Health

Elderly husbands may devote just as much effort to caring for a sick spouse as their wives might do if the situation were reversed, a German study suggests.

Plenty of research on gender roles among older couples has found women do the bulk of housework even if both spouses have similar amounts of time available for domestic chores, the study team notes. Less clear, however, is whether men take on more caregiving or housework when women get sick.

For the current study, researchers followed 538 older couples from 2001 to 2015 to look for connections between declining health in one spouse and shifts in the amount of time devoted to caregiving or household duties for the other.

“Male caregivers were just as responsive towards their partner’s onset of illness as female caregivers,” said study co-author Laura Langner of the University of Oxford in the UK.

“This stands in sharp contrast to the division of caregiving (i.e. childcare) and housework in mid-life,” Langner said by email.

When a spouse became ill, men increased the amount of time they spent on caregiving each week by roughly the same amount as women did, resulting in similar care hours regardless of which spouse was sick, researchers report in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. For men, the increase was much greater when their wives were seriously ill than when they needed less care.

However, 30 per cent of male caregivers had outside help, compared with 18 per cent of female caregivers.

And housework was a different story.

Men with ill partners increased their errands and housework by 4.4 hours more each week than women did when their spouses fell ill, the study found, but that was largely because women were already putting in more hours on housework.

In the absence of a sick spouse, women spent an average of 12 hours more than men on housework. So once husbands became ill, wives still did 7.4 more hours of housework a week than the men with sick spouses.

One limitation of the study is that men tend to exaggerate how much time they spend on housework, the authors point out.

The results also may not apply more widely because they are from Germany, where people have access to a national long-term care insurance system, which provides home and institutional care or cash benefits, noted Carol Levine, director of the Families and Health Care Project at the United Hospital Fund in New York City.

“This system marks Germany as a ‘communitarian’ society, whereas the United States is ‘individualistic,’ leaving responsibility for care up to the individual and family,” Levine, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

Almost half of family caregivers in the US handle medical tasks such as monitoring medications (including injections and infusions), providing wound care after surgery or for diabetes wounds, monitoring medical equipment such as oxygen tanks or motorized lifts, preparing special diets, managing incontinence, dealing with behaviour problems and more, Levine said.

“These tasks require a level of expertise that goes far beyond household chores and errands,” Levine added. “Perhaps in the German system trained professionals make home visits to provide this level of care.”

Still, the results suggest that traditional gender roles don’t prevent men from taking on a caregiving role when a wife is ill, the study authors note.

“The gender gap in life expectancy is closing, suggesting that many more men will be called upon to care for their partners,” Langner said. “In light of our findings, women won’t have to worry that their partners won’t care for them if they are in need of care.”

THARPARKAR: Death toll of children dying of malnutrition in Sindh’s Tharparker region continued to climb as two more infants passed away in the past 24 hours, the health department confirmed. 

The latest deaths have taken the death toll in Tharparker to 20 for this month and 439 for this year.

According to the health department, every year 1,500 children die due to malnutrition, infections and lack of proper medical facilities in the remote region.

A report released by the United Nation’s Children Fund in April stated that Pakistan is among countries with the highest infant mortality rates, with 22 infants dying before turning one month old.

Among these countries, eight are in Africa and two in Asia, including Afghanistan which is ranked third.

“Pakistan is the riskiest place to be born as measured by its newborn mortality rate,” the report stated. “A baby born in Pakistan is almost 50 times more likely to die during his or her first month than a baby born in Japan, Iceland and Singapore.”

People who have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep may want to seek advice from a doctor and avoid long-term use of sleeping pills, medical experts advise.

Good sleep hygiene and a specific kind of talk therapy may help people create good bedtime habits and figure out why they’re not sleeping well, the experts say in a new resource for patients published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Recent research has shown that use of sleeping pills is very common and that the drugs are linked with serious side effects, such as falls and death, said Dr Michael Incze of the University of California, San Francisco, who co-wrote the one-page primer.

In 2017, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommended a form of psychological counselling called cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a first treatment for insomnia, followed by prescription and over-the-counter medicines. CBT focuses on identifying patterns of thinking and behaviour that prevent good sleep.

About 10 per cent of Americans experience chronic insomnia, and about 30 per cent have temporary symptoms.

