Study Links Post-Op Deaths to Hospital Response
A new study suggests that a hospital's number of surgical complications isn't the best marker of patient safety. Instead, patients are more likely to die in the hospital if their post-op team doesn't respond to those complications, the New York Times reports. Researchers studied the cases of 84,730 patients who underwent surgery at 186 hospitals. The rate of deaths at the hospitals varied from 3.5 percent to 6.9 percent. But between hospitals with high and low death rates, there was only a slight difference in the number of complications, suggesting that the significant difference was in how the complications were handled. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
[See: America's Best Hospitals Rankings and Honor Roll 2009].
Want to Age Well? Avoid Midlife Weight Gain
Being overweight in middle age reduces your likelihood of gliding into your 70s without any health problems like diabetes, heart disease, or cancer, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz writes. Obese women have it toughest, finds a new study published yesterday in the British Medical Journal . They're nearly 80 percent less likely to experience "healthy survival" when they reach age 70, compared with women who gained fewer than 9 pounds since age 18.
Are the researchers showing that thin women who maintain their weight over the years actually live longer? Well, no, Kotz writes. But they do indicate that these women live better, not just avoiding chronic diseases but also sidestepping mental and physical health problems that prevent women from enjoying the leisure time of their senior years. What's more, the study showed that it's truly tough to be a "healthy survivor," free of any sort of chronic physical or emotional pain or health condition at age 70. Read more.
[Photo Gallery: 7 Tips to Shed Pounds]. [Slide Show: 10 Excuses for Not Exercising, and Why They Won't Fly].
Prescription Pain Pill Addiction: 6 Tips From a Mother Whose Son Overdosed
Seeing a family member struggle with addiction to prescription painkillers can be tough, especially when it's your child, U.S. News's January Payne writes. Michele Baskin, 47, of Ponca City, Okla., watched her son, Andrew Newport, battle an addiction to OxyContin for years before he died of a drug overdose at age 22. He and his friends started experimenting with over-the-counter cough syrup when he was about 15, Baskin says. He progressed to marijuana, ecstasy, the antianxiety medication Xanax, and finally to OxyContin.
Despite stints in drug rehab, Newport relapsed, largely because of peer pressure, according to his mom. Baskin offers several words of advice, gleaned from her own experience, to help other parents. For one, don't assume that a single overdose will serve as a wake-up call for the addict. Newport overdosed for the first time in July 2008, but the near-death experience didn't make him stop using drugs. The overdose that took Newport's life occurred a few months later. Read more.
[Read: Pain Medications: What You Need to Know About Acetaminophen, Darvon, and Darvocet].
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