Latest news with #mortality
Medscape
a day ago
- Health
- Medscape
Obesity-Related Cancer Deaths More Than Triple
Cancer deaths related to obesity have risen sharply over the past two decades, especially among older adults, women, non-Hispanic Black individuals and people living with obesity in rural areas, a US study found. 'Obesity is a well-known risk factor for various cancers, but its contribution to cancer-specific mortality over time hasn't been systematically quantified at a national level,' lead investigator Faizan Ahmed, MD, with Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune City, New Jersey, told Medscape Medical News. 'Clinicians should recognize obesity not just as a cardiovascular or metabolic risk factor but as a significant oncologic concern,' Ahmed said. He presented his research on July 13 at ENDO 2025, The Endocrine Society Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Higher Risk for 13 Cancers According to the CDC, 40% of adults are living with obesity. Obesity is associated with a higher risk for 13 cancers, which make up 40% of all cancers diagnosed in the US each year. They are adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, postmenopausal breast cancer, as well as cancer of the colon and rectum, uterus, gallbladder, upper stomach, kidneys, liver, ovaries, pancreas, thyroid, meningioma, and multiple myeloma. To see the trends in obesity-associated cancer deaths over the past two decades, Ahmed and colleagues analyzed CDC data for 33,572 obesity and cancer-related deaths. They found that the overall age-adjusted mortality rate gradually increased from 3.73 per million in 1999 to 13.52 per million in 2020. 'That's more than a tripling in obesity-related cancer mortality rates over 20 years — a striking rise,' Ahmed told Medscape Medical News . 'To put it in context, this is a steeper increase than seen in many other chronic disease mortality trends during the same time period. It signals a rapidly escalating public health burden,' he noted. Overall, the average percent change from 2018-2020 was +19.4%. The average annual percentage change was also statistically significant at 5.92 ( P < .000001). In stratified analyses, the overall age-adjusted mortality rate per million was greater in women than in men (7.22 vs 6.59), in non-Hispanic Black persons than in non-Hispanic White persons (9.20 vs 7.13), and in adults aged 65+ than those aged 25-64 (20.82 vs 3.54). Age-adjusted mortality rates from obesity-associated cancers were also higher in rural than in urban areas (9.45 vs 6.40). By region, overall, the Midwest had the highest rates and the Northeast had the lowest rates. State-level analysis revealed that Vermont, Minnesota, and Oklahoma had the highest rates, while Utah, Alabama, and Virginia had the lowest. Underappreciated Link The link between obesity and cancer-related mortality is 'often underappreciated,' Ahmed told Medscape Medical News . 'Our findings emphasize the need to prioritize obesity screening and management as part of comprehensive cancer prevention. Counseling patients on weight management should be reframed as a critical component of reducing long-term cancer risk,' he said. Ahmed also noted that socioeconomic factors could be driving the increase in obesity-related cancer deaths. 'While BMI is a contributing factor, disparities in socioeconomic status, access to preventive care, delays in diagnosis, environmental exposures, and cultural factors likely play a larger role in the observed variations across gender and race.' 'For instance, women may face more delayed diagnoses due to under prioritized symptoms, and certain minority groups may encounter systemic barriers to cancer screening and obesity treatment,' Ahmed said. To tackle the problem of rising rates of obesity-related cancer deaths, Ahmed said policy initiatives should move from downstream management to upstream prevention. This would include 'universal access to cancer screening programs, regardless of income or geography; public health campaigns that normalize obesity management as a cancer prevention strategy; policies promoting equitable access to healthy foods, physical activity, and early intervention services; incentives for primary care to integrate weight management into routine visits; and investment in community-based care models targeting underserved populations,' Ahmed told Medscape Medical News .
