TUESDAY, Jan. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Children with arthritis need more help and information when they approach adulthood to ensure they receive proper health care as adults, a new study shows.
The study, led by Peter Scal of the University of Minnesota, found only about 20 percent of adolescents with arthritis received counseling on issues such as obtaining health insurance after coming of age. This was despite 75 percent of those in the national survey being encouraged to take command of their health-care needs in adulthood.
The findings, published in the January issue of Arthritis Care & Research, were on par with similar national studies of young people with any special health-care needs.
"Health-care transition is a complex set of tasks that are embedded within a complex developmental period and a complex heath-care system," the authors wrote. "It is not surprising, then, than the development and evaluation of services to facilitate health-care transition has been slow."
The authors called for additional studies to better understand young people's views on meeting their health-care needs in adulthood.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about childhood arthritis.
MONDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Early puberty, having lots of children, and hormone replacement therapy all increase a woman's likelihood of having knee or hip replacement surgery, according to a study that looked at 1.3 million British women whose health was tracked for an average of six years after they turned 50.
The participants, all taking part in the Million Women Study, were asked how old they were when they had their first and last periods, how many children they'd given birth to, and whether they'd used oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
During the six years of monitoring, more than 12,000 of the women needed a hip replacement and almost 10,000 needed a knee replacement. The researchers concluded that starting menstruation at or before the age of 11 increased the probability of knee and hip replacement by between 9 percent and 15 percent. Each successive birth increased the risk of knee replacement by 8 percent and the likelihood of hip replacement by 2 percent.
Previous use of oral contraceptives had no effect on joint surgery risk, but current use of HRT was linked with a 58 percent increased chance of knee replacement and a 38 percent greater likelihood of hip replacement. However, the researchers noted that better use of health services by women on HRT may explain this association.
The findings, published online ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, suggested that estrogen and other female sex hormones may be among the reasons why women were more likely than men to have osteoarthritis, particularly of the knee.
More information
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has more about joint replacement.