Healthy behaviors in midlife significantly increase odds of successful aging

ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2012) — Engaging in a combination of healthy behaviours, such as not smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, exercise, and eating fruits and vegetables daily makes it significantly more likely people will stay healthy as they age, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

"Our study shows the cumulative impact of healthy behaviours on successful aging -- the greater the number of healthy behaviours, the greater the benefit," writes Dr. Séverine Sabia, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL (University College London), UK, with coauthors.

Successful aging was defined as maintaining the ability to function well with good mobility, cognitive skills, respiratory function, mental health and no chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke or disability at age 60 years or older. Normal aging included people who were alive at the end of the 16-year study but who had chronic disease and/or lower scores on functioning and mental health.

"Among members of a large cohort of British men and women 42-63 years of age at baseline, all 4 healthy behaviours examined during midlife…were associated with greater odds of successfully aging during a 16-year follow-up," write the authors. "Compared with participants who engaged in no healthy behaviours, those who engaged in all 4 healthy behaviours had greater odds of aging successfully."

The study, by researchers in the UK and France, involved 5100 men and women from the Whitehall II study who did not have cancer, heart disease or stroke in the assessment phase during 1991-1994 and were followed to 2007-2009. Of the total participants, 549 died during follow-up, and 953 were classified as successfully aging while the remaining people aged normally. People in the successfully aging group were younger than the normally aging group (mean age 49.7 v. 51.3 yr), and 81% were married compared with 78% in the second group and 71% in the deceased group. Successful agers were more likely to have higher education than the normally aging group (32% v. 24%) and 18% in the deceased group. In the study population, 5% of people did not engage in any of the 4 healthy behaviours.

"Although individual healthy behaviours are moderately associated with successful aging, their combined impact is quite substantial. Multiple healthy behaviours appear to increase the chance of reaching old age disease-free and fully functional in an additive manner," conclude the authors.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Canadian Medical Association Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Séverine Sabia, Archana Singh-Manoux, Gareth Hagger-Johnson, Emmanuelle Cambois, Eric J. Brunner, and Mika Kivimaki. Influence of individual and combined healthy behaviours on successful aging. CMAJ, October 22, 2012 DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.121080

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Mortality rates significantly higher if both mother and newborn admitted to ICU

ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2012) — When mothers and newborns are both admitted to intensive care units they are significantly more likely to die than when neither is admitted to an ICU, new research has found.

Researchers led by Dr. Joel Ray, a physician at St. Michael's Hospital, examined data on all 1.02 million single births in Ontario from 2002-10 and found that infants were 28 times more likely to die if they and their mother were both admitted to ICUs around the time of delivery. The maternal death rate was 330 times higher when both went to ICU, compared to when neither went to an ICU.

The research was published October 22 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"A mother being admitted to an adult ICU as her infant is admitted to a neonatal ICU, a situation we call co-ICU, is a new and important marker of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, above and beyond the situation in which just a mother or her baby is admitted to an ICU while the other is not," said Dr. Ray, who is also a research scientist with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

"We also found that when co-ICU arises, moms and babies are much more likely to be located in ICUs in different hospitals. This would compound the heavy stress already placed on parents and family and would negatively impact on mother-infant bonding."

Dr. Ray said that one likely explanation for the higher maternal and child death rates in co-ICU arise from diseases of the placenta. Placental dysfunction may result in pre-eclampsia (a form of hypertension arising in pregnancy), separation of the placenta from the wall of the uterus or an interruption of blood supply to the placenta. All of those can lead to premature delivery and a mother who is ill, while her infant has low infant birthweight and other serious complications.

When co-ICU is necessary, hospitals need to consider new methods to keep mothers and babies together and use trained social workers to minimize the burden of maternal-newborn separation on a mother and the family, Dr. Ray said.

He said regional obstetrical programs should be equipped to take care of both a sick mother and a sick infant. When that's not possible, attempts should be made to transfer both to another institution that can handle them both. He noted that webcams in neonatal intensive care units is another way in which a conscious mother in an ICU could view her newborn on a laptop computer or portable device.

"Co-ICU presents the highest probability of a maternal or infant death, such that bereavement counseling may also need to be modified to deal with the surviving mother and/or her family members during her illness," he said.

Mothers and newborns both needing ICU care occurs in about 1.2 of every 1,000 births. Nearly one-third of the mothers had pre-eclampsia. The higher risk of maternal and infant death was seen up to one year after delivery, which might mean that we need careful follow-of not only the babies, but mothers as well, after they leave hospital.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by St. Michael's Hospital. The original article was written by Leslie Shepherd.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Joel G. Ray, Marcelo L. Urquia, Howard Berger, Marian J. Vermeulen. Maternal and neonatal separation and mortality associated with concurrent admissions to intensive care units. CMAJ, 2012 DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.121283

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