Daily Archives: September 20, 2008

Blacks Tend to Have Higher Mortality Following Liver Surgery

Posted on September 20, 2008 by continuum wellness| Leave a comment

Results

The study consisted of 3,552 observations representing 17,794 patients undergoing major hepatectomy. Unadjusted analyses revealed that African-American patients had a two-fold increased odds of surgical mortality relative to Caucasians. Even after adjustment for other risk factors, African Americans had a two-fold increased odds of surgical mortality relative to Caucasians.

Conclusions

In-hospital mortality after major hepatectomy varies substantially by race. African-American patients have two-fold higher population-level odds of surgical mortality than Caucasian patients do. Our analyses suggest that clinical factors, insurance status, and hospital factors do not account for these differences. Additional studies to clarify the nature of this disparity and identify targets for intervention are warranted.

Posted in African American, Health, health care, surgery

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Obesity and Undiagnosed Diabetes

Posted on September 20, 2008 by continuum wellness| Leave a comment

Research reported in Diabetes Care highlights that while obese individuals may have a higher risk factors for diabetes, diagnosis is often missed.

5,514 adult participated in the 1999–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Particpants were interviewed about sociodemographic and medical data, including whether they had been diagnosed with diabetes, and were examined for height, weight, and fasting plasma glucose.

RESULTS—Of the 9.8% participants who had diabetes, 28.1% were undiagnosed, translating to an estimated 5.2 million people in the U.S. population. Obese adults comprise more than half of the undiagnosed diabetes cases (2.7 million).

CONCLUSIONS—Despite a higher underlying risk of diabetes and widespread clinical recognition of this higher risk, obesity does not increase the likelihood that an individual’s diabetes will be diagnosed.

Posted in African American, diabetes, minorities

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