Women Blog

Popular antidepressants taken with tamoxifen can increase the risk of breast cancer recurrence

A new study found that taking tamoxifen with certain antidepressants more than doubled the risk of breast cancer recurrence in women taking both medications. The antidepressants inhibit an enzyme, CYP2D6, which helps tamoxifen work effectively.

The study was conducted by researchers from Medco and the Indiana University School of Medicine and presented Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Orlando.

Approximately 500,000 U.S. women take tamoxifen, a medicine that blocks the effects of estrogen in breast tissue. Estrogen can make certain types of breast cancer (hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers) grow. About 30 percent of women taking tamoxifen also are taking an antidepressant to treat depression and/or to ease hot flashes, a common side effect of tamoxifen. “With more than 100,000 women potentially affected, these data represent a significant health finding,” asserts Dr. Marisa Weiss, president and founder of Breastcancer.org and a breast oncologist at Lankenau Hospital in the Philadelphia area.

Preliminary, limited information from another study conducted by researchers from the Netherlands appears to offer conflicting results. The Dutch study suggests taking tamoxifen with specific antidepressants doesn’t affect breast cancer recurrence rates.

“We don’t want to dismiss the findings of the Dutch study; however, from what we’ve learned, there were fewer women in the Dutch study taking antidepressants in combination with tamoxifen, and it appears that they were taken together for a shorter period of time,” says Dr. Weiss. “Regardless, there is considerable evidence in the Medco/Indiana University study, as well as in other smaller studies conducted during the past few years, to give physicians and patients reason to question using certain antidepressants (and other types of medications that might block the CYP2D6 enzyme) together with tamoxifen.”

Tamoxifen has been used to successfully treat millions of women diagnosed with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. It can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence by about 50 percent.

“With the life-saving advantages of tamoxifen, it’s imperative that women taking it derive the greatest benefit they can,” says Dr. Weiss. “Women make a daily commitment to tamoxifen and deserve to get the maximum benefit this medicine affords.”

She pointed out that there are safe and effective alternatives to manage depression and hot flashes that doctors can offer patients taking tamoxifen. Weiss advises women who have taken tamoxifen along with an antidepressant in the past and those who currently are taking these medicines together to talk to their doctors. Anyone with questions also can find information at Breastcancer.org.

“Since tamoxifen is the cornerstone of care for hundreds of thousands of women across the globe, this study will likely raise a lot of questions about whether to continue to use tamoxifen or change treatments, as well as whether women who stopped taking tamoxifen should restart. These new data represent an important insight into maximizing the effectiveness of breast cancer treatment,” says Dr. Weiss.

Source: Breastcancer.org

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has selected new breast cancer research conducted at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit for posting on ASCO’s Web site. Karmanos’ potentially ground-breaking findings identify a promising new therapeutic target for aggressive hormone receptor negative breast cancer tumors.

The research appears at www.ASCO.org and www.jco.org and is entitled “Enhancer of Zeste Homologue 2 (EZH-2) expression in breast cancer: a novel marker and potential target.”

Karmanos scientists tested 84 cases of hormone receptor negative human breast carcinomas and discovered that the protein EZH-2 was expressed in 74 percent of those cases. Hormone receptor negative breast carcinoma is considered an aggressive cancer and one that is hard to treat. The finding suggests that EZH-2 could be an important therapeutic target in this patient population.

“We were interested in looking at a new target,” said Zeina Nahleh, M.D., co-director of the Breast Oncology Multidisciplinary Team at Karmanos Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine in hematology and oncology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. “We wanted to see how much expression of the protein was present. We were surprised that 74 percent of tumors expressed that EZH-2 protein.”

Sixty-one samples that researchers used were triple negative breast cancer cases and 23 cases were HER-2/neu positive. Scientists found that the increased expression of EZH-2 meant an increase in tumor size and an increase in lymph node metastasis.

Dr. Nahleh said that increased identification of proteins in these aggressive forms of breast cancer is needed to develop better treatments. The discovery of the high rate of EZH-2 protein expression in breast cancer cases opens up a new avenue in doing just that.

“We are extremely excited about this discovery,” she said. “This is amazing work. In the future, this could be a target for therapy.”

The identification of EZH-2 represents just the first step in the mission to find more proteins that cause deadly breast cancer tumors and assess them for possible therapeutic targets. There is much work ahead, according to Dr. Nahleh.

