I’ll Take the One in the White Coat

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Sometimes, perceptions can make for good medicine, a new study suggests.

A survey of 255 patients found most people prefer their dermatologists to wear a white coat, and what their doctor wears may affect results.

The patients were shown photos of dermatologists wearing either a suit, a white coat (professional attire), surgical scrubs or casual clothing, and asked which they favored.

A white coat was the most preferred (73 percent), followed by surgical scrubs (19 percent), a suit (6 percent) and casual clothing (2 percent).

“In this study, most patients preferred professional attire for their dermatologists in most settings,” wrote Dr. Robert Kirsner, of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and coauthors.

“It is possible that patients’ perceptions of their physicians’ knowledge and skill is influenced by the physicians’ appearance, and these perceptions may affect outcomes,” the study authors concluded.

The study was published online June 1 in the journal JAMA Dermatology.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers advice on choosing a doctor.

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Long-Term Pot Use Tied to Gum Disease in Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Smoking marijuana for decades may result in gum disease and potential tooth loss, a new study indicates.

In an analysis of about 1,000 people who used pot and/or tobacco in New Zealand, those who smoked pot for 20 years didn’t have notable health problems, except for gum disease, the researchers said.

“Unlike tobacco smoking, cannabis smoking is associated with few physical health problems in midlife, with the exception of periodontal disease,” said lead researcher Madeline Meier, an assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University.

Besides gum health, the researchers assessed lung function, risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, and systemic inflammation, which could indicate a severe response to trauma or infection.

The study can’t prove that pot causes gum, or periodontal, disease. Still, “physicians should convey to patients that their cannabis use puts them at risk for tooth loss,” Meier said.

Meier can’t say why pot seems to be associated with poor dental health. “Our analyses show that this association was not explained by tobacco smoking, alcohol abuse or less tooth brushing and flossing,” she said.

However, Meier isn’t saying that marijuana doesn’t have negative consequences.

“We don’t want people to think, ‘Hey, marijuana can’t hurt me,’ because research based on this same sample of New Zealanders has shown that marijuana use is associated with increased risk of psychotic illness, IQ decline, and downward socioeconomic mobility,” she said.

In addition, the researchers didn’t follow the participants long enough to see whether pot increased the risk for diseases that develop later in life, such as heart disease and cancer, Meier said.

Study co-author Avshalom Caspi added that while the drug might not be all bad, long-term use can have some harmful effects.

“What we’re seeing is that cannabis may be harmful in some respects, but possibly not in every way,” said Caspi, a professor of psychology at Duke University, in Durham, N.C. “We need to recognize that heavy recreational cannabis use does have some adverse consequences, but overall damage to physical health is not apparent in this study.”

The study participants were born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973 and followed to age 38. The researchers looked at whether marijuana use from ages 18 to 38 was tied to health problems at 38. Nearly 700 of the more than 1,000 participants said they had used marijuana.

Use of tobacco, but not marijuana, was associated with signs of declining health, the researchers said. The lack of physical health problems among pot users was not because they were in better health to begin with or living healthier lifestyles, the researchers said.

An advocate of marijuana use said the study results bolster arguments in favor of legalized marijuana in the United States.

“These findings affirm what cannabis law reformers have known for some time: that the use of cannabis, even long term, poses far less risks to health than do tobacco, and therefore it ought to be legalized and regulated accordingly,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, which advocates for the legalization of marijuana.

The association between long-term marijuana use and gum disease is likely caused by dry mouth, which is common among marijuana smokers, he said.

“These conclusions belie the myth that cannabis’ potential dangers to the health of adults warrant its [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration] Schedule 1 prohibited status under federal law,” Armentano said. This classification contends that “marijuana’s risks are on par with those of heroin and that the plant lacks any accepted therapeutic value,” he added.

The report was published online June 1 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

More information

For more on marijuana, visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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FDA Calls for Less Salt in Processed Foods

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants the food industry to cut back on the salt.

In draft voluntary guidelines issued Wednesday, the agency set both two-year and 10-year goals for lower sodium content in hundreds of processed and prepared foods. The aim is to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke among Americans, according to the FDA.

“Many Americans want to reduce sodium in their diets, but that’s hard to do when much of it is in everyday products we buy in stores and restaurants,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in an FDA statement.

