Month: November 2013

Aerobic exercise best bet for obese teen girls

A new study has revealed that obese teen girls who perform aerobic exercise are at lower risk of developing several pediatric diseases which include type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition in which fat builds up in the liver, potentially impairing its function over time.

SoJung Lee of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and her colleagues recently showed that when obese adolescent boys increased physical activity alone, they improved several markers of health. These include reducing total fat, fat packed around organs in the abdomen (known as visceral fat, a risk factor for diabetes), and liver fat, and improving fitness of their heart and lungs.

To see if physical activity might work in the same way for obese adolescent girls, Lee and her colleagues performed a new study that compared the health effects of two different types of exercise- aerobic exercise and weight lifting- over three months to remaining sedentary.

Although their results show beneficial effects for both types of exercise, the researchers found that girls who performed aerobic exercise, but not weight lifting, had significant reductions in visceral fat and liver fat, as well as improvements in insulin sensitivity, another risk factor for diabetes that’s linked with obesity.

The findings by researchers, who recruited 44 obese girls between 12 and 18 years old, suggested that for teen girls, aerobic exercise might be superior to resistance exercise for cutting health risks associated with obesity.

They also note that, anecdotally, girls in the aerobic exercise group seemed to enjoy their workouts more than those in the resistance exercise group, an opposite sentiment from the obese boys in their previous study.

The study is published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Source: dna india

 

Enrollment in MD, DO Schools Hits New Highs

Medical school applications and enrollment reached record highs this year as organized medicine’s cries for more funding for residency slots continued with little response from Congress.

The number of first-year medical students exceeded 20,000 for the first time in 2013, reaching 20,055, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) said Thursday in its annual report on medical school enrollment and applications.

Meanwhile, first-year student enrollment at osteopathic medical colleges increased 11.1% in 2013, to 6,449, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM).

The two organizations increased their pleas for Congress to provide more money for graduate medical education and funding residency training slots to handle the newly minted doctors.

“We think, that as much as we see gridlock in Washington, that is something that we need to attend to sooner rather than later,”Atul Grover, MD, PhD, chief public policy officer at AAMC, said during a congressional briefing Thursday.

First-time medical school enrollment jumped 2.8% this year and is up 21.6% since 2002, according to the AAMC. The group attributed the increase to four medical schools opening their doors this year and an additional 14 increasing their class sizes by more than 10%.

Total medical school applications are up 6.1% to 48,014, this year while first-time applicants have grown 5.8%, the AAMC said. First-time female applicants increased 6.9%, after remaining flat in 2012. Hispanics attendance at medical schools increased 5.5%.

Furthermore, total enrollment at osteopathic medical schools increased to 4.9% over 2012, growing to more than 22,000 students. New osteopathic medical schools opened in the last year in Alabama, North Carolina, and Indiana.

“Because large numbers of new osteopathic physicians become primary care physicians, often in rural and underserved areas, it is evident that the osteopathic medical profession will help the nation alleviate a primary care physician crisis,” Stephen Shannon, DO, MPH, AACOM president and chief executive, said in a statement. “And colleges of osteopathic medicine are expanding and increasing to meet this demand.”

But the increase in enrollment will mean little in the fight to ease the nation’s physician shortage unless teaching hospitals have a greater ability to train physicians, the AAMC and AACOM said. The AAMC projects a shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by 2020.

“Unless Congress lifts the 16-year-old cap on federal support for residency training, we will still face a shortfall of physicians across dozens of specialties,” AAMC President and Chief Executive Darrell Kirch, MD, said in a release. “Students are doing their part by applying to medical school in record numbers. Medical schools are doing their part by expanding enrollment. Now Congress needs to do its part and act without delay to expand residency training to ensure that everyone who needs a doctor has access to one.”

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 limited the number of residencies Medicare would support. But seeing the pending shortage of physicians coming, the AAMC pleaded with its members in 2006 to increase its enrollment, which was mostly flat between 1980 and 2006.

While medical schools have complied, the number of residency training positions has remained the same. Nearly 1,000 graduates initially were unmatched last year, a number that was eventually whittled down to 520.

“We should probably be training another 4,000 doctors per year,” Grover said.

With 26,504 medical students starting in 2013 between osteopathic and allopathic medical schools, only 26,392 first-year residency slots existed in 2013, Grover said.

