Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health

The latest issue of the Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health is now online
Volume 8, Issue 2 (August 2009) www.auseinet.com/journal/ . There is an Editorial: On remembering and forgetting in prevention (Graham Martin, Editor in Chief); A Guest Editorial: Mental wellbeing of older people: making an economic case (Martin Knapp); A Guest Editorial: Mental health promotion, Australian policy, and housing for people with mental illness (Sam Battams); and various other articles on mental health issues. (From ALIAHealth elist)

Early Onset Dementia broadcast

Today's episode of the Health Report on ABC's Radio National was called Younger Onset Dementia and was a frightening look at how difficult this form of dementia can be for families, and how hard it is for nursing homes to accommodate young, physically strong residents.

"Dementia is not inevitable as you age, but it becomes increasingly common the older you get. However, in some rare cases dementia can occur in people at the age of 40, 50 or 60. In this program Lynne Malcolm speaks with a 74-year-old woman who is caring for her 56-year-old daughter who has a memory span of just two minutes; and with a neuroscientist who explains younger onset dementia, why it occurs, what the early signs are and how to treat and cope with the disease."
Click here to download a podcast, to listen online or to read a transcript of the program.

Cigarettes May Dull Taste Buds

THURSDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) -- In addition to the many well-known ways that smoking cigarettes can damage a person's health, new research has found that smoking dampens the ability to taste. They found that the smokers had flatter fungiform papillae, with a reduced blood supply. The study was published online Aug. 20 in the journal BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders.

"Statistically important differences between the taste thresholds of smokers and nonsmokers were detected. Differences concerning the shape and the vascularization of fungiform papillae were also observed," study leader Pavlidis Pavlos, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and colleagues said in a news release from the journal's publisher. "Nicotine may cause functional and morphological alterations of papillae, at least in young adults," they concluded. (From Healthfinder)

Mental Health Services in Australia 2006-7

Released today, this new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is the eleventh in their series on the characteristics and activity of Australia's mental health services, and the availability of mental health resources. Details from a wide range of data sources for the 2006-07 period, and where available 2007-08, are presented, as are changes over time.

Expenditure on state and territory mental health services increased by an annual average of 5.6% (adjusted for inflation) between 2002-03 and 2006-07, to $3,040 million. In 2007-08 there were 20 million mental health-related prescriptions subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (and for veterans), accounting for just over one in ten of all prescription claims, costing over $700 million.

End-of-Life Advice Not Always Welcome

TUESDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- When deciding whether to turn off life support for a loved one, family members aren't always interested in their doctor's advice, new research shows. The finding runs counter to assumptions among critical-care providers that families making such a heart-wrenching choice would welcome a physician's impartial opinion. Family members often make the decision based on what they believe the patient would have wanted. "This puts an enormous emotional burden on surrogates; not only are they losing a loved one, they also may feel burdened by guilt about allowing the patient to die," White said. "It was therefore assumed by some in the medical community that a doctor's dispassionate advice could reduce some of that burden and help surrogates make a good decision with less second-guessing themselves."

"This is an important article that has changed my clinical practice," said Curtis, a professor of medicine and section head of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. "I had previously assumed that almost all families would want physicians' recommendations, but these findings indicate that there is no such consensus among surrogates. I suspect that physicians can do more harm by withholding a recommendation that is desired than by providing a recommendation that is not desired, but this study suggests we should ask rather than assume." The study appears in the August 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. (From: Healthfinder)

National Metadata Standards

Metadata is often called ‘data about data’ and metadata that have been endorsed for use across Australia are referred to as data standards. METeOR is Australia's repository for national metadata standards for the health, community services and housing assistance sectors. The development of these metadata standards improves quality, relevance, consistency and the availability of national information about the health and welfare of Australians.

BreastScreen Australia monitoring report 2005-06

In 2005–2006, over a million and a half (1,622,481) Australian women participated in the BreastScreen Australia program, most of whom were in the target age range of 50–69 years , according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Breast cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in Australian women. The BreastScreen Australia Program aims to reduce mortality and morbidity from breast cancer through detecting cancers early. Mortality from breast cancer has decreased steadily since the Program commenced in 1991, from 66 to 47 deaths per 100,000 women.

NLM Launches "Rapid Research Notes" Archive

"The National Library of Medicine announces the introduction of Rapid Research Notes (RRN), a new resource developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of NLM, to archive research made available through online venues for rapid scientific communication. The RRN archive (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/rrn) allows users to access research that is provided through participating publisher programs designed for immediate communication.

