Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Bleak, Uncertain Future Drives Anxiety Among Young Adults
AP: Despair Over Future Fuels Political Anxiety For College Students
Frankie Llerandi, 21, has been unable to land a single internship in his three years at Michigan State University. He will graduate in the spring with an economics degree and an interest in data analytics, but true adulthood seems maddeningly far away. Most of his cousins have not been able to buy a house or start a family deep into their 30s. (Ganun and Riccardi, 10/4)
On digital media and depression —
AP: AI Safety For Kids: Lessons From Efforts To Address Social Media Addiction
Years after the risks of social media for kids first became apparent, U.S. states this summer reached an accord hailed as a turning point for child safety. Meanwhile, a new generation of children has begun engaging with an even more potent technology: artificial intelligence.While the efforts to make social media safer are still taking shape, they offer some lessons for those looking to protect children using AI — technology that is growing so quickly, the extent of its risks for young people and their development is just emerging. (Huamani and Ortutay, 10/5)
CNN: How Parents Can Mitigate The Dangers Of Digital Media
In case you hadn’t heard from everyone that digital media can be bad for kids, new research warns just how harmful it can be to their health. About 20% of instances of depression and 15% of obesity cases in young people are associated with excessive screen time, according to a meta-analysis of 121 global studies of children and digital media published Sunday as part of a series of papers in the medical journal The Lancet. (Alaimo, 10/4)
NPR: Researchers Ask If Heating The Body Can Treat Depression
The belief that heat can benefit the mind and relieve psychic suffering has a long history across human societies. But when Eva Hilland scanned the scientific literature for the kind of evidence that would support recommending heat as a legitimate intervention for mental health, she came up with very little. "There are many knowledge gaps," says Hilland, a cognitive neuroscientist at Oslo Metropolitan University. Although, what existing evidence she did find seemed promising. "So we just saw the potential." (Stone, 10/5)
Public health updates —
CIDRAP: Greater Trust In The FDA, CDC Tied To Higher Flu Vaccine Uptake
As vaccination rates dwindle, public health experts have been working to understand the factors that encourage people to undergo immunization. A new paper in Vaccine examines how trust in government agencies influences a person’s decision to receive a flu vaccine, finding that a one-point boost in a composite trust score is linked to a 42% increase in one’s likelihood of being vaccinated. “Higher trust in government agencies was associated with greater influenza vaccination acceptance,” wrote the authors, from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. (Holohan, 10/2)
The New York Times: Scientists Warn Of Another Unseen Risk From Fire: Ozone
In July, as smoke drifted down from Canadian wildfires, New York City officials initiated an emergency response to what was expected to be historically poor air quality. Outreach workers fanned across the city. Police officers handed out masks. For a period on July 16, New York City had the third-worst air quality in the world. Then the skies began to clear, and the response was concluded. But in a way, the emergency wasn’t really over. (Dalton, 10/4)
The New York Times: F.D.A. Classifies Salad Dressing Recall To Highest Health Risk
The Food and Drug Administration this week classified to its highest-risk designation a company’s voluntary recall of a salad dressing over concerns about salmonella contamination, the agency said. The company, Salata Dressings of Houston, voluntarily recalled its Jalapeño Avocado Dressing in August. Diced jalapeños in it were potentially linked to a widespread, multistate salmonella outbreak in jalapeño peppers that the F.D.A. had also been investigating. (Cerro, 10/3)
NBC News: When Teens Get Colorectal Cancer, It’s Often An Aggressive Form Of The Disease
Jo Henderson was 17 when she was diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer. It came after months of symptoms — stomach pain, bloating, constipation — and months of testing. “I was expecting a gluten allergy, lactose intolerance,” said Henderson, now 18, of Seekonk, Massachusetts. “Literally anything but cancer.” (Sullivan and Edwards, 10/2)
