Life Expectancy News and Research

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Life expectancy is the expected (in the statistical sense) number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by e''x'', which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged ''x'', according to a particular mortality experience.

Kids with T13 or 18 and their families lead a happy life

Children with trisomy 13 or 18, who are for the most part severely disabled and have a very short life expectancy, and their families lead a life that is happy and rewarding overall, contrary to the usually gloomy predictions made by the medical community at the time of diagnosis, according to a study of parents who are members of support groups published today in Pediatrics.

23 Jul 2012

Views on health reform: U.S. not getting value for its spending; Cutting doctors' school debt to curb costs

When it comes to healthcare, Americans are not getting a lot of value for their money. The United States spends 17.6% of its gross domestic product, nearly twice the average of the nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But life expectancy in the United States in 2010, at 78.7 years, is below the OECD average of 79.8 years. The U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than in most developed countries -; it is higher than the rates in Greece, Hungary and Slovakia.

21 Jul 2012

A world of consequences due to physical inactivity

Physical inactivity accounted for an estimated 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths in 2008, a report shows.

20 Jul 2012

Natural compound can virtually eradicate HIV in infected culture cells

A new study by scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute shows, in cell culture, a natural compound can virtually eliminate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in infected cells. The compound defines a novel class of HIV anti-viral drugs endowed with the capacity to repress viral replication in acutely and chronically infected cells.

20 Jul 2012

Elder abuse in low-income Latino communities goes largely unreported

A sobering new study by researchers from the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology finds that elder abuse in low-income Latino communities goes largely unreported. More than 40 percent of Latino elders told Spanish-speaking interviewers that they had been abused or neglected in the last year - yet only 1.5 percent of victims said they had ever reported the abuse to authorities.

20 Jul 2012

Lack of physical activity causes 1 in 10 deaths

A lack of physical activity, or people’s failure to spend 150 minutes a week doing moderate physical activity (eg, brisk walking for 30 minutes, 5 days a week), causes around 6–10% of four major non-communicable diseases (coronary heart disease [CHD], type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancer) worldwide, and was responsible for around 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths globally in 2008.

18 Jul 2012

Elderly may be undertreated for cardiac disease

Not enough elderly people are being prescribed statins, argue researchers in the BMJ.

17 Jul 2012

Premier research institutions, Biogen Idec partner to sequence genomes of patients with ALS

Biogen Idec today announced that it has entered into a research collaboration with premier academic and research institutions to sequence the genomes of up to 1,000 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in an effort to gain a deeper understanding about the fundamental genetic causes of ALS.

17 Jul 2012

Prostate cancer treatment regrets linked to comorbidity

Men with cardiovascular disease are significantly more likely to regret their prostate cancer treatment choice than men without this comorbidity and have an increased risk for adverse effects, US researchers warn.

16 Jul 2012

Preventable hospital deaths: around 12,000 in England each year

Around 12,000 deaths in acute hospitals in England each year could be prevented, suggests a data analysis published online in BMJ Quality and Safety.

13 Jul 2012

Heart disease risk in elderly could be lowered by drugs

More patients aged 75 and over should be prescribed drugs to help lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, a study published today on bmj.com suggests.

13 Jul 2012

Euthanasia and assisted suicide rates in the Netherlands comparable to rates before legalisation

2010 rates of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands were comparable to levels before the practices were legalised in 2002, according to new research published Online First in The Lancet and conducted by a Dutch research team from Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, Rotterdam; VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam; Statistics Netherlands, The Hague; and Utrecht’s University Medical Centre.

11 Jul 2012

Sitting down for less than 3 hours a day could extend life expectancy

Restricting the amount of time spent seated every day to less than 3 hours might boost the life expectancy of US adults by an extra 2 years, indicates an analysis of published research in the online journal BMJ Open.

10 Jul 2012

RA patients do not receive fewer cancer screening tests than general population: Study

New research reveals that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients do not receive fewer cancer screening tests than the general population. Results of the study, funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), found that RA and non-RA patients receive routine screening for breast, cervical, and colon cancer at similar rates.

10 Jul 2012

UTHealth professor receives ACS grant to improve care and QOL for people with liver cancer

Curtis Wray, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, has been awarded a grant from the American Cancer Society to find ways to improve the care and quality of life for people with liver cancer. Liver cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer in the world and about 750,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2008.

4 Jul 2012

Prostate cancer patients with CVD are 52% more likely to regret their treatment choices

Prostate cancer patients with cardiovascular disease were 52 per cent more likely to regret their treatment choices than men without problems with their heart or veins, according to a study published in the July issue of the urology journal BJUI International.

3 Jul 2012

Current diagnosis and treatment approaches for rheumatoid arthritis

In the realm of deadly and disabling diseases, conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer's seem to attract the most media attention. But there are others that take a similarly high toll, and rheumatoid arthritis is one of them, Mayo Clinic researchers say. It is a common cause of disability: 1 of every 5 rheumatoid arthritis patients is unable to work two years after diagnosis, and within five years, that rises to one-third. Life expectancy drops by up to five years.

2 Jul 2012