“The ground-breaking work will come if we can identify a specific method to target this EZH-2 protein and show that this approach would lead to meaningful clinical results,” she said. “We have to go back and look at survival rates. We have to consider years of follow-up work and we have to look at other associated factors.

“This will hopefully lead to new targeted therapy strategies based on our new understanding of the biology of cancer.”

Fellow investigators include Sudeshna Bandyopadhyay, M.D., of Wayne State University School of Medicine; Rouba Ali Fehmi, M.D., of the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University School of Medicine; Haitham Arabi, M.D., resident of the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology ; Wael Sakr, M.D., of the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University School of Medicine; Adnan Munkarah, M.D., of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit; and Michael Kruger, statistical analyst with Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Nahleh noted that the discovery of a potential therapeutic target wouldn’t be possible without the laboratory and clinical breast cancer research at Karmanos and its collaborative partnerships.

“I think this discovery highlights the importance of multidisciplinary work in oncology between clinical and scientific researchers,” she said. “This is what Karmanos is all about.”

Located in mid-town Detroit, MI, the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute is one of 40 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the United States. Caring for more than 6,000 new patients annually on a budget of $216 million, conducting more than 700 cancer-specific scientific investigation programs and clinical trials, the Karmanos Cancer Institute is among the nation’s best cancer centers. Through the commitment of 1,000 staff, including nearly 300 faculty members, and supported by thousands of volunteer and financial donors, the Institute strives to prevent, detect and eradicate all forms of cancer. For more information call 1-800-KARMANOS or go to www.karmanos.org.

Time Management Advice

I have been reading a book called You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day by Stephanie Culp. She explains that the first thing you need to do when trying to manage your time is to find the value of your time. According to Ms. Culp, “Knowing the value of your time can be a key tool and a deciding factor in how to prioritize the use of the time available.”

She suggests taking a pencil and figuring out what your time is worth. Determine your hourly dollar value based on your gross salary and the number of hours you work. Then the next time you are tempted to fritter away an hour fussing with the batteries on the pencil sharpener or some other such nonsense, stop and think about how much that time is worth. If your not spending your time doing a task that is at least equal to the dollar value of your hourly time, it’s probably a task you shouldn’t be doing at all.

And the next time you find yourself procrastinating or wasting time in some other way, be honest with yourself. Your time is worth money - whether you are wasting that time or making good use of it.

Once you have figured out what your time is worth, you need to take a look at how you’re spending it. The most common way to do this is to keep a time log for a week or two. Essentially, this involves writing down just about everything you do, noting how much time you spent doing any one thing.

If you spend fifteen minutes on the phone with your mother, write it down. If you spend twenty minutes daydreaming, write it down. If you spend one hour in the sales meeting, note that, and if you spend thirty minutes preparing the sales figures for the boss write that down as well.

Stephanie says after keeping a time log for a couple of weeks, it becomes glaringly apparent that you are wasting time in several different ways. You may also see a pattern where other people are wasting your time (which you allow), and - if you’re honest - you;ll even see where you have been guilty of wasting others’ time.

We will posting more time management tips from You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day by Stephanie Culp so check back or subscribe to our RSS feed. In the meantime if you need more help staying organized see our related post Reduce Paperwork

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When in 1949 Rossellini, together with the actress Bergmann and his film crew, disembarked at Stromboli the island must have seemed an ancient, mysterious world, a wild, far away land dominated by its volcano, as if it were a divinity. The pictures of the Sweden star walking with bare feet on the black rocks, among children and fishermen, were known all over the world. After nearly 60 years from the film “Stromboli, land of God”, that strip of land between water and fire still keeps intact its charm and delights the visitors offering a unique contrast between the harshness of its nature and the beautiful landscapes.

From the volcanic Stromboli to the fishermen’s village of Marettimo, from the original low buildings “dammusi” to the ancient, typical gardens in Pantelleria, the Sicilian islands are many, little gems in the Mediterranean that have never been corrupted by the mass tourism. Dicasainsicilia.com offers a selection of special holiday accommodation on the islands: terraces with gardens - full of cicas plants - that gently slope to the sea, Aeolian houses, dammusi and fishermen’s small houses.

