Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Than A Quarter Of Americans Are Depressed
Stat: Depression Hits New High Among Americans, Per Survey
More than a quarter of American adults are depressed, a 10% surge from nearly a decade ago, according to the latest Gallup survey. The data come as the Biden administration tries to overhaul mental health care costs and boost the number of health care workers licensed to practice behavioral health care. Congress in this year’s budget also allotted hundreds of millions of dollars to mental health care grants and programs, many of them trained on children or substance misuse. (Owermohle, 5/17)
CNN: Chronic Pain Is Substantially More Common In The US Than Diabetes, Depression And High Blood Pressure, Study Finds
There are more new cases of chronic pain among US adults than other common long-term conditions like diabetes, depression and high blood pressure, according to a new study. The researchers say their findings “emphasize the high disease burden of chronic pain in the US adult population and the need for early management of pain.” (Dillinger, 5/16)
In other health and wellness news —
KFF Health News: Study Reveals Staggering Toll Of Being Black In America: 1.6M Excess Deaths Over 22 Years
Research has long shown that Black people live sicker lives and die younger than white people. Now a new study, published Tuesday in JAMA, casts the nation’s racial inequities in stark relief, finding that the higher mortality rate among Black Americans resulted in 1.63 million excess deaths relative to white Americans over more than two decades. (Szabo, 5/16)
The Hill: Soft Contact Lenses May Contain Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals,’ Research Finds
Many types of soft contact lenses available in the U.S. could contain toxic “forever chemicals,” new research has found. All 18 sets of soft contacts evaluated in a recent consumer study came back with various levels of organic fluorine — an indicator for the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). (Udasin, 5/16)
Axios: NIH Seeks To Unlock Secrets Of How Our Bodies Respond To Food
Federal researchers are launching a major study of how genes, lifestyle and other factors influence how the body responds to diet, to come up with better interventions when it comes to what we eat. Why it matters: Poor nutrition is a key driver of chronic disease in the United States. Yet, there remains little understanding of precisely how it impacts us on an individual level. (Reed, 5/16)
AP: YouTube’s Recommendations Send Violent And Graphic Gun Videos To 9-Year-Olds, Study Finds
When researchers at a nonprofit that studies social media wanted to understand the connection between YouTube videos and gun violence, they set up accounts on the platform that mimicked the behavior of typical boys living in the U.S. They simulated two nine-year-olds who both liked video games. The accounts were identical, except that one clicked on the videos recommended by YouTube, and the other ignored the platform’s suggestions. The account that clicked on YouTube’s suggestions was soon flooded with graphic videos about school shootings, tactical gun training videos and how-to instructions on making firearms fully automatic. (Klepper, 5/16)
KFF Health News: Lawyer Fees Draw Scrutiny As Camp Lejeune Claims Stack Up
David and Adair Keller started their married life together in 1977 at Camp Lejeune, a military training base on the Atlantic Coast in Jacksonville, North Carolina. David was a Marine Corps field artillery officer then, and they lived together on the base for about six months. But that sojourn had an outsize impact on their lives. Forty years later, in January 2018, Adair was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She died six months later at age 68. There’s a chance her illness was caused by toxic chemicals that seeped into the water military families at the base drank, cooked with, and washed with for decades. (Andrews, 5/17)
