Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Women Dying From Cervical Cancer Than Previously Estimated, Study Finds
The New York Times: Cervical Cancer Taking Deadlier Toll In U.S. Than Had Been Thought
The death rate from cervical cancer in the United States is considerably higher than previously estimated and the disparity in death rates between black women and white women is significantly wider, according to a study published Monday in the journal Cancer. (Hoffman, 1/23)
CNN: Cervical Cancer Death Rates Are Much Higher Than Thought
Black women are dying from cervical cancer at a rate 77% higher than previously thought and white women are dying at a rate 47% higher, according to a new study that published in the journal Cancer on Monday. (Howard, 1/23)
Arizona Republic: Want To Know The Secret To A Long, Healthy Life? Ask The Experts – 1,200 Old People
For 10 years, the researchers working at Banner’s Center for Healthy Aging have been studying longevity. They have asked the real experts — the 1,200 people ages 55 and up who have agreed to be tested, monitored and interviewed on a regular basis — about the psychosocial, cognitive, medical and physical factors contributing to healthy aging. The idea is to track common traits, behaviors and other factors common to those who live the longest and most healthily. The researchers hope what they learn could help prevent Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases. (Bland, 1/20)
NPR: Kangaroo Care Eases Newborns' Entry Into The World
Kangaroo mother care has been widely used worldwide to care for premature babies, and it's gaining popularity in caring for healthy full term babies. It is as it sounds: Like a kangaroo's pouch, mothers hold their naked newborns on their bare chest for the first few hours of life. (Neighmond, 1/23)
The CT Mirror: A Prison Experiments With The Young, Reckless And Neuroscience
Despite all that, or maybe because of it, [Scott] Erfe is Correction Commissioner Scott Semple’s choice to host a pilot project to test the notion that pretty much every 18-to-25-year-old inmate has a malfunction: A brain whose frontal lobes, so crucial to executive functions like planning and impulse control, are not fully mature. A conclusion reached by scientists after brain imaging studies, this is not news to parents of adolescents. And it wasn’t shocking to the Connecticut Department of Correction. Inmates in the age group comprise less than 10 percent of the prison population, but Semple says they are responsible for a quarter or more of all disciplinary incidents. (Pazniokas, 1/23)
Kaiser Health News: Tackling Patients’ Social Problems Can Cut Health Costs
Donning a protective gown, rubber gloves and a face mask, Dayna Gurley looks like she’s heading into surgery. But Gurley is a medical social worker charged with figuring out why her client, a man who uses more health care services than almost anyone else in Houston, has been in three different hospitals in the last month. The patient, who asked not to be identified, has chronic massive ulcers, AIDS and auditory hallucinations. ... “It’s almost like self-sabotage,” Gurley said about her many attempts to steady her client’s life. (Varney, 1/23)
