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LONDON (AP) -- Young men who have served in the British military are about three times more likely than civilians to have committed a violent offense, researchers reported Friday in a study that explores the roots of such behavior.

The research found that merely being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan made no difference in rates of violent crime later on. Instead, a key predictor was violent behavior before enlisting. Combat duty also raised the risk, as did witnessing traumatic events during deployment or misusing alcohol afterward.

Still, the vast majority - 94 percent - of British military staff who return home after serving in a combat zone don't commit any crimes, researchers told reporters at a briefing.

The study found little difference in the lifetime rates of violent offenses between military personnel and civilian populations at age 46 - 11 percent versus almost 9 percent. Among younger men, however, being in the military seemed to make a difference: Nearly 21 percent of the military group under age 30 had a conviction for a violent offense in their lifetime compared to fewer than 7 percent of similarly aged men in the general population, according to British crime statistics.

"The problem is that some of the qualities you want in a soldier are the same ones that get people arrested for violent behavior," said Walter Busuttil, director of medical services for Combat Stress, a British veterans' charity that was not part of the study. Busuttil said many of those recruited into the army are from disadvantaged backgrounds where violence is more common.

The research was published online Friday in the medical journal Lancet. Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London looked at data from more than 13,800 U.K. military personnel and veterans and compared that to records of violent crimes ranging from verbal threats to assaults and homicides. Some people were followed for up to seven years. Nearly 1,500 women were included, though they were mostly in noncombat roles.

Deirdre MacManus, the study's lead author, said combat experience seemed to matter when they compared violent crime rates among military personnel. "Being deployed in itself wasn't a risk factor for violent offenses but being exposed to multiple traumas, like seeing someone get shot, increased the risk by 70 to 80 percent," she said, compared to someone who hadn't witnessed such a harrowing ordeal.

Researchers said other studies have made similar findings.

Britain currently has some 5,000 soldiers in the NATO-led mission fighting in Afghanistan and it is the second-largest foreign contingent after the U.S. It withdrew its soldiers from Iraq in 2009 after six years. The U.K. Ministry of Defense has been under pressure to develop more mental health programs for veterans after reports of returning servicemen committing crimes, like the 2012 case of an ex-soldier in Leeds jailed for shooting his landlady after fighting in Afghanistan. He had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder but had not been monitored or treated.

In the U.S., there have been numerous cases of veterans committing violent crimes, including a Marine charged with killing six people in California last year. Soldiers from a single Army unit in Colorado killed 11 people over a few years after their return home. An Army report in 2009 placed part of the blame on the psychological trauma of fierce combat in Iraq. And this week, a U.S. Senate panel heard women in the military describe sexual assaults by fellow soldiers.

American researchers said it is possible the same links the British study found between fighting in a war and violent crime exist in the U.S. but that there isn't enough data yet.

"For some soldiers, it's hard to stop being a warrior," said Brett Litz, a psychology professor at Boston University who studies veterans' issues. "What happens during a war may be a prescription for a small percentage of men to get into trouble," he said. "They may find it very difficult to switch out of a wartime mindset."

But given the differences between Britain and the U.S., Litz said it was impossible to predict what effects would be seen in the United States. "Maybe the economy is better here, maybe the (department of defense) does a better job with transition, maybe (the) culture is different especially with respect to alcohol," Litz said.

"There will be a lot of returning soldiers who have to be reintegrated and unfortunately there is no quick fix," he said.

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Online:

HTTP://WWW.THELANCET.COM/JOURNALS/LANCET/ARTICLE/PIIS0140-6736(12)60354-2/ABSTRACT

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pricey robotic surgery shouldn't be the first or even second choice for most women who need a hysterectomy, says advice issued Thursday to doctors who help those women decide.

The preferred method: Operate through the vagina, using standard tools rather than a robot, said Dr. James Breeden, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Increasingly, women are seeing ads that say a robot could help their doctor perform a hysterectomy more easily. And Breeden said doctors are reporting patients who demand that approach or say they'll take their business elsewhere.

