BELOW ZERO

Romance makes for safer sex Teenage romance can be a good thing and so can dating. An analysis of national data conducted by Child Trends, a research center that focuses on children and youth in the US, found that sexually active teens who identify their relationships with a partner as romantic and who go out socially with that person are more likely to use contraceptives than teens in more-casual relationships. This may be because they feel more comfortable talking about contraception with a partner they know and trust, said the researchers. Among girls in particular, good communication and the quality of the relationship appear to play an important role in decision-making, said the research, published in Demography.

20 TO 40

Telling smokers ‘age’ of lungs helps them quit Smokers are more likely to kick the habit if they are told how “old” their lungs are. The concept of lung age — measured by comparing a smoker’s lungs to the age of a healthy person whose lungs function the same —has helped patients better understand how smoking damages health. But that information is also effective in convincing smokers to quit, said Gary Parkes, a family physician in Hertfordshire outside London, who led the study published in the British Medical Journal.

40 AND ABOVE

Strokes more common in springtime Strokes occur more often in the spring than any other season, and the heightened risk is seen in men, women, young and old alike. In a study of adults who had suffered a stroke between 1988 and 2001, researchers from Shiga University of Medical Science, Japan, found that the risk of having a stroke in the spring was roughly one-quarter higher than in summer. The findings, reported in the journal Stroke, are in line with some past studies showing that stroke rates tend to be higher in winter and spring. In this study, stroke risk was highest in March, April and May, regardless of known risk factors like high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes.