Health News

Potential Medicaid beneficiaries under new expansions are as healthy or healthier than current beneficiaries, expenditures may be lower than projected

Date: Sep-12-2013
The potentially eligible Medicaid population under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act-financed Medicaid expansion is similarly healthy as - if not healthier than - the current Medicaid population, according to a new study from researchers out of the University of Michigan. The exception to this general theme is that tobacco smoking and alcohol use patterns are higher among potential Medicaid enrollees than for current Medicaid beneficiaries. Specifically, the analysis of the most recently available nationally representative data on an estimated 13.8 million current and 13...

Study identifies fibroblast growth factor 18 as an ovarian cancer biomarker

Date: Sep-12-2013
Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in women and is often not detected until the later stages of disease, which contributes to poor prognosis. Biomarkers that can be used for early diagnosis and outcome have been identified; however, many of these have not been evaluated at the biological and clinical levels. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Michael Birrer and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital identify fibroblast growth factor 18 (FGF18) as a predictive marker for poor overall survival in ovarian cancer patients...

New report finds no evidence that safety-net patients receive substandard primary care

Date: Sep-12-2013
A new study by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) finds no evidence that primary care physicians provide "second-class" care to Medicaid, uninsured and other patients who rely on the nation's safety-net system. The study, which appears in the September issue of the journal Health Affairs, challenges previous claims that the care provided to low-income and vulnerable patients is substandard. The new study was supported by the Geiger/Gibson RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative...

5 percent of US children, teens classified as 'severely obese'

Date: Sep-12-2013
About 5 percent of U.S. children and teens are "severely obese" - a newly defined class of risk, according to an American Heart Association scientific statement published online in the journal Circulation. "Severe obesity in young people has grave health consequences," said Aaron Kelly, Ph.D., lead author of the statement and a researcher at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. "It's a much more serious childhood disease than obesity." While childhood obesity rates are starting to level off, severe obesity has increased, Kelly said...

Essay: Medical homes should play a more active role in helping patients obtain and retain health insurance coverage

Date: Sep-12-2013
A family physician reflects on the potential of primary care medical homes to partner with patients to reduce preventable mortality by helping them find and keep health insurance coverage, asserting that ensuring all patients have the best and most continuous coverage available to them under existing and newly expanded programs may be as (or more) important than ensuring all patients have optimal blood pressure control, diabetes control or timely cancer screenings...

How bedbugs shrug off pesticides and simple measures to deal with it

Date: Sep-12-2013
The bedbug's most closely guarded secrets - stashed away in protective armor that enables these blood-sucking little nasties to shrug off insecticides and thrive in homes and hotels - are on the agenda at a major scientific meeting...

Breath tests could be used to diagnose lung cancer

Date: Sep-12-2013
Collecting samples of exhaled breath from people at a high risk of lung cancer could be a cheap and non-invasive method of diagnosing the disease, according to new research. The findings were presented on 9 September 2013 at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress in Barcelona. Current tests for lung cancer include blood and urine tests, followed by CT scans and chest radiographs. This new method could see people at a high risk of lung cancer receiving an initial breath test to quickly assess their symptoms...

Chemists find new way to put the brakes on cancer

Date: Sep-12-2013
While great strides have been achieved in cancer treatment, scientists are looking for the new targets and next generation of therapeutics to stop this second leading cause of death nationwide. A new platform for drug discovery has been developed through a collaborative effort linking chemists at NYU and pharmacologists at USC...

Positive attitude may increase life of heart disease patients

Date: Sep-12-2013
Heart disease patients who have a positive attitude are more likely to exercise and may live longer, according to a study published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. According to the researchers from Denmark, previous studies have shown that a positive mood has been linked with better prognosis in patients with ischemic heart disease, but how this works has been unclear...

Aerobic fitness boosts memory and learning in children

Date: Sep-12-2013
Researchers say that physical fitness in children can boost their memory and learning abilities, particularly when initially learning a task that is more challenging. The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, was conducted by Lauren Raine and colleagues from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The study involved 48 children aged 9 and 10-years-old. On the first day, a test was carried out to measure the children's aerobic fitness...