Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Heart Disease No. 1 Cause Of Death For Americans
Los Angeles Times: Heart Disease And Cancer Are Responsible For Nearly Half Of All Deaths In The U.S., Report Says
What are the most common ways to die in America? The answer depends on how old you are, whether you’re a man or a woman, and your racial and ethnic background, a new report shows. Alzheimer’s disease accounted for 5% of deaths among U.S. women, for instance, but only 2.1% of deaths among men. Accidents and unintentional injuries caused 39.7% of deaths among people between the ages of 10 and 24, but only 7.4% of deaths for adults between the ages of 45 and 64. Diabetes was responsible for 4.3% of African American deaths and 2.7% of white deaths. (Kaplan, 6/29)
Los Angeles Times: Church Attendance Linked With Reduced Suicide Risk, Especially For Catholics, Study Says
Against a grim backdrop of rising suicide rates among American women, new research has revealed a blinding shaft of light: One group of women — practicing Catholics — appears to have bucked the national trend toward despair and self-harm. Compared with women who never participated in religious services, women who attended any religious service once a week or more were five times less likely to commit suicide between 1996 and 2010, says a study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry. (Healy, 6/29)
The Wall Street Journal: Expats And Their Parents: How To Handle Aging Issues From Afar
When my family and I moved from White Plains, New York to Raanana, Israel in 2011, my then 74-year-old father had recently been diagnosed with dementia. It was a toss-up as to what weighed more—my mind or my heart. ... When, two years later, the diagnosis changed to early Alzheimer’s, I flew back to make sure paperwork and finances were in order and visit memory care facilities—just in case, for later. Eighteen months passed. He lost all short-term memory. I returned home to propose to my mother, one year younger but in good health and now the sole decision-maker for both of them, to move to Israel so my brother, also living here, and I could help in the years to come. (Lang, 6/29)
NPR: A Hospital Offers Frequent ER Patients An Out — Free Housing
For a lot of us, the hospital's emergency room is a stressful place. Not so for Glenn Baker. When Baker, 44, steps into the emergency room at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, he's completely comfortable. ... Patty Zion, a nurse at the hospital on the West Side, says she knows Baker well: "He's one of our very famous patients who comes around and sees us quite often when he's not feeling well." ... Baker says that last winter he spent about 20 nights every month checked into different Chicago hospitals. ... In the medical world, patients like Baker are often called "superutilizers" or "frequent fliers" — people with a mix of chronic medical problems, mental health issues and homelessness that drive them to visit the hospital far more than the average patient. (Bryan, 6/29)
The Conversation: Concussions And Kids: Mind The Signs
Head trauma is a major public health concern in the United States, with indirect and direct health-care costs approaching nearly US$1 billion annually. Worse, head trauma also can cause short- and long-term health problems and, in children, problems with academics, headaches and behavioral health issues. One challenge has been determining just how widespread concussions are among children. (Zavorsky, 6/30)
KQED: Canned Food Increases Exposure To Toxic Chemical BPA, Study Finds
New research from Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University suggests a direct link between eating canned foods and levels of the chemical BPA found in the body. BPA or Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical used to make certain plastics and resins, like the lining that prevents bacteria from entering through dented cans. Small amounts of BPA in food packaging can transfer to food and drinks, which has raised concerns among health and environmental groups since the chemical is a known hormone disruptor. (Hoshaw, 6/29)
