<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<recommendedContent xmlns="http://api.mspoke.com">
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_437"
                     title="Autism Risk Linked to Maternal Age (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.013"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Autism/tb/18341?impressionId=1265741228698"
                     
      Older women are more likely to give birth to a child who develops autism than younger women, but the father&apos;s age is a factor only when moms are younger, a large case-control study showed.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;In an analysis of nearly five million births and more than 12,000 autism cases, every five-year increase in maternal age at delivery was associated with an 18% greater risk of the child later being diagnosed with autism, according to Janie Shelton, MPH, a doctoral student at the University of California Davis, and colleagues.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Mothers who gave birth when they were 40 or older had a 51% increased risk of having a child with autism compared with those who were 25 to 29, the largest age group (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.70), the researchers reported in the February issue of &lt;em&gt;Autism Research&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;The effect of the biological father&apos;s age appeared to depend on the mother&apos;s. When the mothers were 30 and older, paternal age did not significantly increase the risk of having a child develop autism. In mothers younger than 30, paternal age did contribute to the autism risk.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;This study builds upon earlier work that has demonstrated associations between parental age and autism risk,&quot; commented Bryan King, MD, program director of the Seattle Children&apos;s Autism Center, in an e-mail.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But previous studies have yielded mixed results on the relative contributions of the mothers&apos; and fathers&apos; ages.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I think the size of the sample used in the present study (close to five million births) has resulted in a clear signal that both maternal and paternal age are involved,&quot; said King, who was not involved in the study.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He noted, however, that parental age &quot;does not account for the big increase in autism prevalence, although it may be contributing somewhat.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Shelton and her colleagues calculated that the rising average maternal age during their study  --  covering 1990 to 1999  --  contributed to a 4.6% increase in autism incidence. That compares with about a six-fold increase in autism rates in that decade, Shelton said in an interview.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I worry a little bit that in the media attention on this issue that mothers who had children at ages 37, 38, 39 might think that, &apos;Okay, well that&apos;s why my child had autism,&apos;&quot; she said. &quot;And so, I think it&apos;s important to stress that the increased number of cases that we&apos;ve observed can&apos;t be attributable towards women having children later.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers looked at data from 4,935,776 singleton births in California in the 1990&apos;s using records from the state Department of Development Services. Records identified 12,159 cases of &quot;Full Syndrome Autism&quot; diagnosed before age 6.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That diagnosis may include autistic disorder, as well as Asperger&apos;s disorder and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. However, the breakdown of specific diagnoses could not be determined from this data set, Shelton said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Even after controlling for parental education, the year of the child&apos;s birth, the race/ethnicity of the parents, the mother&apos;s parity, and insurance payment type, older maternal age was associated with an increased risk of autism in the child.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nancy Minshew, MD, director of the Center of Excellence in Autism Research at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an e-mail that the results were not surprising because genetic errors are more common with older parents.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;King said genetics were one possible mechanism underlying the relationship.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The mechanisms by which risk goes up might include a greater likelihood of chromosomal changes, a greater likelihood of problems at birth like prematurity, and many other factors,&quot; he said. &quot;The possibility of environmental exposures would also be expected to increase with age, and so this finding does not necessarily help narrow our focus on causes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sheldon and her colleagues wrote, &quot;It is plausible that multiple exposure types may increase the risk of autism through a common pathway or pathways (i.e., mitochondrial function, thyroid function, epigenetics, hormonal alterations) and be represented as a generalized increased risk with age.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;In this case,&quot; they continued, &quot;maternal or paternal age would serve as an index of lifetime exposure status and be a proxy for the true underlying etiologic agent.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Shelton said further research is needed to determine why biological age is serving as a risk factor for autism.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency and by the University of California Davis School of Medicine and Office of Graduate Studies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers did not report any conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article was developed in collaboration with ABC News. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/upload/2009/10/1/14357_1.jpg&quot; mce_src=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/upload/2009/10/1/14357_1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_368"
                     title="Lancet Retracts 1998 MMR-Autism Paper"
