Latest Comorbidity Stories

Weight loss and malnutrition are the biggest culprits More than 250,000 hip fractures occur every year in the U.S., often resulting in hospitalization, surgery, nursing-home admission, long-term disability, and/or extended periods of rehabilitation. Independent existing medical conditions (otherwise known as comorbidities) significantly increase the treatment cost and length of hospitalization for older adults who have sustained a hip fracture, according to a new study recently published...

Among older Medicare beneficiaries who underwent surgical treatment for diverticulitis, black race was associated with increased risk of urgent/emergency surgery, high risk of in-hospital mortality and higher total hospital charges, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Observed racial disparities in diverticulitis surgery have been attributed to differences in health insurance status and medical comorbidity," the authors...

Burning Tree a long term treatment center in Texas announces the increase in the need for integrated treatment for those persons with a co-occurring disorder. Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) November 12, 2011 Burning Tree announces, as addiction specialists at a renowned long-term rehabilitation facility in Texas, encountering an increased need in integrated services for individuals experiencing both substance abuse issues and mental health disorders. While many facilities are ill-prepared to...

It's an ongoing debate: Should men over a certain age be treated for prostate cancer? Should these patients be submitted to treatments that may result in significant side effects if they may not live very much longer? Now, a study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has shown that men over 75 with prostate cancer are being undertreated, while patients with a single comorbid condition such as peripheral vascular disease or those in wheelchairs are being over-treated...

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study published in peer-reviewed journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases suggests that the cost of a gastric banding weight loss procedure is offset by reduction in obesity-related medical costs within 2 1/4 years for surgery-eligible patients with diabetes and within four years for all surgery-eligible patients. The study, which evaluated healthcare claim data from a group of patients who had gone under gastric banding and a group...

A new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery has identified patients who are at a higher risk of morbidity and mortality when undergoing knee replacement surgery in both legs at the same time. The study found that patients who have a history of significant medical problems, especially congestive heart failure or pulmonary hypertension, are at increased risk for major complications."What we sought to do for the first time with this study, was to provide evidence-based risk...

Older breast cancer patients with certain other health problems have higher mortality rates than patients without these problems according to a study published online June 30 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The other health problems, or 'comorbidities', include heart attack and other heart-related problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and others.Previous studies have shown that comorbidities as a group are associated with poorer overall survival and...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Did you know that more than 8,000,000 people in the United States have an eating disorder?  And the worst thing about this disorder is that it isn't even the most detrimental disorder involved.  Eating disorder's severity and dramatic effects have been continually demonstrated through elevated rates of impairment, medical complications, other illnesses, death and suicide.Despite the fact that the lifetime prevalence estimates of eating disorders from...

A recent study by Merikangas and colleagues published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) shows that only half of adolescents that are affected with severely impairing mental disorders ever receive treatment for their disorders.The researchers found that approximately one third of adolescents with any mental disorder received services for their illness (36.2%). Disorder severity was significantly associated with an...

High erythropoietin levels in people over age 85 indicate a higher risk of death, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj100347.pdf.Erythropoietin is a hormone created in the kidneys to stimulate production of red blood cells. Production is triggered by impaired oxygen delivery to the kidney because of anemia or low blood oxygen levels. In patients with chronic heart failure, high erythropoietin...