Health Tip: Precautions While Mowing the Lawn

(HealthDay News) -- Playing near lawn mowers is dangerous for children and adolescents, and adults can get hurt, too, if they don't take the proper precautions. To prevent lawn mower-related injuries, follow these safety suggestions from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• Use a mower the comes with safety features, like a control that prevents the mower from moving forward if the handles are released.
• Never let children younger than 16 use a riding mower, and children younger than 12 use a push mower.
• Never allow children to ride on mowers, even with an adult.
• Always wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes while mowing, never sandals or flip flops that leave portions of the feet exposed.
• Clean the yard of things like rocks, sticks, and toys before mowing to prevent injuries from flying objects.
• Don't allow children to be in the yard while mowing.
• Always turn the mower off and let the blades stop completely before reaching around the blades.
• Avoid mowing in reverse.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Electronic Medical Records Proved Their Worth in Katrina's WakeBy Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, April 26 (HealthDay News) -- As the skies darkened over New Orleans the day before Hurricane Katrina unleashed her fury in August 2005, Scharmaine Lawson, a nurse practitioner, grabbed a T-shirt, some underwear, a toothbrush and her Palm Pilot, and headed out of town.

Unbeknownst to Lawson at the time, that small hand-held device, grabbed almost as an afterthought, would end up spelling the difference between life and death for some victims of this country's most devastating natural disaster.

In it, Lawson had stored basic medical records for all of her 100 homebound, elderly patients, most of them also indigent and disabled and living in New Orleans and surrounding parishes.

Electronic medical records refer to a patient's medical records when they're stored on a computer and accessible from different locations. Health practitioners and medical institutions around the United States are starting to adopt them, but they're still far from commonplace.

An estimated 25 percent of office-based doctors in the United States reported using fully or partially electronic medical record systems in 2005, the most recent statistics available. That represented a 31 percent increase from the 18.2 percent reported in a 2001 survey, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

But electronic records certainly weren't the norm in New Orleans prior to Katrina.

Lawson's physical office in New Orleans was destroyed under 5 feet of water. "We lost everything. Papers were stuck together and full of mud. Nothing could be retrieved," she said.

Lawson at least had her Palm Pilot. Others weren't so lucky. Doctors' offices and hospitals around the city experienced the same waterlogged nightmare, losing patient records permanently.

As Dr. Jay Brooks, chief of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La., pointed out, paper medical records are heavy, and most are stored in a basement or ground floor of a building. "All the records were easily sitting in foul-smelling water for three weeks," he said. "They're all lost."

Brooks remembers seeing refugees from New Orleans who did not know what type of cancer they had or what kind of treatment they had received.

Ochsner started developing an electronic records system 15 years ago and, as a result, information for all 300,000 of its patients was accessible after the storm.

When one Ochsner patient from New Orleans came into Brooks' office after Katrina, he was able to pull up all her records. "She'd had a heart transplant five years earlier and had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She sat in my office. I pulled up all of her records, and when the electronic record came up, it had her home address," Brooks recalled. "She broke down and cried, because her home had been washed away."

Lawson realized quickly that with her Palm Pilot she was "sitting on a gold mine, when a lot of my colleagues had no back-up."

For three months right after Katrina, Lawson operated from a temporary base in San Antonio, Texas, using her handheld to provide vital medical information to doctors and other health-care providers around the nation who were caring for her scattered clientele.

"I was able to communicate with other providers from all over the U.S. I had people calling me from Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, saying we have one of your patients here," Lawson said. "I was able to get the documents from my Palm Pilot, download them, print the entire H&P (history and physical), all of their lab work, anything they wanted."

She also served as a missing persons locator.

"One family called me for three weeks straight, desperately looking for a relative, a hospice patient," Lawson recounted. "During the fourth week, a hospice agency in Indiana called to say they had the patient and did I have any of his recent records."

Lawson did. She downloaded the records and faxed them, then called the family.

"They thought he was dead until the hospice agency called," Lawson said.

