The risks for death due to cigarette smoking are much greater today, particularly for women, than they were in 1964 when the first Surgeon General's report was issued, according to a new analysis of data on more than 2 million smokers by the National Cancer Institute. Smoking-related causes of death include lung cancer; oral cancers; cancer in the larynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas; heart disease; stroke; and chronic obstructive lung diseases. Researchers suggest that the increased risk--a doubling in lung cancer death risks for men and a quadrupling in women--may be due to the greater lifetime dose of cigarette smoke by today's smokers. Women smokers are starting earlier and all smokers are taking larger puffs and deeper inhalations than those 40 years ago. For more information on cancer and related topics, call NCI at 1-800-4-CANCER or visit their Internet site at http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov.--an NIH HEALTHWise report, July 1997
Disability Among the Elderly Could Be Reduced Investigators from the National Institute on Aging report that, in the year when older people become severely disabled, a large proportion are hospitalized for a small number of conditions--stroke, hip fracture, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and dehydration. Targeting these conditions for prevention, intensive treatment, and rehabilitation could help reduce disability among a substantial number of older people and improve their ability to function independently. The research indicates that medical technologies used in intensive care wards, drugs, surgery, and rehabilitation might be underused in older people. Advanced age, in and of itself, should not be used as the basis for determining how aggressively an older person should be treated, the study's authors say. In fact, a hospitalization may be an opportune time to have an impact on the disabling consequences of disease. For more information on aging-related topics, call the National Institute on Aging at 1-800-222-2225, or visit their Internet site at http://www.nih.gov/nia.--an NIH HEALTHWise report, July 1997 Family Doctors Can Help Problem Drinkers Grantees from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that screening and brief educational sessions by general internists and family physicians reduced average drinks each week, excessive drinking, and binge drinking in problem drinkers by 20 percent or more after 1 year. There was also a two-fold reduction in the length of hospitalizations, the first direct evidence of decreases in the use of U.S. health services as a result of physician intervention. Almost 20 percent of American adults are problem drinkers who are at risk of developing medical and/or social consequences as a result of their drinking. The research appeared in the April 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. For more information on alcohol-related topics, write the NIAAA at P.O. Box 10686, Rockville, MD 20849-0686 or visit their Internet site at http://www.niaaa.nih.gov.--an NIH HEALTHWise report, July 1997 For more information, reporters can contact: Laura Vazquez Information Development Specialist, NIH Phone: (301) 496-4461 Fax: (301) 496-0017 E-mail: lv16f@nih.gov
Investigators from the National Institute on Aging report that, in the year when older people become severely disabled, a large proportion are hospitalized for a small number of conditions--stroke, hip fracture, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and dehydration. Targeting these conditions for prevention, intensive treatment, and rehabilitation could help reduce disability among a substantial number of older people and improve their ability to function independently. The research indicates that medical technologies used in intensive care wards, drugs, surgery, and rehabilitation might be underused in older people. Advanced age, in and of itself, should not be used as the basis for determining how aggressively an older person should be treated, the study's authors say. In fact, a hospitalization may be an opportune time to have an impact on the disabling consequences of disease. For more information on aging-related topics, call the National Institute on Aging at 1-800-222-2225, or visit their Internet site at http://www.nih.gov/nia.--an NIH HEALTHWise report, July 1997
Family Doctors Can Help Problem Drinkers Grantees from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that screening and brief educational sessions by general internists and family physicians reduced average drinks each week, excessive drinking, and binge drinking in problem drinkers by 20 percent or more after 1 year. There was also a two-fold reduction in the length of hospitalizations, the first direct evidence of decreases in the use of U.S. health services as a result of physician intervention. Almost 20 percent of American adults are problem drinkers who are at risk of developing medical and/or social consequences as a result of their drinking. The research appeared in the April 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. For more information on alcohol-related topics, write the NIAAA at P.O. Box 10686, Rockville, MD 20849-0686 or visit their Internet site at http://www.niaaa.nih.gov.--an NIH HEALTHWise report, July 1997 For more information, reporters can contact: Laura Vazquez Information Development Specialist, NIH Phone: (301) 496-4461 Fax: (301) 496-0017 E-mail: lv16f@nih.gov
Grantees from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that screening and brief educational sessions by general internists and family physicians reduced average drinks each week, excessive drinking, and binge drinking in problem drinkers by 20 percent or more after 1 year. There was also a two-fold reduction in the length of hospitalizations, the first direct evidence of decreases in the use of U.S. health services as a result of physician intervention. Almost 20 percent of American adults are problem drinkers who are at risk of developing medical and/or social consequences as a result of their drinking. The research appeared in the April 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. For more information on alcohol-related topics, write the NIAAA at P.O. Box 10686, Rockville, MD 20849-0686 or visit their Internet site at http://www.niaaa.nih.gov.--an NIH HEALTHWise report, July 1997
For more information, reporters can contact:
Laura Vazquez Information Development Specialist, NIH Phone: (301) 496-4461 Fax: (301) 496-0017 E-mail: lv16f@nih.gov
