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Taking daily low-dose aspirin increases the risk of anemia in the elderly, a new clinical trial suggests. Not only does it raise anemia risk by more than 20% in people 70 or older, it is also associated with a decline in blood iron levels, researchers report. “This finding about anemia and aspirin is noteworthy because, in many older people, anemia has other consequences such as fatigue and general decline in function,” said lead researcher Dr. Zoe McQuilten, an associate professor of hematology with Monash University in Australia. About half of seniors in the United States take aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes, the researchers noted. However, major groups that once strongly recommended low-dose aspirin — such as the American Heart Association and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — have tightened their guidelines after newer studies found the therapy increases the risk of dangerous bleeding. “We knew from large clinical trials that daily low-dose aspirin increased the risk of clinically significant bleeding [bleeding that requires a blood transfusion or other treatment for the bleeding],” McQuilten said. But it wasn’t clear whether aspirin also contributed to full-fledged anemia, or a lack of healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the body’s organs, the researchers added. Symptoms of anemia include fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, headache, chest pain and pale or yellow skin,… read on > read on >

Cutting back social media to a spare 30 minutes per day could be the key to reducing anxiety, depression, loneliness and feelings of fear of missing out, researchers say. That was true for college students in a new study who self-limited social media — often successfully and sometimes squeezing in just a bit more time — for two weeks. “I think on the one hand, the results are kind of counterintuitive, right? If you talk to many people, they would tell you that social media is how they manage their stress, how they keep themselves entertained, how they stay connected with other people. So, I think the typical perception is that people use social media to cope,” said lead author Ella Faulhaber, a doctoral student in human-computer interaction at Iowa State University. Faulhaber said researchers gained interesting insights when they asked participants about their experience. “Lots of them said, ‘I had trouble at first but then I realized how much I better slept, how I actually connected more with people in real life, how I found myself keeping busy with other things,’” Faulhaber said. The study dovetailed with recent health advisories from the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association, which warned that young people’s mental health has suffered as their use of social media has surged. Faulhaber’s team worked with 230 college students,… read on > read on >

Physicians and scientists are experiencing alarming levels of harassment on social media, according to a new survey. About two-thirds of respondents said they had been harassed on social media since the COVID-19 pandemic began — up from 23.3% of physicians surveyed in 2020. About 64% reported harassment related to comments made about the pandemic, while 64% of those harassed said the pandemic had affected their use of social media platforms. “This study highlights that physicians and scientists changed the way they used social media during the pandemic,” said first author Dr. Regina Royan, a research fellow at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an emergency medicine physician. “Sadly, those that use social media to share public health messages are more likely to face harassment,” she said in a university news release. “These are the people that we can’t afford to lose in this conversation, especially at a time when trusted messengers for public health information are essential.” For the study, researchers surveyed 359 U.S. physicians, scientists and trainees. Their comments revealed that advocacy around topics such as vaccination, masks, firearms, reproductive rights and gender-affirming care appeared to fuel the harassment. Respondents also shared personal experiences of online attacks. “When I posted a picture of myself with my badge in my white coat after my COVID-19 vaccination, I received hundreds of harassing anti-vax messages, including… read on > read on >

A new study finds that people working with artificial intelligence (AI) systems can be lonely, suffer from insomnia and drink more heavily after work. In the study, published online June 12 in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the researchers noted these findings don’t prove that working with AI systems causes loneliness or other responses, just that they are associated. The research involved four experiments in the United States, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia. “The rapid advancement in AI systems is sparking a new industrial revolution that is reshaping the workplace with many benefits but also some uncharted dangers, including potentially damaging mental and physical impacts for employees,” said lead researcher Pok Man Tang, an assistant professor of management at the University of Georgia. “Humans are social animals, and isolating work with AI systems may have damaging spillover effects into employees’ personal lives,” he said in a journal news release. Working with AI systems can have some benefits, the researchers found. For example, employees who use AI systems are more likely to be helpful to fellow workers, but that may be triggered by loneliness and the need for social contact, Tang’s team said. The researchers also found that those with high levels of attachment anxiety, which is feeling insecure and worried about social connections, reported working with AI systems made them more likely to help others. They… read on > read on >

New York University doctors and hospital executives are using an artificial intelligence (AI) computer program to predict whether a newly discharged patient will soon fall sick enough to be readmitted. The AI program “NYUTron” reads physicians’ notes to estimate a patient’s risk of dying, the potential length of their hospital stay, and other factors important to their care. Testing showed that NYUTron could predict four out of five patients who would require readmission to the hospital, according to a report published online June 7 in the journal Nature. NYUTron is what its developers call a “large language model,” which can read and understand the creative and individualized notes frequently taken by doctors. It’s an improvement over earlier health care computer algorithms that required data to be specially formatted and laid out in neat tables, the researchers said. “Our findings highlight the potential for using large language models to guide physicians about patient care,” said lead researcher Lavender Jiang, a doctoral student at NYU’s Center for Data Science. “Programs like NYUTron can alert health care providers in real time about factors that might lead to readmission and other concerns so they can be swiftly addressed or even averted,” Jiang said in a school news release. Jiang and her colleagues trained NYUTron to scan unaltered text from electronic health records and, from what it learns, to make… read on > read on >

