Month: January 2014

Your chance of dying from a heart attack is greater if you seek care at night or on a weekend, a research review finds. The study put together results from 48 earlier studies. They included nearly 1.9 million patients. The studies were from the United States, Canada and Europe. People who arrived at hospitals during off-hours had a 5% higher risk of death in the hospital than those who came in on weekdays. The risk of death within 30 days was also 5% higher. Researchers estimated that this led to 6,000 extra deaths each year in the United States alone. One possible reason for the difference is treatment delays during off-hours. The study estimated that for one common type of heart attack, a 15-minute delay could increase death by 10% to 15%. The journal BMJ published the study online.

Girl soccer players in middle school often keep playing despite concussions, new research has found. And these injuries are common. About 13% of players had concussions in a typical season, the study found. That was higher than reported in previous studies of high school and college players. Researchers recruited 351 girls from elite soccer teams. They were 11 through 14 years old. The study covered the years 2008 through 2012. About 82% of the girls played for 1 year and 18% for 2 years of the study. Researchers sent weekly e-mails to parents during soccer season. They asked about any blows to the head and any symptoms that followed. Players who had these incidents got phone calls from research staff. They were asked how the injury occurred, whether they continued to play, and what type of care they got. In all, 59 concussions occurred.

Years of heavy drinking in middle age can lead to faster mental decline in later life for men, results of a long-term study suggest. The study included 5,054 men and 2,099 women. They were asked about their drinking habits 3 times in 10 years. Then, in their mid-50s, they took a mental-skills test. It assessed memory and executive function, which includes reasoning and planning abilities. They repeated the test twice in the next 10 years. Mental decline occurred about 1½ to 6 years faster in men who had at least 2½ drinks a day (36 grams of alcohol) than in men who drank less. No such differences were seen for women, however. Researchers said there were not enough heavy drinkers among women in the study to show any clear effects for them. The journal Neurology published the study January 15. The Associated Press and HealthDay News wrote about it.