Medscape
2 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Marginalized Neighborhood Linked With Poor AMI Outcomes
Neighborhood marginalization is associated with increased risks for mortality and hospitalization in young survivors of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), according to a Canadian study. The population-based, retrospective cohort study involving 65,464 Ontario patients younger than 65 years who survived AMI found that those in the most marginalized quintile had significantly greater hazards of all-cause death over 30 days (hazard ratio [HR], 2.43) and hospitalization from all causes (HR, 1.16) but not recurrent AMI. 'You're two and a half more times more likely to die within 30 days if you live in a marginalized neighborhood compared with the least marginalized neighborhood,' study author Leo E. Akioyamen, MD, a resident in internal medicine at the University of Toronto, Toronto, told Medscape Medical News. 'It is pretty striking.' The study was published online on July 2 in JAMA Network Open . Sociodemographics and Outcomes 'We took a population of younger adults and designed a study in which we took a look at what happened to them when they went back to the neighborhoods they came from,' said Akioyamen. 'We followed them for up to 3 years, and we essentially controlled for all the variables that we typically think account for most of the socioeconomic differences in outcomes.' The patients included in the analysis underwent invasive evaluation between April 2010 and March 2019. Eligible participants survived for at least 7 days after hospital discharge. The study population had a median age of 56 years, and 22.9% of participants were women. One year following the index AMI, patients in the most marginalized neighborhood experienced the highest risk for all-cause death (adjusted HR [AHR], 1.80) and hospitalization from all causes (AHR, 1.20). Investigators observed that the differences in outcomes persisted at 3 years after discharge. Mortality rates ranged from 2.2% in the least marginalized neighborhood quintile to 5.2% in the most marginalized neighborhood quintile. Three years following the first AMI hospitalization, the risk for all-cause death rose with increasing marginalization (second quintile: AHR, 1.13; third quintile: AHR, 1.25; fourth quintile: AHR, 1.35; fifth quintile: AHR, 1.52). Over 3 years, patients in the most marginalized quintile also had a greater risk for hospitalization from all causes (AHR, 1.21) and AMI (AHR, 1.20). 'What we also observed were gradients ,' said Akioyamen. 'We showed that with increasing neighborhood marginalization, we saw increasing risks of death and other bad outcomes such as heart attacks and hospitalizations.' The authors also observed a care gap over a 1-year period, in which patients living in the least marginalized neighborhoods vs those living in the most marginalized neighborhoods had greater contact with primary care physicians (96.1% vs 91.6%) and cardiologists (88.0% vs 75.7%). Prospective Analysis Needed Commenting on the findings for Medscape Medical News , Dipti Itchhaporia, MD, Eric and Sheila Samson Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Health at the University of California, Irvine, pointed out that the study probes a challenging question. 'It's a provocative study, but I am not sure it's completely generalizable,' she said. 'It certainly would benefit from further research into a more vigorous study design. Even though the study uses a large, robust dataset, there could still be missing data or unmeasured confounding variables that can affect the findings.' Lifestyle data such as diet and exercise are not captured through the study design, nor are variables like family history. 'We come away knowing these patients are not doing well, but I'm not sure we come away with the answer as to why, exactly,' said Itchhaporia. Prospective study designs might uncover unknown variables that affect outcomes. 'We need more studies to really be able to drill down to see what would be important to know.' Cost No Barrier The findings indicate that barriers other than cost and insurance status are affecting health outcomes of this patient population, Miles Marchand, MD, clinical assistant professor of cardiology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, told Medscape Medical News. 'The real novelty and importance of this study is that it is performed in a country with universal healthcare coverage,' said Marchand. 'In this healthcare environment, disparate health outcomes cannot be explained solely by financial differences in access to care; other contributing factors may be at play.' Marchand commended the authors for using a robust study sample but agreed that the causal factors remain unknown. 'One of the [study's] main strengths is its use of large database linkages, resulting in a large cohort size,' he said. 'One of the key limitations is that we don't know the exact reason for disparities between neighborhoods. Why is it that a more marginalized neighborhood is at higher risk than a less marginalized neighborhood? This study is not able to answer that question.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 days ago
- Climate
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Heatwaves in Spain Caused 1,180 Deaths in Past Two Months, Ministry Says
