative risk for obese people was nearly the same as for people of normal weight.

The findings have been reported in the online edition of the journal Obesity. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: advantage, American researchers, ANI, blood, blood sugar levels, bmi, body, body mass index, Canada, care, center, check, cholesterol, claim, co-author, community, community health, David Feeny, death, diabetes, dr keith, Dr. David Feeny, Dr. Keith Bachman, edition, food, Food Choices, good health, Health, Health Declines, health research, healthy lifestyle, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, increase, index, institute, investigator, journal, June, kaiser, kaiser permanente, life, Lifestyle, longevity, management, Management Institute, Management Specialist, Managing Stress, Mark Kaplan, mass, mortality, national, Negative Health Consequences, number, obese, obesity, Online, overweight, percent, period, Permanente, population, portland, Portland State University, pressure, professor, quality, range, relationship, Research, researcher, risk, scale, specialist, state, stress, study, sugar, survey, underweight, University, Washington, weight, year