The week's top family medicine stories

Healio.com/Family Medicine presents the week’s top news stories, rising rates of opioid to heroin transitions, declining rates of SIDS and risks of still birth due to gestational weight gain.

Decline in hospital-acquired conditions saves billions over 4 years

Between 2010 and 2014, the rate of hospital-acquired conditions declined by 17%, resulting in nearly $20 billion in health care cost savings, according to a press release from the HHS.

The HHS partially credits this decline to the increased focus on patient safety efforts nationwide. Read more.

Young, white men at increased risk of transitioning from opioids to heroin

A significant proportion of high school seniors, particularly white students, who were heroin users reported being lifetime opioid users.

Opioid and heroin use was less common in females and in students living with two parents. Black and Hispanic students were less likely to use opioids, compared with white students, but were more likely to report heroin use without prior use of nonmedical opioids. Read more.

Environment, sleep position just part of 70% drop in SIDS over 30 years

A recent analysis found that the significant decline in sudden infant death syndrome is not just the result changes in recommended sleep position and environment, but of a combination of factors including improved prenatal and neonatal care, decreased maternal smoking, increased breastfeeding rates and declines in teen pregnancy.

The overall rate of SIDS postnatal mortality declined by 71.3% between 1983 and 2012, according to the researchers. Read more.

Still birth, infant death linked to weight gain between pregnancies

Women who gained weight between their first and second pregnancies, but were of healthy weight prior to their first pregnancy, were at increased risk of their second-born child dying within the first year of life.

Higher rates of second-born infant mortality and stillbirth was seen in overweight or obese women, compared with women of normal weight during their first pregnancy, according to the researchers. Read more.

Negative publicity linked to early discontinuation of statins

In Denmark, negative news stories related to statins were associated with an increase in individuals choosing to cease their statin therapy early.

A 9% increased risk of stopping statins within 6 months of starting treatment was seen for every negative news statin-related news story, according to a press release. Positive statin-related news stories, CVD and diabetes were all associated with a decrease in early statin discontinuation, according to a press release. Read more.