1577 West Ridge Road |
2280 East Avenue |
Rochester, NY 14615 |
Rochester, NY 14610 |
Phone: (585) 865-7446 |
Phone: (585) 473-4913 |
Fax: (585) 865-7531 |
info@employeehealthsystems.com
EAP Newsletter - February 2005
Children who watch major sporting events on television see a lot of violence and unsafe behavior, and it is not just on the field.
Researchers who examined commercials during the broadcasts reported recently that about a fifth depicted images that could have bad influences on younger viewers.
The study appears in the Journal of Pediatrics. Its lead author, Dr. Robert F. Tamburro, said he did not know whether sporting events carried a disproportionate number of commercials with questionable imagery. But he said he had focused on them because many viewers were young.
"I think a lot of people think a sporting event is pretty safe TV," said Dr. Tamburro, who did his research while he was at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, but now is at Penn State Children's Hospital.
He said a review of 1,185 commercials broadcast over a one-year period during the Winter Olympics, football, baseball, basketball and other sports suggests otherwise. Fourteen percent showed unsafe behavior (defined as "any action that could have harmful consequences or that contravened the injury prevention recommendations of national organizations"), while 6 percent showed violence.
Dr. Tamburro said the unsafe behavior included riding a bicycle without a helmet, riding in a car without a car seat and crossing a street without looking. The violent images were generally in commercials for movies or other television shows.
Not all sporting events were equal. The greatest number of commercials depicting violence or unsafe behavior was shown during the Super Bowl, the study said. The least violent were shown for the Masters Golf Tournament, which had no violent commercials at all, the researchers said.
Stress and Asthma, Hand in Hand
A study that followed the health of asthmatic children for a year and a half found that stressful events significantly increased their chances of having asthma attacks within two days and again about six weeks later.
The researchers, whose report appears in the current issue of Thorax asked the families of 60 children, ages 6 to 13, to keep close records of their asthma attacks and to conduct daily tests of their breathing capacity.
The families were also asked to record any events that might produce stress, including moving, changes in the household makeup and illness.
The researchers, led by Dr. Deija Sandberg of University College London, tried to see whether there was a correlation. "The results," they wrote, "were unequivocal."
The children were found to be four times as likely to suffer attacks within two days of stressful events. And six weeks later, for reasons the researchers said were unclear, they were again at higher risk for attacks.
The findings were released as another report, from Asthma Action America, suggested that asthma in children could be better controlled if families understood the illness and its treatment better.
The organization, a coalition of health providers and community groups that receives money from pharmaceutical companies, said a survey of 800 families with asthmatic children had found that parents often did not understand the severity of their children's illness or how to control it.
State Courts Post Data on Lawyers
Beginning in 2005, New Yorkers will have access to more facts about lawyers through the state court system's Web site, including information about whether they have been suspended or disbarred. The Unified Court's website will also detail other information such as where they went to law school and what year they were admitted to the bar.
David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the court system, said the additional information is being offered as a service to legal consumers.
He said there have been complaints that people were preying on communities with a high percentage of recent immigrant arrivals by portraying themselves as lawyers.
Wire reports
When Teeth Tell Tales on Bones
Dental X-rays of postmenopausal women can help doctors spot signs of the weakening bones of osteoporosis, as well as more traditional tests, a new study reports.
Writing in The American Journal of Roentgenologym, the researchers said the tip-off lay in erosion in the lower jaw. If dentists are trained to identify the problem, they can refer their patients for bone density scans and treatment. The study was led by Dr. Akira Taguchi of Hiroshima University Hospital.
Earlier research had suggested that the X-rays might be useful in spotting women who were developing osteoporosis, which increases the risk of fractures. For this study, the researchers wanted to know whether they were as accurate as the questionnaires that doctors use to determine whether women should have bone density tests.
The researchers examined X-rays of about 300 postmenopausal women and detected the signs of osteoporosis 80 to 87 percent of the time. Dr. Taguchi said the X-rays might also help find the disease in men.
That is about the same success rate as the questionnaires. But the advantage of the X-rays is that while many women are never given the questionnaires, the dental X-rays are often already on hand. About 15 million are taken yearly in the United States, the journal said.
Dentists would need to be trained to identify the changes, but that could be done in dental school and at professional conferences, said Dr. Kirkland W. Davis, an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
"What would be required is that somebody try to get the information out to dentists," Dr. Davis said.
Vital Signs, Eric Nagourney
Get to Know Your Estate Planning Tools
A well-designed estate plan can help ensure that your hard-earned assets are distributed on your terms - rather than according to state law. When planning your estate, you'll want to consider several tools that can help you, such as:
A WILL. This is your blueprint for distributing your assets to your family and/or other beneficiaries. In this document, you can customize certain provisions to meet your personal needs. However, if you should become incapacitated, a will does not provide for the management of your assets.
DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY. Appoint someone to make personal and financial decisions for you in the event you become disabled or incapacitated. Keep in mind, a durable power of attorney will end upon your death.
BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS. Assets with beneficiary designations such as life insurance, annuities and IRA's will be distributed to the named beneficiary no matter what you indicate in your will or revocable living trust. Specify contingent beneficiaries as well, just in case your primary beneficiary predeceases you.
Website Compares Drugs for Best Buys
Consumers Union responds to high prices
The publisher of Consumer Reports recently launched a free website to do for prescription drugs what it has already done for cars, refrigerators and other gadgets; rate them on safety, effectiveness and cost.
The first-of-a-kind website compares drugs for high cholesterol, pain relief and heartburn, choosing a "best buy" in each category, In the next two years, 20 categories of drugs will be analyzed.
The site may add pressure to drug-makers to demonstrate how their products stack up against those of similar competitors. It is part of a growing movement by employers, insurers and the government to funnel patients to treatments, hospitals or doctors with proven track records and cost-effective programs.
"We're doing this because the cost of drugs has become a national crisis in this country," says Joel Curing, executive vice president of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.
Choosing "best buy" drugs could save patients hundreds each year, he says.
Medical information for the site is drawn from published studies analyzed by a research center that is already providing the information to 12 states for their Medicaid programs.
To be considered a "best buy," the drug must have a safety record as good as others in the same category and be priced significantly lower than the most costly drug.
The site says:
* Consumers who need to lower cholesterol a moderate amount can save up to $1,300 a year by switching from brand-name cholesterol-lowering drugs to the site's "best buy" generic, lovastatin. The pick for those who need stronger drugs is Pfizer's Lipitor.
The site says less is known about newer drugs Lescol and Crestor, so it does not include them in the rankings.
* Arthritis and pain sufferers could save up to $180 a month by choosing generic ibuprofen or generic salsalate.
* Many heartburn patients could benefit from over-the-counter products rather than prescriptions. The best-buy pick is over-the-counter omeprazole, the generic version of Prilosec.
In recent years, the drug industry has criticized efforts to compare drugs or limit Medicaid patients to certain products, saying the data may be insufficient to make comparisons and that patients should have a wide range of choices.
But private insurers commonly rank drugs on lists of "preferred and non-preferred" drugs, often based on both medical evidence and cost.
The drug industry's trade group recently gave a measured response to the Consumer Reports site.
Spokesmen said patients should always discuss the choice of drugs with their doctors. And the "best buy" may not be the best for all patients, said Paul Antony, chief medical officer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
"Different medicines work differently in different people," Antony says.
Although the company's drug Lipitor was chosen as a "best buy" for patients needing extra help lowering their cholesterol, a Pfizer spokesman had some criticisms of the site.
Robert Popovian, senior director of Pfizer's medical division, said the site's researchers did not include all types of studies, such as research into how patients use a drug in the real world, not as part of a clinical trial.
Without that information, he said, patients don't know about research showing some drugs a better tolerated by patients than others.
"You and I can take the same drug, and we will have a different reaction to that drug." Popovian says.
Others say the Consumers Union site does provide valuable information. Sheila Weiss Smith, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, says patients and their doctors will gain insight into drug process and effectiveness through the site. But, she warns, consumers should read the entire report on the class of drug they are considering, not just the short highlight page that precedes each section.
"If you just read the highlights, you're not informed," she says.
The pharmacy benefit management industry, which does similar research for insurers and employers, praised the Web site, as well as other efforts by employers and insurers to seek comparative data from medical providers.
"The days of the drug industry dictating which drugs work, who should take them and what they should cost are over," say Mark Merritt, president of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.
More Internet sources for drug information:
www.fda.gov/cder - The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research is responsible for evaluating drugs before they are sold. It offers consumer medical information sheets, based on the package insert, on all prescription and over-the-counter drugs approved since 1998.
worstpills.org - Public Citizen's Health Research Group offers advice about medication safety, effectiveness and interactions. While some of the content is free, other parts require a paid subscription.
oregonrx.org - The site, from the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research, provides evidence-based reports and reviews on well-known drug classes such as statins and inflammation-reducing medication.
www.drugdigest.org - Some content is provided by staff physicians from benefit pharmacy manager Express Scripts. The site's library has detailed information tailored specifically to more than 1,500 drugs and remedies
pubmed.gov - Sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, the site archives mort than 14 million medical journals and citations dating back to the 1950s. Some of the full-text articles require a subscription fee.
There is an advanced search function to find related articles that may use different terms for the same concept.
webmd.com - The Web site of WebMD, a Nasdaq-listed company, offers news briefs, answers to medical questions, a physician-fining function, numerous articles, a guide to understanding symptoms and a Medicare-approved discount program locator.
The specialty home pages provide comprehensive content on major health topics.
medicare.gov - This site provides a comparison of drug prices available through the Medicare discount card program. It also suggests generic alternatives to brand-name drugs.
The above articles were gathered from a variety of news sources.
Employee Health Systems 2005
1577 West Ridge Road |
2280 East Avenue |
Rochester, NY 14615 |
Rochester, NY 14610 |
Phone: (585) 865-7446 |
Phone: (585) 473-4913 |
Fax: (585) 865-7531 |