Since then, Lawson has adopted a formal electronic medical records system, MediNotes, and her practice has quadrupled to more than 400 patients.

Instead of the trusty Palm Pilot, on home visits she takes a tablet with detachable keyboard with her to download patients' information and to provide reminders about flu shots and other needed services.

"She brings the computer thing in here and puts all the information on it," said Brenda Carter, 65, a client who was trapped for two days on her roof in the lower Ninth Ward during Katrina. "I think that's better than paper."

SOURCES: Scharmaine Lawson, nurse practitioner, and CEO, Advanced Clinical Consultants, New Orleans; Jay Brooks, M.D., chairman of hematology/oncology, Ochsner Health Service, Baton Rouge, La.; Brenda D. Carter, Harvey, La.

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Using Car Seats

(HealthDay News) -- Car seats can protect children in the event of an accident, but only if they are used properly.

Here are some tips on how to make sure you are using your child's car seat correctly, courtesy of the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• Always put your child in a car seat, starting with the baby's first ride home from the hospital.
• Install the car seat in the automobile's back seat, never in the front where there's an airbag.
• Always read the seat's instructions, including how to install it, and how to attach and detach the seat and base.
• Keep the instructions and owner's manual as long as you have the seat, in case you need them.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: How to Travel Safely

(HealthDay News) -- When traveling, especially to another country, it's important to take a few precautions to ensure good health during your trip.

Remember to maintain good health practices, and remember that not all countries have stringent health and sanitation standards.

Follow these suggestions from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stay healthy during your travels:

• Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently with soap and water, or antibacterial hand gel.
• Stick to drinking only bottled or boiled water, never tap water or ice cubes.
• Make sure all food has been fully cooked, and vegetables have been properly washed and peeled.
• Get any vaccines or medications that may be required before you leave.
• Don't handle any animals, especially dogs, cats and monkeys.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Sopranos Star Tackles Health RoleBy Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- This spring's finale of The Sopranos will mark the end of Aida Turturro's star turn as big, bad sister of America's most famous TV mobster.

But the actress who garnered national acclaim for her riveting portrayal of the conniving "Janice Soprano" is taking center stage to play a perhaps more important role: diabetes spokeswoman.

In 2001, just one year after receiving an Emmy nomination for her work on the acclaimed television series, Turturro was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Now, just one week after wrapping up her final shoot on the much-lauded HBO series, she has embarked on a nationwide tour of diabetes centers and hospital support groups to promote a proactive approach to living well with an illness that now strikes almost 21 million American children and adults.

"It's scary at first," said Turturro, recalling her initial diagnosis. "And it's really a very, very hard disease, because it never ends. So, it can feel overwhelming. But it's not, once you get started dealing with it. And I just want people to know that it's your life, and dealing with it has got to be your priority."

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the vast majority of diabetics have the same form of the disease as Turturro. Sometimes called insulin resistance, this version of the disease is triggered by the body's inability to properly use the naturally occurring hormone insulin to convert sugar and starch into usable energy.

Between 5 percent and 10 percent of diabetics have a type 1 form of diabetes, which results from the body's failure to produce enough insulin in the first place.

Another 54 million Americans are deemed "pre-diabetic," because their blood glucose levels register above normal but below diabetic levels.

Many factors -- rather than a single smoking gun -- have been associated with a higher risk for ultimately developing full-blown diabetes, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a sedentary lifestyle and a family history of the disease.

"It's actually pretty rampant in my family," Turturro pointed out in a recent interview. "I have a history of it on both sides -- my mother, my aunt, my grandfather on one side and my grandmother on the other side, and some of my distant relatives, too. But I didn't come from a family who sat me down and explained it, so I had no idea about the risk."

Bringing such information to light and demystifying diabetes by example is the goal of Turturro's current tour, which is being sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi Aventis. The company makes Lantus, a once-daily, injectable insulin that Turturro began taking about four years ago.

Turturro first spoke out about diabetes three years ago and has already brought her take-charge message to diabetes patients and caregivers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Detroit, with plans to head to Miami this month.