“We hear from our educators and our teaching hospitals the way that clinical revenues have been compressed, they don’t have the resources for additional positions anymore,” he added.

Legislation is pending in both chambers — H.R. 1201 and S. 577 — that would increase the number of residency slots Medicare would support by 15,000 over 5 years. The legislation would cost about $9 billion over 10 years, Grover said.

It costs about $145,000 a year to train a physician, but Medicare supports only about $3.2 billion annually of the roughly $15 billion it takes to train physicians nationwide.

Source: Med Page today

 

Women ‘more prone to breathlessness’

Women’s lung muscles have to work harder than men’s, making breathlessness more common after exercise, say scientists in Canada.

Their study in the journal Experimental Physiology examined the activity of the diaphragm – the muscle that drives lung function.

It had to work harder in women to compensate for smaller lungs, the research showed.

The research was conducted at McGill University.

Even with a man and a woman of equal size, the woman’s lungs are smaller and their airways narrower.

Breathlessness can occur after tough physical exercise or be a symptom of some illnesses such as bronchitis.

“In both health and diseases, women are more likely to show signs of breathlessness after physical activity than men,” said lead researcher Dr Dennis Jensen.

The study compared 25 men and 25 women between the ages of 20 and 40, exercising on a bicycle.

How deep and how fast they breathed at different levels of exercise were recorded. They also recorded the “drive to breathe”, the electrical signals sent to the diaphragm to control its movement.

Dr Jensen told the BBC: “Women have biologically smaller lungs and they have to activate respiratory muscles more to move a given amount of air.”

He said it was an “important insight into why women with emphysema and heart failure have worse breathing symptoms than men”.

Further studies will investigate the impact of obesity on breathlessness.

Source: Medical web times

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Surgeon Wins Award For 95p Invention

Dr Hossien spent over six months developing his invention A heart surgeon at a Swansea hospital has won an award for an invention that cost him 95p to create. Morriston hospital doctor Abdull razak Hossien made his surgery training simulator out of a sweet tin. The portable device can be used anywhere and is now being manufactured for use around the world

Dr Hossien spent over six months developing his invention

A heart surgeon at a Swansea hospital has won an award for an invention that cost him 95p to create.

Morriston hospital doctor Abdullrazak Hossien made his surgery training simulator out of a sweet tin.

The portable device can be used anywhere and is now being manufactured for use around the world.

It is used in training for surgery of the aortic root, which carries blood from the left side of the heart to the arteries of the limbs and organs.

Dr Hossien created his training device for a competition run as part of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) Conference 2013 in Vienna.

He said: “Thomas Edison said that to invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

“I designed a portable trainer, which you can keep in your pocket. You can practise on the train, on an airplane, at home, wherever you are.

“I developed it from a sweet tin that can be fixed to a table, and created an aorta using synthetic material. It cost me around 95p.

“I accompanied this simulator with a multimedia DVD [with] guidelines that trainees can apply to any procedure on the aortic root. They can progress from the simplest procedure to the most complex as they develop.”

Dr Hossien said trainees using the simulator would be completely familiar with the procedures by the time they came to carry out supervised aortic root surgery on patients.

He added: “They will have mastered the procedure before they operate on the patient.”

Garage workshop

Dr Hossien said that at the same time “qualified surgeons and any doctor with an interest in the specialty can improve their skills”.

The prototype simulator was made from a sweet tin

For the EACTS award, candidates were challenged to create a low-tech training simulator for aortic root surgery.

These were judged by a panel of eight top surgeons from Europe and the USA.

Dr Hossien was eventually declared joint winner along with a candidate from Italy.

His simulator will be manufactured for worldwide use by award sponsor Ethicon, which develops innovative surgical products.

Dr Hossien turned the garage of his Swansea home into a workshop to develop the aortic root simulator.

“I spent six or seven months on it. I would forget to eat and to drink sometimes because I was thinking about it so much.

“I would like to thank my wife and daughter who supported me and gave me the time I needed to develop this.”

He is donating his share of the 3,000 euro (£2,600) first prize from the EACTS award to the Syrian humanitarian relief appeal.

Dr Hossien is senior clinical research fellow in the cardiothoracic department at Morriston Hospital.

