FINDINGS
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; Page A05
Disk Surgery, Exercise Offer Similar Relief
Choosing back surgery over exercise to treat a herniated disk generally provides more relief, but the difference is minimal, and fears related to skipping surgery are unfounded, researchers said yesterday.
A study involving more than 1,200 patients at 13 U.S. hospitals found that surgery to remove a bulging back disk or a course of physical therapy helped ease the pain and discomfort two years after treatment.
A herniated disk, which causes the doughnut-shaped soft tissue cushioning the vertebra to protrude and impinge on nerves running along the spine, is a common problem that can recede with time and with the help of exercise, the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association said.
Based on patients' responses, surgery tended to provide somewhat more relief than physical therapy, especially at first. But the difference was not statistically significant, narrowed over time, and probably was exaggerated because worse-off patients opted for surgery and tended to believe that surgery must be more effective, the study showed.
"These findings suggest that in most cases there is no clear reason to advocate strongly for surgery apart from patient preference," Eugene Carragee of Stanford University Medical Center wrote in an accompanying editorial.
37% of U.S. Babies Born Out of Wedlock
Out-of-wedlock births in the United States have climbed to an all-time high, accounting for nearly four in 10 babies born last year, government health officials said yesterday.
Although such births have long been associated with teen mothers, the teen birthrate actually dropped last year to the lowest level on record. Instead, births among unwed mothers rose most dramatically among women in their 20s.
Experts said the overall rise reflects the increasing number of people who are putting off marriage or living together without getting married. They said it also reflects the fact that having a child out of wedlock is more socially acceptable nowadays.
Births to unwed mothers increased in all racial groups but rose most sharply among Hispanics. Such births were up among all age groups except youngsters 10 to 17.
"A lot of people think of teenagers and unmarried mothers synonymously, but they are not driving this," said Stephanie Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics, a co-author of the report.
The government also reported that the rate of births by Caesarean delivery continued to climb in 2005 to a record high, despite efforts by public health authorities to bring down the number.
About 4.1 million babies were born in the United States last year, up slightly from 2004. More than 1.5 million of those were to unmarried women; that is about 37 percent of the total. In 2004, about 36 percent of births were out of wedlock. The number of out-of-wedlock births has been rising since the late 1990s.
Abortion Study Shows Many Repeat Patients
About half of U.S. women who had abortions in 2002 had undergone at least one previous abortion, according to a study released yesterday.
Women who had repeat abortions tended to be over age 30 and to have more children, and most were using contraception at the time, the report from the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute said.
The institute used several surveys by the government and private groups to come up with its estimate.
Most of the women seeking abortions were low-income, and 60 percent had at least one child.
-- From News Services