“Today’s announcement is about putting power back in the hands of consumers, so that they can better control how much salt is in the food they eat and improve their health,” she added.

Americans’ average salt intake is about 3,400 milligrams (mg) a day, which is nearly 50 percent more than what experts recommend. High salt intake increases the risk of high blood pressure (“hypertension”), heart disease and stroke.

The voluntary targets are meant to reduce Americans’ daily salt intake to 3,000 mg in two years and 2,300 mg in the next decade, according to the FDA. The guidelines cover a wide swath of foods, from bread to cold cuts, cereals and snacks.

Some studies have estimated that lowering salt intake by about 40 percent over the next decade could save 500,000 lives and nearly $100 billion in health care costs in the United States.

“The totality of the scientific evidence supports sodium reduction from current intake levels,” said Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

“Experts at the Institute of Medicine have concluded that reducing sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day can significantly help Americans reduce their blood pressure, and ultimately prevent hundreds of thousands of premature illnesses and deaths,” Mayne said.

“Because the majority of sodium in our diets comes from processed and prepared foods, consumers are challenged in lowering their sodium intake themselves,” Mayne added.

The draft guidelines, which are open for public comment ranging from 90 days to 150 days, were welcomed by American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown.

“The American Heart Association strongly supports the draft voluntary sodium targets released today by the FDA, and we call upon the agency to finalize them as soon as possible,” Brown said in a statement.

“These new targets will spark a vital, healthy change in our food supply, a change consumers say they want. These voluntary targets can have a significant impact on the nation’s health,” she added.

“Lowering sodium levels in the food supply could eliminate about 1.5 million cases of uncontrolled hypertension and save billions of dollars in health care costs over the next decade,” Brown suggested.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlines how to reduce salt in your diet.

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Flu Shot Helps Heart Failure Patients Avoid Hospital

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Getting a flu shot reduces heart failure patients’ risk of hospitalization, a new study shows.

“Uptake of the flu vaccination in heart failure patients is relatively low, ranging from less than 20 percent in low and middle-income countries to 50 to 70 percent in high income countries like the U.K.,” said study author Kazem Rahimi. He is deputy director of the George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford in England.

“This may partly be because there is no strong evidence to support the recommendation in these patients,” he said. Also, some research had suggested that vaccination might be less effective in heart failure patients than in the general population because of their blunted immune response, he added.

Heart failure means the heart is no longer able to pump blood efficiently enough to meet the body’s needs. It’s one of the most common reasons for hospital admissions among seniors, according to the American Heart Association.

For the new study, Rahimi’s team analyzed data from more than 59,000 heart failure patients in the United Kingdom.

They found that flu vaccination was associated with a 30 percent lower risk of hospitalization for heart problems, a 16 percent lower risk of hospitalization for respiratory infections, and a 4 percent lower risk of hospitalization for any reason up to 300 days after vaccination.

The findings “do not suggest that influenza infection causes [heart attack] or other cardiovascular events,” Rahimi said in a European College of Cardiology news release.

“A more likely explanation for the reduction in risk of cardiovascular hospitalization is that vaccination reduces the likelihood of an [influenza] infection, which could in turn trigger cardiovascular deterioration,” he said.

The findings “provide further evidence that there are likely worthwhile benefits, and on that basis more efforts are needed to ensure that heart failure patients receive an annual flu jab,” Rahimi said.

The findings were presented last week at the European College of Cardiology’s meeting on heart failure in Florence, Italy. Findings presented at meetings are usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The American Heart Association has more about heart failure.

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Most Americans Support Rise in Legal Smoking Age

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Highlighting tobacco’s growing unpopularity, a new survey finds most Americans support pushing the legal smoking age even higher.

Across all regions of the United States, poll respondents gave an overwhelming thumbs-up to raising the legal age for buying tobacco products to 19, 20 or even 21.

Support also “seems to cross political lines, and it is one policy measure that the majority of those surveyed can agree on,” said lead researcher Dr. Adam Goldstein, of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

His team asked more than 4,800 adults nationwide if they supported raising the minimum age for tobacco purchases to 19, 20 or 21. A majority of people in all regions of the country were in favor, the pollsters found.

