VOA标准英语2013--Study Shows Promising Results in Reducing Risk of Stroke, Heart Attack

 

Study Shows Promising¹ Results in Reducing Risk of Stroke, Heart Attack

High blood pressure increases the risk for heart attack and stroke. That's why health experts the world over are concerned about the increasing number of people with high blood pressure, even in developing countries.

Smoking, drinking alcohol, being sedentary are risk factors for hypertension, commonly called high blood pressure.  But there are also other risks. High blood pressure is a genetic² trait that tends to run in families.

It runs in Pat Buchholz's family.

“I never smoked, I never drank, and I exercised," she said. "So that helps some but it did not prevent blood pressure problems from finding me.”

Buchholz took part in a study of 450 people with uncontrolled high blood pressure.  One group received usual care, meaning they had their blood pressure checked whenever they saw their doctors.

The other group monitored their blood pressure at home almost daily for a year.  Their results were sent electronically to a pharmacist. 

“The pharmacist then was able to review the readings and make adjustments over the telephone, if needed, to the patient’s treatment regimen,” said Dr. Karen Margolis, of HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Minneapolis who led the study.  

More than twice as many patients in the self-monitoring group had their blood pressure under control a year later compared to the other group.  And, Margolis says, the improvement continued even after the study ended.

“Seventy percent of the patients in the tele-monitoring group kept their blood pressure control at 18 months, six months after the program ended,” she said.

Buchholz says working with her pharmacist made a huge difference in improving her health.

"I learned more, I was able to listen better and retain what she told me… and I trusted her,” she said.  

The researchers say the intervention³ helped patients become more likely to take their medication, get more involved in their own health care and communicate better with their health care team.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

1 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

2 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

3 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。