Mr Saeed Ashraf, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and honorary senior lecturer at Swansea University said: “Dr Hossien is a very talented academic surgeon with an excellent pair of surgical hands.”

Source: 24all news

Polio in Syria poses risk for Europe

An outbreak of polio in Syria poses a threat to Europe, where the crippling and potentially fatal disease was declared eradicated in 2002, doctors warned on Friday.

Europe is exposed because some countries have low rates of innoculation, which lowers “herd immunity”, or protection through community-wide vaccination, a pair of German epidemiologists warned in The Lancet.

In addition, most countries use a type called inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which is less effective against the virus than an oral vaccine which is now largely discontinued because it causes rare cases of paralysis, they warned.

At least 10 cases of polio have been confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Syria, where vaccination has been disrupted by the war.

The polio virus has also been found in Israel in routine tests in sewage, from people who had the virus but did not develop the disease, prompting the country to launch an emergency innoculation campaign.

In their letter to The Lancet, Martin Eichner of the University of Tuebingen and Stefan Brockmann, a regional health officer in Reutlingen, said the risk of polio spreading to Europe was invisible but real.

Out of every 200 people infected with the polio virus, only one will develop the disease’s classic symptoms, called acute flaccid paralysis, they said.

“In regions with low vaccination coverage (e.g. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 87 percent or Ukraine, 74 percent), particularly those with low coverage of inactivated polio vaccine (e.g. Austria, 83 percent), herd immunity might be insufficient to prevent sustained transmission,” said the letter.

In addition to vaccinating Syrian refugees, “more comprehensive measures” should be considered, it said.

“Routine screening of sewage for poliovirus has not been done in most European countries, but this intensified surveillance measure should be considered for settlements with large numbers of Syrian refugees.”

Source: France 24

US moves to ban trans fats in foods

US food safety officials have taken steps to ban the use of trans fats, saying they are a threat to health.

Trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils, are no longer “generally recognised as safe”, said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The regulator said a ban could prevent 7,000 deaths and 20,000 heart attacks in the US each year.

The FDA is opening a 60-day consultation period on the plan, which would gradually phase out trans fats.

“While consumption of potentially harmful artificial trans fat has declined over the last two decades in the United States, current intake remains a significant public health concern,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement.

“The FDA’s action today is an important step toward protecting more Americans from the potential dangers of trans fat.”

‘Industrially produced ingredient’

If the agency’s plan is successful, the heart-clogging oils would be considered food additives and could not be used in food unless officially approved.

The ruling does not affect foods with naturally occurring trans fats, which are present in small amounts in certain meat and dairy products.

  • Some processed baked goods such as cakes, cookies, pies
  • Microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, some fast food
  • Margarine and other spreads, coffee creamer
  • Refrigerator dough products such as cinnamon rolls

Artificial trans fats are used both in processed food and in restaurants as a way to improve the shelf life or flavour of foods. The fats are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil, making it a solid.

Nutritionists have long criticised their use, saying they contribute to heart disease more than saturated fat.

Some companies have already phased out trans fats, prompted by new nutritional labels introduced in 2006 requiring it to be listed on food packaging.

New York City and some other local governments have also banned it.

But trans fats persist primarily in processed foods – including some microwave popcorns and frozen pizzas – and in restaurants that use the oils for frying.

According to the FDA, trans fat intake among Americans declined from 4.6g per day in 2003 to around 1g per day in 2012.

The American Heart Association said the FDA’s proposal was a step forward in the battle against heart disease.

“We commend the FDA for responding to the numerous concerns and evidence submitted over the years about the dangers of this industrially produced ingredient,” said its chief executive, Nancy Brown.

Outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who led the charge to ban trans fats in that city, said the FDA plan “deserves great credit”.

“The groundbreaking public health policies we have adopted here in New York City have become a model for the nation for one reason: they’ve worked,” he said.

Source: BBC News

 

Low treatment costs attract foreign heart patients to India

Low treatment costs and high levels of expertise have made India a leading destination for heart treatment for people from West Asian and African countries, doctors said.

According to doctors, the rates of heart treatment are 1/10th to 1/15th times lower as compared to the United States and Britain.

“India has now become a hub for heart treatment in Southeast Asia and people have been flying in from foreign countries and undergoing treatment for various cardiovascular diseases here,” Subhash Chandra, associate director (Interventional Cardiology), Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, told IANS.
People visiting India for treatment are not only from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal but also from far off countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Kazakhstan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Oman.

