Health Insurance Blog - Usay Compare

One fifth 'haven't really been physically active since uni, college or school'

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:01:07 +0000

Around a fifth of people claim they haven't been particularly physically active since they were at university, college or school, statistics have revealed.

The British Heart Foundation's survey also showed that ten per cent of Brits claimed not to have done any real exercise for more than a decade.

Just 25 per cent of the charity's sample claimed to have really been physically active during the previous seven days.

In addition, 41 per cent said that falling levels of fitness were down to longer office hours, with 33 per cent blaming having kids.

The most common age for people in the sample to cite as their optimum period of physically fit was a relatively youthful 26.

Some 29 per cent said that eating healthily meant they felt at their peak, physically. Some 29 per cent put this down to gym visits, and 30 per cent to being involved in sports clubs.

"We are leading increasingly busy lives and it can be difficult at times to prioritise physical activity with family and work commitments getting in the way," said Nancy Prior, BHF head of events.

"However, with over a third of Brits rating good health as the number one attribute to have, we would encourage everyone to make time for regular physical activity to help keep your heart healthy."

Registration for the charity's London to Brighton bike ride is set to open March 2nd.

People taking part will do so alongside more than 27,000 fellow cyclists, according to Ms Prior, with the event itself occurring in June.

Another recent BHF survey discovered that around 20 per cent of workers don't have a break at lunchtime, while close to a fifth don’t do any physical activity as part of their working hours.

Close to half of the sample said they felt stressed every day while at work.

Astronomy techniques adapted by cancer researchers

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:01:07 +0000

Techniques that were created as a way of spotting things in space have recently been adapted for use in the detection of cancer biomarkers, according to Cancer Research UK.

The techniques, created as a way to spot galaxies, have now been used to hone-in on markers which give a sign as to how aggressive a cancer is.

Researchers worked to adapt astronomy techniques for pinpointing objects in the heavens automatically, and used these in something called immunohistochemistry.

They tested their new way of working by measuring how much of certain proteins there were in samples of tumours taken from a sample of over 2,000 people with breast cancer. These proteins were linked to cancers that have a higher aggressiveness.

It was revealed that the researchers' new way of doing things had at least the same accuracy as a manual alternative, even though it was much quicker.

The researchers involved in the study were based at several institutions, including the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. Their study recently came out in the British Journal of Cancer.

"This unlikely collaboration between astronomers and cancer researchers is a prime example of how, by working together, scientists from different disciplines can bring about innovative new solutions for beating cancer," commented Cancer Research UK's Dr Julie Sharp.

The lead author of the study, Dr Raza Ali from the Cambridge Institute, claimed its results had beaten expectations.

"Our new automated approach [performed] with accuracy comparable to the time-consuming task of scoring images manually, after only relatively minor adjustments to the formula," she said.

Researchers planned to run a bigger study across several countries with a large number of participants, as a way of refining their technique, she said.

It follows Cancer Research UK reporting that University College London researchers had found that the majority of relatives and friends of cancer sufferers felt doctors ought to provide their patients who are suffering from the disease with lifestyle advice. The British Journal of Cancer also published that study.

Twenty-something men 'missed 15.8% of outpatient appointments'

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:01:07 +0000

English hospitals saw 415,000 'DNAs' from male outpatients in their 20's during the year up to last October, reports the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

DNA stands for Did Not Attend, meaning that this number of appointments were missed without warning, or the man arrived late and couldn't be seen, hospital records suggest.

The figure represents some 15.8 per cent of the 2.6 million outpatient appointments involving men in this age range.

Males of this age were missing a larger proportion of appointments than women in their 20s.

Though a greater number of women's appointments - 640,000 – were DNAs according to records, this worked out at 9.2 per cent of the seven million such appointments there were in total.

This fell to 7.5 per cent DNAs for women in their 30s and 13.1 per cent for men at that age.