Support ranged from more than 59 percent in a seven-state Midwestern region that included Iowa and Kansas, to about 73 percent in a four-state region of the South that included Texas and Louisiana.

Support in the South Atlantic region, which included North Carolina, seven other states and the District of Columbia, was about 68 percent, the survey showed.

Looked at in terms of demographics, women, non-whites, Hispanics, non-smokers and those older than 21 were more supportive of raising the minimum age. The survey also found more support for boosting the legal age to 21, rather than just 19 or 20.

“With these findings, policy makers and public health advocates can move forward knowing that people in their states support raising the minimum legal age for selling tobacco products, and that this is an issue that is not viewed as partisan,” Goldstein said in a university news release.

On Jan. 1, Hawaii became the first state to increase the legal age of tobacco sales to 21, and California soon followed. A number of counties and cities, including New York City, have increased the minimum legal age.

“With the strong support indicated in our data, I think we will continue to see strong momentum. It appears likely that, increasingly, lawmakers are going to be interested in doing this,” Goldstein suggested.

Boosting age limits does seem to matter. According to a 2015 National Academy of Medicine report, making 21 the legal age for buying tobacco nationwide would lead to a 12 percent drop in the smoking rate.

That rate is already plummeting. Just last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the U.S. adult smoking rate fell from 17 percent in 2014 to 15 percent in 2015 — the largest one-year decline in more than 20 years.

“By restricting tobacco use to people 21 and older, the compelling evidence is that you have less people who end up using it. They don’t end up taking up smoking and tobacco,” Goldstein said.

“And if you cut down on adolescents using tobacco, you’ll ultimately cut down on how many adults use tobacco, and then you cut down on tobacco-related diseases like heart disease and cancer,” he added.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about youth and tobacco.

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Girl With Zika Birth Defect Born at New Jersey Hospital

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A woman from Honduras who apparently became infected with the Zika virus in her home country gave birth Tuesday in a New Jersey hospital to a baby girl with the birth defect characteristic of the disease, officials said.

The baby has an abnormally small head, a condition called microcephaly that also results in an underdeveloped brain, hospital officials said.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Hackensack University Medical Center, said the 31-year-old mother knew she was infected with the virus before coming to visit relatives in New Jersey. Scans performed late last week showed the girl was underweight for her gestational age, so doctors delivered the baby by cesarean section, The New York Times reported.

Alvarez said he believes the baby is the first baby born in the Northeast with Zika infection, which is typically transmitted by mosquitoes.

“It tells you that Zika is real,” he said. “There is still a lot of work to be done insofar as controlling this virus.”

A baby was born in Hawaii earlier this year with microcephaly.

On Monday, U.N. health officials recommended that women planning to become pregnant should wait at least eight weeks before trying to conceive if they or their partner live in — or are returning from — areas where Zika virus infections are occurring,.

The vast majority of Zika infections have occurred in Latin America, with Brazil the hot zone with an estimated 5,000 cases of microcephaly. There have been no reports of Zika-induced microcephaly contracted in the United States. But U.S. health officials have said they expect to see Zika infections in Gulf Coast states such as Florida, Louisiana and Texas as mosquito season picks up.

Mosquito bites remain the most common source of infection of the Zika virus. But transmission of the virus through sex is more common than previously thought, World Health Organization officials said Monday. They had previously recommended a four-week abstinence before trying to conceive.

And if the male partner has had symptoms of Zika infection, couples should wait six months before trying to have a baby, the WHO officials said.

Four out of five people infected with Zika don’t develop any symptoms. Those who do most often suffer from mild symptoms that include fever, rash, joint pain or red eyes.

The true risk of Zika is to a developing fetus.

Earlier this month, U.S. health officials reported that the number of pregnant women in the United States infected with the Zika virus had tripled because cases were now being counted in a more comprehensive way.

So far, an estimated 280 infected women are being followed in the United States and its territories, according to two registries that have been created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Previously, only cases of pregnant women who had Zika-related symptoms or pregnancy complications were being tallied, CDC officials said. But recently published reports have found that some pregnant women show no symptoms of Zika infection, yet still give birth to babies with microcephaly.

To limit any potential spread of Zika virus via mosquitoes, health officials on the federal, state and local level are deploying a three-pronged strategy: improving mosquito control; expanding their ability to test for Zika; and urging the public to protect themselves against mosquitoes.