SALINA: an island that inspires quietness and harmony. A magnificent scenery that features breathtaking landscapes, charming sunsets, silence and where the time seems to flow slowly and far away from worldly pleasures and showiness. On the route between Santa Marina and Malfa is sited Villa Malvasia, a perfect dwelling for those who look for very comfortable rooms in a dream island. The property is surrounded by a garden replete with sumptuous flowers, dwarf palms and Mediterranean plants. Built in the typical Aeolian manner, it features simple elegance, exquisite details such as antique furnishings, paintings and ceramics, all in bright and warm rooms.

PANTELLERIA: an island that is known as the Black Pearl of the Mediterranean, for the peculiar dark chromatism that the lava rocks and the cobalt blue sea create. The island is charming because of its touch of middle-eastern spirit, inherited by the Arab names (800-1000 A.D.) that characterise above all the villages, that are called Khattibuale, Khamma and Muègen, and the architecture of the “dammusi”, typical domed houses made of dark volcanic stone. The Resort “i Giardini” is an estate with seven exclusive, separate “dammusi” each with its own little courtyard and swimming pool - which is lit up by night - covered terrace and a large garden that make it the ideal place to spend relaxed hours.

LIPARI: the largest of the Aeolian islands that is full of ancient history and culture. It was at the heart of the trade route in the Tyrrhenian Sea already in the pre-Roman period and not only for its location but also because it was rich in pumice stones and obsidians - a volcanic glass produced when the lava cools. The house Harmattan is beautifully situated high above the yacht marina of Lipari. Built according to the typical Aeolian-style architecture, the house features tasteful décor and fittings.

STROMBOLI: the extraordinary island-volcano of the Aeolian archipelago. It is situated in the Tyrrhenian Sea in the north-east of Sicily and emerges from a deep blue, crystal clear sea that creeps into lava rocks and wonderful beaches with black sand. In the village of Piscità, the old part of the town with white houses of cubical shape, among tiny streets, steps and flowering courtyards is Villa Rosa, a beautiful villa built according to the typical Aeolian-style architecture. A small path with a few steps separates the dwelling from the lava rocks and the delightful beach with black sand. The property is divided into three apartments encircling a small but well-kept, luxuriant garden with lawn, flowers and Mediterranean plants.

MARETTIMO: the farthest, smallest of the Egadi islands, that still preserves unique botanic species due to a very ancient geological origin. On the island traffic is not allowed and there is only one built-up area divided into three zones: Scalo Nuovo, Scalo di Mezzo and Scalo Vecchio. Just a walk from the small port of Scalo Nuovo, in a characteristic narrow street of the small town centre, is situated the house Hiera, from the old name of the island that was considered holy by the Greeks. The dwelling is divided into two apartments, one on the 1st and one on the 2nd floor, and each has its own style and unique features. Both apartments share the original staircase made of Misca stone - the same stone used to build the famous flight of steps of the “Reggia di Caserta” (Royal Palace of Caserta).

About Milan. com presents this year a new Naba’s summer programme that consists of a variety of courses addressed to students whose desire is to work in the field of Italian fashion and represent a complete and high quality training able to satisfy all kinds of needs.

These are 2-weeks programmes that develop on three levels, starting from introductio and passing through Intermediate and Advanced level, in order to supply students a deep and full learning of all subjects.

There is a wide variety of summer courses to choose among. For fashion lovers for example, an Introduction for Fashion and Accessories Course has been conceived, a very special programme focusing on accessories, that have currently turned into real objects of worship. So, students will have the possibility to study the history of accessories, their creation and production and will realize a women shoes or bag’s collection by themselves.

For students engaged in the field of fashion, a new course called Fashion Textiles and Fibres Studio has been activated to give them a chance to complete or develop their knowledge on that specific subject, This course will focus on teaching about fashion products’ composition.

In addition, Naba makes its know how available to international students with some courses - Graphic Art Design for Fashion Studio and Fashion Photography Studio - dedicated to people particularly attracted by the artistic and graphic aspect of fashion, who will have the possibility to enjoy fashion photography and will be trained as skilled freelancers able to realize unique fashion photography campaigns.

Last but not least, the Photography and the Moving Image for Beginners Course is addressed to emerging photographers or simple photography lovers who will so learn how to express at best their creativity by using simple techniques for the creation and processing of moving images.

