CONCORD, N.H.—a Concord Hospital urologist hopes the iPhone application he developed will make it easier for men to keep accurate health records, and to discuss potentially embarrassing symptoms with their doctors.

Dr. Ronald Yap’s free “Prostate Pal,” is among thousands of medical apps that can be downloaded to iPhones and other mobile devices. It doesn’t include any diagnostic information, just tools that allow men to record information that can be discussed during medical visits.

“There are millions of men around the world who have these problems, and it makes them feel quite helpless. when you have an app, you can take charge of it. It empowers the patient to log the symptoms and keep track of them,” Yap said Monday. “And when they go to see their doctors, it allows the practitioner to get a quick snapshot over time as to what their urological health is.”

The application has three components: a “voiding diary” where a man can log fluid intake and output, a symptoms questionnaire from the American Urological Association and a place to keep track of PSA test results given to him by his doctor.

The latter is controversial: most major medical groups don’t recommend the widely used blood tests for PSA — a protein that only sometimes signals prostate cancer is brewing — because they worry the screening does more harm than good.

That controversy aside, Yap said his application could be useful for someone who already has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and wants to keep track of his test results over time.

The other two features are a simpler way of compiling information doctors already ask for, Yap said. the questionnaire feature could cut down on the time patients spend filling out similar paperwork during doctor’s appointments, he said. And while men certainly could track how much they drink and how much they urinate using a paper log, the iPhone application makes it easier.

Yap said the application makes sense given both the popularity of mobile devices and the prevalence of prostate cancer. more than 190,000 cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed this year in American men, and it will kill about 27,000. He also hopes the application will raise awareness of less serious conditions.

“A lot of times men assume, particularly with urinary problems, that that just comes with old age,” he said. “But just because it’s a physiological consequence of aging, doesn’t mean you need to live with it if your quality of life is burdensome.”

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Posted on: Monday, 7 February 2011, 06:35 CST

Compared to people who didn’t have heavy drinkers in their lives, 3,000 new Zealanders who did had lower scores on standard measures of general health.

Chronic pain, anxiety and depression symptoms, and overall satisfaction with life were found with those with a family member, friend or colleague who drank heavily, Reuters Health reported.

The findings, reported in the journal Addiction, did not prove that being around a heavy drinker was the root of study participants’ problems. The average effect was similar to what has been seen in studies of people caring for someone with a disability, according to lead researcher Dr. Sally Casswell, of Massey University in Auckland, new Zealand.

Casswell told Reuters Health by e-mail, the study is just “a snapshot at one point in time, so… some other explanation is possible. It’s possible,” she notes,” that people with poorer well-being are more likely to attract heavy drinkers into their lives, for example.”

A number of factors could explain why knowing a heavy drinker was linked to poorer well-being, Casswell continued. People who know heavy drinkers might, for example, drink heavily themselves, or tend to be less-educated or have lower incomes. none of those theories however explained the researchers’ findings.

Subjects who actually lived with a heavy drinker had lower scores on measures of general health and personal well-being. “Personal well-being” was applied to people’s satisfaction with their relationships, work, health and what they were achieving in life.

Although “heavy drinking” was not defined; it was up to participants to decide if someone in their life met that description. The current study consisted of 3,068 12- to 80-year-olds who were asked whether they had any heavy drinkers in their life.

About one in three said they had at least one heavy drinker in their life in the past year. Most often being a friend, family member or partner, although in some cases it was someone at work. However people with even relatively minor exposure to heavy drinkers — like those with a co-worker or a more-distant relative who drank — also reported lower satisfaction with life compared with people who claimed no heavy drinkers in their life.

Casswell suggested the findings highlight a broad impact heavy drinking can have, and this potential “harm to others” should be considered in policy debates aimed at curbing heavy drinking, she tells Reuters Health.

• Addiction
• Massey University

Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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