Responding to the call for a means to quickly share research information about H1N1, the Public Library of Science developed PLoS Currents: Influenza (www.ploscurrents.org/influenza), an open-access, online resource for immediate communication and discussion of new scientific data, analyses, and ideas in the area of influenza. In order to make research available as soon as possible, submissions are not peer reviewed in depth, but are screened by a group of leading researchers in the field who decide whether a contribution is suitable; those judged suitable are immediately posted to the PLoS Currents: Influenza Web site and archived at RRN with a stable ID. PLoS Currents: Influenza is the first collection to be archived in RRN. NCBI expects the RRN archive to expand over time to include additional collections in other high-interest biomedical fields." (Info copied from:http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/rrn_archive_launch.html )

Folic Acid Fortification Shouldn't Be Forced

FRIDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Mandatory fortification of foods with folic acid (vitamin B9) may be unnecessary for new mothers and their babies, Irish researchers report. Their study of blood samples found that most new moms and babies get enough folic acid from foods that are voluntarily fortified by food companies. Consuming adequate amounts of folic acid before and during pregnancy helps reduce the risk of certain birth defects, such as spina bifida. As in many other countries, folic acid is voluntarily added to breakfast cereal, bread and other food products in Ireland, but food safety officials there are discussing whether to make such fortification of foods mandatory.

She noted that a previous study suggested that excessive folic acid consumption may increase the risk of prostate cancer and more severe adenorectal cancer recurrence. She and her colleagues analyzed blood samples from 20 mothers and 20 infants and found unmetabolized folic acid present in the majority of samples. "This implies constant exposure of both normal cells, and potential tumor cells, to this pro-vitamin amongst Irish consumers. In terms of the increase that might arise if mandatory fortification goes ahead, we predict it to be in the region of 12 percent," Sweeney and colleagues wrote. The potential consequences of over-consumption of folic acid should "be of concern for those with responsibility for drafting legislation in this area," they concluded. The study appeared this week in the journal BMC Public Health. (From Healthfinder)

Pilot eGenetics subsite goes live

NHMRC has launched the pilot eGenetics subsite, an online central access point for existing Australian resources relating to human genetics.
The subsite contains NHMRC developed information as well as resources that have been submitted by various organisations involved in human genetics. The pilot subsite is a work in progress and NHMRC encourage relevant organisations to submit resources to be considered for addition to the site. The application form and information about the submission process can be found on the NHMRC website.

Businesses Need Swine Flu Action Plan, U.S. Says

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Telecommuting, flexible work hours and even keeping employees 6 feet apart are all ways to reduce the spread and impact of H1N1 swine flu on America's businesses, government experts said in new guidelines issued Wednesday.
Above all, employers need to remain flexible as the fall/winter flu season approaches, because the extent and severity of the outbreak remains uncertain, according to the guidelines for businesses issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Companies need to plan for continuity of operations with a depleted workforce," Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said during a press conference Wednesday. "A little planning now will help ensure that our economy withstands whatever the H1N1 virus throws us this fall."
According to the CDC, more communities may be affected by both the H1N1 swine flu and the seasonal flu in coming months than last spring, and every business needs to have a swine flu action plan in place. (From Healthfinder)

Does Health equal Wealth?

Healthy wealthy and wise : the relationship between health, employment and earnings in Australia. Does the old adage still apply in Australia today? Are people with better health able to earn more than their peers with poorer health? How big is the gap? This report from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) examines how health underpins the employment and earnings of working-age Australians.

The results, perhaps not surprisingly, indicate that "health means wealth" is still the case in Australia today. The two concepts are clearly connected in several ways, "While poor health can disadvantage people in terms of their work and earnings, being out of work and having a low income can also disadvantage people’s health."

How reliable is health advice on the web?

An article in the New Scientist recently examines the use of the Internet by consumers and health professionals to see how they use websites such as Wikipedia to find basic health information. In Should you trust health advice from the web?, Lisa Grossman has brought together the latest research on this topic into a highly readable article. Apparently, Wikipedia, as the eighth most visited site on the Internet, is a of some concern. Wikipedia articles appear in the top 10 results for more than 70 per cent of medical queries in four different search engines, and it gets more hits than MedlinePlus from the National Library of Medicine. In addition, a recent US report found that 50% of doctors turn to Wikipedia for health information.

Grossman praises Wikipedia as being factually very accurate. "But any Wikipedia page (beyond those locked to prevent vandalism) is vulnerable to malicious editing - and some drug firms have been caught removing negative information on their drugs from Wikipedia pages. The site's other major flaw is its incompleteness."

Insulin-treated diabetes report

The AIHW has today released the report: Insulin-treated diabetes in Australia 2000-2007 which presents the latest available data from Australia's National Diabetes Register. It demonstrates that the incidence of Type 1 and other insulin-treated diabetes in Australia is increasing and people with insulin-treated diabetes have significantly higher death rates than other Australians. The report aims to explain the changing patterns of insulin-treated diabetes, who the disease affects and where people with insulin-treated diabetes reside in Australia.

