News tagged with risk factors
WHO target to cut early chronic illness deaths
The World Health Organization announced on Friday it was set to approve a new target to reduce premature deaths from chronic illnesses such as heart disease by a quarter by 2025.
Health
May 25, 2012 |
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Calcium supplements linked to significantly increased heart attack risk
Calcium supplements might increase the risk of having a heart attack, and should be "taken with caution," concludes research published in the online issue of the journal Heart.
Cardiology
May 23, 2012 |
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Aspirin may prevent recurrence of deep vein blood clots
(HealthDay) -- After suffering a type of blood clot called a venous thromboembolism, patients usually take a blood-thinner such as warfarin (Coumadin). But aspirin may do just as well after a period of time, ...
Medications
May 23, 2012 |
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Weight loss improves SBD and metabolic dysregulation in obese children
Weight loss improved both metabolic parameters and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in obese children in a new study from researchers in Belgium, confirming links between metabolic dysregulation, SDB and obesity.
Sleep apnea
May 23, 2012 |
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Viral infections in infancy are not associated with wheezing symptoms in later childhood
The number of viral infections during infancy is not associated with wheezing later in childhood, according to a new study from researchers in the Netherlands. While viral illnesses with wheezing in infancy predicted wheezing ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
May 23, 2012 |
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Middle-aged diabetics may need earlier colon checks
(HealthDay) -- Researchers who say they've linked type 2 diabetes with earlier development of precancerous colon lesions recommend people with the blood sugar disorder start colorectal screenings at a younger ...
Diabetes
May 22, 2012 |
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Study suggests obese patients have more advanced, aggressive papillary thyroid cancer
A review of medical records of patients treated at an academic tertiary care center suggests that obese patients present to their physicians with more advanced stage and more aggressive forms of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), ...
Cancer
May 21, 2012 |
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Sudden cardiac death higher in men with slower electrical impulses through heart
Men whose electrical impulses take a few milliseconds longer to travel through the lower chambers of the heart have an increased risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD), according to research reported in Circulation, an Americ ...
Cardiology
May 21, 2012 |
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Cardiac disease risk factors prevalent among U.S. teens
(HealthDay) -- From 1999 to 2008 the prevalence of several cardiovascular disease risk factors remained stable among U.S. adolescents, but the burden of risk factors is still considerable, according to a study ...
Pediatrics
May 21, 2012 |
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Impact of MRSA nasal colonization on surgical site infections after gastrointestinal surgery
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) nasal colonization is associated with longer hospital stays and an increase in surgical site infections (SSI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery, according to ...
Surgery
May 20, 2012 |
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Melanoma a big threat to older men
(HealthDay) -- Older men have an increased risk of developing melanoma, but most are careless about sun protection and do not know how to properly check themselves for signs of skin cancer, a new survey reveals.
Cancer
May 18, 2012 |
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Various metabolic risk factors could be linked to diabetes-related pain with major implications for treatment
Around 1 in 50 people in the general population and 1 in 6 of those aged over 40 years experience neuropathy (damage to the nerves of the peripheral nervous system), which can cause numbness, tingling, pain, or weakness. ...
Neuroscience
May 17, 2012 |
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US, Great Britain share risk factors for child behavior problems
New research from North Carolina State University shows that the United States and Great Britain share common risk factors that increase the likelihood of behavioral problems in children – and that Britain's broader ...
Health
May 16, 2012 |
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Study IDs gene variants that speed progression of Parkinson's disease
UCLA researchers may have found a key to determining which Parkinson's disease patients will experience a more rapid decline in motor function, sparking hopes for the development of new therapies and helping identify those ...
Parkinson's & Movement disorders
May 15, 2012 |
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Modest alcohol intake associated with less inflammation in patients with common liver disease
NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) is the most common type of liver disease in the developed world, affecting up to one-third of the US population. NAFLD is often associated with obesity and other parameters of the ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
May 15, 2012 |
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Risk factor
A risk factor is a variable associated with an increased risk of disease or infection. Risk factors are correlational and not necessarily causal, because correlation does not imply causation. For example, being young cannot be said to cause measles, but young people are more at risk as they are less likely to have developed immunity during a previous epidemic.
Risk factors are evaluated by comparing the risk of those exposed to the potential risk factor to those not exposed. Let's say that at a wedding, 74 people ate the chicken and 22 of them were ill, while of the 35 people who had the fish or vegetarian meal only 2 were ill. Did the chicken make the people ill?
So the chicken eaters' risk = 22/74 = 0.297 And non-chicken eaters' risk = 2/35 = 0.057.
Those who ate the chicken had a risk over five times as high as those who did not, suggesting that eating chicken was the cause of the illness. Note, however, that this is not proof. Statistical methods would be used in a less clear cut case to decide what level of risk the risk factor would have to present to be able to say the risk factor is linked to the disease (for example in a study of the link between smoking and lung cancer). Even then, no amount of statistical analysis could prove that the risk factor causes the disease; this could only be proven using direct methods such as a medical explanation of the disease's roots.
The earliest use of risk factor analysis dates back to Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (1020s), though the term "risk factor" was first coined by heart researcher Dr. Thomas R. Dawber in a landmark scientific paper in 1961, where he attributed heart disease to specific conditions (blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking).
For more information about Risk factor, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
