A mother-to-be’s exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may have a lasting impact on her baby’s brain development, new research indicates. Toddlers scored lower on assessments for thinking, motor and language skills when their mothers had more exposure to pollutants during pregnancy, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Our findings suggest that pollution exposure, particularly during mid-to-late pregnancy, may negatively impact neurodevelopment in early life,” co-author Tanya Alderete, an assistant professor of integrative physiology, said in a university news release. To study this, the researchers followed 161 healthy, Hispanic mother-infant pairs who lived in Southern California and were enrolled in the Mother’s Milk Study. The moms provided information about where they had lived. This made it possible for researchers to calculate their exposure to pollutants from roadside traffic, industry, wildfire smoke and other sources using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The researchers assessed the children of these mothers for thinking (“cognitive”), motor and language skills at age 2 years. The team found that the toddlers who were exposed prenatally to more inhalable particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5) scored significantly lower on cognitive tests. (Cognitive tests assess abilities such as problem-solving). About 16% of the children had a composite cognitive score that indicated impairment. If all participants had been exposed to as much pollution as the 75th percentile, the…  read on >  read on >

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25, 2023 (HealthDay News) – It’s well known that obesity fuels an increase in a person’s risk for other chronic health conditions. Now, a new study shows that weight-loss surgery could set that person’s health, and longevity, on a different path. Utah researchers who followed patients for up to 40 years after they had one of four types of weight-loss (bariatric) surgery found they had significant reductions in death rates from all causes compared to obese patients who did not have surgery. All-cause death for both men and women was 16% lower. For heart disease, it was 29% lower. For cancer, deaths dropped by 43%, and it was down a full 72% for diabetes. “The take-home message is that people are generally long-term going to have improved health in those areas,” said lead study author Ted Adams. He’s an adjunct professor in internal medicine and an adjunct associate professor in nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Unfortunately, his team also unearthed some important negative outcomes. Death rates from chronic liver disease in patients who had bariatric surgery were 83% higher, when compared to patients who didn’t have the surgery. Patients who had the surgery also had a 2.4 times higher risk for suicide, though that effect was seen primarily in younger people, ages 18 to 34. Although…  read on >  read on >

One-third of public health workers have endured threats, anger and aggression from the public during the pandemic, and that has come at a steep cost to their mental health, a new study finds. “The negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers have been documented and the research on psychological impacts is building,” said lead study author Hope Tiesman. She is a research epidemiologist with the division of safety research at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in Morgantown, W.Va. “Public health workers do the important work of disseminating information and services to the public; making sure their health and well-being are addressed in the face of workplace violence is important for their mental health and for the health of the nation in future public health crises,” Tiesman added. For the study, more than 26,000 state, tribal, local and territorial public health workers responded to an online survey developed by a team of researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including Tiesman. The survey’s aim was also to understand the prevalence of nonphysical workplace violence on public health workers between March 2020 and April 2021. It included questions on demographics, level of workplace violence, other workplace factors, and mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidal ideation. The survey found that nearly one…  read on >  read on >

Nearly 20% of American adults use a drug to help them sleep, either occasionally or regularly, health officials reported Wednesday. Sleep medications, sold both over-the-counter and by prescription, are a common treatment for sleep problems, said senior report author Lindsey Black, a health statistician at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). “Our report details patterns of use of medication to inform patterns of use among subgroups of the U.S. population,” Black said. “We do hope by dissemination of this report it can lay the groundwork for more work in this area and our understanding of sleep health among adults.” Using data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey, Black and colleagues found that among adults ages 18 and older, 8.4% used medication to help them fall or stay asleep on most nights or every night. Another 10% said they used medication on some nights. Women were more likely than men to take medication for sleep and the percentage doing it generally increased with increasing age. Specifically, 10% of women used sleep medication, compared with 6.6% of men. White adults were more likely to use sleep medications, and Asian adults were least likely to do so. Also, the percentage of men who used medication for sleep dropped as family income increased, Black’s team found. The findings were published…  read on >  read on >