                     score="0.01"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Vaccines/tb/18255?impressionId=1265741228698"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Editors of &lt;em&gt;The Lancet&lt;/em&gt; have retracted the 1998 study that first suggested autism might be caused by the MMR vaccine, less than a week after an official rebuke to the paper&apos;s lead author, Andrew Wakefield, MBBS, and two co-authors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a brief note posted on the journal&apos;s Web site, &lt;em&gt;Lancet&lt;/em&gt; editors wrote, &quot;It has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al. are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation.... Therefore, we fully retract this paper from the published record.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Evidence presented in a Jan. 28 hearing before the U.K. General Medical Council&apos;s Fitness to Practise Panel persuaded the journal that the paper had misrepresented how the study was conducted.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;msgBody&quot;&gt;The council, which has no direct American equivalent, is an independent, nationwide regulatory body that registers doctors and enforces standards of medical practice in the U.K.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hospital records and other sources contradicted findings of a 2004 investigation by Wakefield&apos;s institution, the Royal Free and University College, that the study had been properly vetted by an institutional review board.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The claims in the original paper that children were &apos;consecutively referred&apos; and that investigations were &apos;approved&apos; by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false,&quot; according to the &lt;em&gt;Lancet&lt;/em&gt; editors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The editor of Britain&apos;s other leading medical journal, &lt;em&gt;BMJ&lt;/em&gt;, congratulated &lt;em&gt;The Lancet&lt;/em&gt; for its action.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;This will help to restore faith in this globally important vaccine and in the integrity of the scientific literature,&quot; according to a statement from Fiona Godlee, MB, BChir, BSc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the 1998 paper, Wakefield and colleagues reported on findings in 12 children who, they said, had developed intestinal inflammation and autistic symptoms following MMR vaccination. They suggested that the inflammation released gut proteins into the circulation that eventually migrated to the brain, causing permanent damage reflected in autism symptoms.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The report and the ensuing mass-media publicity sparked consternation among parents and the medical community. Vaccination rates in Britain and the U.S. dropped sharply, and measles rates spiked in consequence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although subsequent population-based research and other studies have failed to confirm a causal link between MMR vaccines and autism, a vocal group of parents of autistic children continues to insist that it is real. They call Wakefield a hero.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, a nearly decade-long investigation by a British journalist, Brian Deer, uncovered discrepancies between the &lt;em&gt;Lancet&lt;/em&gt; paper and hospital records and other sources. (See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Autism/12850&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Autism/12850&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Father of Vaccine-Autism Link Said to Have Fudged Data&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whereas the &lt;em&gt;Lancet&lt;/em&gt; paper indicated that, in most cases, symptoms developed within days of vaccination, the records indicated that this was true only for one child, according to Deer&apos;s account in the &lt;em&gt;Times of London&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The patients&apos; records also indicated that five of the children had psychosocial problems before vaccination, said the &lt;em&gt;Times&lt;/em&gt;, but the &lt;em&gt;Lancet&lt;/em&gt; paper described them as &quot;developmentally normal.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In addition, the &lt;em&gt;Lancet&lt;/em&gt; paper described abnormal intestinal pathology results in the children, but the hospital pathology reports showed no findings of inflammation, the &lt;em&gt;Times&lt;/em&gt; report said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At last week&apos;s hearing, the U.K.&apos;s General Medical Council panel heard evidence that Wakefield had taken blood samples from children attending his son&apos;s birthday party and performed spinal taps on other children in a hospital without due regard for their safety.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The panel found Wakefield guilty of more than 30 charges that he had acted unethically in conducting the study. He could be stripped of his license to practice in Britain, but no ruling has been made yet.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two of Wakefield&apos;s 12 co-authors on the 1998 paper, John Walker-Smith, MD, and Simon Murch, PhD, were also found to have committed ethical violations. The other 10 co-authors had previously repudiated the paper&apos;s findings and were not charged.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wakefield was in London while the hearing took place but did not attend. Afterward, he told reporters he was innocent of wrongdoing and would continue his research.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wakefield is now based at Thoughtful House, a private autism research and treatment facility in Austin, Texas. After the panel&apos;s ruling, it issued a statement expressing disappointment and calling the charges &quot;unfounded and unfair.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;

    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_346"
                     title="Daytime Sleepiness More Common in Young (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.009"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/SleepDisorders/tb/18221?impressionId=1265741228698"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Compared with 20-somethings and seniors, middle-age adults are less likely to suffer daytime sleepiness when they don&apos;t get a good night&apos;s sleep, according to a small study.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When three groups of healthy adults  --  young (20 to 30 years old), middle-age (40 to 55) and older (66 to 83)  --  were studied over four nights, slow wave sleep decreased and the number of nocturnal awakenings progressively increased with age, wrote Derk-Jan Dijk, PhD, of the Surrey Sleep Center at the University of Surrey in Guildford, England, and colleagues in the Feb. 1 issue of &lt;em&gt;Sleep.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As the likelihood for eight hours of uninterrupted deep sleep decreased with age, there was no increase in the likelihood of daytime sleepiness, which led Dijk and colleagues to conclude that as people age there may be a change in the &quot;sleep (duration and depth) required to maintain alertness.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on that observation, the authors wrote that it could be argued that &quot;an eight-hour episode rich in [slow wave sleep] is insufficient for young adults but that an eight-hour sleep episode with less [slow wave sleep] is sufficient for older adults.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a result, middle-age and older adults are less likely to build up &quot;sleep debt&quot; during the daylight hours, so they manage with less time in deep sleep at night, less homeostatic sleep pressure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The authors hypothesized that this apparent need for less sleep may be a factor in age-related insomnia.