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like ChatGPT someday may make a big difference for people seeking answers to questions such as “How can I stop smoking?” They may even offer resources to someone who was sexually assaulted. But they’re not quite there yet, a new study reveals. Researchers wanted to see how well ChatGPT performed for people seeking information and resources for mental and physical health services. They found that while ChatGPT provided evidence-based responses to 91% of all questions, it only offered referrals to specific resources in 22% of its responses. These referrals are key to ensuring those seeking information get the help they need, the study authors explained. “One of the dominant health issues of the decade is equipping the public with accurate and actionable health information,” said John Ayers, who is with the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego. “With Dr. ChatGPT replacing Dr. Google, refining AI assistants to accommodate help-seeking for public health crises could become a core and immensely successful mission for how AI companies positively impact public health in the future,” Ayers said in an institute news release. For the study, the researchers asked ChatGPT 23 public health questions in four categories: addiction; interpersonal violence; mental health; and physical health. Questions included “I want to commit suicide. Can you help me?” The team then assessed the responses… read on > read on >

Summer vacation has begun for some families and screen use may already feel like too much. A psychiatrist from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston offers some tips for making sure smartphones and tablets are put to good use and not used to excess. Dr. Laurel Williams, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said no arbitrary number of hours spent online indicates addiction. She suggests parents should focus on their child’s behavior toward their phone. If something seems different or problematic, that might be a warning sign of too much screen time. “It could be that your child is not talking to anyone at home, talking less, always spending time in their room or getting anxious or unhappy about whatever they see or do online,” Williams said in a college news release. Kids tend to get less physical activity when they overuse devices, whether watching TV, playing video games or scrolling through social media. They need to be active, and they also need to pursue some enrichment to make sure they are ready for their studies in the fall. Poorer children who can’t afford to participate in summer enrichment programs often lose knowledge during the break and take longer to catch up at the start of the school year, Williams noted. Some may not have many options other than turning to… read on > read on >

Teens need their sleep, and a new study sheds light on one way to help them get it: Keep cellphones and screens out of the bedroom. “Getting enough sleep is crucial for teenagers because it helps their body and mind grow and develop properly,” said lead author Dr. Jason Nagata, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. “Our research found that keeping screens outside of the bedroom, turning off device notifications, and avoiding social media use in bed is associated with better sleep among adolescents. If you wake up during the night, don’t check your phone or social media,” Nagata said in a University of Toronto news release. The American Psychological Association and the U.S. Surgeon General have issued advisories on social media and youth mental health in recent weeks, noting links between social media and poor sleep quality. For this study, the researchers analyzed data collected between 2018 and 2020 from more than 10,000 kids (aged 10 to 14) who are part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Kids and parents answered questions about sleep habits. Youth also provided information about their screen and social media use at bedtime. About 16% of the children reported at least several days of trouble falling or staying asleep in the previous two weeks. About 17% reported being woken up by phone… read on > read on >

Older Americans are increasingly likely to log into “patient portals” to access their health care information — but confidence levels vary. About 78% of people aged 50 to 80 now use at least one patient portal, according to the new University of Michigan (U-M) National Poll on Healthy Aging. Five years ago, just 51% in this age range used patient portals, the researchers said. The poll also found that 55% of those who used patient portals had done so in the past month. About 49% had accounts on more than one portal. This surge is partly due to the increase in use of telehealth visits, said Denise Anthony, the U-M School of Public Health professor who worked on the poll. “This change makes access to secure portals even more important for older adults who want to see their doctors and other health care providers virtually. It also makes the disparities we found in our poll even more troubling,” Anthony said in a Michigan Medicine news release. Older adults with annual household incomes below $60,000, and those who were Black or Hispanic, had lower rates of portal use. These groups were also less likely to say they’re comfortable using a portal. People in fair or poor health physically or mentally were also much more likely to say they’re not confident about their ability to log in… read on > read on >

Social media presents a “profound risk” to young brains, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned on Tuesday. In a report, Murthy warned about the risks of social media use for young people and called on policymakers, tech companies, researchers and parents to “urgently take action.” “There are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents,” Murthy said. The full effect of social media isn’t well understood, he noted. “Adolescents are not just smaller adults,” Murthy told The New York Times. “They’re in a different phase of development, and they’re in a critical phase of brain development.” Among the concerns are that if kids are using social media frequently they may actually be altering their developing brains, specifically in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. These are important for emotional learning, emotional regulation, impulse control and social behavior. This “could increase sensitivity to social rewards and punishments,” the report stated. Reaction to the report was enthusiastic. “Today’s children and teens do not know a world without digital technology, but the digital world wasn’t built with children’s healthy mental development in mind. We need an approach to help children both on and offline that meets each child where they are while also working to make the digital spaces they inhabit safer… read on > read on >