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Increases Mortality (increase + mortality)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

Does Parkinson's disease increase mortality?

PROGRESS IN NEUROLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY, Issue 3 2009
Mark Greener
Whether Parkinson's disease (PD) increases mortality remains something of a moot point. Some studies suggest that mortality among PD patients is more than three'fold higher than the death rates in the general population. Other studies suggest there's no difference. Changes in mortality over time are also inconsistent.However,some researchers detect a decline in mortality beginning during the 1970s,around the time that levodopa entered clinical practice.1 Now a new study2 that followed PD patients for 20 years helps clarify this sometimes controversial relationship. Freelance medical writer, Mark Greener, reports. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Interface Ltd [source]

Does aggregation benefit bark beetles by diluting predation?

ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 2 2004
Links between a group-colonisation strategy, the absence of emergent multiple predator effects
Abstract., 1. Aggregation in bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) aids in mate attraction and resource procurement when colonising well-defended plants; however, some species colonise primarily poorly defended plants, and intraspecific competition increases mortality. The hypothesis that decreased risk of predation was a potential benefit to aggregation in such circumstances was tested, using the pine engraver, Ips pini (Say) and its two major predators Thanasimus dubius (F.) (Coleoptera: Cleridae) and Platysoma cylindrica (Paykull) (Coleoptera: Histeridae). Both single- and multiple-predator effects, across a range of prey densities, were tested. 2. Both male and female colonisation events increased with herbivore density, in an asymptotic fashion. 3. Predators decreased the number of colonisers in a density-dependent manner, consistent with a type II functional response. 4. The proportional impact of predators decreased with increased herbivore colonisation densities. These findings indicate that predator dilution may be a viable benefit to aggregation. 5. Total emergence of the herbivore also increased with density, although the net replacement rate during one generation was independent of initial arrival density. This was likely due to larval predation, which negates potential relationships between per capita reproductive success and establishment density. 6. Each predator species decreased I. pini's net replacement rate by approximately 42%, and their combined effect was approximately 70%. 7. Overall, these predators modified their prey's establishment and adult mortality relationships in additive manners. This is somewhat surprising, given the potential for emergent effects due to interactions between multiple predators foraging within a common habitat. The persistence of additivity, rather than risk reduction or enhancement to the prey, may increase the predator-swamping benefit to aggregation for this herbivore. 8. The effects of these predators are substitutable, and likely exert equivalent selective pressures to mask signals at the whole-plant level. [source]

Prison health care: is contracting out healthy?

HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 11 2009
Kelly Bedard
Abstract US prison health care has recently been in the news and in the courts. A particular issue is whether prisons should contract out for health care. Contracting out has been growing over the past few decades. The stated motivation for this change ranges from a desire to improve the prison healthcare system, sometimes in response to a court mandate, to a desire to reduce costs. This study is a first attempt to quantify the impact of this change on inmate health. As morbidity measures are not readily obtainable, we focus on mortality. More specifically, we use a panel of state prisons from 1979 to 1990 and a fixed effects Poisson model to estimate the change in mortality associated with increase in the percentage of medical personnel employed under contract. In contrast to the first stated aim of contracting, we find that a 13% increase in percentage of medical personnel employed under contract increases mortality by 1.3%. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Aspirin increases mortality in diabetic patients without cardiovascular disease: a Swedish record linkage study,

PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY, Issue 12 2009
Lennart Welin MD
Abstract Purpose Aspirin is effective in secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The results are less convincing when aspirin is used for primary prevention even in high-risk patients (i.e., patients with diabetes). We therefore analyzed the effect of aspirin on mortality and serious bleeding in diabetic patients with and without cardiovascular disease. Methods We performed a record linkage study of the patient registry of the Västra Götaland region in south-western Sweden, the Swedish mortality register and the Swedish register of dispensed drugs. All diabetic patients (n,=,58,465) from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006 were followed up with respect to bleeding until 31 October 2006, and mortality until 31 December 2006. Results When 19 confounding factors (diseases and interventions) were assessed, aspirin significantly increased mortality in diabetic patients without cardiovascular disease from 17% (95% confidence interval; 95%CI, 1,36) at age 50 years to 29% (16,43) at age 85 years. In contrast aspirin tended to decrease mortality among elderly diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease. Theoretical calculations indicated that aspirin caused 107 excess deaths among diabetic patients without cardiovascular disease and prevented 164 deaths among diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease. Aspirin also increased the risk of serious bleeding by 46% (95%CI, 22,75) in diabetic patients without cardiovascular disease but decreased the risk among those with cardiovascular disease. Conclusion Aspirin use in diabetes patients without cardiovascular disease remains controversial and current guidelines should be revised until results from ongoing large randomized controlled trials become available. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]