Subhash Chandra said close to 500 patients had undergone treatment in Delhi alone in the last one year.

“Compared to global standards, the rates for any kind of cardiovascular surgery are very minuscule in our country,” said Anil Bansal, chief cardiologist at Columbia Asia Hospital.
Coronary angiography (a test that uses dye and special X-rays to show the insides of coronary arteries, the tube that carries blood to heart) costs around Rs.10,000 to Rs. 15,000 in India and around 500 dollars (Rs. 32,000) in the US.

“I underwent an implant here in just Rs.7 lakhs, while I was quoted Rs. 30 lakhs for this in Europe,” said Bardhan Sarkar from Bangladesh, who was treated by Bansal.

The most popular treatments availed of  by people who come to India are angioplasty, where the blockage in the coronary artery is opened and a thin coil, called a stent, is implanted; open heart surgery where the heart holes are closed and narrow valves opened; and the installation of artificial pacemakers for slower heart rates.

Low treatment costs are definitely one of the major factors attracting people to India, but the expertise and trust in the quality of treatment is another reason for the growth of foreign patients.

“All the latest high quality treatment is available in our country and with high expertise we have been able to establish trust among foreign patients,” said Chandan Kedawat, senior consultant cardiovascular disease at Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute (PSRI).

Similarly, even for treatment of congenital heart disease (diseases affecting infants and children and present since birth) several hospitals are attracting a lot of patients from abroad.

“Treatment of heart disease in children costs 10 to 15 times less here than that in any European country,” said Shreesha Maiya, pediatric interventional cardiologist at Bangalore’s Narayana Hrudayalaya.

In private hospitals, open heart surgery costs Rs.1.5 lakh to Rs.2.25 lakh; for children, open heart surgery costs Rs.1.25 lakh to Rs.2 lakh; valve surgeries cost between Rs.2.5 lakh and Rs.2.75 lakh.

The treatment is even cheaper in government hospitals, with the difference being  usually between Rs.75,000 and Rs. 1 lakh.

Source: Deccan herald

New Medical Township in Kerala beckons foreign health tourists

A medical township comprising nine super speciality hospitals — offering the latest state-of-the-art technology to treat a host of diseases including cancer — is coming up in Kochi with an eye to promote Kerala as a top medical health tourism destination.

Aster Medcity, which is being built on what was a huge garbage dump yard, is to start functioning by March 2014. D M Healthcare, a big name in healthcare in Gulf countries, is building the complex on 38 acres of land at Cheranallur in Kochi.

Phase I of the complex, being built at a cost of $150 million, would have on offer 540 beds across the nine hospitals, Harish Pillai, chief executive officer of Aster Medcity, told IANS.

The Medcity plans to add another 500 beds later in Phase II. The township will have residential quarters, hotels, a convention centre, cafeterias, guest rooms and later also a home for the elderly, said Pillai.

“We are aiming to attract foreign health tourists to Aster Medcity. We have the latest facilities, including minimally invasive treatment and diagnostic techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers and heart diseases,” Pillai told IANS.

India gets 150,000 medical tourists every year, and it is expected to grow by 15 per cent annually, he said.

Among the latest technology that Aster will boast of is the ‘True Beam’ that provides radiation treatment in a shorter time and minus most of the usual side effects of current treatment, said Pillai. The ‘True Beam’ technology is a radio-surgery treatment in which high-energy X-rays are used to destroy tumours.

“Conventional therapy takes a very long time, but this system delivers concentrated radiation with pinpoint accuracy on the tumour,” Pillai said.

“As it is a concentrated high-dose treatment, the process is over in a few minutes for patients,” he added.

An added advantage of the new system is that it uses 25 per cent lower X-ray dosage compared to conventional ones. This reduces greatly the radiation exposure for patients.

“The conventional radiation therapies are accompanied by various side effects, but with True Beam the impact of radiation is greatly minimized and it also doesn’t impact the normal tissues,” Pillai said.

The Medcity will also have cardiac cath labs or catheterization laboratories — diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualise the arteries of the heart to detect any abnormalities. The cath labs will have an added advanced technology, called ‘clarity’, to reduce the radiation levels for patients, doctors and lab technicians, said Pillai.