Study Finds Sleep Apnea Raises Risk of Death

Study Finds Sleep Apnea Increases Chance of Dying

Sleep apnea, a disorder characterized by interrupted breathing during sleep, may increase the chance of chronic disease and even death, say researchers at Johns Hopkins University, according to Reuters. The authors of the study, published in PLoS Medicine, followed more than 6,400 men and women between the ages of 40 and 70 for about eight years. Their findings suggest that those with severe sleep apnea face a 46 percent greater risk of dying early than those without sleep breathing problems, according to Reuters. Men with severe sleep apnea saw their risk of dying more than double; they were also at greater risk of cardiovascular disease. People with mild sleep apnea did not face a greater risk of premature death, researchers found.
The latest study is the largest to date to look at sleep apnea and the risk of death. Last year, Australian researchers reported similar findings in the journal Sleep after studying 380 adults.

The human heart: One step closer to 'unbreakable'

When the wizard announced in "The Wizard of Oz" that "hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable," he was being technologically visionary. A few weeks after the first successful implant of the world's smallest and lightest ventricular assist device (VAD) at the Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany, cardiac surgeons announced that hearts may now be, in so many words, one step closer to "unbreakable." Read more about the implant : The HeartAssist 5
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10310998-247.html

The Cochrane Library: Issue 3 highlights

Issue 3 Highlights presents a collection of press summaries of the new and updated reviews in The Cochrane Library, including; Chinese herbs for endometriosis; Muscle rubs use for pain questionable; and Psychological treatments may not prevent PTSD.

Being Truthful, Nurturing Hope

One of the latest podcasts online from International Program of Psycho-Social Health Research (IPP-SHR) focuses on the way in which doctor's communication can actually influence a number of things. Geraldine Leydon who recently published an article; 'Yours is potentially serious but most of these are cured': optimistic communication in UK outpatient oncology consultations, in the journal "Psycho-Oncology"(2008, vol. 17, issue 11.), talks with Michael Bouwman about her recent study and article. Geraldine found that oncologists use communication patterns, known as the 'power of approximateness' and give the 'bad' news first, followed by 'better' news, known as the 'pairing phenomenon'. Communication studies show that people respond to the last thing said in a conversation; so in cancer consultations patients are more likely to pick up and comment on the 'good' information and move on from the 'bad'. Oncologists found that how to be honest with a patient, but not destroy hope, was actually one of the most difficult and stressful challenges faced when communicating with cancer patients.

NSW Health staff can access the article via CIAP.

Medication safety in acute care in Australia

Results of incident reporting from hospitals show that incidents associated with medication remain the second most common type of incident after falls. It can be estimated that 190,000 medication-related hospital admissions occur per year in Australia, with estimated costs of $660 million. This review was undertaken for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to update a previous national report on medication safety conducted in 2002. The review is published in the August issue of the open access journal Australia and New Zealand Health Policy.

Sexual health and young Australians

"Secondary Students and Sexual Health 2008 : Results of the 4th National Survey of Australian Secondary Students, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health" has just been released by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society at La Trobe University. 3000 students from Year 10 and Year 12 from 100 diverse schools were surveyed and results compared to the previous survey in 2002.

Students had a steady understanding of HIV, an increasing understanding of STIs and a "woefully inadequate" knowledge of cervical cancer and HPV. 78% of students surveyed had experienced some kind of sexual activity. In 2002 28% of young women reported ever having unwanted sex and in 2008 this figure had increased to 38%. Other results from this study relate to contraceptives, promiscuity and homosexuality.

Acronyms sites

Here are a couple of good Australian sites you might find useful when bamboozled by a strange acronym. The Primary Health Care Research and Information Service (PIC-RIS) has 843 acronyms related to primary health, easily searchable. And if you need even more examples, you can't go past The Drs Reference Site for acronyms, where there is a fully searchable list of over 5000 of them - all you need to sound very authoritative!

Overcrowding in Public Hospitals

The Centre for Independent Studies has just published a paper by Jeremy Sammut entitled, Why Public Hospitals are Overcrowded : Ten Points for Policy Makers. Sammut pulls no punches as he asserts, "The technical cause of the hospital crisis and the nationwide shortage of acute inpatient beds is 25 years of cuts to public hospital beds, while the systemic cause is the misallocation of resources away from frontline, bed-based hospital care and the corresponding growth in the size, cost and complexity of the state government bureaucracies that mismanage the public hospital system." He then goes on to make his ten points which need to be considered when planning the structural reform needed for our ageing population.

Slide Into Debt Could Bring Wider Waistline

FRIDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity rates may increase along with rising financial debt, German researchers suggest. In their study, Eva Munster and her colleagues at the University of Mainz tracked the weight of more than 9,000 people. They found that while 11 percent of those who were not in debt were classified as obese, a full quarter of those who were in debt met the medical criteria for obesity.

