Releases Saturday 25 March 2000
No 7238 Volume 320
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(1) MOTHER'S RISK OF DEATH FROM
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE DOUBLED FOR
EVERY KILO LESS HER BABY WEIGHS AT BIRTH
(2) LOWER
TEEN PREGNANCY RATES IN PRACTICES
WITH YOUNG
FEMALE DOCTORS
(3) IS
THERE SUCH A THING AS THE MALE
MENOPAUSE?
(4) RECOGNITION
OF TELEVISION IMAGES CAN BE
USED AS DEVELOPMENTAL
MILESTONE
(5) MOST
ACQUISITION OF MENINGITIS BACTERIA
AMONG STUDENTS
OCCURS IN FIRST WEEK OF
UNIVERSITY
TERM
(1) MOTHER'S RISK
OF DEATH FROM
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE DOUBLED FOR
EVERY KILO LESS HER BABY WEIGHS AT
BIRTH
(Relation between infants' birth
weight and mothers'
mortality: prospective observational
study)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7238/839
A mother's risk of dying from cardiovascular
disease is
doubled for every kilo less her baby weighs
at birth, shows
research in this week's BMJ.
Davey Smith and colleagues, from the University
of Bristol's
Department of Social Medicine and the
Office for National
Statistics, followed up 1 per cent of
the population of England
and Wales between 1976 and 1997, using
data from the
1971 Census. The causes of death and the
birth weights of
babies were assessed for almost 45,000
mothers.
The results showed that every 1 kilogram
of weight reduction
in a baby's birth weight doubled the risks
of the mother dying
from cardiovascular disease. The associated
risks for the
other two major causes of death - cancer
and violence or
accidents - were significantly smaller.
When socio-economic
indicators and marital status were taken
into account, factors
usually associated with greater risk of
low birth weight and
heart disease, the findings still held
true. The authors suggest
that intergenerational influences may
have a part to play.
Contact:
Dr George Davey Smith, Department of Social
Medicine,
University of Bristol.
Email: zetkin{at}bristol.ac.uk
(2) LOWER TEEN
PREGNANCY RATES IN PRACTICES
WITH YOUNG FEMALE DOCTORS
(Association between teenage pregnancy
rates and the age
and sex of general practitioners:
cross sectional survey in
Trent 1994-7)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7238/842
Teen pregnancy rates seem to be significantly
lower in areas
with surgeries staffed by young female
GPs, suggests
research in this week's BMJ.
Hippisley-Cox and colleagues, from the
Division of General
Practice, University of Nottingham, looked
at the numbers of
teen pregnancies for each of the 826 general
practices in the
Trent region between 1994 and 1997. The
Trent region has
one of the highest teen pregnancy rates
in the UK.
After adjustment for other confounding
factors, practices with
a female doctor had 91 per cent of the
teen pregnancy rate
found in other practices. Practices with
a doctor under the
age of 36 had 84 per cent of the rate,
and those with a
doctor who was both young and female had
75 per cent of
the rate. Surgeries with more practice
nurse time also had
significantly lower rates. The availability
of local family
planning clinics did not affect the rates,
but deprivation and
fundholding status were associated with
higher numbers of
teen pregnancies.
The authors suggest that their findings
might be attributable to
the fact that female doctors find it easier
to discuss sexual
matters and spend longer with patients
than their male
colleagues, while young doctors may be
more interested in
teenage health.
Contact:
Dr Mike Pringle, Division of General Practice,
Queen
Medical Centre, Nottingham and Royal College
of
Practitioners, London
Email: mike.pringle{at}nottingham.ac.uk
(3) IS THERE SUCH
A THING AS THE MALE
MENOPAUSE?
(The male menopause "does it exist")
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7238/858
The male menopause may not be the right
term for it, but men
do have a collection of symptoms in mid-life
that equate to
the female menopause, argue Gould and
Petty of Goldcross
Medical Services, London, in a debate
in this week's BMJ.
Not so, contends Howard Jacobs, of the
Royal Free and
University College School of Medicine,
London. There's no
biological evidence to support a "menopause"
in men, he
says. It's simply a matter of getting
older and experiencing a
gradual decline in physical prowess. And
unlike menopausal
women, whose symptoms can be remedied
with hormone
replacement therapy, additional testosterone
does little to
resolve men's symptoms, he concludes.
Contacts:
Dr Duncan Gould, Goldcross Medical Services,
London.
Email: duncan{at}goldcrossmedical.com
Or
Professor Howard Jacobs, Royal Free and
University
College School of Medicine, Middlesex
Hospital, London.
Fax: 0171 722 5243 Email: H.Jacobs@ucl.ac.uk
(4) RECOGNITION
OF TELEVISION IMAGES CAN BE
USED AS DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE
(Recognition of television images
as a developmental
milestone in young children: observational
study)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7238/836
Television images can be a useful developmental
milestone in
young children, reports a study in the
BMJ. Children who are
slow to talk between the ages of 18 and
24 months often
raise fears that they have learning disabilities
or language
disorders. And, say, Lloyd and Brodie
from the Department
of Child Health at London's Royal Free
Hospital, there are
few validated tests to assess development
at this age.
They interviewed the parents of almost
800 children of
apparently normal development, aged 8
to 23 months, and
26 parents of children with Down's syndrome,
on a month
by month basis. They took recognition
of a TV image as
naming, imitating, or pointing at it by
the child. By 18 months
of age, 96 per cent of the apparently
developmentally normal
children were able to recognise a TV image
of a cat, dog, or
baby compared with just one in five of
the children with
Down's syndrome.
While not advocating that parents should
encourage their
children to watch more television, the
authors nevertheless
conclude that TV images are a simple and
effective way of
testing children's development.
Contact:
Dr Ben Lloyd, Child Health, Royal Free
Hospital, London.
Email: blloyd{at}rfhsm.ac.uk
(5) MOST ACQUISITION
OF MENINGITIS BACTERIA
AMONG STUDENTS OCCURS IN FIRST WEEK
OF
UNIVERSITY TERM
(Changing carriage rate of Neisseria
meningitidis among
university students during the first
week of term: cross
sectional study)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7238/846
Most acquisition of the bacteria for meningitis
occurs during
the first week of the university term,
reports research in this
week's BMJ.
A study of 2,500 first year Nottingham
University students,
led by Neal and colleagues of the University's
Department of
Public Health Medicine, showed that the
carriage rate of
bacterial meningitis strains had quadrupled
within the first four
days of the autumn term. Students living
in catered halls were
at greatest risk, with over a third of
them carrying the bacteria
by December, but students living in all
female halls were at
significantly lower risk of acquiring
the bacteria during the first
term.
The gender difference might be explained
by different
patterns of social behaviour in single
sex halls, suggest the
authors. But mixed sex halls posed less
of a risk than a daily
visit to the hall bar which more than
doubled the risk of
acquisition.
Contact:
Dr Keith Neal, Department of Public Health
Medicine and
Epidemiology, University of Nottingham.
Email: keith.neal{at}nott.ac.uk
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