5 August, 2015

Young dads at greater risk of early death: Study

Becoming a dad before the age of 25 increases the risk of dying early in middle age, s significant study has indicated.

The evidence suggests that men who father a child in early life have poorer health and die earlier than men who delay fatherhood.

Family environment, early socioeconomic circumstances and genes can explain this association, researchers noted.

"The findings provide evidence of a need to support young fathers struggling with the demands of family life in order to promote good health behaviours and future health," the authors noted in the study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. To reach this conclusion, the researchers used a nationally representative sample of households drawn from the 1950 Finnish Census.

This involved more than 30,500 men born between 1940 and 1950, who became fathers by the age of 45. The dads were tracked from the age of 45 until death or age 54, using mortality data for 1985-2005.

The average age at which a man became a dad was 25-26 and men in this age bracket were used as a reference. The researchers took account of factors such as educational attainment and region of residence, marital status and number of children.

Men who were dads by the time they were 22 had a 26 percent higher risk of death in mid-life than those who had fathered their first child when they were 25 or 26.

Similarly, men who had their first child between the ages of 22 and 24 had a 14 percent higher risk of dying in middle age.

These findings were independent of factors in adulthood or year of birth.

At the other end of the scale, those who became dads between the ages of 30 and 44 had a 25 percent lower risk of death in middle age than those who fathered their first child at 25 or 26. The risk of death for men fathering their first child between the ages of 27 and 29 was the same as that of men in the reference group.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

05.08.2015

Novel chip to better diagnose asthma and TB

Researchers have developed a low-cost lab-on-a-chip device to analyze sputum from patients with pulmonary diseases such as tuberculosis and asthma.

"To develop more accurate diagnosis and treatment approaches for patients with pulmonary diseases, we have to analyze sample cells directly from the lungs rather than by drawing blood," said one of the inventors Tony Jun Huang, professor at the Pennsylvania State University in the US.

"This (device) will offer quick analysis of samples without having to send them out to a centralized lab," said first author of the study Po-Hsun Huang from the Pennsylvania State University.

"This is the first on-chip sputum liquefier anyone has developed so far," Huang said.

There are several issues with the current standard method for sputum analysis.

The first is that human specimens can be contagious, and sputum analysis requires handling of specimens in several discrete machines.

With this device, all biospecimens are safely contained in a single disposable component.

Another issue is the sample size required for analysis in the current system, which is often larger than a person can easily produce.

The acoustofluidic sputum liquefier created by Huang's group requires 100 times less sample while still providing accuracy equivalent to the standard system, the study said.

A further issue is that current systems are difficult to use and require trained operators.

With the lab-on-a-chip system, a nurse can operate the device with a touch of a few buttons and get a read out, or the patient could even operate the device at home, said the study published in the journal Lab on a Chip.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

05.08.2015

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