News tagged with risk factors
New recommendations in bedsharing debate
Researchers from Murdoch University's School of Health Professions are urging health organisations to reconsider their attitudes to mothers and babies bedsharing.
Health
Apr 29, 2013 |
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Boosting 'cellular garbage disposal' can delay the aging process, research shows
(Medical Xpress)—UCLA life scientists have identified a gene previously implicated in Parkinson's disease that can delay the onset of aging and extend the healthy life span of fruit flies. The research, ...
Genetics
May 06, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (18) |
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Depression linked to telomere enzyme, aging, chronic disease
(Medical Xpress)—The first symptoms of major depression may be behavioral, but the common mental illness is based in biology—and not limited to the brain.
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 23, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (10) |
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Risk of depression influenced by quality of relationships, research says
The mantra that quality is more important than quantity is true when considering how social relationships influence depression, say U-M researchers in a new study.
Psychology & Psychiatry
Apr 30, 2013 |
4.2 / 5 (5) |
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Body fat hardens arteries after middle age
Having too much body fat makes arteries become stiff after middle age, a new study has revealed.
Cardiology
May 15, 2013 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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Low HDL-cholesterol—Not quantity, but quality
Many of the genes regulating the inflammation and immune response of the body are also associated with low HDL-cholesterol levels in the circulation, tells the recent study conducted at the University of ...
Cardiology
Apr 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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New mouse model confirms how type 2 diabetes develops
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed a new mouse model that answers the question of what actually happens in the body when type 2 diabetes develops and how the body responds to drug treatment. Long-term ...
Diabetes
May 03, 2013 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
1
Massive study closes in on cancers risk markers
Cancer research has taken a huge leap forward with scientists now able to identify more than 80 genetic markers found to increase the risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer. The COGS international research ...
Genetics
May 15, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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New discovery in fight against deadly meningococcal disease
Professor Michael Jennings, Deputy Director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, was part of an international team that discovered the previously unknown pathway of how the bacterium colonizes people.
Medical research
May 23, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Targeted C. difficile screening at hospital admission could potentially ID most colonized patients
Testing patients with just three risk factors upon hospital admission has potential to identify nearly three out of four asymptomatic carriers of C. difficile, according to a new study published in the May issue of the Am ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
Apr 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Increases in heart disease risk factors may decrease brain function
Brain function in adults as young as 35 may decline as their heart disease risk factors increase, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
Cardiology
May 02, 2013 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Study sees link between mom's flu, bipolar risk for children
(HealthDay)—Women who come down with the flu during pregnancy may be at increased risk of having a child who develops bipolar disorder, a new study suggests.
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 08, 2013 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Nobody likes a 'fat-talker,' study shows
(Medical Xpress)—Women who engage in "fat talk"—the self-disparaging remarks girls and women make in relation to eating, exercise or their bodies—are less liked by their peers, a new study from the ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 09, 2013 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Study finds four new genetic risk factors for testicular cancer
A new study looking at the genomes of more than 13,000 men identified four new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer, the most commonly diagnosed type in young men today. The findings from ...
Genetics
May 12, 2013 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Repeat brain injury raises soldiers' suicide risk, study shows
People in the military who suffer more than one mild traumatic brain injury face a significantly higher risk of suicide, according to research by the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 15, 2013 |
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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.