People who often take sleep medicine “should feel encouraged to talk to their doctor about looking deeper into why they may be having insomnia,” Incze told Reuters Health by phone.

Available for free, the new patient page offers practical tips about insomnia diagnosis and treatment. It includes a visual scale of therapy options, ranging from "safe and proven to work" on one end to "potentially dangerous" on the other end.

“Safe and proven” includes sleep hygiene, CBT and short-term use of sleeping pills. “Dangerous” includes combining sleeping pills with opioids or alcohol, use of sleeping pills by older adults and continuous long-term use of sleeping pills.

“It’s not always easy to find doctors who do CBT for insomnia right now, even in a big city, and insurance doesn’t often cover it,” Incze added. “That’s where telehealth and mobile apps could come in.”

Incze and co-authors recommend starting with good sleep hygiene, that is, creating a peaceful environment for sleep. This includes going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning. Instead of staying in bed lying awake, get up and do something relaxing until you’re tired enough to fall asleep, they advise. Also, avoid alcohol and caffeine, and create a dark, quiet environment for sleeping with minimal distractions, which means turning off screens on electronic devices and darkening windows.

“We see insomnia every day in various ages and walks of life, and it can lead us to consider other concerns such as depression, anxiety and medication issues,” said Dr Ada Stewart, a family physician in Columbia, South Carolina who was not involved with the new publication.

Stewart is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians, which also provides free information about insomnia. 

“Most sleeping medicines should only be used for a limited amount of time, usually a week or two, and can be addictive and lead to bad outcomes when mixed with alcohol or other drugs,” she told Reuters Health by phone.

Side effects can be stronger in older age groups, so these patients should be particularly careful about sleep medicines, especially if mixing with other prescriptions, she added.

“I like doing a sleep diary with my patients so we can look at what they’re doing that can impact the way they’re sleeping,” she said. “Once I have a sleep diary in front of me, I can see whether it’s a more serious sleep disorder and whether they need a sleep study.”

Sleep studies include overnight tests to monitor sleep and look for medical conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea. Conditions such as stress, anxiety and breathing issues can also affect sleep. The amount of sleep required by different people varies at different points in life, but the average is six to eight hours per night.

“Most importantly, talk to your doctor about these concerns,” Stewart said. “Sleep issues are very common, and many patients don’t think to ask questions about it.”

SAO PAULO: Nestle SA is eliminating stabilizers from two of its major milk brands in Brazil, an executive told Reuters, as the world’s largest food company makes a global push to capture growing consumer interest in natural, healthy and organic products.

In an interview on Monday afternoon, Fabiana Fairbanks, beverages business executive officer for Nestle Brazil, said the firm’s Ninho and Molico brands, a milk for children and a skimmed milk, respectively, will be sold without preservatives starting this month.

With the move, which required an investment of 140 million reais ($34.3 million), Nestle’s two “ultra-high temperature” milks in Brazil, which can be stored for prolonged periods of time at room temperature, have no stabilizers. The two brands make up about 10 per cent of the 2 billion liters of milk Nestle sells in Brazil every year.

Brazil is part of a larger natural-products push by the Swiss-based company throughout the Americas. In February, Nestle bought a majority stake in Terrafertil, an Ecuadorian company selling natural and organic plant-based foods. In the second half of 2017, the company announced deals for Sweet Earth vegetarian foods, Blue Bottle coffee, and Chameleon Cold-Brew Coffee.

While Brazil is still behind developed countries in terms of offerings considered more natural than traditional products, Fairbanks said the nation was quickly catching up, and Nestle’s Brazil unit was continually evaluating other options in the segment.

“In my opinion, Brazil is evolving very quickly in this area,” she said. “You see retailers themselves setting aside areas of stores just for natural products.”

Earlier this year, Nestle launched its first organic-food products in Brazil and opened a new quality assurance lab in Brazil as part of a larger natural products push.

US regulators said Wednesday they are considering an immediate ban on flavoured e-cigarettes, as the Food and Drug Administration chief warned of an "epidemic" of vaping among youths.

The agency sent more than 1,100 warning letters and 131 fines to retailers it said illegally sold JUUL and other e-cigarette products to minors during a nationwide undercover sting including brick-and-mortar and online stores this summer.

