According to a recent study, shift work is associated with an increased risk of a heart attack or stroke. Analysing the results of dozens of studies involving more than two million people, researchers looked at the health impact of evening shifts, irregular or unspecified shifts, mixed schedules, night shifts and rotating shifts. They compared the findings with non-shift workers and the general population. It appeared that heart attacks and strokes were more common among shift workers. Shift work was associated with a 23% increased risk of a heart attack and a 5% increased risk of a stroke. Night shifts were associated with the steepest increase in risk for coronary events. Whether you work nights, evenings or regular office hours, eating healthily, getting active and quitting smoking can make a big difference to your heart health irrespective of whether one works nights, evenings or regular office hours. The study was published in the British Medical Journal.

Contrary to popular thought, regular exercise before and during pregnancy could have beneficial effects for women that develop high blood pressure during gestation, human physiology professor Jeff Gilbert said, summarising a new study by his research team.
Gilbert

Mini-courses designed to increase creative stimulation and variety in physicians’ daily routines can sharpen critical thinking skills, improve job satisfaction and encourage innovative thinking, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers who piloted a series of such courses.
‘For decades, career development theory has identified a stage that occurs at midlife, characterised by a desire to escape the status quo and pursue new ventures,’ said Kimberly Myers, Ph.D., associate professor of humanities. ‘It is increasingly clear that these mid-career professionals are yearning to explore ways of thinking that are outside of their usual responsibilities.’
The courses are an outgrowth of a pilot initiative called the Penn State Hershey Physician Writers Group, which Myers founded and facilitated. The group met every other week for three months and explored how medically related topics are featured in different literary genres. Participants wrote original pieces, which they discussed and edited with each other and Myers.
‘The process of literary analysis, which is both methodical and intuitive, helps to sharpen the cognitive processes inherent in medical diagnosis and treatment that are so vital in medical practice,’ said Myers. ‘Group discussions also provide a refreshing opportunity for collaboration, which help to form new alliances among colleagues.’
Many physicians’ writings were published in professional journals, and the physicians reported overwhelming satisfaction with the experience. As a result of the pilot program’s success, the researchers and their colleagues in the Department of Humanities developed and conducted eight mini-courses on different topics throughout 2010-2011.
Although each course had its own objectives, the overarching goal of the series was to provide humanities-related, clinically relevant learning opportunities for health care practitioners.
‘The topics covered fell into four general categories: reading, reflection, and discussion; creative expression; technology; and ethics,’ said Daniel George, Ph.D., assistant professor of humanities.
To accommodate busy schedules, the researchers scheduled these courses across an eight-month period and met three to five times total. Each hour of participation earned one Continuing Medical Education credit. Participants included physicians, nurses, administrative and support staff, medical and nursing students and health researchers and scientists.
Post-course surveys proved as favourable as the feedback from the Writers Group. Participants reported a high degree of satisfaction with learning new disciplines outside of biomedicine, using their training in uncustomary ways, forming new camaraderie with their colleagues, and enjoying a respite from the stressful flow of the workday.
‘These courses offer an opportunity for intellectual and social ‘play’ to those who participate, which fosters workplace satisfaction and creative, innovative thinking,’ said George. ‘Efforts that implement programs like these in other medical settings could potentially contribute to reviving the health care system, which would ultimately benefit both practitioners and their patients.’ EurekAlert

New research has revealed that the use of Antimicrobial Copper surfaces in hospital rooms can reduce the number of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) by 58% as compared to patients treated in Intensive Care Units with non-copper touch surfaces. In the United States, 1 out of every 20 hospital patients develops an HAI, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths per year. Although numerous strategies have been developed to decrease these infections, Antimicrobial Copper is the only strategy that works continuously, has been scientifically proven to be effective and doesn’t depend on human behaviour, according to a recently study.
‘The implications of this study are critical,’ said Dr. Harold Michels, Senior Vice President of the Copper Development Association (CDA). ‘Until now, the only attempts to reduce HAIs have required hand hygiene, increased cleaning and patient screening, which don’t necessarily stop the growth of these bacteria the way copper alloy surfaces do. We now know that copper is the game-changer: it has the potential to save lives.’
The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, was conducted in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of three major hospitals: The Medical University of South Carolina, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina. To determine the impact of copper alloy surfaces on the rate of HAIs, copper-surfaced objects were placed in each ICU, where patients are at higher risk due to the severity of their illnesses, invasive procedures and frequent interaction with healthcare workers. Patients were randomly placed in available rooms with or without copper alloy surfaces, and the rates of HAIs were compared. A total of 650 patients and 16 rooms (8 copper and 8 standard) were studied between July 12, 2010 and June 14, 2011.
Results of this study found that Antimicrobial Copper can continuously kill 83% of bacteria that cause HAIs within two hours, including strands resistant to antibiotics. The study compared copper to equivalent non-copper touch surfaces during active patient care between routine cleaning and sanitising.
‘Copper alloy surfaces offer an alternative way to reduce the increasing number of HAIs, without having to worry about changing healthcare worker behaviour,’ said Dr. Michael Schmidt, Vice Chairman of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina and one of the authors of the study. ‘Because the antimicrobial effect is a continuous property of copper, the regrowth of deadly bacteria is significantly less on these surfaces, making a safer environment for hospital patients.’
In study results, 46 patients developed an HAI, while 26 patients became colonised with MRSA or VRE. Overall, the proportion of patients who developed an HAI was significantly lower among those assigned to intensive care rooms with objects fabricated using copper alloys. There are currently hundreds of Antimicrobial Copper healthcare-related products available today, including IV poles, stretchers, tray tables and door hardware. EurekAlert

Older people often worry about dementia and while some risks are known, for example alcoholism or stroke, the effects of illness are less clear. New research looks at illness requiring hospitalisation and treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU) and finds that infection or severe sepsis, neurological dysfunction, such as delirium, or acute dialysis are all independently associated with an increased risk of a subsequent diagnosis of dementia.
This study was based on a random 5% of older (66 years or above) Medicare patients who were treated in intensive care in 2005 and whose health was followed for a further three years using Medicare claims data. Of the 25,368 patients included in the study 4,519 (17.8%) went on to receive a diagnosis of dementia during the three year follow up period.
Patients with previous indications of cognitive impairment for whom dementia could have been an escalation of a pre-existing condition were excluded from the study.
Increasing age was very strongly associated with diagnosis of dementia following ICU. The risk at 75 was more than double that of the 66 to 69 year olds. And this rose to more than five times the risk for those age 85 and older. Women had a marginally higher risk than men and, as other studies have shown, race was also important to risk. Length of stay in ICU was not a factor nor was the need for mechanical ventilation.
Three factors related to the critical illness were independently associated with an increased risk of a diagnosis of dementia: a critical illness with the presence of an infection which increased to a higher risk with more severe infection such as severe sepsis, having acute neurologic dysfunction during critical illness, including anoxic brain damage, encephalopathy, and transient mental disorders, and finally acute renal failure requiring dialysis. This last risk was time-dependent and only increased the risk 6 months after the patient had been discharged from hospital.
Dr Hannah Wunsch, from Columbia University Medical Center, lead author of the study commented, ‘Due to increasing life spans and better hospital care, millions of older people now survive a critical illness every year. Our study provides a greater understanding of the consequences of these hospitalisations on subsequent risk of receiving a diagnosis of dementia, and may allow for better planning and targeting future studies to high risk populations.’ EurekAlert