Adolescents with a history of getting arrested are significantly more likely to become infected with HIV, says a study in Drug And Alcohol Dependence (Nov). Brown University researchers who examined the records of young people aged 15 to 21 found that the correlation was strong, no matter how trivial the reason for their arrest. They say that youths’ arrests should be used as an opportunity to educate them about HIV risks.
The skin disorder psoriasis increases sufferers’ risk of developing heart disease, researchers at the Mayo Clinic told the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting (Nov 14). Their study of 1,244 people’s medical records showed that those with psoriasis had more than twice the normal risk of heart attacks and a 1.42 times greater chance of heart failure.
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Giving men radiation therapy after they have had their cancerous prostate glands removed lowers the chances of recurrence significantly, reports the Journal of the American Medical Association (Nov 15). The Texas University study of ten-year outcomes among 425 older patients showed that 43 per cent of those given radiation had not seen their cancers recur, compared with 35 per cent of those given surgery alone.
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People with high levels of a fatty fish-oil acid in their blood may have a significantly lower risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, says a nine-year study of 899 men and women by Tufts University in the Archives of Neurology (Nov). Those who ate fish frequently had high amounts of docosahexaenoic acid in their blood and had a 47 per cent lower chance of dementia.
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Obese patients have a much reduced chance of surviving for more than a year after undergoing kidney transplant operations, says a study by seven Dutch university hospitals of more than 2,000 patients. The report, in Transplant International (Nov), says that being obese doubles the chances of death in the first year after transplant. The obese patients suffered more from infections and fatal heart conditions.