Naba’s summer courses are open to students with a high school diploma and from first and second year of university. Students who wish to study in Italy have a wide range of courses to choose among and will have the possibility to take their favourite path and enter the working world easily.

Naba is giving this year a different choice for students to spend their summer in Italy, bringing out their passion and creativity while entering one of the scheduled Design Summer Courses for 2009: a summer full of Italian design and fashion!

For detailed information about 2009 Summer Courses in Milan, visit the webpage dedicated to Design Summer Courses in Milan on www.aboutmilan.com

UNICEF has appealed for an additional $41.4 million to provide urgent assistance to people displaced by fighting in northwest Pakistan. Over half of the displaced are children. UNICEF Pakistan has now almost exhausted its contingency stocks of supplies and funding.

Humanitarian efforts have been strained by the very rapid increase in the number of people fleeing fighting that has taken place in the Malakand division of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) since early May 2009.

“We expect that the situation for the internally displaced will only get worse in the coming weeks,” said Caryl Stern, President and CEO, U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “There is an opportunity to prevent the unnecessary suffering and death of innocent children, if funds are raised. Twenty-five thousand children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes. As we work to bring that number to zero, financial support will help us to insure that the lives of children are no longer placed in jeopardy as a result of adult missteps and politics.”

The massive movement of people has increased to some 2.5 million since early May 2009. They have poured into camps and host communities, arriving with few possessions and in urgent need of safe water, clothing, food, shelter, health care, and protection. These displaced have added to half a million people who had been previously displaced by conflict in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in the second part of 2008.

More displacement of populations is expected in the days ahead as military operations expand to new areas.

Difficulties of access combined with shortages of essential humanitarian supplies and funding are hindering efforts to provide children and women who are internally displaced with life-saving support.

Many of the newly displaced are not yet receiving assistance, and only around 10 percent are currently in camps serviced by national or international humanitarian agencies. In the coming months, UNICEF plans to expand its humanitarian assistance to displaced children and women, both in camps and in host communities.

At present, UNICEF, with its government, UN, and humanitarian partners, is providing children and their families with safe water and sanitation, nutrition, health support, education and child protection wherever possible.

Estimates suggest that tens of thousand of people are trapped in the conflict areas, where access is severely limited. They are trying to survive with inadequate supplies of food, water, and emergency medical aid.

UNICEF’s request for $41.4 million is part of the inter-agency revised Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan (PHRP), which is seeking $543.2 million to cover the work of major humanitarian actors. The Government of Pakistan has welcomed the PHRP as complementing its own National Response Plan to this massive and expanding humanitarian crisis.

Source: U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Working Mother praises company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion; also recognizes Allstate employee as a working mother of the year

Allstate Insurance Company, the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer, has again been recognized as one of America’s best employers for women of color, according to Working Mother magazine’s ranking of 2009 Best Companies for Multicultural Women.

Allstate was selected from among a broad cross-section of American companies evaluated by independent researchers who looked at performance on key workplace criteria, including representation, training, development and advancement of multicultural women. This is the sixth consecutive year Allstate has achieved this company recognition.

“We’re honored Allstate continues to be recognized for placing diversity and inclusion firmly at the center of its core values,” said Anise Wiley-Little, assistant vice president and Allstate chief diversity officer. “Allstate’s workforce mirrors the diverse markets we serve. We aim to attract professionals who collectively value inclusive diversity, learning and work/life integration.”

Diversity and inclusion have been deeply engrained in Allstate’s corporate culture for decades. Of the nearly 39,000-person workforce, nearly 60 percent are women, and more than 30 percent are minorities. More than 40 percent of officers and managers are women and approximately 22 percent come from one of five minority groups.

In addition to this honor, Working Mother magazine also named Shantelle Thomas, an Allstate director and senior actuary, to its list of “30 Working Mothers of the Year.” The magazine noted her outstanding ability to “adeptly balance career, motherhood and self-development with grace and determination.”

Visit Allstate Awards and Recognition to see how the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion has been recognized by a wide variety of media outlets and independent associations that monitor diversity and workplace issues.

Source: Allstate Insurance Company

One in Four Reports Meeting Offline

A new study demonstrates why parents need to know how their teenage girls present themselves online.