But for routine hysterectomies, the vaginal method lets women leave the hospital just as quickly, without spending nearly as much money, Breeden said Thursday in a statement setting out the position of the nation's largest group of OB/GYNs.

When that's not possible, a laparoscopic hysterectomy - so-called keyhole surgery, operating through a few small incisions in the abdomen - is the second least invasive and costly option, he said.

"It is important to separate the marketing hype from the reality when considering the best surgical approach," Breeden said, adding: "There is no good data proving that robotic hysterectomy is even as good as, let alone better than, existing and far less costly minimally invasive alternatives."

The robotic method is similar to that keyhole operation except the doctor uses a computer to control robotic arms that hold the surgical tools, theoretically easier to move in tight quarters. Breeden said there may be advantages to robotic techniques for "unusual and complex clinical conditions," such as cancer operations that require extensive surgery to find and remove lymph nodes - but that needs additional research.

About 600,000 U.S. women a year undergo a hysterectomy. Traditionally, doctors removed the uterus through a large abdominal incision that meant a long recovery. Today, minimally invasive surgery is encouraged although many women still get the older open surgery for a variety of reasons.

Thursday's statement is sure to prove controversial with doctors who have embraced the technology. But it comes after a major study last month found robotic surgery adds at least $2,000 to the cost of a hysterectomy without improving outcomes. Breeden said another study found surgeons perform 50 to 90 robotic hysterectomies before becoming as good at it as they are with other minimally invasive methods.

Manufacturer Intuitive Surgical Inc. said its da Vinci robot system allows some women who otherwise would need an old-fashioned open hysterectomy - because of obesity, scarring or other complexities - to instead have a smaller operation.

--- Online:

ACOG: HTTP://WWW.ACOG.ORG © 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Health officials are reporting an alarming increase in some dangerous superbugs at U.S. hospitals.

These superbugs from a common germ family have become extremely resistant to treatment with antibiotics. Only 10 years ago, such resistance was hardly ever seen in this group.

Infections from these superbugs are still uncommon. But in the first six months of last year, nearly 200 U.S. hospitals - about 4 percent - saw at least one case, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent reported Tuesday.

"I would call them a major threat emerging in our hospitals," said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, an infectious disease expert at the CDC.

Health officials call them "nightmare bacteria" that have now been seen in 42 states and threaten to spread their resistance to more and more of their bacterial brethren.

"We only have a limited window of opportunity to stop spread" of these superbugs, said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden. At a press conference Tuesday, he said he was "sounding an alarm."

The CDC urged hospital workers to watch for the infections and take steps to prevent passing the germs to other patients.

The report did not include better-known superbugs like the staph infection MRSA or the intestinal bug known as C-diff, which have plagued hospitals.

It focused on the superbugs that have emerged from one specific bacteria group. At least five of the 70 kinds in that family have developed resistance to a class of antibiotic called carbapenems - considered one of the last lines of defense against hard-to-treat bugs.

Some of those bacteria seem to have terrifying potential. Among them: Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bug that killed at least seven patients at a federal research hospital in Bethesda, Md.; and those made resistant by a gene called NDM-1, named for New Delhi.

The bacteria usually live harmlessly in the gut but can cause pneumonia, and urinary tract and bloodstream infections if they get into other parts of the bodies of patients with weakened immune systems. As many as half the patients who get the bloodstream infections die, Srinivasan said.

However, CDC did not provide figures on deaths attributed to these superbugs.

In 2001, U.S. hospitals reported that only 1 percent of samples from the bacterial family were resistant to the antibiotic carbapenems. By 2011, it had risen to 4 percent.

It was more of an issue in the nation's 400 specialized, long-term hospitals - 18 percent of them reported seeing such a superbug. The Northeast had the most, followed by the South.

U.S. health officials are keeping a close eye on the NDM-1 superbugs, which first showed up in India in 2010 and have been seen as more of a concern in other parts of the world. Of the 30 cases in the U.S., about half have been reported since July, including eight patients at a Denver hospital.

--- Online:

CDC report: HTTP://WWW.CDC.GOV/VITALSIGNS

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