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While COVID-19’s toll on health and wellness has been obvious, the virus has also hit people in the wallet. A new study links surviving COVID to financial challenges later, especially for folks who were hospitalized with the virus. “More than half of Americans now report having had COVID-19, and more than 450,000 have been hospitalized, so the potential number experiencing serious financial issues linked to their experience with the virus is high,” said Dr. Nora Becker of the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, in Ann Arbor. Compared to people whose financial health was measured before the virus, those who had COVID-19 were more likely to have bills so overdue that they were sent to a collection agency. They were also more likely to have a low credit score. To learn more, researchers from University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore linked health care records and financial records of more than 132,000 people in Michigan. Patients’ identification was removed. About 42% of patients who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 had a low credit score six months later, the study found. That compared to 34% of a similar group who hadn’t yet required a hospital stay for COVID-19 but later needed one. The gap was smaller, but significant, between the two groups of non-hospitalized patients. About 27% of the patients who… read on > read on >

Travelers to the United States will now only need a single bivalent COVID vaccine from either Pfizer or Moderna to enter the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday. The loosening of vaccination requirements for foreign travelers comes as many other countries have already done so. “Because some traveler vaccine records might not specify whether recent Moderna or Pfizer doses received were bivalent, CDC will consider anybody with record of a single dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine issued on or after August 16, 2022, to meet the requirements,” because that was when bivalent vaccines first became available, the agency said in an update to its website. Earlier this month, the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the vaccine schedule so that unvaccinated Americans could be considered fully vaccinated with just get one dose of bivalent vaccine instead of the earlier versions, CBS News reported. Another federal agency, the U.S.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, announced that healthcare workers would be considered “fully vaccinated” with the one bivalent dose. Travel industry officials have said they expected the vaccination requirement to be allowed to expire altogether, CBS News reported. At this point, the Transportation Security Administration has renewed the requirement through May 11. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said there was no update on… read on > read on >

Getting bariatric surgery may help someone lose weight and reduce their risk for obesity-related cancers by more than half. New research to be presented at a conference of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) found that patients who had sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass or gastric band procedures developed less obesity-related cancer over a 10-year follow-up period. About 4% developed these cancers compared to 8.9% who didn’t have the surgeries, the study found. The findings will be presented at an AGA meeting in Chicago and online May 6-9. “The primary benefit people consider when they think about bariatric surgery is weight loss and the accompanying physical and psychological benefits, such as improved blood pressure and diabetes,” said lead author Dr. Vibhu Chittajallu, a gastroenterology fellow at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals in Cleveland. “This study adds to the building evidence that the significant weight loss associated with bariatric surgery may have a protective effect against cancer formation as well,” he said in a meeting news release. For their study, researchers compared more than 55,700 patients with obesity who had these surgeries with the same number of similar patients who did not have surgery. They adjusted for risk factors that play a role in cancer formation, including smoking history, alcohol use, heart disease, hormone therapies and other health issues. In all, more than 2,200 of the… read on > read on >

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 >

America’s teens are still not alright. Instead, many continue to engage in risky behaviors, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. Top among these is an increase in suicidal thoughts and suicide planning and attempts among teen girls, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, rates among teen boys stayed stable. Meanwhile, LGBQ+ students had particularly high increases in suicidal thoughts and behavior when compared with heterosexual students, and the same went for minorities when compared with white students, the researchers found. “The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental health issues amongst children and teenagers,” said Dr. Scott Krakower, an adolescent psychiatrist at Zucker Hillside Medical Center in Great Neck, N.Y., who was not involved in the report. “These issues continue to be problematic, with increasing disparities amongst minority groups.” Access to mental health care is key, the researchers noted. “A substantial number of students rely on school-based mental health care, especially youth in racial and ethnic minority groups from under-resourced families,” said Karin Mack, associate director for science in the CDC’s Division of Injury Prevention. “While lack of access to mental health services may have contributed to increased suicide risk, many other factors, including substance misuse, family or relationship problems, community violence, discrimination, among others, may have also contributed to the increased risk,” Mack added. But the pandemic definitely had… read on > read on >