The study, published in the June issue of Pediatrics, shows that teen girls who would depict themselves online in a provocative way, and teen girls with a history of child abuse, are more likely to receive online sexual advances and then meet those individuals offline.

Moreover, 40 percent of all 173 teen girls in the study reported experiencing online sexual advances, and 26 percent reported meeting someone in person who they first met online.

“The importance of parental monitoring of adolescent Internet use cannot be understated,” says Jennie Noll, PhD, a psychologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the study’s main author. “This is particularly important given that 55 percent of adolescent Internet users have or are currently using social networking Websites.

Dr. Noll studied girls between the ages of 14 and 17. Each was asked to create an avatar — an electronic image to represent herself — and complete a questionnaire regarding her computer and Internet usage, sexual attitudes and activities, substance use, involvement with peers, and presence of maternal and paternal caregivers.

The avatars they created were evaluated based on previously defined categories spanning a continuum from conservative to provocative, depending on such factors as bust and hip size, upper body clothing, lower body clothing and piercings. Those who had depicted themselves as provocative in terms of body and clothing choices were more likely to have had online sexual advances.

In addition to choosing a provocative avatar, other risk factors for online sexual advances included substance abuse and being preoccupied with sex and sexual thoughts. Associating with high-risk peers was an additional risk factor for in-person encounters.

“The Proteus Effect, or the idea that one’s presentation of oneself can affect the behavior of the presenter as well as of the receiver, has important implications in this age of wide reliance on Internet use, where users can portray themselves in a multitude of fashions,” says Dr. Noll. “Self-presentations can change the way Internet users interact in a manner that increases the risk for online sexual advances. Your behavior can change based on how you present yourself to the world. It isn’t just naive kids who are vulnerable. Those who choose to present themselves as ’sexually sophisticated’ are particularly vulnerable to those who would choose to be exploitive of such self descriptions.”

The presentation of oneself in a provocative manner, however, is not necessarily limited to Websites that rely on avatars as the primary interface. For female adolescents in particular, self-presentations such as a compilation of photographs and narrative descriptions on networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace might also increase their vulnerability, according to Dr. Noll. “Some adolescents include content on their social networking face pages that is alarmingly provocative and revealing. These are the snapshots that are revealed publicly, for all to see.

“Those adolescents who may be unaware of how their appearance might be perceived may not, from a developmental perspective, possess the social sophistication necessary to field and ward off sexual advances in ways that protect them from sexually explicit suggestions,” she says. “This may be a particularly important lesson to convey to female adolescents who are especially vulnerable to exploitation and victimization, such as those who have been victims of childhood abuse.”

Parents can play an important role in preventing exposure to online sexual solicitations, according to Dr. Noll, who found that caregiver presence was associated with significantly fewer reports by adolescents of online solicitations. For example, she says parents should emphasize to adolescents ways to ward off sexual advances and explain to them how virtual self-representations can influence behaviors and perceptions.

Primary care physicians, too, should consider asking teen patients about their Internet use as an aspect of comprehensive care. Not enough people are talking about how teens are being proactive in “putting themselves out there for public consumption,” according to Dr. Noll.

“In many respects, reacting to normal urges and curiosities about sex is a large part of normative adolescent development, but doing so via virtual personas or provocative self-descriptors in social networking worlds may not be the healthiest or most safe avenue by which to explore,” she says.

The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

www.cincinnatichildrens.org

I often have friends asking me how one can earn money from home via the internet. Infact, they still find it hard to believe that there are many women who work from home and making enough money to replace their full time jobs.

Research has shown that consumers want to spend more online and that the internet is fast becoming an integral part of their lifestyle and it’ll continue to be so. Having said that, online consumers are cautious with their money and they want to buy from sites that are credible and before they part with their money.

If you are planning to building an online business via affiliate stores, you need to first focus on a niche market. Don’t be everything to everybody. Instead of trying to dominate a huge and general market, you should focus on a niche or specific topic or product range. You can get niche ideas online or offline. Search the internet such as google news or yahoo, visit your local bookstore and head to the magazines section and you can find many niche ideas.

Focus your online business on a sizeable market or a defined group of potential customers for your specific niche. Address the need for a product or service that’s not being addressed by the big boys. It is less competitive to target the areas or topics that large businesses won’t want to be in it. The key here is to find a niche market, assess the needs of the market and then offer them your products and/or services that meet their needs. There are millions of niches out there, from something as specific as Blue Cross NC healthcare to kids’ wooden toys. It’s really up to you. There is a market for almost everything - you just need to take time to find and identify it.