In fact, her work on diabetes is not Turturro's first foray into public health advocacy. In 2002, she served as spokeswoman for an arthritis awareness campaign that was sponsored by the Arthritis Foundation and Centocor, the maker of a popular arthritis medication. She has battled rheumatoid arthritis -- a painful autoimmune disease involving inflammation of the joints-- since the age of 12.

But Turturro insisted that she hasn't always been such a paragon of empowerment.

Despite six seasons brazenly weaving and bobbing her way through a televised fantasy world of bullets, bats and cement shoes, she freely admitted that when it came to facing her own real life illness she wasn't always so brave.

"I'm not the perfect person, I'm the regular person who most people are," said the native-born New Yorker. "So, when I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I was in denial. I started to take an oral medication, but I didn't really take care of myself. It was a stressful time in my life, when my mother and father were both ill and eventually passed."

"But about four years ago, I had a little wake-up call, and I went to my doctor, and she sat me down, and she said to me: 'You're putting yourself at risk. And eventually you're going to develop complications, serious complications, like heart disease and possibly death. But', she explained, 'diabetes can be controlled.' "

Beyond heart disease and stroke, the ADA says that a diabetes diagnosis also significantly boosts the risk for blindness, kidney disease, nervous system damage, loss of limbs due to amputation, dental disease and sexual dysfunction.

Managing diabetes and its associated risks typically involves maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly and carefully planning meals to prevent the onset of either high blood glucose (hyperglycemia) or low blood glucose (hypoglycemia).

Regulation of blood sugar levels is also achieved through the use of portable monitoring devices, insulin injections and pumps, and glucose tablets. For type 2 patients, five classes of glucose-lowering diabetes pills are another option for keeping the disease in check.

For Turturro, disease control, by whatever means necessary, is the name of the game.

"You're not going to make it by living with high blood sugar," she warned. "It will create havoc. So, it's important to go to your doctor, your endocrinologist, and see what you need to do to get it under control. Everybody's individual. Diabetes can be controlled sometimes by just diet, sometimes by diet and oral medicines, sometimes by insulin."

Turturro said that now that her involvement with the The Sopranos has come to an end, she's weighing her long-range options, including a possible TV project with her cousin, the actor John Turturro.

Meanwhile, she hopes her story can inspire people coping with diabetes to get the care they need.

"I like speaking about it," said Turturro, "because it keeps me in line. It keeps me thinking. And balancing my blood sugar has changed my life. I didn't realize how ill I could feel. How tired, snappy, cranky and sick. But now," she added, "I'm back."

SOURCES: Aida Turturro, actor

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Dining While on the Road

(HealthDay News) -- Do you pass the time on long road trips by pigging out on unhealthy snacks?

If so, it may be time to reconsider what you pack. With proper preparation and imagination, you can take a healthy lifestyle on the road.

Here are some tips, courtesy of Canada's Heart and Stroke Foundation:

• Know how long your trip will take so you can stock up on supplies.
• Bring a cooler, and restock it each day.

When preparing sandwiches to take along:

• Use whole wheat bread.
• Use mustard or horseradish instead of butter or margarine.
• Use lean meat fillings, such as ham, roast beef, chicken or turkey.
• Bring cut up vegetables for munching and fresh fruit for dessert and snacking.
• Bring plenty of water.

-- Felicity Stone

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Not Everyone Eligible to Donate Blood

(HealthDay News) -- People who have blood diseases, infections, or other serious medical problems are poor candidates to donate blood, but are healthy donors always welcome?

Not necessarily, the Community Blood Services of Illinois says. Here are common reasons for being turned down as a prospective blood donor:

• Recent dental work or surgery.
• Recent travel outside of the United States, or recent vaccination.
• Recent illness.
• Recent tattoo, electrolysis or piercing.
• Low blood iron levels.
• Weighing less than 110 pounds, or generally being underweight.
• Breast feeding currently.
• Transient high blood pressure or irregularities in your pulse rate.

