Staying in a multi-bed hospital room dramatically increases the risk of acquiring a serious infectious disease,  according to the findings of a study published on-line in the American Journal of Infection Control. The authors say the chance of acquiring serious infections like C. difficile (Clostridium difficile) rises with the addition of every hospital roommate.

"If you're in a two, three or four-bedded room, each time you get a new roommate your risk of acquiring these serious infections increases by 10 per cent," says Dr. Zoutman, professor of Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen's. "That's a substantial risk, particularly for
longer hospital stays when you can expect to have many different roommates."

As smoking continues to decline among the US population, the rate of obesity is growing and has now become an equal, if not greater, contributor to the burden of disease and shortening of healthy life compared to smoking, according to Researchers from Columbia and The City College of New York. They say that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking, both modifiable risk factors. The results appear in February 2010 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.