High temperatures caused 1,180 deaths in Spain in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year, the Environment Ministry said on Monday. The vast majority of people who died were over 65 and more than half were women, the data it cited showed. The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria - all located in the northern half of the country, where traditionally cooler summer temperatures have seen a significant rise in recent years. Like other countries in Western Europe, Spain has been hit by extreme heat in recent weeks, with temperatures often topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The 1,180 people who died of heat-related causes between May 16 and July 13 compared with 114 in the same period in 2024, the ministry said in a statement citing data from the Carlos III Health Institute. The number of deaths increased significantly in the first week of July. The data shows an event "of exceptional intensity, characterized by an unprecedented increase in average temperatures and a significant increase in mortality attributable to heatwaves", the ministry said. In the period the data covers, there were 76 red alerts for extreme heat, compared with none a year earlier. Last summer, 2,191 deaths were attributed to heat-related causes in Spain, according to data from the Carlos III Health Institute. The data from Spain follows a rapid scientific analysis published on July 9 that said around 2,300 people died of heat-related causes across 12 European cities during a severe heatwave in the 10 days to July 2. It was not immediately clear whether the study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was using the same methodology as the Spanish data.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Climate
- Reuters
Heatwaves in Spain caused 1,180 deaths in past two months, ministry says
MADRID, July 14 (Reuters) - High temperatures caused 1,180 deaths in Spain in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year, the Environment Ministry said on Monday. The vast majority of people who died were over 65 and more than half were women, the data it cited showed. The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria - all located in the northern half of the country, where traditionally cooler summer temperatures have seen a significant rise in recent years. Like other countries in Western Europe, Spain has been hit by extreme heat in recent weeks, with temperatures often topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The 1,180 people who died of heat-related causes between May 16 and July 13 compared with 114 in the same period in 2024, the ministry said in a statement citing data from the Carlos III Health Institute. The number of deaths increased significantly in the first week in July. The data shows an event "of exceptional intensity, characterized by an unprecedented increase in average temperatures and a significant increase in mortality attributable to heatwaves", the ministry said. In the period the data covers, there were 76 red alerts for extreme heat, compared with none a year earlier. Last summer, 2,191 deaths were attributed to heat-related causes in Spain, according to data from the Carlos III Health Institute. The data from Spain follows a rapid scientific analysis published on July 9 that said around 2,300 people died of heat-related causes across 12 European cities during a severe heatwave in the 10 days to July 2. It was not immediately clear whether the study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was using the same methodology as the Spanish data. (This story has been corrected, following revised ministry statement, to amend the number of deaths in same period last year to 114, not 70, in paragraph 5)
CTV News
2 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Heatwaves in Spain caused 1,180 deaths in past two months, ministry says
A tourist drinks water on a hot day at the beach in Barcelona, Spain, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File) MADRID - High temperatures caused 1,180 deaths in Spain in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year, the Environment Ministry said on Monday. The vast majority of people who died were over 65 and more than half were women, the data it cited showed. The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria - all located in the northern half of the country, where traditionally cooler summer temperatures have seen a significant rise in recent years. Like other countries in Western Europe, Spain has been hit by extreme heat in recent weeks, with temperatures often topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The 1,180 people who died of heat-related causes between May 16 and July 13 compared with 70 in the same period in 2024, the ministry said in a statement citing data from the Carlos III Health Institute. The number of deaths increased significantly in the first week in July. The data shows an event 'of exceptional intensity, characterized by an unprecedented increase in average temperatures and a significant increase in mortality attributable to heatwaves,' the ministry said. In the period the data covers, there were 76 red alerts for extreme heat, compared with none a year earlier. Last summer, 2,191 deaths were attributed to heat-related causes in Spain, according to data from the Carlos III Health Institute. The data from Spain follows a rapid scientific analysis published on July 9 that said around 2,300 people died of heat-related causes across 12 European cities during a severe heatwave in the 10 days to July 2. It was not immediately clear whether the study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was using the same methodology as the Spanish data. (Reporting by Pietro Lombardi; Editing by Alison Williams)