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Pets Can Harbor Germs

(HealthDay News) -- Pets may be beloved family members, but they can also harbor germs.

Here are a few health suggestions for pet owners, courtesy of the Nemours Foundation:

• Always wash your hands thoroughly after petting your animals.
• Wear gloves when cleaning cages or litter boxes.
• Disinfect sinks, bathtubs and other areas where you bathe or brush your pet.
• Don't give your pets food meant for people -- especially raw meat, which can harbor bacteria.
• Never let pets drink from the toilet.
• Never take in a wild animal as a pet.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Risk Factors for Bladder Cancer

(HealthDay News) -- While the exact cause of bladder cancer is unknown, certain habits and traits can raise a person's risk of contracting it.

Here are common risk factors for bladder cancer, courtesy of the American Cancer Society:

• Smokers get bladder cancer about twice as often as those who don't light up.
• People who work with certain chemicals -- including those used to produce dyes, printing inks, and paints -- may be at higher risk.
• Whites are twice as likely to contract bladder cancer as blacks or Hispanics. The risk of bladder cancer also rises with age.
• Chronic bladder illnesses, including kidney stones and bladder infections.
• Personal or family history of bladder cancer.
• Birth defects of the bladder.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Treating Psoriasis

(HealthDay News) -- Psoriasis is a chronic condition that causes red, scaly, itchy patches on the skin.

While there is no cure, psoriasis can be controlled with these common treatments, listed by the National Psoriasis Foundation:

• Topical ointments and creams, including salicylic acid and topical steroids.
• Lotions, bath solutions and other nonprescription topical preparations to help soothe symptoms and reduce scaliness.
• Light therapy, including UVB and lasers.
• Prescription systemic medications, a term used to describe drugs that affect the entire body. These drugs are usually reserved for people with moderate-to-severe cases.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Understanding Male Pattern Baldness

(HealthDay News) -- Pattern baldness in men is the most common type of hair loss, and usually involves a receding hairline and baldness on the crown of the head. The condition is usually caused by hormonal and genetic factors.

Hair loss occurs when the hair follicle, a cavity in the skin, shrinks over time, says the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The individual hair in this follicle then becomes thinner and shorter, until eventually no hair is left in the follicle.

While there are no direct medical complications of pattern baldness, men who are uncomfortable with their physical appearance may opt for prescription medications that may stimulate the regrowth of hair and help reduce additional hair loss.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

TV Diners Miss the Big Health PictureBy Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 9 (HealthDay News) -- By all means, eat dinner with your family. Just don't watch the tube at the same time.

That's the take-home message of a new study that found that, in low-income families with preschool children, the positive effect of eating dinner as a family tends to be negated by watching television at the same time.

"When you have the television on, people are essentially eating alone," said Arlene Spark, associate professor of nutrition at Hunter College in New York City. "Eating meals together and having family interactions has been associated with better food at meals. We would like to say turn the television off and speak to one another, but I don't know if that means carrots are going to fly onto the plate. But it's a good practice to be able to interact with children and family."

Bonnie Taub-Dix, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and a nutrition consultant in New York City, added: "You really need to be selective about the TV and, in this day and age, it's so rare that families even get together to have a meal that that needs to be precious time."

Neither Spark nor Taub-Dix was involved with the study, which appears in the April issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The findings essentially corroborate previous research that has found, among other things, that preschoolers who spend more time glued to the television have worse diets and that families dining together tend to have better eating habits.

"Lots of studies have found that when families eat together and presumably talk, kids eat healthier and do better, they're less likely to drink and use drugs. It's pro-social behavior," said Dr. Barbara A. Dennison, senior author of the study and director of the Bureau of Health Risk Reduction, Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Adult Health at the New York State Department of Health.

And when diners are focusing on the TV set, they're not paying attention to what they eat. "It's not just having interactions but also not appreciating the food that you're eating simultaneously," Taub-Dix said. "In terms of the childhood obesity epidemic in this country, part of what contributes is not just how TV takes away from physical activity, but it's distracting, and you don't know how much you're eating. It's a double whammy."

