Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Public Health Roundup: Inactive Kids Pose Future Health Risks; 'Food Pharmacies' Help Patients Craft Healthy Diets
NPR: Fresh Food By Prescription: This Health Care Firm Is Trimming Costs — And Waistlines
The advice to eat a healthy diet is not new. Back around 400 B.C., Hippocrates, the Greek doctor, had this missive: Let food be thy medicine. But as a society, we've got a long way to go. About one out of every two deaths from heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes in the U.S. is linked to a poor diet. That's about 1,000 deaths a day. (Aubrey, 5/8)
USA Today: Kids' Inactivity Rises, Creating 'Health Care Time Bomb'
The percent of children aged six to 12 who were physically active three or more times a week had its biggest drop in five years and is now under 25%, new data show. Making matters worse, households with incomes under $50,000 have much higher rates of inactivity than families making more than $75,000 annually, an analysis by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association and PHIT America found. (O'Donnell and Mitchell, 5/6)
Stat: Loneliness In Seniors: A Medical Problem This Provider Thinks It Can Solve
Clinicians are starting to look at the role that poverty, race and other social determinants play in a person’s health, but what about social connectedness — how do friendship, family, and loneliness play into a person’s medical needs? Large health care systems have yet to take up the fight in a meaningful way, but that could be changing. On Monday, CareMore, a unit of Anthem Insurance that offers coverage and health care to more than 100,000 members across seven states, is introducing a campaign to help some of the US population’s most socially isolated people: seniors. (Tedeschi, 5/8)
Stat: Zika Testing Recommendations Changed For Pregnant Women
The CDC is now suggesting that women thinking of getting pregnant, and who may be exposed to the Zika virus through travel or because of where they live, should consider having their blood tested for Zika antibodies before they get pregnant. Having a baseline reading would help to interpret Zika tests done during a later pregnancy. (Branswell, 5/5)
Sacramento Bee: '13 Reasons Why' Has School Districts Worried About Suicide
The phrase “suicide tapes” has been slithering through school hallways in whispers and giggles around Sacramento, and counselors and principals are worried. Some fear the new slang – a reference to the hit Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” – could inspire possibly deadly behavior among suggestible children who watch the show. (Caiola, 5/5)
The Washington Post: New Type Of Baby Monitors Offers ‘Peace Of Mind’ But May Deliver Just The Opposite
One night last fall, Victoria Rodriguez, a pediatric hospitalist at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, was paged from the emergency room for a consultation on a case. An ER doctor had evaluated a 4-week-old infant, and although he couldn’t find anything wrong with the baby, he hesitated to send the anxious family home. His concern? During the night, the parents had received an alarm on their phones that the baby’s heart rate and blood-oxygen level were low. The alarm had been triggered by the baby’s high-tech sock, one of a new class of devices that continuously measure babies’ vital signs, but the ER doctor wasn’t sure how to interpret this information. (Callahan, 5/6)
WBUR: When Someone Has Both Mental Health And Substance Use Disorders, Ineffective Treatments Follows
Most estimates suggest that at least 60% of those seeking treatment for a substance use disorder also have a mental health condition. But it's not easy to untangle the two: sometimes substances can induce mental health disorder symptoms — and it's tough to clearly diagnose a mental health condition while someone is actively using substances. (Becker, 5/8)
Stat: Measles Sweeps An Immigrant Community Targeted By Anti-Vaccine Activists
For years, anti-vaccine activists have worked on the sizable Somali-American community in Minnesota, urging them to refuse to let their children receive the MMR vaccine. They’ve been successful: The vaccination rate has plunged. And now, the state is struggling to contain a large and growing measles outbreak that is spreading rapidly through the Somali community and threatens to move beyond it. (Branswell, 5/8)
NPR: Companies Resist Laws Requiring Paid Sick Leave
Nearly three-quarters of private sector workers receive paid sick days from their employers, though there is no federal mandate requiring it. In recent years, dozens of states, cities and counties have passed their own ordinances, which typically require employers to provide between three and seven paid sick days a year. The business community is fighting against the proliferation of these laws, saying that the landscape for paid-leave regulation is getting way too complex. (Noguchi, 5/6)
The Star Tribune: Study: Lowering Sodium Intake Doesn't Reduce Blood Pressure
In another blow against decades of accepted medical wisdom, one of the most prestigious, long-running studies reports that lowering sodium intake doesn’t reduce blood pressure. The study also implies that most Americans are consuming a perfectly healthy amount of salt, the main source of sodium. But those who are salt-sensitive — about 20 percent to 25 percent of the population — still need to restrict salt intake. (Fikes, 5/4)
WBUR: More Ticks Than Ever This Year? Unclear, But Already Enough For Abundance Of Caution
It has become an annual springtime ritual in Massachusetts, one of the states most heavily affected by Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, to wonder whether the emerging tick population is bigger than ever. This year, those concerns gained added fuel from an ecologist's prediction that this will be a particularly heavy tick year in the Northeast, and thus heavy for the diseases they carry as well. (David Scales, 5/5)
