A new study on veterans, gun storage and suicidal thoughts points to an urgent need for mental health and substance-related services, according to researchers. The study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that about 1 in 7 veterans with a firearm at home in California had thought about suicide. “Suicide by firearm is the leading cause of suicide death among veterans,” said the center’s director, Ninez Ponce, principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). “Creating programs that would facilitate the secure storage of guns is a critical first step toward ensuring the safety of those struggling with thoughts of suicide, especially California veterans,” she said in a center news release. Researchers used data from the 2021 CHIS survey to better understand the issue. They found that 38% of vets in California lived in a home with a firearm, and about 36% of them stored at least one gun unlocked. About 14% reported that at least one gun was stored loaded and unlocked — about double the number among nonveterans. About 14% of California vets said they had seriously considered suicide at some point. In all, just over 18% of veterans who had had suicidal thoughts currently had at least one firearm that was stored loaded and unlocked. About 18% of vets with a firearm said they had needed professional help…  read on >  read on >

Older drivers using alcohol or drugs are much more likely to be at fault in a car crash. Researchers studying the issue say that calls for sober-driving campaigns aimed at seniors. “Our research shows just how much aging increases the risk of being at fault for injury or fatality in a drug- or alcohol-related traffic accident,” said lead author Dr. Satish Kedia. He’s a professor in the division of social and behavioral sciences at the University of Memphis School of Public Health in Tennessee. His team’s analysis of nine years of U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data revealed that substance use in older drivers increased the likelihood of being at fault in a crash by two to four times. The researchers looked at alcohol, marijuana, stimulants, narcotics, depressants and hallucinogens. Overall, older drivers are less likely to report using such substances, according to the study. But in a sample of more than 87,000 drivers involved in crashes between two moving vehicles, more than one-third were drivers over 70 who tested positive for substances, the investigators found. “In general, older drivers are at an elevated risk for being at fault in a fatal car crash, this is especially the case when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” Kedia said. In the more than 43,000 pairs involved in two moving-vehicle crashes, substance use…  read on >  read on >

Texting and driving can be deadly. Holding your phone in your hand to talk and surfing the internet while behind the wheel is dangerous, too. This is widely known, but a new survey finds that about half of all respondents still use an electronic device most or every time they drive. “I’d say it’s not as much surprising as it is frustrating,” said Adam Snider, a spokesman for the nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), which wasn’t involved in the study but issued a news release after it was released. “Distracted driving is something that is incredibly pervasive.” In the survey, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), more than 2,000 licensed drivers were asked how much they agreed with dozens of statements designed with the Health Belief Model in mind. That model is described as a behavioral change theory developed to understand why some people don’t adopt a certain health behavior. It’s usually applied to illness or disease prevention, according to the study. “I think the results from this study really help shed some light on the reasons why” people are still using their phones in their cars, said lead author Aimee Cox, a research associate with the IIHS. Cox said that appears to include “the need or the perceived need to respond to family or friends, the need for information, all…  read on >  read on >

Children’s screen use could be altering their developing brains as they enter adolescence and increasing their risk for mood disorders, a major new study finds. Children ages 9 and 10 who spend more time on smartphones, tablets, video games and TV exhibited higher levels of depression and anxiety by the time they were 11 and 12, researchers found. Further, the investigators linked some of these mood disorders to actual structural changes occurring in the kids’ developing brains, according to the report published online recently in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions. “There were specific brain mechanisms that in part contributed to this relationship, meaning from a statistical perspective there were brain-based changes occurring over the two-year period that mediated the relationship between screen media activity in the younger children and internalizing concerns relating to depression and anxiety two years later,” said senior researcher Dr. Marc Potenza. He is a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center, in New Haven, Conn. The proportion of mood disorders associated with structural changes in the brain is relatively small, “on the order of 2% to 3%,” Potenza noted. But child development experts hailed the study as an important step toward fully understanding how excessive screen time affects children. For the study, Potenza and his colleagues analyzed data on more than 5,100 children participating in the…  read on >  read on >

Curated images of perfect bodies — often highly filtered and unrealistic — are common on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. And a broad new review of 50 recent studies across 17 countries finds that relentless online exposure to largely unattainable physical ideals may be driving up the risk for eating disorders, particularly among young girls. This study, said co-author Komal Bhatia, is “significant because it tells us how social media can lead to body image concerns, through constant social comparison, internalization of thinness and self-objectification.” Girls and others with weight challenges and/or concerns about body image are among those most vulnerable to the “self-perpetuating cycle of risk” highlighted by the research review, she added. Bhatia, a research fellow in adolescent health at University College London, pointed out that even though roughly of half of the world’s population — about 4 billion people — has access to social media, social media platforms “are largely unregulated.” And many users are young; researchers noted that more than 90% of American and British teens regularly engage with such platforms. Fully half are believed to jump online at least once an hour. The studies covered in this review were conducted between 2016 and 2021. Most took place in wealthy countries, with the United States and Australia accounting for nearly half. Studies from Canada, Italy, Singapore, United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, Belgium,…  read on >  read on >