For this study, more than 1,300 parents or guardians of children participating in New York's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children were surveyed on how many days a week the family ate dinner together, the number of days each week the TV was turned on during dinner, and how often fruits and vegetables were served.

More fruits and vegetables were served on the nights families ate dinner as a unit. Servings of fruits and vegetables decreased each night the TV was turned on during the meal. Neither eating together nor having the television on seemed to have any relationship with servings of milk.

Fruits and vegetables are important components of any healthful diet and have been associated with decreased cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer.

The study also found that:

• Hispanic and black parents reported having the television on during dinner more often than white parents.
• Hispanic and white families tended to eat together more often than black families.
• The television was turned on more often in families in which the parent had less than a high school education.

"There are lots of reasons for families to try to eat together," Dennison said. "I don't think people should have TVs in rooms that you eat in. There are things to do to change the home environment so it's not easy to have the TV on while eating dinner."

SOURCES: Barbara A. Dennison, M.D., director, Bureau of Health Risk Reduction, Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Adult Health, New York State Department of Health, Albany; Bonnie Taub-Dix, R.D., national spokeswoman, American Dietetic Association, and nutrition consultant, New York City; Arlene Spark, Ed.D., R.D., associate professor of nutrition, Hunter College, New York City; April 2007, Journal of the American Dietetic Association

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Dealing With Depression

(HealthDay News) -- Depression can make a person feel unusually sad, worthless, uninterested in activities that used to be fun, restless or even suicidal for several weeks or longer.

Depression is a serious illness that requires professional treatment, often with a combination of medication and psychological therapy.

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers these suggestions for dealing with depression:

• Set a realistic schedule for yourself. While you're getting better, don't expect that you can maintain a full schedule at a regular pace.
• Try not to believe the negative thoughts, like feelings of failure or blame, that depression causes -- such thoughts should ease as depression subsides.
• Participate in activities that make you feel good about yourself and that you enjoy.
• While you're depressed, try to avoid making any major life decisions. If you have to, ask a trusted friend or family member for help.
• Don't drink alcohol or take unprescribed drugs, as either can cause serious interactions with antidepressant medication, and can exacerbate depression.
• Get as much exercise as possible -- at least 30 minutes four to six times a week.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Heart Attacks a 'Wake-Up' Call for Hispanics: Survey

THURSDAY, April 5 (HealthDay News) -- Many Hispanic heart attack survivors consider their heart attack a "wake-up call" and fear having another heart attack more than dying, a new survey finds.

The National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) poll of 501 heart attack survivors also found that nearly a third of them have had more than one heart attack.

Even though many Hispanic heart attack survivors fear having another heart attack, too few are taking the steps -- exercise, healthy eating, taking appropriate medications -- that are needed to prevent another heart attack or heart disease.

"Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in our community, which is why we are so dedicated to raising awareness about this illness," Dr. Elena Rios, president and CEO of NHMA, said in a prepared statement. "Our survey indicates that many Hispanics are worried about experiencing another heart attack. By sharing these survey findings with the broader community, we hope to remind Hispanic heart attack survivors that they are not alone, and there are many ways they can find information and support to live a healthy life."

The survey also found that:

• Many Hispanic heart attack survivors feel they know how to manage their health after their heart attack, but 59 percent said they wanted additional information about risk factors for another heart attack, and 55 percent wanted advice about medications.
• To get that kind of information, 70 percent go to their doctors, and 62 percent use the Internet. The survey also found that 90 percent of Hispanic heart attack survivors felt they would benefit from the advice of others who'd had a heart attack.
• Along with the fear of having another heart attack, Hispanic heart attack survivors were also concerned about other diseases they've been diagnosed with, including high blood pressure (64 percent) and high cholesterol (51 percent).