Selfie shots might seem shallow but they’re actually serving a deeper psychological purpose, a new study suggests. So-called “third-person” photos — shots taken to include the photographer, such as selfies or group shots — are better at depicting the deeper meaning of an event in a person’s life, by showing them actively participating in that moment, according to researchers. On the other hand, “first-person” photos — the photographer’s eye view of a scene — best represent the physical experience of an event, the authors explained. These results counter the view that people post selfies on sites like Instagram just to promote themselves, said study co-author Lisa Libby, professor of psychology at Ohio State University. “These photos with you in it can document the bigger meaning of a moment,” Libby said in a university news release. “It doesn’t have to be vanity.” Previous studies have suggested that two important motivations for taking photos could be to either capture the physical experience of an event or portray the event’s broader meaning. Researchers provided two examples involving a trip to the beach. A photo of the ocean would capture the physical experience of a beautiful day, but a selfie with a friend would capture time spent with a loved one. The researchers teased out these differences in a series of six studies involving just over 2,100 participants. In… read on > read on >

Fewer U.S. adults are smoking cigarettes, as rates dropped again last year, according to federal health officials. In all, 1 in 9 American adults smoked cigarettes last year, an all-time low, and a significant change from the 1960s when 42% smoked. The results weren’t all positive, the Associated Press reported, as vaping rose to about 1 in 17 adults. For 2022, use of electronic cigarettes was about 6% compared to 4.5% the year before. These preliminary findings are from a survey of more than 27,000 adults by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings are sometimes revised after further analysis. “I think that smoking will continue to ebb downwards, but whether the prevalence of nicotine addiction will drop, given the rise of electronic products, is not clear,” Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, told the AP. For nearly 40 years, Samet has been a contributing author to the U.S. Surgeon General’s reports on smoking and health. The preliminary findings for 2022 pegged the percentage of adult smokers in the United States at 11%, down from about 12.5% the year before, the AP reported. While more adults smoke cigarettes than vape, the opposite is true for minors. About 14% of high schoolers used e-cigarettes last year, compared to about 2% who smoked traditional cigarettes, according to… read on > read on >

As more Americans try to get their hands on the prescription medication Wegovy while they try to shed significant amounts of weight, an even more powerful obesity drug is poised to enter the fray. On Thursday, drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. announced that its type 2 diabetes drug tirzepatide (Mounjaro) helped people with diabetes who were overweight or obese lose nearly 16% of their body weight, or more than 34 pounds, over 17 months. This late-stage study of the drug adds to earlier evidence published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed overweight or obese people without diabetes lost up to 22% of their body weight over that period with weekly injections of the drug. For a typical patient on the highest dose, that meant shedding more than 50 pounds. Results from both studies will now be part of the company’s application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fast-track approval of the drug for weight loss. “We have not hit 15% in any other phase 3 trial for weight management in this type 2 diabetes population,” Dr. Nadia Ahmad, an associate vice president at Eli Lilly and medical director of obesity clinical development for the company, told CNN. Importantly, this data has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. “In the last year, [it] has… read on > read on >

Exercise might help people who are battling addiction stay on the straight and narrow, a new research review finds. Investigators who analyzed 43 studies from around the world found a link between physical activity and reduced substance use among people in treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. The idea for the study review “came to me when I was working as a kinesiologist in a therapy house for people with substance use disorders, and realized that physical health was not considered at all in these treatments, although the need was enormous,” explained study lead author Florence Piché. She is a doctoral candidate in sciences and physical activity at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières and the University of Montreal, in Canada. “We can assume that the mechanisms are multiple and multifactorial,” Piché said of the findings. The amount of exercise involved wasn’t overwhelming. Most of the studies focused on the potential benefit of “moderately intense” activity, conducted for about an hour three times a week over the course of approximately three months. Would more exercise confer greater benefits? Piché noted that none of the studies assessed that. Collectively, the studies included just over 3,100 participants. They looked at the relationship between exercise and the risk of using heroin, opioids, cocaine and crack cocaine, methadone, marijuana, alcohol or methamphetamines. None involved cigarette smoking. Half of the… read on > read on >