PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Patients' health service use

2012-12-10
(Press-News.org) Primary care physicians Johannes Hauswaldt, Eva Hummers-Pradier, and Ulrike Junius-Walker address the question of how frequently different patient groups attend doctor's appointments in this issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2012; 109[47]: 814–20). Current estimates for Germany are of 18 doctor's appointments per patient per year. However, until now there has been no further information on, for example, age groups or whether frequent contact with doctors is particularly noticeable in particular patient groups. The authors defined patient groups, such as those with chronic illnesses, those with multiple illnesses, and frequent attenders. They then analyzed anonymized data for a total of 305 896 patients at 155 primary care practices from 1996 to 2006. Each patient saw his or her primary care physician an average of seven times per year. Contrary to expectations, those with chronic illnesses did not see their doctors more frequently, but they did require special medical services such as detailed consultations and home visits. Frequent attenders seem to be a problematic group in outpatient care. They had an average of 24 doctor–patient contacts per year, although they were not seriously ill.

### http://www.aerzteblatt.de/pdf.asp?id=132850


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The greatest medical resource you've never heard of: Rochester epidemiology project

2012-12-10
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- It's the medical resource behind discoveries that have affected patients around the globe, treasured by researchers and funded by the National Institutes of Health for nearly 50 years: the Rochester Epidemiology Project. This comprehensive medical records pool makes Olmsted County, Minn., one of the few places in the world where scientists can study virtually an entire geographic population to identify trends in disease, evaluate treatments and find factors that put people at risk for illness — or protect them. And, as it nears the half-century mark, ...

Researchers reveal structure of carbon's 'Hoyle state'

2012-12-10
A North Carolina State University researcher has taken a "snapshot" of the way particles combine to form carbon-12, the element that makes all life on Earth possible. And the picture looks like a bent arm. Carbon-12 can only exist when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very specific way. This combination is known as the Hoyle state. NC State physicist Dean Lee and German colleagues Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs and Ulf-G. Meissner had previously confirmed the existence of the Hoyle state using a numerical lattice that allowed the researchers to ...

Detecting tunnels using seismic waves not as simple as it sounds

Detecting tunnels using seismic waves not as simple as it sounds
2012-12-10
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — You'd think it would be easy to use seismic waves to find tunnels dug by smugglers of drugs, weapons or people. You'd be wrong. Nedra Bonal of Sandia's geophysics and atmospheric sciences organization is nearing the end of a two-year study, "Improving Shallow Tunnel Detection From Surface Seismic Methods," aimed at getting a better look at the ground around tunnels and learning why seismic data finds some tunnels but not others. Her eventual goal is to come up with a seismic detection process for the border and other areas where tunnels pose ...

Alcohol pricing policies save lives and increase profits, experts say

2012-12-10
For immediate release – Dec. 10, 2012 (Toronto) – Setting minimum prices for alcohol increases health and economic benefits, say international experts, who met today for a seminar on alcohol pricing and public health. The meeting — sponsored by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia (CARBC) and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) — focused on new analyses on Ontario and other provinces where minimum pricing policies have been implemented for a number of years. Alcohol costs the Canadian economy ...

The chemistry of early photographs: New American Chemical Society video

2012-12-10
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2012 — The chemistry of early photography comes under the lens in a new episode of Bytesize Science, the American Chemical Society (ACS) award-winning video series. Produced by the ACS Office of Public Affairs, it is available at www.BytesizeScience.com. The video, which features Art Kaplan, of the Getty Conservation Institute, explains that the history of photography is rich with chemical innovations and insights. Early photographers came up with hundreds of different processes to develop images in unique and often beautiful ways. Kaplan describes ...

Space-age ceramics get their toughest test

Space-age ceramics get their toughest test
2012-12-10
Advanced ceramic composites can withstand the ultrahigh operational temperatures projected for hypersonic jet and next generation gas turbine engines, but real-time analysis of the mechanical properties of these space-age materials at ultrahigh temperatures has been a challenge – until now. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed the first testing facility that enables CT-scanning of ceramic composites under controlled loads at ultrahigh temperatures and in real-time. Working at Berkeley ...