A network of family, doctors, and other heart attack survivors can help Hispanic heart attack survivors get the information they need to live a healthy life, the NHMA said.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: National Hispanic Medical Association, news release, March 26, 2007

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Mediterranean Diet Protects Kids From Allergies: Study

THURSDAY, April 5 (HealthDay News) -- A Mediterranean-style diet loaded with fruits, vegetables and nuts may help prevent allergic rhinitis and asthma symptoms in youngsters, a British study suggests.

Researchers at the National Heart and Lung Institute, London, looked at almost 700 children, ages 7 to 18, on the Greek island of Crete. Their parents filled out questionnaires on their children's eating habits and on their allergy and asthma symptoms.

Eight out of 10 children in the study ate fresh fruit and more than two-thirds of them ate fresh vegetables, at least twice a day. Diet appeared to have the strongest protective effect against allergic rhinitis but also helped protect children against asthma and skin allergies, the study found.

Children who ate nuts at least three times a week were also less likely to wheeze. The researchers noted that nuts are rich in vitamin E, which protects against cellular damage caused by free radicals. Nuts also contain high levels of magnesium, which may protect against asthma and improve lung power.

The study also found that a daily diet of oranges, apples, and tomatoes protected children against wheezing and allergic rhinitis. Grapes appeared to be especially effective in preventing wheezing and allergic rhinitis. Red grape skins contain high levels of antioxidants and a potent polyphenol called resveratrol, which is known to reduce inflammatory activity, the researchers said.

They also found that eating lots of margarine doubled the risk of asthma and allergic rhinitis.

The study was published in the journal Thorax.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: BMJ Specialist Journals, news release, April 5, 2007

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Choking Hazards for Kids

(HealthDay News) -- Choking in young children is frequently caused by food that is not appropriate for a young child, or that has not been properly cut and served.

Foods that are hard and round are most dangerous for youngsters, and should either be carefully cut, or not served to them at all.

Here is a list of foods that are prominent choking hazards for young children, courtesy of the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• Hot dogs, or large chunks of other meats.
• Nuts or seeds.
• Cubes or chunks of cheese.
• Whole grapes and raw vegetables.
• Popcorn.
• Candy that is hard, sticky or chewy, and chewing gum.
• Peanut butter.

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Tip: Choosing a Day Care Provider

(HealthDay News) -- If you send your child to day care, it's important to find a program and people that you trust.

The Nemours Foundation recommends asking these questions of prospective day care centers:

• Can parents visit at any time during the day?
• What are the center's policies about caring for sick children?
• How are children supervised when they're on the playground? Is equipment regularly inspected?
• What are the alternatives if the program closes?
• How are children grouped for activities, etc.? By age or other criteria?
• How are special-needs children cared for?
• What is the educational background of your staff, and how are staff screened before they are hired?

-- Diana Kohnle

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Internet Use Can Boost Breast Cancer Patients' Faith in Docs

FRIDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Checking out high-quality breast cancer information online not only keeps patients informed about their disease, it may also boost their opinion about their doctor, new research shows.

Previous studies have found that many breast cancer patients go online to learn more about their disease. This is the first study to look at how patients' opinions about their doctors affect how they seek online information and support, and how the Web affects how patients regard their doctors, the study authors said.

In the study, a team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research tracked the opinions of 231 recently diagnosed breast cancer patients who were given a free computer and Internet access. The women were also trained to use an online health education and support system called Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS) "Living With Breast Cancer" program.

The researchers found that frequent use of the online information services was associated with both a poor doctor-patient relationship to begin with and with patients becoming more satisfied with their doctors later on.

"It makes sense that cancer patients who are less confident in their health-care providers might be more likely to turn to the Internet as a source of education and support," study author Bret Shaw, an associate scientist with the CHESS program, said in a prepared statement.

"However, this study also suggests that providing patients with access to high-quality health information about breast cancer and its related concerns may validate some of what they hear from their health-care team and improve how they feel about their doctors. In other words, referring patients to high quality information about their illness on the Internet may improve the doctor-patient relationship as well," Shaw said.

The study, funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, is in the April issue of the International Journal of Medical Informatics.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: University of Wisconsin-Madison, news release, March 20, 2007

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.