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Personal Health: News and Notes

Sleep drug linked to falls

The sleep drug Ambien greatly increases hospital patients' risk of falling, a new study finds.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., looked at data on more than 16,000 hospitalized patients and found that the fall rate for those who took Ambien was more than four times higher than for those who did not take the drug - just over 3 percent, compared with 0.7 percent.

"As a result of our study, we are now phasing out {Ambien} and moving toward sleep enhancement techniques that are not based on drugs and which we believe are safer and probably as effective," Timothy Morgenthaler, Mayo's chief patient safety officer, said in a release.

The fall risk posed by the drug was greater than that posed by factors such as age, mental impairment, delirium, or insomnia, regardless of the dosage used, the authors said. - HealthDay

Younger kids and ADHD

A new study adds to existing evidence that kids are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) if they're among the youngest in their grade.

The study suggests - but doesn't prove - that some children are diagnosed with ADHD when they are just less mature than peers.

"Educators and health-care providers should take children's ages in relation to their {classmates} into account when evaluating academic performance and other criteria for ADHD diagnosis," said study author Helga Zoega, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Debate has erupted about whether ADHD is overdiagnosed in children who are naturally rambunctious and don't need to be medicated.

This year, a Canadian study found that more boys aged 6 to 12 were diagnosed with ADHD if they were the youngest in their grade.

The new study tracked nearly 12,000 children born between 1994 and 1996 in Iceland. Children in the youngest third of their classes were 50 percent more likely than those in the oldest third to be given ADHD drugs from ages 7 to 14.

- HealthDay

Teens keen on building bulk

Teenagers are bulking up, with almost 35 percent of male teens using protein powders and 6 percent using steroids, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics that also found a number of girls doing similar things.

Rates are higher than previously reported and are "cause for concern," the researchers wrote. Doctors should ask teenagers about their behavior and assess if it's healthy, researchers from the University of Minnesota and Columbia University said.

Young people are exposed to bodies in advertising, action figures, and other outlets that "have evolved to be more muscular than even the largest human bodybuilders."

The study included 2,793 adolescents in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area during the 2009-10 school year. Each was asked about five muscle-enhancing behaviors: changing eating habits, exercising more, using protein powders and shakes, using steroids, and using other muscle-enhancing substances.

Among boys, more than two-thirds said they had changed eating habits to boost muscle size, and more than 90 percent said they exercised more to do so. Among boys, 34.7 percent used protein powders, 5.9 percent used steroids, and 10.5 percent said they used another substance.

Among girls, the numbers were 62.3 percent for changes in eating habits, 80.7 percent for exercising, 21.2 percent for protein powders, 4.6 percent for steroids, and 5.5 percent, another substance.
- L.A. Times

Divorced women uninsured

As if marriage breakups aren't hard enough, each year in the United States about 115,000 women lose their private health insurance after a divorce. And women's overall coverage remains lower for more than two years after divorce, the new study found.

For the study, University of Michigan researchers analyzed national data from 1996 through 2007 for women aged 26 to 64.

Given that about 1 million divorces occur each year in the U.S., "and that many women get health coverage through their husbands, the impact is quite substantial," said lead author Bridget Lavelle, a Ph.D. candidate in public policy and sociology.

She and her colleagues found that about 65,000 U.S. women a year lose all health insurance in the months after divorce.

While the Affordable Care Act's effect is unclear, it "has provisions that may help substantially," the study authors said. The law will expand Medicaid and help individuals get commercial insurance. - HealthDay