- Email: [email protected]
Condom Usage Increasing Among Women
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oncology at Duke and a co-author of the study. “The epithelial cells where the cancer starts line the surface of the ovary and they have to proliferate to fill in the hole.” “During each ovulation, the cumulative risk to become cancerous increases,” he said. The author also said that each time a woman goes through her menstrual cycle, the chance of damage to a critical regulatory gene, p53, increases. Between one half and two thirds of all ovarian cancers are associated with p53 defects. On average, women ovulate 487 times in a lifetime. The study indicated that a range of 235 to 375 cycles would be considered moderate, and beyond that would be a high lifetime count. Additionally, the researchers said taking oral contraceptives for one year cut the cancer risk by 10 percent, whereas taking contraceptives for 5 to 1 0 years cut the risk in half. Last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27,000 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed and nearly 15,000 women died of warian cancer.
Condom Usage Increasing Among Women 1995 Centers for Disease A Control and Prevention survey is reporting that 7.9 million women are making their partners wear condoms when having sex, which is more than double the number of women-3.6 million-who did the same in 1982. The survey of 10,847 females 15 to 44 years of age also found that more than half who had had intercourse for the first time between 1990 and 1995 made their partners wear a condom, whch is up 75 percent from 18 percent in the 1970s. The statistics are among the first released from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of health issues. The last survey was completed in 1988 although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began the surveys in 1973. Experts credit sex education with the increased condom usage. The survey found that 91 percent of 18and 19-year-old women had been told about birth control before 18 years of age, as had approximately
Pain in Older Persons A national study conducted on behalf of the National Council on the Aging disclosed these interesting facts about pain and older persons: W Pain is twice as common in persons older than 60
years of age than in younger persons W One of five Americans older than 60 years of age
takes pain medication
64 percent of women between 20 and 24 years of age. Before 1980, half of women surveyed said they used some form of birth control at first intercourse. That jumped to 76 percent in the 1990s, according to the survey. Sterilization is the number one choice for birth control, with 18 percent of women choosing that method. Oral contraceptives ranked a close second, being preferred by 17 percent of women, followed by 13 percent whose partner uses a condom. The diaphragm ranked far down the list, although in 1982 it was among one of the top choices of unmarried, college-aged women.
W Seven of ten older persons said the pain medication
they’re n o w taking w a s ineffective in controlling their pain W One of four older persons taking pain medication
have significant side effects, and one of ten older persons are hospitalized for those side effects W Drowsiness and dizziness are the two most common
side effects reported with pain medication W 50 percent of older Americans surveyed said their
primary health care providers didn’t provide them with adequate information about the side effects and possible drug interactions involved with their pain medications W Older Americans w h o take over-the-counter
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Motrin IB, Advil, Nuprin, Oridis KT, Aleve) take them for long periods of time-usually five years or more W Older Americans w h o are taking pain medications
most likely are doing so for relief from arthritis, bone and joint pain, and lower back pain.
Octohe. 1997
Lifelines
19
O N
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edre
d-
Free MEDLINE Access he National Library Medicine T (NLM) is giving free access to the world’s most extensive collection of of
published medical information over its VcTWw site. In announcing that it was opening up access to MEDLINE and other NLM databases, the NLM
said it was providing access to quality dormation at a time when consumers are increasingly involved in the choices surrounding the quantity and quality of their own health care. “Medical breakthroughs are happening so rapidly, that I believe
that health care professionals and consumers alike should be able to tap into the most recent medical information,” said heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakery, MD, and chair of the NLM’s Board of Regents. “Such information is often the critical link in reaching the correct diagnosis, resulting in lives saved, unnecessary treatment avoided, and hospitalization reduced.” Additionally, the NLM has pfemiered “PubMed,” a new and free NLM service that allows people to establish direct web links between the abstracts contained within MEDLINE and the publishers of the full-text articles. The new service is the result of a collaboration between the NLM and major science publishers, including the N e w England Journal of Medicine, Science, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To access MEDLINE and PubMed, surf to the NLM’s WWW site (http://www.nlm.nih.gov). Compiled and edited by Carolyn Davis Cockey
I I million American women have poor bladder control. Half never seek medical help. For free information about urinary incontinence, call
1-800-891-53S8 From the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse, a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
20
Lifelines
October 1997
T H E
6‘dfJG
oncology at Duke and a co-author of the study. “The epithelial cells where the cancer starts line the surface of the ovary and they have to proliferate to fill in the hole.” “During each ovulation, the cumulative risk to become cancerous increases,” he said. The author also said that each time a woman goes through her menstrual cycle, the chance of damage to a critical regulatory gene, p53, increases. Between one half and two thirds of all ovarian cancers are associated with p53 defects. On average, women ovulate 487 times in a lifetime. The study indicated that a range of 235 to 375 cycles would be considered moderate, and beyond that would be a high lifetime count. Additionally, the researchers said taking oral contraceptives for one year cut the cancer risk by 10 percent, whereas taking contraceptives for 5 to 1 0 years cut the risk in half. Last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27,000 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed and nearly 15,000 women died of warian cancer.