After finding your niche, you can look into creating an affiliate store using an online store creation application such as datafeedr. I have been using it for more than six months and I’ve been impressed with the system’s usability, support, performance and results. Some online marketers have seen good sales profits with a short time using affiliate stores while others may take a little longer. There is no magic formula to it - it’s down to using the right SEO strategies, choosing the right niche with buying market, time, determination, patience and efforts.

You can be one of the women who work from home and profiting from an online business. Learn from those who have had successful in internet marketing, model them and track their benchmark success stories., It’s always wise to learn from the mistakes of other people than learning from your own mistakes. This can cost you less and shorten your route to online business success.

Unvaccinated children are 23 times more likely to get infected with pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, than those who are immunized

Go here to watch a video about the study and hear from the lead author and a mom: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/videos/index.html

Children of parents who refuse vaccines are 23 times more likely to get whooping cough compared to fully immunized children, according to a new study led by a vaccine research team at Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s Institute for Health Research.

The study will appear in the June 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, this is the first study to use electronic health records to look for immunization refusal and possible pertussis infections, making it the most definitive on the risk of vaccine refusal to date.

While most families vaccinate their children, leading to dramatic reductions in several serious childhood illnesses, the number of parents refusing immunizations appears to be increasing in the United States, researchers say. The study could not determine from the information available why parents elected to refuse vaccines. The study also did not evaluate the side effects of vaccines.

The study findings are important for parents who cite low risk of infection as a reason to choose fewer or no immunizations, and for researchers who are concerned that decreased immunization rates could lead to more disease outbreaks across the country.

“This study helps dispel one of the commonly held beliefs among vaccine-refusing parents: that their children are not at risk for vaccine preventable diseases,” said study lead author Jason Glanz, Ph.D., a senior scientist at Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research. “It also shows that the decision to refuse immunizations could have important ramifications for the health of the entire community. Based on our analysis, we found that one in 10 additional whooping cough infections could have been prevented by immunization.”

Pertussis - more commonly known as whooping cough - is a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable, violent coughing and can be deadly in infants, especially those under two months of age who are too young to be fully vaccinated. In 1976 there were just over 1,000 reported cases of pertussis in the United States; by 2004, it climbed to nearly 26,000 cases. Between 2000 and 2005 there were 140 deaths resulting from pertussis in the United States.

The best way to prevent pertussis is through vaccinations. The childhood vaccine, DTaP, is a “3-in-1″ immunization that protects against diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. It is given in a series to children at two months, four months, six months and 15-18 months of age, and a booster is given before kindergarten. The DTaP vaccine, like other routine childhood immunizations, has been shown to be more than 98 percent effective.

To assess the risk of DTaP refusal, researchers reviewed the electronic health records of children between the ages of two months and 18 years who were members of Kaiser Permanente Colorado between 1996 and 2007. First, investigators confirmed which children had pertussis infections. Next, they verified whether parents had refused some or all vaccines for their children.

The researchers found 156 laboratory-confirmed pertussis cases that met the study’s criteria. They compared these cases to four times as many children of the same age and gender who were not infected with pertussis. Based on this analysis, the researchers discovered that children of vaccine refusers were 23 times more likely to be infected with whooping cough than vaccinated children.

“As a father of young children, I understand that vaccines can pose confusing and difficult choices, so the purpose of this research is to give parents more information to weigh the benefits and risks, and to provide pediatricians with more information to help participate in the discussion,” Glanz said.

According to pediatrician and co-author Matthew F. Daley, MD, of The Children’s Hospital Denver and Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research: “Parents want to do what is best for their children and need information to make good decisions regarding immunizations. This study will benefit parents and pediatric health care providers because it helps us better understand some of the risks of not vaccinating against childhood diseases.”

Additional study authors include: David L. McClure, Ph.D., David J. Magid, MD, MPH, and Simon J. Hambidge, MD, Ph.D., of the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Research; Eric K. France, MD, MSPH, of the Department of Pediatrics, Kaiser Permanente Colorado; Daniel A. Salmon, Ph.D., MPH of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Kaiser Permanente