Cigarette smoking linked to depression in adults

April 21, 2010

Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2005-2008) has found that adults ages 20 and over with depression were more likely to be cigarette smokers than those without depression.  This key finding is the focus of a new report from NCHS, “Depression and Smoking in the U.S. Household Population Aged 20 and Over, 2005-2008.” This report also found the following:                        

  • Women with depression had smoking rates similar to men with depression, while women without depression smoked less than men.
  • Over one-half of men with depression ages 40–54 were current smokers compared with 26 percent of men without depression of the same age.
  • Among women ages 40–54, of those with depression, 43 percent were smokers compared with 22 percent of those without depression.
  • Among adult smokers, those with depression smoked more heavily than those without depression. They were more likely to smoke their first cigarette within 5 minutes of awakening and to smoke more than one pack of cigarettes per day.
  • Adults with depression were less likely to quit smoking than those without depression.

The graph below shows the percentage of adult smokers with depression from 2005-2008:

 For more, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db34.pdf

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Posted by Setareh Kamali

Teen birth rates drop after two-year increase

April 9, 2010

A new report from NCHS, “Births: Preliminary Data for 2008,” found that the teen birth rate in the U.S. fell 2 percent between 2007 and 2008, after rising the previous two years. In 2008, the birth rate declined for all age groups under 20 years, except for the youngest teenagers ages 10-14, which remained unchanged at 0.6 births per 1,000 females. The report also found the following:

  •  The birth rate for U.S. teenagers ages 15-19 fell 2 percent in 2008 to 41.5 per 1,000, reversing a brief two-year increase that had halted the long-term decline from 1991 to 2005.
  •  The birth rate for unmarried women declined about 2 percent to 52.0 per 1,000 aged 15-44. This was the first decline since 2001 and 2002. However, the number and percentage of births to unmarried women each increased to historic levels. The preliminary number of U.S. births in 2008 was 4,251,095, down nearly 2 percent from 2007.
  • The estimated total fertility rate in 2008 was 2,085.5 births per 1,000 women, 2 percent lower than the rate in 2007.
  • The cesarean delivery rate rose to 32.3 percent in 2008, the twelfth consecutive year of increase. Increases were seen among women of all age groups, and most race and ethnic groups.

Below is a graph showing the birth rate trends for teens from 1980-2008:

For more,visit:  

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_16.pdf

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Posted by Setareh Kamali

More Physicians Switch to Electronic Medical Record Use

April 2, 2010

The recent report “Electronic Medical Record Use by Office-based Physicians and Their Practices: United States, 2007” presents new information from the 2007 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey regarding the growing use of electronic medical records systems by office-based physicians as well as their plans to install new electronic medical record systems within the next 3 years.

Results showed that in 2007 34.8 percent of office-based physicians reported using any electronic medical record system, which represented a 19.2 percent increase since 2006 and a 91.2 percent increase since 2001. A few other findings include the following:

  • Physicians in practices with 11 or more physicians were most likely to use either all electronic or partially electronic (part paper and part electronic) systems (74.3 percent), whereas physicians in solo practice were least likely to use electronic medical records systems (20.6 percent).
  • Electronic medical record use was higher among physicians in multi-specialty practices (52.5 percent) than in solo or single-specialty practices (30.3 percent).

 The graph below displays electronic medical record use trends from 2001-2007:

For more information, visit the report at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr023.pdf

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Posted by Setareh Kamali