The crackdown marked the "largest coordinated enforcement effort in the FDA's history," the agency said in a statement, warning of even harsher action to come.

"We see clear signs that youth use of electronic cigarettes has reached an epidemic proportion, and we must adjust certain aspects of our comprehensive strategy to stem this clear and present danger," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in a statement.

"We're especially focused on the flavoured e-cigarettes. And we're seriously considering a policy change that would lead to the immediate removal of these flavoured products from the market."

Gottlieb cited preliminary data that has not yet been published, but which he said shows "youth use of e-cigs is rising very sharply."

The data is expected to be published in the coming months. The FDA declined to release the figures publicly.

According to the Washington Post, the preliminary data is from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, and it shows a 75 per cent increase in e-cigarette use among high school students in 2018 compared to 2017.

"I use the word epidemic with great care. E-cigs have become an almost ubiquitous — and dangerous — trend among teens," added Gottlieb.

"The disturbing and accelerating trajectory of use we're seeing in youth, and the resulting path to addiction, must end."

According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' president Matthew Myers, the FDA has made a crucial step toward curtailing youth use of e-cigarettes.

"Critically, FDA for the first time recognizes that it must be addressed by requiring that manufacturers remove flavoured products from the market unless those products have been reviewed by FDA, alter current marketing practices, eliminate online sales and take significant steps to curtail illegal sales to kids," Myers said.

He said the FDA move could "represent a fundamental turning point" if the agency requires "all of these products undergo premarket review now, not four years from now."

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a nicotine liquid into a vapour that can be inhaled.

Many use fruit-flavoured liquids that critics say appeal to kids, and risk addicting them to nicotine.

PARIS: Cancer will kill nearly 10 million people this year, experts said Wednesday, warning the disease's global burden continues to rise in spite of better prevention and earlier diagnosis.

An estimated 18.1 million new cancer cases were predicted worldwide for 2018 1 with 9.6 million deaths, said a report of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

This is up from estimated 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million deaths reported in the agency's last assessment just six years ago.

The toll is rising as populations expand and grow older, and people in developing nations adopt unhealthy, high-risk lifestyles traditionally associated with richer economies.

An increased focus on prevention — encouraging people to get exercise, quit smoking, and eating a healthy diet — led to a drop in certain types of cancer in some population groups, the IARC said.

Yet the overall number of new cases is racing ahead of efforts to contain the disease.

"These new figures highlight that much remains to be done to address the alarming rise in the cancer burden globally and that prevention has a key role to play," said IARC director Christopher Wild.

One in five men and one in six women will develop cancer during their lifetime, the study said, and the World Health Organization expects the disease to be the leading cause of death in the 21st century.

There are dozens of types of cancer, and the agency found large differences between countries due to a host of socioeconomic factors.

Asia, unsurprisingly given its enormous population, accounted for nearly half of all new cases and more than half of cancer deaths worldwide in 2018.

Lung cancer remains the biggest killer overall, responsible for some 1.8 million deaths — nearly a quarter of the global toll.

For women, breast cancer caused 15 per cent of cancer deaths, followed by lung cancer (13.8 per cent) and colorectal cancer (9.5 per cent).

The figures highlighted a worrying rise in lung cancer rates for women — it is now the leading cause of female cancer deaths in 28 countries including Denmark, the Netherlands, China, and New Zealand.

The data showed that cancer types traditionally associated with rich country lifestyles — more overweight people who are less inclined to exercise — were increasingly common in developing nations.

"One of the things that happens with transitions towards high levels of socio-economic development is the environment changes," Freddie Bray, IARC's head of cancer surveillance, told AFP.

"There is more physical inactivity and that happens to be a particularly high risk factor for colon cancer, for example."

Bray said models using current cancer statistics and predicted trends forecast as many as 29 million new cases a year by 2040.

"The extent to which this is becoming a major public health problem and the diversity of cancers that we see in different regions is also a striking point," Bray said.

Anti-cancer measures could take the form of stricter tabacco controls to limit lung cancer, or initiatives to encourage physical activity to reduce the risk of colon cancer.

But the study warned that global efforts to rein in one of mankind's biggest killers still "lacked momentum".

"Either from a social or an economic point of view the numbers are increasing," said Bray.

This means "there's a need to invest in prevention and public health programmes, and develop health services' capacity, particularly in low-medium income countries."