Study identifies potential new pathway for drug development

2012-12-10
A newly found understanding of receptor signaling may have revealed a better way to design drugs. A study from Nationwide Children's Hospital suggests that a newly identified group of proteins, alpha arrestins, may play a role in cell signaling that is crucial to new drug development. The study appears in PLOS ONE. More than one-third of drugs on the market work by targeting G protein-coupled receptors that control how cells communicate and function. With many hundreds of members, G protein-coupled receptors are the largest family of signaling receptors throughout the ...

Infants with severe RSV disease may be immunosuppressed

2012-12-10
Infants with severe lower respiratory tract infection caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) may have a dysfunctional innate immune response that relates to the severity of their disease. These are the findings from a Nationwide Children's Hospital study appearing in a recent issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. RSV is the leading cause of lower respiratory tract infection in young children worldwide. The majority of children hospitalized with this condition are previously healthy with no known risk factors for serious disease. Of these infants, up to 20 ...

Caffeinated coffee may reduce the risk of oral cancers

2012-12-10
ATLANTA – December 10, 2012—A new American Cancer Society study finds a strong inverse association between caffeinated coffee intake and oral/pharyngeal cancer mortality. The authors say people who drank more than four cups of caffeinated coffee per day were at about half the risk of death of these often fatal cancers compared to those who only occasionally or who never drank coffee. The study is published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The authors say more research is needed to elucidate the biologic mechanisms that could be at work. Previous epidemiologic ...

Overweight pregnant women not getting proper weight-gain advice

2012-12-10
HERSHEY, Pa. -- Overweight women are not receiving proper advice on healthy weight gains or appropriate exercise levels during their pregnancies, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. "Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with weight retention after delivery and is a positive predictor of obesity after pregnancy," Dr. Cynthia Chuang, associate professor of medicine and public health sciences said. "Excessive gestational weight is particularly concerning for overweight and obese women given their already increased risk for pregnancy ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Slime mold metabolites are a promising, eco-friendly repellent of root-knot nematodes

Pathological mechanism of mechanosensitive cells driving the growth of keloids

First large-scale Alzheimer disease study in brain tissue from African American donors implicates roles for many novel genes

In a nasal spray, gold “nanoparticles” deliver a targeted treatment to the brain. A potentially revolutionary approach to mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases already has a patent

Current and recommended diets in the USA have embedded forced labor risk

AI breakthrough helps astronomers spot cosmic events with just a handful of examples

New vaccine shows promise against typhoid and invasive salmonella in first human trial

Engineered “natural killer” cells could help fight cancer

New 3D printing method ‘grows’ ultra-strong materials

Lizard genetics provide new perspective on evolution

Can a Stevia-derived sweetener improve hair loss treatment?

Method to assess the status of wild reindeer may help with conservation efforts

Do imported cut flowers spread livestock viruses?

Does prior incarceration contribute to poor health later in life?

Could slime mold microbes be a source of potent antimicrobials?

Record-breaking 2024 Amazon fires drive unprecedented carbon emissions and ecosystem degradation

Birds thrive despite pollution from ‘forever’ chemicals

Deadwood brings wild orchids to life

Changes in gut microbiota influence which patients get AIG-related neuroendocrine tumors

Medicaid expansion linked to improved long-term survival in cancer patients

Women with surgical menopause may exit workforce earlier, but hormone therapy could help

Trailblazing Young Scientists honored with $250,000 prizes at Blavatnik National Awards Gala

Revolutionary blood test for ME / Chronic Fatigue unveiled

Calorie labelling linked to 2% average reduction in energy content of menu items

Widely prescribed opioid painkiller tramadol not that effective for easing chronic pain

Exercise snacks may boost cardiorespiratory fitness of physically inactive adults

15,000 women a year with breast cancer could benefit from whole genome sequencing, say researchers

Study highlights risks of Caesarean births to future pregnancies

GLP-1 agonists pose emerging challenge for PET-CT imaging, study finds

Scripps Research scientists unlock new patterns of protein behavior in cell membranes

[Press-News.org] Patients' health service use