Medical News

Getting a patient’s family history is widely regarded as a standard element of good medical care. But a report published today concludes that there isn’t much good evidence that obtaining such information improves doctors’ ability to predict and manage disease.

In addition, the report’s authors say the best way to collect family history data is unclear, as is the impact on patient outcomes and behaviors.

Dr. Brenda J. Wilson, from University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and colleagues did a study of previous studies on the subject, and report their findings in the online version of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

They found only two studies that tried to determine whether accurate family histories were likely to have an impact on care, and those studies had a number of limitations.

They found more studies of how patients reported their family histories. In 23 studies, they saw evidence that patients were more accurate about reporting the absence of disease in relatives than the presence of disease. Perhaps not surprisingly, patients were more accurate about their first degree relatives than their distant relatives.

The study was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Restless legs syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by a strong urge to move the legs, is much more common among some racial groups than others, a new U.S. study has found.

Researchers interviewed 190 people being seen at a primary care clinic. About 12 percent of those who were black, compared with 36 percent of those who were not black, were found to have restless legs symptoms. Overall, the prevalence of restless legs was 23 percent among the clinic participants.

Among blacks, the prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) was 12 percent for both men and women, compared with 40 percent for women and 29 percent for men among the others, most of whom were white.

“There are significant ethnic differences in the prevalence of restless legs syndrome, but the exact causes of higher prevalence among Caucasians are unknown,” study author Dr. Ammar Alkhazna, of the University of Missouri, said in a news release from the American College of Chest Physicians. “This likely reflects a combination of factors, including a genetic predisposition to RLS, diet, including iron intake, medications, and possibly culture.”

The study was scheduled to be presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, held Oct. 31 to Nov. 5 in San Diego.

Symptoms of restless legs also were seen more often in women than men, the study found.

“Some risk factors for restless legs syndrome appear to be more common among women,” Alkhazna said. “Women are more likely to be iron-deficient than men and have rheumatoid arthritis, which are known risk factors for RLS.”

That friend who stays thin despite eating anything and everything is not just annoying. She might also wreck your diet, new research suggests.

Researchers found that when they had college students watch a movie and snack with either a skinny or overweight companion, the students typically followed the thin friend’s lead when she overindulged.

In contrast, study participants used more self-control when snacking with a heavier companion who overate.

The findings, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, suggest that seeing a thin friend devour a big meal gives us implicit permission to do the same.

“We think ‘if she can eat like that and stay thin, so can I,’ or ’she is having cake, then I can too,’” explained Dr. Brent McFerran, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, Canada.

“In other words,” he told Reuters Health in an email, “the most dangerous person to eat with is not someone who is obese, but a thin friend with a large appetite.”

For their study, McFerran and his colleagues recruited 210 female college students for what the participants believed was a study on movie viewing; each woman watched a movie with a companion, who was actually a member of the research team.

In some cases, the researcher showed up as her normal 105-pound self, while in others she donned padding that made her appear to be obese.

During the movie, the pairs were offered snacks, with the undercover researcher taking her portion first.

In general, McFerran’s team found, the students ate more when their thin companion took a large portion, versus cases where the “obese” companion took a similarly large portion.

For example, when the skinny researcher ate a lot (30 candies), the participants ate an average of 10 candies. When the researcher was “obese” and ate a lot, the kids ate about 6 candies.

“Eating involves much social pressure,” McFerran said, noting that social influences may, in fact, be the strongest predictor of what we eat.

But the current findings do not mean that we need to cancel all future dinner plans with our overindulgent skinny friends.

“If we think about what we are doing in advance,” McFerran said, “we are less likely to overconsume.”

He suggested that instead of looking at a thin friend who is gorging on dessert and feeling permission to do the same, we should remind ourselves that individuals are different — with different metabolisms and exercise habits, for example.

Focus on your own goal to eat healthfully, McFerran said, rather than automatically mimicking a friend.

He pointed out, however, that there is a “flip side”: Friends who choose smaller portion sizes and healthier foods can encourage us to do so, especially if those friends are thin.