Women of child-bearing age who live in an active Zika region should protect themselves from mosquito bites by wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants, using mosquito repellent when outside, and staying indoors as much as possible, according to the CDC.

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate $1.9 billion to combat the Zika threat, but lawmakers have yet to agree on a spending package.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on the Zika virus.

This Q&A will tell you what you need to know about Zika.

To see the CDC list of sites where Zika virus is active and may pose a threat to pregnant women, click here.

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Talking, Texting Teen Drivers Take Deadly Toll

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — There’s an epidemic of distracted driving that’s maiming — and in too many cases — killing people in crashes involving teen drivers, a new report shows.

A full 60 percent of car crashes involving teenagers occur while these young and inexperienced drivers are talking, texting or are otherwise distracted. And this happens far more often during the summer, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

“I think everyone gets that distracted driving is bad and you shouldn’t do it, but until now parents didn’t have data in front of them to suggest that it was a much bigger problem that they should be concerned about for their teens,” said Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and research at the AAA.

For the study, researchers at the University of Iowa and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analyzed the moments leading up to a crash in more than 2,200 videos from in-car dashboard cameras.

The researchers found these top three distractions for teens:

• Talking to passengers accounted for 15 percent of crashes.
• Talking, texting or operating a cellphone accounted for 12 percent of crashes.
• Looking at something inside the car accounted for 11 percent of crashes.

According to the AAA report, released June 1, more than 1,000 people die in crashes involving teen drivers every year. And summer is the most dangerous season, when the average number of deaths involving teen drivers aged 16 to 19 increases 16 percent per day compared with other times of the year.

In the report, the researchers also found teens were more likely to be texting or looking at the phone than talking on it.

Such distractions can cut a young life short. Just ask Martha Tessmer.

Her 16-year-old son, Donovan, was three weeks from starting his senior year in high school in 2007 when he was killed in a car crash.

He was in a car driven by another teen. The other teen passengers were goading the girl to go faster, Tessmer said. The teasing continued until she lost control and crashed the car into one tree and then another. None of the kids was wearing a seat belt and Donovan was thrown from the car and killed. The others survived, Tessmer said.

The other passengers and the driver later told Tessmer they were afraid when they were going so fast, and if someone had spoken up she would have slowed down.

For Tessmer, the lesson is that “if they’re afraid, whether they’re the driver or the passenger, their one voice could be what saved their life and the life of the other people in that car. Don’t ever hesitate to speak up.”

Teens should know this could happen to them, Tessmer said. “It only takes one bad choice in a car to become reckless and distracted, and all the good decisions in life are canceled out — that’s what happened to Donovan,” she said.

AAA’s Nelson said distracted driving makes crashes more likely because it “makes you less likely to react quickly to a dangerous situation.”

Also, a phenomenon called “attention blindness” — when you don’t see something right in front of you because you’re focused on something else — can be deadly, he said.

Nelson noted that many states now have graduated driving licenses, which make teens safer drivers because they have limits on the number of teen passengers and also the times of day when they can drive.

Parents are the most effective deterrent to distracted driving, Nelson said. “The single most important step parents can take is to model safe driving behavior, and talk to their kids over and over and over again about the dangers of distracted driving,” he said.

Keeping cellphones out of the hands of teen drivers is a top priority for AAA, Nelson said.

The association urges parents to teach their teens about the dangers of distracted driving with these tips:

• Talk early and often about the dangers of distraction.
• Have a parent-teen agreement that sets rules against distracted driving.
• Teach by example — keep your eyes on the road while driving.

Dr. Barbara Pena, research director of the emergency department at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, agrees that parents have a pivotal role to play in making sure their teens drive safely.

“Parents need to be on top of them, reminding them of the dangers of distracted driving and leading them by example,” she said.

More information

Visit the American Automobile Association for more on distracted driving.

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Calling Your Kid ‘Fat’ Could Be Counterproductive

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Two studies highlight the complex relationship between parents’ perceptions and their children’s weights.

One study found that no matter a child’s actual weight, those whose parents believed they were overweight gained more weight. The other study found that more than 82 percent of parents underestimate the weight of their overweight or obese children.