This has been introduced keeping safety and efficiency as the hospital’s top priority, he said.

“You would be surprised to know that so far there has been no study of how many cardiologists in the country acquire cancer due to long exposure to radiation. So this is the reason the cardiac cath labs with option of ‘clarity’ are being introduced,” Pillai said.

The ‘clarity’ cardiac cath lab reduces radiation exposure by almost 73 per cent.

“This is the newest technology that is being introduced in India for the first time,” he said.

Another new technology being introduced is the hybrid biplane cath lab that can convert the imaging and diagnostic device into an operation theatre for any emergency surgery.

“Besides cardio, this technology would be used in interventional neuro-radiology cases. We will be bringing experts trained overseas for using this technology,” Pillai said.

The medical township also has a large artificial lake in the complex, which adds to the pleasing environment of the township.

Source: India Medical Times

Tea Promotes Weight Loss, Improve Heart Health

black tea for weight loss

Tea has been found to help promote weight loss, improve bone and heart health, slow the progression of prostate cancer and activate areas of the brain that bolster attention, problem solving and mood, say researchers.

The December 2013 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition features 12 new articles about the relationship between tea and human health. Each paper is based on presentations from world-renowned scientists who participated in the Fifth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health, held at USDA in September 2012. Highlights of some of the compelling reports published through the AJCN include the following five papers:

Tea Leaf Polyphenols May Promote Weight Loss

Tea polyphenols and the caffeine content in tea increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation, providing benefits for achieving and maintaining an ideal body weight. The results of one meta-analysis suggests the increase in caloric expenditure is equal to about 100 calories over a 24-hour period, or 0.13 calories per mg catechins. In a related review, researchers concluded that subjects consuming green tea and caffeine lost an average of 2.9 pounds within 12 weeks while adhering to their regular diet. Population-based studies also show that habitual tea drinkers have lower Body Mass Indexes (BMIs) and waist-to-hip ratios and less body fat than non-tea drinkers. In addition, green tea and caffeine also appear to boost fat oxidation over 24 hours by an average of 16% or 0.02 grams per mg catechins.

Tea May Reduce Risk for Some Cancers

Green tea polyphenols may play a role in arresting the progression of certain cancers. For example, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, supplementation with 600 mg/d green tea catechins reduced the progression of prostate cancer. The researchers reported that after a year, 9% of men in the green tea supplemented group had progressed to prostate cancer whereas 30% of men in the placebo group had progressed.

Hundreds—if not thousands—of laboratory, epidemiological and human intervention studies have found anti-cancer properties in compounds present in tea. The types of cancer that have shown benefits of tea include cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, lung, prostate, breast, and skin. The proposed mechanisms of action for providing protection against cancer include antioxidant effects, inhibition of growth factor signaling, as well as improving the efficacy of chemotherapy agents.

Tea Catechins are Cardioprotective

Numerous studies suggest tea supports heart health and healthy blood pressure, and appears to be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, including stroke and heart attack. New research, published in the AJCN provides further support. Study results published by Claudio Ferri, MD, University L’Aquila, Italy, found that black tea reduced blood pressure, and among hypertensive subjects, it helped counteract the negative effects of a high-fat meal on blood pressure and arterial blood flow. Hypertensive subjects were instructed to drink a cup of tea after a meal that contained 0.45 grams fat/lb. body weight. The results suggest that tea prevented the reduction in flow-mediated dilation (FMD), the ability to increase arterial blood flow that occurs after a high-fat meal. In a previous study conducted by Ferri, tea improved FMD from 7.8 to 10.3%, and reduced both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by -2.6 and -2.2 mmHg, respectively, in study participants.

“Our studies build on previous work to clearly show that drinking as little as one cup of tea per day supports healthy arterial function and blood pressure. These results suggest that on a population scale, drinking tea could help reduce significantly the incidence of stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases,” concluded Dr. Ferri.

Tea Flavonoids Improve Bone Strength and Quality

Osteoporosis is a major public health concern but new research suggests that polyphenols in green tea may help improve bone quality and strength through many proposed mechanisms. In fact, one study found that tea drinking was associated with a 30% reduced risk in hip fractures among men and women over 50 years old. In a study of 150 postmenopausal women, researchers reported that 500 mg green tea extract (equivalent to 4-6 cups of green tea daily), alone or in combination with Tai Chi, improved markers for bone formation, reduced markers of inflammation and increased muscle strength in study participants. Numerous other studies have found that green tea flavanols provide a restorative effect to bone remodeling to help maintain bone density and slow bone loss.

