Only 5 Percent of Restroom Patrons Wash Hands Properly, Study Finds

And 1 in 10 don't scrub up at all after flushing

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 11 (HealthDay News) -- The next time you reach out to shake someone's hand, consider this finding: A recent study of hand-washing habits found only 5 percent of people who used the restroom scrubbed long enough to kill germs that can cause infections.

Thirty-three percent didn't use soap, and 10 percent didn't wash their hands at all, according to the study, based on Michigan State University researchers' observations of more than 3,700 people in a college town's public restrooms.

"These findings were surprising to us because past research suggested that proper hand washing is occurring at a much higher rate," lead investigator Carl Borchgrevink, an associate professor of hospitality business, said in a university news release.

Among the other findings:

Men were less likely than women to clean their hands. Fifteen percent of men and 7 percent of women didn't wash their hands at all. When they did wash their hands, only 50 percent of men used soap, compared with 78 percent of women.People were less likely to wash their hands if the sink was dirty.People were more likely to wash their hands earlier in the day. This may be because when people are out at night for a meal or drinks, they are relaxed and hand washing becomes less important, the researchers suggested.People were more likely to wash their hands if they saw a sign encouraging them to do so.

Hand washing is the single most effective thing a person can do to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Failure to sufficiently wash hands contributes to nearly 50 percent of all foodborne illness outbreaks, the agency says.

It takes 15 to 20 seconds of vigorous hand washing with soap and water to effectively kill germs, the CDC says, but people only wash their hands for an average of about 6 seconds, according to the study, published recently in the Journal of Environmental Health.

The findings have implications for consumers and restaurant and hotel owners, says Borchgrevink.

"Imagine you're a business owner and people come to your establishment and get foodborne illness through the fecal-oral route -- because people didn't wash their hands -- and then your reputation is on the line," he said. "You could lose your business."

View the original article here

Colonoscopy Cuts Advanced Cancer Risk by 70 Percent: Study

By Barbara Bronson Gray

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 4 (HealthDay News) -- A new study finds that getting screening colonoscopies may reduce the risk of developing advanced colon cancer.

In average-risk people, screening colonoscopies were associated with a 70 percent reduction in risk for new, late-stage colon cancer, including hard-to-detect cancers on the right side of the colon. Advanced colon cancer is the least curable form.

Although colonoscopy is widely used as a screening test for colon cancer, there is little research that proves it is effective in reducing colon cancer deaths, according to the study authors. The researchers wanted to answer a simple question: If you ended up with late-stage cancer, were you more or less likely to have had a screening colonoscopy as many as 10 years before the disease was discovered?

The study authors also wanted to show whether a colonoscopy is able to evaluate the entire colon, including the right side, which is harder to adequately cleanse before the test, more difficult to reach, and often has pre-cancerous areas that are tougher to spot and identify.

"Colonoscopy has the ability to identify both left- and right-sided colon cancers before they have progressed to an advanced stage," said lead study author Dr. Chyke Doubeni, associate professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers also discovered that screening sigmoidoscopy, a less costly procedure that enables a physician to look at the part of the large intestine closest to the rectum, was linked to a significant reduction in late-stage disease in most of the large intestine, but not in the right colon.

However, the study does not show that colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy is better than the much easier, far less expensive "fecal occult blood test" (FOBT), which is done at home by swiping a tiny amount of stool onto a card for three days, said Doubeni. "There is strong evidence showing the effectiveness of the [fecal occult blood test] when done annually. There is no reason, based on the knowledge we currently have, that you should switch to a colonoscopy if you're getting a FOBT every year," said Doubeni.

If simpler tests are effective, why are patients encouraged to undergo a colonoscopy? "Let me just say there are other factors beyond the evidence that are driving the use of colonoscopy in the U.S.," said Doubeni. "No other country uses colonoscopy for screening purposes as much as the United States, although Germany comes close," he noted.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that people 50 to 75 years old be screened for colon cancer in one of three ways: a home fecal occult blood test every year; a sigmoidoscopy every five years combined with a home fecal occult blood test every three years; or a colonoscopy every 10 years.

View the original article here

Fast Food Makes Up 11 Percent of Calories in U.S. Diet: CDC

Title: Fast Food Makes Up 11 Percent of Calories in U.S. Diet: CDC
Category: Health News
Created: 2/21/2013 10:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 2/21/2013 12:00:00 AM

View the original article here

Type 1 Diabetes Up 70 Percent in Kids, Study Finds

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have documented a startling rise in the rate of type 1 diabetes in one city: Diagnoses in kids younger than 5 jumped by 70 percent between 1985 and 2004 in Philadelphia.

Overall, the rate of type 1 diabetes in children aged 14 and younger climbed by nearly 30 percent during that time period, according to the study.

"We have demonstrated a significant increase of type 1 diabetes over time, particularly in children under the age of 5 years old," said study author Terri Lipman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia.

"Whatever is driving the increase of type 1 diabetes in general, it appears the youngest children are the most susceptible," said Lipman.

Results of the study were published online recently in the journal Diabetes Care.

With type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce enough insulin, and patients need insulin injections to survive. It usually begins earlier in life than type 2 diabetes, which is much more common and may or may not require insulin therapy. Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, whereas in type 1 an environmental trigger causes the body's immune system to mistakenly attack the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, eventually destroying them.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, if current trends continue, the rates of type 1 will increase by 23 percent by 2050.

The United States isn't the only country experiencing this growth in type 1.

"Whether you look at Europe, Canada, Australia or the U.S., type 1 diabetes in youth is increasing. And some of the largest increases are in the youngest age group," said Dr. Richard Insel, chief scientific officer for JDRF (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).

What isn't clear is what specifically is driving this increase. Numerous theories abound, but none has yet been proven. Because the incidence is increasing so rapidly, Lipman and Insel said it must be in the environment.

"Obviously it's something in the environment that has changed the threshold for this disease. Where we see the fastest growing rates of type 1 diabetes is in areas of rapid modernization, like in Eastern Europe, around the fall of the Iron Curtain," said Insel.

Lipman and her colleagues began collecting data on Philadelphia-area children and their rates of type 1 diabetes in 1985. Of 322,998 children 14 years old and younger living in the city between 2000 and 2004, the researchers said 277 children were newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Overall, this represents a 29 percent increase in the rate of newly diagnosed type 1, according to the study.

When they broke the data down by age groups, they saw a surprising 70 percent increase in the rate of type 1 in children up to age 4.

View the original article here