Living
alone raises risk of death
Living alone may increase risk of mortality,
cardiovascular death, according to a new study.
In an international study of stable outpatients
at risk of or with arterial vascular disease (such as coronary disease or
peripheral vascular disease), living alone was associated with an increased
risk of death and cardiovascular death.
Social isolation may be associated with poor
health consequences, and the risk associated with living alone is relevant
because about 1 in 7 American adults lives alone.
Epidemiological evidence suggests that social
isolation may alter neurohormonal-mediated emotional stress, influence health
behavior and effect access to health care, which may result in association with
or acquisition of, cardiovascular risk, according to the study background.
Jacob A Udell, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues examined
whether living alone was associated with increased mortality and cardiovascular
(CV) risk in the global REduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health
(REACH) Registry. Among 44,573 REACH participants, 8,594 (19%) lived alone.
Living alone was associated with higher four-year
mortality (14.1% vs. 11.1%) and cardiovascular death (8.6% vs. 6.8%), according
to the study results.
Based on age, living alone was associated with an
increased risk of death among those patients 45 to 65 years old compared with
those living with others (7.7% vs. 5.7%), and among those participants 66 to 80
years old (13.2% vs. 12.3%).
However, among patients older than 80 years,
living alone was not associated with an increased risk of mortality compared
with those living with others (24.6% vs. 28.4%).
“In conclusion, living alone was independently
associated with an increased risk of mortality and CV death in an international
cohort of stable middle-aged outpatients with or at risk of atherothrombosis,”
the researchers concluded.
“Younger individuals who live alone may have a
less favorable course than all but the most elderly individuals following
development of CV disease, and this observation warrants confirmation in
further studies,” they noted.
The study was published Online First by Archives
of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
Source:
www.dnaindia.com
22.06.2012
Walk in park boosts memory
A walk in the park
benefits people suffering from depression, say researchers on the basis of new
evidence.
Marc Berman,
post-doctoral fellow at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute, working with
Michigan and Stanford Universities, said: "Our study showed that
participants with clinical depression demonstrated improved memory performance
after a walk in nature, compared to a walk in a busy urban environment."
Berman, however,
cautioned that such walks are not a replacement for existing and well-validated
treatments for clinical depression, such as psychotherapy and drug treatment,
the Journal of Affective Disorders reports.
Berman's research is
part of a cognitive science field known as Attention Restoration Theory (ART)
which proposes that people concentrate better after spending time in nature or
looking at scenes of nature, according to Baycrest statement.
The reason, according
to ART, is that people interacting with peaceful nature settings aren't
bombarded with external distractions that relentlessly tax their working memory
and attention systems.
In a previous study
reported in the journal Psychological Science, Berman showed that adults who
were not diagnosed with any illness received a mental boost after an hour-long
walk in a woodland park - improving their performance on memory and attention
tests by 20 percent - compared to an hour-long stroll in a noisy urban
environment.
In this study, Berman
and his team explored whether a nature walk would provide similar cognitive
benefits, and also improve the mood for people with clinical depression.
They recruited
individuals from the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor area with a history
of clinical depression. Participants exhibited a 16 percent increase in
attention and working memory after the nature walk relative to the urban walk.
Source: www.dnaindia.com
22.06.2012
A dream is just a
dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline
Harvey Mackay
No comments:
Post a Comment