Tea Improves Mood, Alertness and Problem Solving

Results from new research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking tea improved attention and allowed individuals to be more focused on the task at hand. In this placebo-controlled study, subjects who drank tea produced more accurate results during an attention task and also felt more alert than subjects drinking a placebo. These effects were found for 2-3 cups of tea consumed within a time period of up to 90 minutes. Several studies have evaluated the role of tea in strengthening attention, mood and performance, and the results have been promising. It is thought that the amino acid theanine and caffeine, both present in tea, contribute to many of tea’s psychological benefits.

Twelve internationally renowned researchers contributed to the AJCN supplement, including experts from USDA, National Institutes of Health, UCLA, University of Glasgow and University of L’Aquila, among others. “The scientists who contributed their original research and insights are among the best in the world, and together, this body of research has significantly advanced the science of tea and human health,” said compendium editor Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Director, Antioxidants Research Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston.

“These new peer-reviewed papers add to the previously-published body of evidence that shows that tea can improve human health—both physically and psychologically,” added Blumberg. “Humans have been drinking tea for some 5,000 years, dating back to the Paleolithic period. Modern research is providing the proof that there are real health benefits to gain from enjoying this ancient beverage.”

Source: med india

STIs can Lead to a Range of Health Problems Including Infertility

Having sex can be fun and talking about sex can be fun. Talking about sexually transmitted infections with a sexual interest, however, is a totally different matter.

This is according to new research from Indiana University’s Center for Sexual Health Promotion.

The study, to be discussed Nov. 6. during the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting, found a disconnect between the public health messages that promote STI testing as a way to prevent STIs such as HIV and chlamydia and the conversations — or lack of them — occurring in bedrooms.

“Talking to partners about STIs is an important conversation to have,” said Margo Mullinax, lead researcher for “Talk about testing: What sexual partners discuss in relation to STI status and why.” “However, findings from this study suggest public health campaigns need to promote specific messages, concrete tips and tools around sexual health conversations stratified by relationship status. Campaigns should also address STI stigma and promote messages of normalcy with regard to talking about STIs.”

STIs, if untreated, can lead to a range of health problems including infertility, so a growing public health emphasis has been on preventing STIs through testing. Mullinax said little was known, however, about how STI testing figured into actual conversations between lovers, particularly among the college-age crowd that accounts for a disproportionate number of new STI cases nationwide.

She recruited 181 sexually active men and women, average age 26, to take an anonymous online questionnaire that probed the issue, looking for insights into how conversations about STIs might influence behavior and decision-making.

She described the sample as highly educated, with many participants who commented on their own work in sexual health education. More than half were in monogamous relationships. Most of the participants were white and identified themselves as heterosexual or straight.

Mullinax said she was surprised to learn that about the same percentage of study participants engaged in sex without a condom regardless of whether they talked about STIs with their partners.

“Participants who reported talking to their partners about STIs say it affected their decision to engage in certain behaviors in that it made them feel more comfortable and led them to stop using condoms,” she said. “But this finding concerns me given that many participants did not also report routinely getting tested nor having detailed conversations with partners about STIs.”

Here are some of the other findings:

  • Many participants reported that they occasionally, rarely or never got tested before having sex with partners who were casual (50.3 percent) or long-term (38.7 percent).
  • Of the people who did discuss STI testing, very few discussed concurrent sexual partners or when partners’ testing occurred in relation to their last sex act, and only half clarified what types of STIs their partner had been tested for. These issues are important components of assessing STI risk.
  • About a third of participants said they told a partner they didn’t have an STI even though they hadn’t been tested since their last sexual partner.

Mullinax said just a little more than half of study participants reported feeling “very comfortable” talking to partners about how to prevent STIs. Less than half felt “very comfortable” talking with a partner about sexual histories. Comfort levels improved — and conversations became easier — when people felt better informed about STIs and had practice talking about STIs with partners

“Take time to get informed,” she said. “It will only make your conversation more comfortable and ensure that you are really protecting your health.”

Source: inooz