"While missed outpatient appointments are evident across every age group, it appears men in their 20s are the chart-toppers for not turning up to these," commented Tim Straughan, chief executive of the HSCIC.

"Our figures show however that the general percentage of outpatient appointments missed across the country has decreased slightly. Managing DNAs is one way the NHS can increase productivity."

There was a higher percentage of men missing outpatient appointments compared to women in every age group from 10 to 14-year-olds to 75 to 79-year-olds.

Overall, in 80.1 per cent of 92.9 million such appointments the patient did attend and 19.9 per cent saw patients cancel in advance, have their appointment cancelled or fail to attend without giving warning/attend late and not be able to get seen.

HSCIC analysis recently showed that English hospital had reported some 11,740 admission for inpatients that were given obesity as a primary diagnosis figures from the 2011 – 2012 year show.

Fresh obesity report released

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:01:07 +0000

A fresh Health and Social Care Information Centre analysis has shown that English hospitals reported the admission of 11,740 inpatients who had obesity as their primary diagnosis during the year 2011-2012.

Half a decade ago, in 2006-2007, some 3,860 admissions of this nature were made, whereas during 2010-2011, 11,570 were. In other words, such admissions rose one per cent year on year between 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.

There were close to three times as many such admissions involving women than involving men.

The HSCIC's new report, called Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, England 2013, has collected a variety of sources to present a look at English obesity.

It had shown that on 37 per cent of English people have a weight that is deemed 'normal' on the BMI or Body Mass Index.

In 2011, 26 per cent of women and 24 per cent of men were classified obese. Among women, a higher 58 per cent were classified obese or overweight, with 65 per cent of men in this position.

Back in 1993, 50 per cent of women over the age of 16 had a weight which was 'normal' yet only 39 per cent were in this position in 2011.

Again in 1993, 41 per cent of men were of 'normal' weight, yet this was just 31 per cent the year before last.

"It won't have escaped the majority of people that obesity is a high profile issue in this country. This annual report is important in bringing clarity to how this actually affects people, patients and the NHS, from the weighing scales to the operating theatre," explained Tim Straughan, the HSCIC's chief executive.

One person who has commented on the report is Amy Thompson, from the British Heart Foundation.

The BHF's senior cardiac nurse said that figures from the report held "a mirror to the state of the country’s health – and it is not a flattering reflection."

She added: "The number of people who are overweight or obese is steadily climbing and unhealthy lifestyle choices are helping us along this path."

Research reveals why people might put off a visit to the doctor

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:01:07 +0000

Some 24 per cent of Brits might put-off visiting a doctor to have a symptom they feel could be serious checked out because of worries about wasting their doctor's time.

Meanwhile, 32 per cent said that concerns over what their doctor might discover to be wrong with them could potentially make them put off a visit, Cancer Research UK figures suggest.

But the commonest thing people thought might make them delay a visit was feeling they'd have a hard time arranging an appointment to see their doctor.

Some 39 per cent suggested this might make them delay going to see the doctor, up from 36.5 per cent who suggested this might cause them to delay when asked in 2010.

The stats resulted from last year's Cancer Awareness Measure, a survey.

When this was run in 2010 the most commonly chosen reasons for being put off from visiting the doctor was worry over what he or she could find.

This year, the fourth most commonly chosen reason was being too busy to find the time for a visit.

The fifth was being too scared to do so and the sixth being too embarrassed, while 17.5 per cent said that they felt having too large a number of other worries might put them off, putting this reason in sixth place.

"It’s concerning to think that something as simple as making a doctor’s appointment could be putting people off seeking help for a serious symptom," said the director of early diagnosis at Cancer Research UK, Sara Hiom.

"Further work is now needed to find out what lies at the heart of this issue for example whether people dislike not being able to see the same GP, appointment times do not suit or if the booking system is too complicated."

Cancer research UK recently reported that 82 per cent of patients thought to possibly have cancer were given a referral to be looked at by a specialist within two GP visits, recent research that appeared as part of the British Journal of Cancer showed.