Study: Many Obese Patients Unconvinced Weight Poses Health Risks

Image via Wikipedia(GAINESVILLE, Fla.) -- A majority of overweight and obese patients seen in hospital emergency departments do not consider their weight to be a threat to their health, and say that doctors have never informed them of the risks of excessive weight gain, a new study finds. 

HealthDay reports that researchers surveyed 450 randomly selected patients seen in the emergency department at Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and asked them to respond to two questions. The first question that was asked was, “Do you believe your present weight is damaging to your health?” followed by, “Have other health professionals ever told you that you are overweight?”

The study found that only 19 percent of respondents who reported that their weight was unhealthy said they'd ever discussed it with a health care professional. Thirty percent of respondents who were told that their weight was unhealthy by their health care provider agreed with that opinion.

The study also found that 47 percent of obese and overweight men believed their weight was a problem, while the majority—53 percent—felt it wasn’t an issue. 

Study author Dr. Matthew Ryan, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at University of Florida, found that women were more aware of the health issues surrounding obesity, as 62 percent reported that their weight was negatively affecting their health.

"We see the manifestations of obesity in the emergency department. Obesity is directly linked to other diseases—hypertension, diabetes, cancers, osteoarthritis, gallbladder disease, heart disease, strokes, and metabolic syndrome," Ryan said. "We see the acute exacerbations of chronic diseases."

Even amid all the health problems surrounded by excessive weight, only 36 percent of overweight or obese men and 50 percent of overweight/obese women reported discussing the issue with their doctors.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio


Taken from WTMA.com; source article is below:
Study: Many Obese Patients Unconvinced Weight Poses Health Risks

Related articles

• Many Don't Believe Their Obesity Poses Health Risks (nlm.nih.gov)
• For Obese Children, Less Is More When It Comes To General Anesthesia (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Obesity (education.com)
• Weight Stigmatization in Youth (education.com)
• Obesity Drags on the Economy (247wallst.com)
• Weight (bupa.com.au)
• Obesity 'harms teen girls more' (bbc.co.uk)
• Just 1 in 7 U.S. Workers Are Normal Weight Without Chronic Health Issue (blogs.wsj.com)
• Intervene in Pregnancy to Break Cycle of Obesity, Diabetes (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Doctors Not Stressing Follow-Up Plans With Obese Kids (children.webmd.com)

9/11 firefighters "cancer prone"

Would you take up this job, even if "the way that makes you earn a living is going to kill you"?
-----

Posted: 02 September 2011

LONDON: Firefighters exposed to the World Trade Centre attacks are more likely to get cancer, while 9/11 rescue workers still suffer high illness rates generally, according to studies published Friday.

In a 10th anniversary edition of medical journal The Lancet, scientists said however that death rates among emergency staff and civilians who survived the disaster were lower than those of the wider New York City population.

"The events of that day changed the historical trajectory of America and the world. They have had -- and continue to have -- profound consequences for health," the Lancet journal said in an editorial.

One study showed that New York City firefighters who rushed to the doomed Twin Towers a decade ago are 19 per cent more likely to have cancer than their non-exposed colleagues and a comparable section of the city's population.

There were 263 cancer cases in the exposed firefighters compared with 238 expected from general population data, while from the non-exposed group there were only 135 compared with 161 expected from the general population.

The study, led by David Prezant, chief medical officer of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), and colleagues, looked at 9,853 male firefighters with health records dating back to well before 9/11.

Another study in the Lancet showed a high burden of both physical and mental illness in the estimated 50,000 rescue and recovery workers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York by Al-Qaeda.

Data gathered from more than 27,000 of those workers, who enrolled in a federally funded monitoring programme, showed that 28 per cent had developed asthma, 42 per cent sinusitis, and 39 per cent gastrooesophageal reflux disease.

Twenty-eight per cent had depression, 32 per cent had post traumatic stress disorder and 21 per cent had panic disorder, said the study by Juan Wisnivesky, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York state.

"Our findings show a substantial burden of persistent physical and mental disorders in rescue and recovery workers who rushed to the site of the WTC and laboured there for weeks and months 10 years ago," the study said.

But World Trade Centre-exposed rescue workers and civilians have had lower death rates than New York City general population, a third study by researchers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

They said the fact that most of those exposed were employed and that they had volunteered for the study -- both employed people and study volunteers are largely healthier than the overall population -- could account for the result.

-AFP/wk


Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
9/11 firefighters "cancer prone"

Related articles

• Cancer | -early assessment of cancer outcomes in New York City firefighters after the 9/11 attacks: an observational cohort study (ascleses.wordpress.com)
• World Trade Centre rescuers at higher risk of cancer, Lancet reveals - The Guardian (news.google.com)
• World Trade Centre rescuers at higher risk of cancer, Lancet reveals (guardian.co.uk)
• Extinguishing Tragedy 9/11 Prone to Cancer (socyberty.com)
• Sept. 11 Firefighters Have Increased Risk Of Cancer Than Their Colleagues - Etidbits.com (news.google.com)
• Study Suggests Higher Cancer Risk for 9/11 Firefighters - New York Times (news.google.com)
• Higher Rates of Cancer Found for 9/11 Firefighters (healthland.time.com)
• Firefighters at Ground Zero After 9/11 May Have Higher Cancer Risk, Study Shows (nytimes.com)
• World Trade Center-exposed NYC firefighters face increased cancer risk (medicalxpress.com)
• 9/11 firefighter hopes study gets him $ aid (cbsnews.com)