The first study included more than 3,500 Australian children, aged 4 to 5 years at the start of the study. Of those children, nearly 20 percent were overweight or obese and more than 75 percent were normal weight. Only 20 percent of parents of children who were overweight correctly identified their child as being overweight.

But regardless of weight, children whose parents believed they were overweight gained more weight by age 13 than those whose parents correctly or incorrectly believed they were the right weight, according to the report.

“Contrary to popular belief, parental identification of child overweight is not protective against further weight gain, regardless of whether or not the child actually is overweight. Rather, it is associated with more weight gain across childhood,” wrote study author Eric Robinson, from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and a colleague.

The study authors added that further research is needed to understand how parental perceptions of child weight may counterintuitively contribute to obesity.

The authors noted there is growing evidence that the stigma of being labeled overweight may lead children to overeat and change the way parents interact with their child, such as giving them food for comfort.

The study was presented Tuesday at the European Obesity Summit in Sweden and was also published online May 31 in the journal Pediatrics.

The second study included the parents of more than 2,800 children from the Netherlands. The youngsters were 5 to 6 years old. Researchers found that 70 percent of parents correctly estimated their child’s weight.

However, among parents of overweight or obese children, 82 percent underestimated their child’s weight, the study revealed.

Parents in families where more than half the members were overweight were more likely to underestimate the weight of overweight and obese children than parents in families where less than half the members were overweight, the findings showed.

The study also found that socioeconomic status affected the rates of overweight and obese children — the rate was 16 percent in poor families compared to 11 percent in wealthy families.

Socioeconomic status also appeared to play a role in whether or not parents recognized that their children were overweight or obese. About one-third of wealthier parents correctly identified excess weight in their kids. By contrast, under 20 percent of parents from low or moderate socioeconomic families were able to do so, the study authors found.

“Parents are unlikely to adequately perceive overweight in their children. Perception of overweight and obesity in children concerns underestimation in four out of five cases,” Grietje Lijklema, from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues wrote.

“Parents with high socioeconomic status are better at correctly perceiving their child is overweight but, overall, perception of a child’s weight depends the most on the degree of overweight within the child’s family,” the researchers reported.

This study was also presented Tuesday at the obesity meeting. The findings by Lijklema’s team should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on childhood overweight and obesity.

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Women With Migraine May Face Higher Threat of Heart Disease, Stroke

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women who suffer from migraine headaches may have a slightly increased risk of heart disease or stroke, a new study suggests.

“Migraine should be considered a marker for increased risk of cardiovascular disease, at least in women,” said lead researcher Dr. Tobias Kurth, director of the Institute of Public Health at Charite-Universitatsmedizin in Berlin, Germany.

But, Kurth cautioned that this study can’t prove that migraines cause heart attack or stroke, only that they may make these events more likely.

Also, men may be similarly affected. “We have no reason to believe that this is limited to women,” Kurth said.

Migraines are headaches marked by intense throbbing or pulsing, often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound. They had previously been linked to an increased risk for stroke, but this new study also ties them to possible heart attack, death and the need for heart surgery, the researchers noted.

“Physicians should be aware of the association between migraine and cardiovascular disease, and women with migraine should be evaluated for their risk,” Kurth said.

For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 116,000 U.S. women who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study II. At the start of the study, the women were aged 25 to 42, free from heart disease, and were followed from 1989 to 2011.

At the study’s start, 15 percent of the women had migraines. During 20 years of follow-up, more than 1,300 women had a heart attack or stroke and 223 died from one of those conditions, the researchers found.

Compared with women who did not have migraines, women who had migraines had a 50 percent greater risk for heart attack, stroke or surgery to open blocked heart arteries, the study suggested.

Specifically, women with migraines had about a 39 percent higher risk of heart attack, a 62 percent higher risk of stroke and a 73 percent higher risk of heart surgery, Kurth said.

In addition, migraine was linked with a 37 percent higher risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, the findings suggested.

These associations remained after the researchers accounted for other risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure, age and use of oral contraceptives.

The report was published May 31 in the journal BMJ.

Dr. Rebecca Burch is an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and co-author of an accompanying journal editorial. She said, “We can add migraine to the list of known risk factors for heart disease, which can be challenging because migraine tends to occur earlier in life and cardiovascular disease tends to show up later in life.”