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If older adults are unaware of the need for less sleep, &quot;their self-selected time in bed, which provides an input to the sleep homeostat, may become maladaptive and lead to reduced sleep consolidation and associated complaints.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Dijk and colleagues recruited 44 young adults, 35 middle-age adults, and 31 older adults for their study. All were healthy at baseline and all were initially assessed for an eight-hour nocturnal sleep episode.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They were then randomized to two nights of either selective short wave sleep interruption by acoustic stimuli or sleep without disruption, followed by one night of recovery sleep.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two standardized measurement tools, the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), were used to assess objective and subjective sleep propensity.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Total sleep time per eight hour time in bed decreased significantly and progressively across the age groups such that older adults slept approximately 20 minutes less than middle-aged, who slept 23 minutes less than young adults,&quot; they wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The reduction in total sleep time &quot;was primarily related to an increase in the number of awakenings and the duration of wakefulness after sleep onset, rather than an increase in latency to sleep onset.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a result, sleep efficiency decreased significantly from 92.1% for the youngest group, to 82% for the older group (effect of age, &lt;em&gt;P&amp;lt;&lt;/em&gt;0.0001).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The subjective sleep propensity tests revealed that &quot;young people were significantly sleepier than the middle-age people, who were the least sleepy of the three groups.&quot; Daytime sleepiness for the oldest group &quot;fell in between the other two groups [and] was not significantly different from either.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All three groups, regardless of age, demonstrated increased daytime sleepiness following a night of experimental disruption of slow wave sleep, but when the participants had an uninterrupted eight hours of deep sleep, it was only the youngest group that was drowsy during the daytime hours.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The authors noted that although there was less daytime sleepiness among middle-age and older adults in this study, sleep propensity was not measured during the evening hours, so it was possible that the age-related difference might diminish at twilight.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was sponsored by H. Lundbeck A/S.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dijk reported receiving research support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, GlaxoSmithKline, H. Lundbeck A/S, Merck, Pfizer, Philips Lighting, sanofi-aventis, and Takeda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_236"
                     title="Prenatal Counseling Reduces Domestic Violence (CME/CE)"
                     score="-0.001"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/DomesticViolence/tb/18085?impressionId=1265741228698"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Pregnant African-American women who received counseling to improve their physical and psychological health and safety were less likely to be the victims of domestic violence during pregnancy and postpartum, a new study found.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Women who received the cognitive and behavioral integrated intervention were less likely to experience recurrent episodes of intimate partner violence victimization (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.80), according to a report in the Jan. 21 issue of &lt;em&gt;Obstetrics &amp;amp; Gynecology&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Counseled women who had reported previous minor intimate partner violence were significantly less likely to experience further episodes during pregnancy (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.86) and after they gave birth (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.93).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, counseled women were less likely to give birth very preterm (&amp;lt;33 weeks gestation) than mothers who received no counseling (1.5% versus 6.6% respectively; &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.03), and the babies of counseled women had a longer mean gestational age at delivery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;A relatively brief intervention during pregnancy had discernible effects on intimate partner violence and pregnancy outcomes,&quot; Michele Kiely, DrPH, of Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and colleagues wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Screening for intimate partner violence as well as other psychosocial and behavioral risks and incorporating similar interventions in prenatal care is strongly recommended.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Intimate partner violence is a pattern of assault and coercion that includes the threat or infliction of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Approximately 4.8 million episodes of intimate partner violence occur every year in the U.S. in women 18 years and older, according to the CDC.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Victims are at higher risk for a range of psychobehavioral and health problems, including complications during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm delivery and low birth weight.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Kiely and colleagues set out to determine whether a cognitive behavioral intervention administered during pregnancy could reduce intimate partner violence and improve birth outcomes in a population of African-American residents of Washington, DC.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Of the 1,044 women enrolled in the study between July 2001 and October 2003, 521 were randomly assigned to receive the intervention and 523 to receive usual care. At an initial interview, 336 of the women reported intimate partner violence victimization in the past year, evenly divided between the intervention group and usual care.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The women in the intervention group received individually tailored counseling and information that addressed the problems they reported.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The counselors provided information about the types of abuse and the cycle of violence and assessed the level of danger to which the women were exposed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They discussed preventive options the women might consider, such as filing a protection order, and the development of a safety plan. The women also received a list of community resources and information on the health risks of smoking and how to cope with depression.