Condom Usage Increasing Among Women 1995 Centers for Disease A Control and Prevention survey is reporting that 7.9 million women are making their partners wear condoms when having sex, which is more than double the number of women-3.6 million-who did the same in 1982. The survey of 10,847 females 15 to 44 years of age also found that more than half who had had intercourse for the first time between 1990 and 1995 made their partners wear a condom, whch is up 75 percent from 18 percent in the 1970s. The statistics are among the first released from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of health issues. The last survey was completed in 1988 although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began the surveys in 1973. Experts credit sex education with the increased condom usage. The survey found that 91 percent of 18and 19-year-old women had been told about birth control before 18 years of age, as had approximately
Pain in Older Persons A national study conducted on behalf of the National Council on the Aging disclosed these interesting facts about pain and older persons: W Pain is twice as common in persons older than 60
years of age than in younger persons W One of five Americans older than 60 years of age
takes pain medication
64 percent of women between 20 and 24 years of age. Before 1980, half of women surveyed said they used some form of birth control at first intercourse. That jumped to 76 percent in the 1990s, according to the survey. Sterilization is the number one choice for birth control, with 18 percent of women choosing that method. Oral contraceptives ranked a close second, being preferred by 17 percent of women, followed by 13 percent whose partner uses a condom. The diaphragm ranked far down the list, although in 1982 it was among one of the top choices of unmarried, college-aged women.
W Seven of ten older persons said the pain medication
they’re n o w taking w a s ineffective in controlling their pain W One of four older persons taking pain medication
have significant side effects, and one of ten older persons are hospitalized for those side effects W Drowsiness and dizziness are the two most common
side effects reported with pain medication W 50 percent of older Americans surveyed said their
primary health care providers didn’t provide them with adequate information about the side effects and possible drug interactions involved with their pain medications W Older Americans w h o take over-the-counter
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Motrin IB, Advil, Nuprin, Oridis KT, Aleve) take them for long periods of time-usually five years or more W Older Americans w h o are taking pain medications
most likely are doing so for relief from arthritis, bone and joint pain, and lower back pain.
Octohe. 1997
Lifelines
19
O N
T H E
edre
d-
Free MEDLINE Access he National Library Medicine T (NLM) is giving free access to the world’s most extensive collection of of
published medical information over its VcTWw site. In announcing that it was opening up access to MEDLINE and other NLM databases, the NLM
said it was providing access to quality dormation at a time when consumers are increasingly involved in the choices surrounding the quantity and quality of their own health care. “Medical breakthroughs are happening so rapidly, that I believe
that health care professionals and consumers alike should be able to tap into the most recent medical information,” said heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakery, MD, and chair of the NLM’s Board of Regents. “Such information is often the critical link in reaching the correct diagnosis, resulting in lives saved, unnecessary treatment avoided, and hospitalization reduced.” Additionally, the NLM has pfemiered “PubMed,” a new and free NLM service that allows people to establish direct web links between the abstracts contained within MEDLINE and the publishers of the full-text articles. The new service is the result of a collaboration between the NLM and major science publishers, including the N e w England Journal of Medicine, Science, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To access MEDLINE and PubMed, surf to the NLM’s WWW site (http://www.nlm.nih.gov). Compiled and edited by Carolyn Davis Cockey
I I million American women have poor bladder control. Half never seek medical help. For free information about urinary incontinence, call
1-800-891-53S8 From the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse, a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
20
Lifelines
October 1997