The apparent increase in risk of heart disease and stroke related to migraines is likely to be small, so it may not make a large difference to an individual person, Burch said. “But because migraine is so common, that small increase in risk may be much more meaningful when we consider the population as a whole,” she said.

Since it isn’t known why there’s this apparent risk and what can be done to reduce it, Burch said her advice is “not to make any changes to the treatment of people with migraine based on these findings.

“It is important to make sure we are evaluating cardiovascular risk among women with migraine and doing what we know helps to reduce that risk, like advising regular exercise and managing blood pressure,” she said.

More information

Visit the American Migraine Foundationfor more on migraine headaches.

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Baby’s Early Walking May Mean Stronger Bones as Teen

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For all those parents who fret about how quickly their baby will learn to walk, read up.

British scientists report that toddlers who can walk, run and jump by the time they are 18 months old may have stronger bones as teenagers.

The researchers suggested that their findings could help identify those at increased risk for osteoporosis and broken bones later life.

“The findings are intriguing, as they provide a link which wasn’t previously understood, primarily that how we move as a young child can have ramifications for our bone strength even 16 years later,” said lead researcher Dr. Alex Ireland. He’s with Manchester Metropolitan School of Healthcare Science in England.

“We believe that stronger muscles could act as a ‘marker’ for this,” Ireland said in a university news release. “Being more active gives you stronger muscles, which can then apply bigger forces to the bones as we walk, run or jump, helping to strengthen bones as we grow older.”

For the research, the study authors examined data compiled on more than 2,300 people born in the 1990s.

The participants’ movement was assessed when they were 18 months old. The size, shape and mineral density of their hip and shin bones were also measured when they were 17 years old.

Activities such as walking, running and jumping put stress on the bones, which can make them wider, thicker and subsequently stronger, the researchers said.

The study also found that toddlers who walked early had larger muscles and may be more likely to engage in physical activity when they are older. The researchers noted that previous studies have shown that variations in muscle size accounts for about 50 percent of the difference in kids’ bone strength by the age of 17.

Early physical activity and exercise had greater effects on bone strength among the men than the women, the study authors added.

“Importantly, the results could have implications for later life by helping medical practitioners to anticipate and detect those who are at a greater risk of osteoporosis or fractures, thus helping them to devise prevention and coping strategies,” said Ireland. “For example, attainment of these movement skills at an early age can be easily improved even by simple parent-led walking practice at home.”

The study findings were published recently in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about bone health.

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Many Parents Ill-Informed About Kids’ Asthma Meds

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Only half of parents of children with asthma fully understand the use of their youngsters’ asthma medications, a new study finds.

A survey of parents of 740 children with probable persistent asthma found just 49 percent knew what kind of medication their child was prescribed and how often to use it.

Following recommended guidelines is key to controlling asthma symptoms, experts say.

“Adherence to the guidelines has demonstrated improved outcomes: decreased hospitalizations, emergency department visits and outpatient visits,” said study primary author Dr. Ann Chen Wu, of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston.

Parents were asked which asthma controller medications their child was prescribed and how often they should be taken. Responses were compared to instructions from their child’s health care provider.

Records showed that 77 percent of the children were supposed to use inhaled corticosteroids, 22 percent were to take leukotriene antagonists and 1 in 10 were to take a combination of inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta agonists such as Advair.

But deviations from the doctor’s directions were common. For instance, nearly 30 percent of kids prescribed inhaled corticosteroids — an important preventive measure — weren’t taking them as directed.

Children with severe asthma were not included in the study, which was published recently in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Among roughly 200 children who were supposed to use the inhaled corticosteroids every day of the year, 27 percent of parents said otherwise. Among the 263 children who were supposed to use inhaled corticosteroids daily when asthma is active, more than half of parents said they weren’t compliant.

“Of course, we need to improve provider-patient communication in the medical office, especially for controller medications for children with asthma, but providers may be unaware of their patient’s lack of adherence,” Wu said in a journal news release.

“A mismatch between parent and provider was more likely to happen if the parents felt that the medicine was not helping, or, conversely, if the parent believed their child did not need as much as prescribed,” Wu added.

“Mismatches” were also more likely to occur among Hispanic parents, she and her colleagues said.

More information

The American Lung Association offers advice for parents of children with asthma.

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