Researchers compared the performance of 1,386 students from 32
schools throughout the U.K. on several Internet-based tests of
attention, memory and reaction time. Subjects included 721 girls and 665
boys age 6 to 16 who logged onto a website between 7:42 a.m. and 12:33
p.m. On testing day, 1,202 students reported having breakfast and 184
didn't have breakfast. A higher percentage of girls didn't have
breakfast, 7.6% compared with 5.6% of boys.
Compared with those who ate breakfast, students who skipped the
morning meal had 7% slower power of attention, a measure of their
ability to focus and avoid distraction. They also detected 7% fewer
targets on target-detection tasks and correctly identified 9% fewer
pictures on a picture-recognition test at a 9% slower speed than
students who ate breakfast. Variability in response time, an indication
of focusing consistency, was 10% more erratic in those who missed
breakfast. Girls without breakfast were significantly more disrupted in
their ability to focus than boys who didn't have breakfast, results
showed.
Test-score differences between the two
groups were larger in those tested after 11 a.m. than those tested
earlier in the morning.
Caveat: The study didn't analyze the effects of different breakfast foods or caffeine consumption.
Caring and curing: Diabetic individuals who switch from
an unempathetic doctor to one with more patient understanding can
reduce their risk of complications by 41%, according to a report in
Academic Medicine. A physician's ability to understand a patient's
perspective is key to an effective doctor-patient relationship, but few
studies have measured the impact of physician empathy on patient health.
Using 2009 data, U.S. and Italian researchers compared the self-rated
empathy of 242 family physicians from northern Italy and the rate of
severe complications in 20,961 patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
Empathy was measured with a validated 20-question scale that assessed
physicians' ability to put themselves in a patient's situation and to
communicate that understanding. Questions were scored from one to seven,
with one indicating strong disagreement and seven indicating strong
agreement.
Of the 242 doctors, 81 had high empathy scores, 84 were moderate
scorers and 77 low scorers. Severe complications requiring hospital
care, such as diabetic comas, developed in 123 of the 20,961 patients.
Of these, 29 had high-empathy doctors, 52 had moderately empathetic
doctors and 42 had low-empathy doctors. The difference between the
outcomes of patients with high-empathy doctors and those with moderate-
and low-empathy physicians was statistically significant, researchers
said. Patients of empathetic doctors may be more compliant with
treatment regimes, they said.
Caveat: The study didn't consider other
factors that influence patient outcomes, such as disease severity,
patient compliance, social supports, physician competence, and insurance
coverage. Patient perception of physician empathy wasn't assessed.
Birth traumas: Newborns may be
predisposed to specific types of injuries during labor and delivery
depending on their sex, according to a study in the Journal of
Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine. Studies suggest newborn boys have
higher rates of birth-related injuries than girls, but it isn't known if
this is due to boys' generally higher birth weight and larger heads or
is instead associated with their sex, researchers said.
The study analyzed birth-related injuries in 2,874 infants, including
1,663 boys and 1,211 girls, born in Israel from 1986 to 2009. Each was
matched with two uninjured controls born at the same time. Injuries to
the scalp were reported in 1,836 infants, including 67% of the boys and
60% of the girls. Fractures of the clavicle, or collarbone, occurred in
30% of the boys and 35% of the girls. Rates of other types of
birth-related injuries, such as cerebral hemorrhage, spinal cord
injuries and facial palsy, were low in both sexes.
The adjusted results, which considered birth weight and birth length, head circumference and other factors, indicated male sex was an independent risk factor for scalp injury and female sex for clavicle fracture. The study is the first to report a higher susceptibility of girls to clavicle fractures, researchers said, who recommended further studies to assess sex differences in bone density and strength.
Caveat: The findings may not apply to children born in other countries.
Kidney stones: One or more episodes of
kidney stones significantly increase the risk of developing chronic
kidney disease and kidney failure, especially in women, according to a
study in BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal. Kidney stones are
solid masses of crystals and proteins that can block the flow of urine
out of the kidneys, but are rarely considered the primary cause of
kidney failure. Stones are most common in men 20 to 30 years old.
A Canadian-U.S. research team used
hospital records to track 3.1 million Alberta residents with normal
kidney function from 1997 to 2009. Over the study period, 23,706
subjects, including 15,686 men and 8,020 women, developed kidney stones.
Chronic kidney disease was subsequently diagnosed in 68,525 subjects
and end-stage renal disease, or kidney failure, in 5,333. Creatinine
levels, an indicator of kidney function, doubled in 6,581 subjects,
blood tests showed.
After adjusting for age, sex, and other factors, the risk of kidney
failure was twice as high in subjects with one or more episodes of
kidney stones than those without stones, the study found. For women
under age 50, the risk was more than three times greater than women
without stones. The calcification process that underlies stone formation
may cause permanent kidney damage, though anatomical differences may
offer some protection to men, despite their greater susceptibility to
stones, researchers said.
Caveat: The risk of different types of
kidney stones wasn't assessed. Genetic information that might indicate a
patient's predisposition to kidney stones wasn't available.
Drug compliance: More than half of
patients prescribed medications for heart disease don't take the drugs
regularly and may benefit from a simple memory jogger such as
pharmacy-generated text messages, suggests a meta-analysis published in
the American Journal of Medicine. Previous studies of text messaging
have found the reminders useful in getting people to increase use of
sunscreen, supporting smoking cessation and increasing
oral-contraceptive compliance.
U.K. researchers pooled pharmacy refill data on 376,162 patients from
20 studies conducted in seven countries from 1998 to 2010. Subjects
were 64 years old on average. Eleven studies focused on heart-attack
prevention and nine on preventing a recurrence. The study examined
adherence to seven medications, including aspirin,
angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers,
beta-blockers, calcium-channel blockers, thiazides, and statins.
Patients were considered compliant if they took medications more than
75% of the time.
Patient compliance in the 20 studies combined was 57% over 24 months,
results showed. Compliance in the prevention studies was 50%; it was
66% in the secondary-prevention trials. Compliance differences between
drugs were small, suggesting side effects and dosing have little effect
on compliance, researchers said. Factors such as gender, age and method
of payment didn't affect adherence, the study found.
Caveat: The study assumes patients
obtained their medications from a single provider, researchers said. Prescription refills don't mean the drug has been taken, they said.
Source: Wall Street Journal Online Magazine
kumaran nadaraja
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