Writing in the early online edition of BMC Public Health, the researchers say they took into account the income of the participants, and the link between debt and obesity "was not explained by components of traditional socioeconomic status definitions such as education and income." "The recent credit crunch will have health implications for private households. While income, education and occupational status are frequently used in definitions of socioeconomic status, levels of debt are not usually considered," Munster added in a journal news release. "We've shown that debt can be associated with the probability of being overweight or obese, independent of these factors." Her team speculates that certain lifestyle changes linked to debt, such as restricted daily activities, "comfort eating" and poorer available food choices may all contribute to packing on pounds during financial hard times. (From Healthfinder)

Snapshot of Australian primary health care research 2009

Snapshot 2009 highlights recent Australian research projects that demonstrate the potential for primary health care research to improve the health of Australians and draws attention to 12 projects from all around Australia that are producing real tangible benefits in areas like indigenous health, child and youth health, chronic disease and remote communities. These include: Gudaga- healthy baby; Linking Health Professionals for better patient outcomes; Threats to Australian Patient Safety; Chronic disease management- the big picture; Sadness and heart disease.

The Primary Health Care Research & Information Service (PHC RIS) is a national primary health care organisation based at Flinders University in South Australia .

Health care leadership, quality and safety

The latest special issue of the Australian Health Review celebrates the work and leadership of Professor Mike Ward, currently Commissioner of the Health Quality and Complaints Commission in Queensland but previously inaugural Senior Director of the Clinical Practice Improvement Centre in Queensland Health.
The first section, on leadership, includes four articles which canvas aspects of the leadership development programs conducted by Queensland Health over the last three years.
A second cluster of articles deal with quality and safety policy, including an overview of statistical methods and what should be measured.
Finally, a third cluster of papers relate to interventions to stimulate quality and safety improvement.
The article, "Patient safety — a balanced measurement framework" is free online but other articles you will need to go to the journal website, look at the contents and request the articles through your Library.

yourHealth.gov.au

The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing has a new web site, 'yourHealth' designed as an engagement and consultation tool to enable Australians to provide their views to the Australian Government about options to improve the health system. On the site you can find out about reform suggestions and provide comment and feedback to the Government about your own health experiences and your ideas.

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stated in his introduction to the new website, "We’ve set up this website because we want your input as we consider the big changes neccessary to improve the Australian hospital and health care system."

Americans Spend Billions on Alternative Medicine

THURSDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News) -- Americans spent $33.9 billion out-of-pocket on complementary and alternative medicine in 2007 alone, U.S. health officials report. CAM includes medical practices and products, such as herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic and acupuncture, which are not part of conventional medicine. "The bottom line is that Americans spend a lot of money on CAM products, classes or materials or practitioner visits," Dr. Josephine P. Briggs, director of the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, said during a morning teleconference Thursday. The main reasons Americans turn to alternative medicine is for pain relief and to contribute to their health and well-being, Briggs added.

"The data reported here indicate that CAM remains very popular and its use constitutes a major portion of total health-care utilization in the U.S.," Katz said. "This is important, as it suggests that many patients have needs or preferences not met by the prevailing practices of conventional medicine alone." The data also suggest that patients are increasingly informed about the evidence base for alternative medicine practices, and are shifting toward those that are better-substantiated and that's a positive trend, Katz said. "But there is the risk of using poorly regulated and unsubstantiated potions and practices more likely to harm than help," he added. The report is Costs of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Frequency of Visits to CAM Practitioners: United States, 2007

'Safe' Ozone Levels May Not Be for Some

MONDAY, July 27 (HealthDay News) -- Ozone levels considered safe under current standards can have a negative effect on lung function in healthy people, say U.S. researchers. The National Ambient Air Quality Standard allows for ozone concentrations of up to 75 parts per billion over an eight-hour period. But a new study "found that 6.6 hours exposure to mean ozone concentrations as low as 70 parts per billion have a significant negative effect on lung function," Edward Schelegle, of the University of California, Davis, said in a news release from the American Thoracic Society.

They found that significant decreases in lung function and respiratory symptoms occurred at ozone concentrations of 70 parts per billion or more, beginning after 5.6 hours of exposure. "These data tell us that even at levels currently below the air quality standard, healthy people may experience decreased lung function after just a few hours of moderate to light exercise, such as bicycling or walking," Schelegle said. "While these changes were fully reversible within several hours, these findings highlight the need to study susceptible individuals, such as asthmatics, at similar ozone concentrations and durations of exposure," he said. "These studies are needed to better understand the acute rise in hospitalizations that often occur in conjunction with high-ozone periods." The study appears in the August 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. (From Healthfinder)