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The complete intervention included eight prenatal sessions delivered during routine prenatal care visits, and researchers conducted follow-up interviews over the phone with the women.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They found that women in the intervention group who had previously experienced severe intimate partner violence showed a significant reduction in episodes after giving birth (OR 0.39, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.82) and that women who experienced physical violence specifically showed significant reductions by their first follow-up prenatal visit (OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.91) and postpartum (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.82).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;There is evidence that this intervention for pregnant African-American women reduced intimate partner violence victimization during pregnancy and improved pregnancy outcome,&quot; the authors wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;If generalizable, our results should encourage healthcare providers and third party payers to go beyond screening for psychosocial and behavioral risks to providing services during prenatal care to address such risks. The potential cost savings associated with reduction of births within the highest risk category may be substantial.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The authors cautioned that the study was not designed to test whether the intervention was effective at reducing adverse pregnancy outcomes but rather focused on reducing psychobehavioral risks.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They also noted that only 59% of the women in the intervention group completed all eight sessions, indicating that as a group they were only modestly committed to participating in the program.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Further improvements to the intervention strategy could be made to address other issues, such as alcohol and drug use, they wrote. &quot;Had we addressed these, we might have been even more successful,&quot; they concluded.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authors reported no financial conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_233"
                     title="Obese Blacks at Higher Risk of Stroke (CME/CE)"
                     score="-0.001"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/Strokes/tb/18083?impressionId=1265741228698"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Obesity raises the risk of stroke regardless of race or sex, according to a new study that is one of the first to show a link between obesity and stroke risk in blacks.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The most obese black women were at 43% higher risk of stroke than the thinnest black women (95% CI 0.81 to 2.53; trend &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.016), while the fattest black men had more than three times the stroke risk of their thin counterparts (95% CI 1.53 to 6.67; trend &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.0026), depending on the measure of obesity used, researchers reported online Jan. 21 in &lt;em&gt;Stroke&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Based on the fact that we consistently found positive associations between obesity measures and ischemic stroke incidence in blacks in the present study, we believe that obesity, however it is measured, significantly increases ischemic stroke risk in blacks as well as in whites,&quot; Hiroshi Yatsuya, MD, of the University of Minnesota, and colleagues concluded.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., and incidence of stroke among blacks is about twice that of whites. But while research has established that being overweight raises risk of stroke in whites, it was not clear whether obesity put blacks at higher risk of stroke, too.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We tested the hypothesis that there are differences in the association for black versus white men and women,&quot; Yatsuya and colleagues wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers analyzed records of 13,549 middle-age black and white men and women in four U.S. communities who participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The data included measurements of the subjects&apos; body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio taken between 1987 and 2005. The participants started the study free of cancer and cardiovascular disease, but during the two decades of the study, 598 suffered ischemic strokes, based on hospital records.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Relatively speaking, blacks suffered two to three times the number of strokes of their white counterparts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The thinnest white women suffered about 1.2 strokes per 1,000 person-years on average, while their black counterparts suffered 4.3 per 1,000 person-years. The difference was more dramatic when comparing the heaviest white women (2.2 strokes per 1,000 person years) with the heavy black men (8.0 strokes&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;per 1,000 person years).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While their findings agreed with previous research that linked obesity to stroke risk in whites, Yatsuya and colleagues found stronger evidence than most previous studies for such an association in blacks.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They generally found a linear relationship between obesity and stroke risk for both whites and blacks, with a person&apos;s risk increasing as they grew heavier. &quot;Higher disease burden of stroke in blacks exists, and is at least partly due to their higher obesity level compared to whites,&quot; Yatsuya said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hypertension and diabetes attenuated the effect of obesity on the risk of stroke.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Given the strong association between obesity and hypertension and other risk factors, including diabetes mellitus, obesity would be an important target for the prevention of ischemic stroke,&quot; the investigators wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The authors noted that most of the black subjects were from one region and the whites mostly from three other areas, which limits the ability to generalize the results to other settings and socioeconomic groups.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Strictly speaking, clinical trials are now needed to determine whether obesity prevention or control would actually decrease stroke incidence,&quot; Yatsuya said. &quot;However, it would be reasonable to say we can prevent stroke targeting at obesity control and prevention.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authors reported no financial conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
</recommendedContent>