Having a clear purpose in life could reduce your risk for premature death. That’s the conclusion of researchers who spent eight years tracking about 13,000 Americans over age 50. Those who considered their life particularly purposeful were found to have about a 15% risk of death from any cause during the tracking period, the new study found. That figure jumped to almost 37% among participants with the lowest level of purpose. “[Having] a purpose in life is defined as the extent to which people perceive their lives as having a sense of direction and goals,” said lead author Koichiro Shiba, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. And a greater sense of purpose was linked to a lower risk of premature death risk among people of all races and ethnicities, he noted. The link was also seen in both men and women, though the protective benefit was somewhat weaker among men, the researchers found. For the study, participants were asked between 2006 and 2008 to indicate how purposeful they considered their lives to be, based on a standard questionnaire. They were then classified as having a “low,” “medium-low,” “medium-high” or “high” sense of purpose. Deaths were tracked for the next eight years. As purpose levels rose, the risk of death during that period fell, be it from stroke, cancer, diabetes,…  read on >  read on >

Anyone who’s ever loved a pet like a member of the family knows that the grief when that dog, cat or other furry friend dies can be devastating. But too often, finding others who truly understand and support that sense of loss can be challenging. Michelle Crossley, a mental health counselor, and Colleen Rolland, a pet loss grief specialist, have each experienced deep bereavement after losing a much-loved pet. They also see value in helping others whose animal friend has died. Together, they’ve written a paper on the issue, published Nov. 25 in Human-Animal Interactions. Rolland is a pet loss grief specialist for the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement (APLB) and has a small private practice in Ontario, Canada. She said her own loss of a beloved Golden Retriever left her “in a puddle on the floor.” It also motivated her to help others through their grief, which is how she came to be the president of APLB about three years ago. “I would love for the human-animal bond and the love that people feel for their animals to become more accepted by society as a whole,” Rolland said about her hopes for this paper. “For that segment of the population that just don’t ‘get it,’ I would love for them to nod their head and go, ‘OK. It is a big deal for…  read on >  read on >

Your chances of surviving cancer could depend on the type of Medicare plan you have, a new study reports. Americans enrolled in a privatized, cost-saving Medicare Advantage plan are more likely to die within a month of undergoing complex cancer surgery, compared to those in traditional Medicare, the researchers found. Those covered by Medicare Advantage were 1.5 times more likely to die within a month after having their stomach or liver removed, and twice as likely if they had cancer surgery of the pancreas, according to findings published Nov. 21 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Nearly half of all Medicare beneficiaries — about 29 million Americans — are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, the study authors noted. People covered by traditional Medicare can go to any U.S. hospital that accepts the public insurance, while Medicare Advantage enrollees can only see doctors and providers in their plan’s network and service area. As a result, the investigators found that people with traditional Medicare are more likely to be treated by a hospital more experienced in dealing with cancer, including: A teaching hospital (23% versus 8%) A hospital accredited by the Commission on Cancer (57% versus 33%) A National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center (15% versus 3%) “Research has repeatedly linked improved surgical outcomes to cancer patients who receive care at a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, such…  read on >  read on >

Taking care of a loved one can either be a break from loneliness or help to bring loneliness on, depending on your circumstances, new research shows. Researchers broadly studied the issue, using data from 28 studies with more than 190,000 participants in 21 countries. They found certain types of caregiving — such as volunteering and caring for grandchildren — offered protection against loneliness in people over age 50. However, for those caring for a spouse with complex health conditions, particularly dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, caregiving was often a big risk factor for loneliness. “Loneliness can leave people feeling isolated and disconnected from others — and can have a wide range of negative effects on their physical and mental health,” said lead author Samia Akhter Khan, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, in the United Kingdom. “There is a pressing need to identify people who may be more vulnerable to feeling lonely — and to develop targeted solutions to prevent and reduce loneliness in these population groups,” she said. Six out of seven studies conducted in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and China linked caring for grandkids or other children with lower loneliness. Caring for a spouse was consistently associated with higher loneliness. And volunteering was linked with lower levels of loneliness in…  read on >  read on >

When COVID-19 restrictions lifted in the United Kingdom, the risk for severe asthma attacks doubled. While having COVID isn’t more likely to cause asthma attacks than other respiratory infections, it may have been that safety measures, such as wearing masks and reduced socializing, kept these attacks at bay, the authors of a new study suggested. “Our study was observational, so it can’t prove cause-and-effect. But our findings do raise the possibility that certain elements of the public health measures introduced during the pandemic — such as wearing face masks — could help in reducing respiratory illnesses moving forward,” study lead author Adrian Martineau said in a news release from Queen Mary University of London. He is a clinical professor of respiratory infection and immunity at the university. The researchers studied the data from more than 2,300 adults with asthma who participated in the university’s COVIDENCE UK study between November 2020 and April 2022. The participants answered a monthly online questionnaire that asked about face covering use, social mixing and asthma symptoms. COVID restrictions were imposed in the spring of 2020. In April 2021, social mixing restrictions and the need for face coverings started relaxing in the U.K. When restrictions were lifted, fewer people wore face coverings. They were more likely to mix socially. The study found that people subsequently had a higher risk of COVID…  read on >  read on >

Transgender youth are more likely than others to experience sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea, and researchers now recommend these young people be screened for sleep problems. “Transgender and gender-nonconforming identity may precede mental health disorders, and both influence insomnia diagnosis,” said study co-author Galit Levi Dunietz, an epidemiologist in the University of Michigan neurology department’s division of sleep medicine. For the study, the researchers analyzed claims data from more than 1.2 million people aged 12 to 25. Among them were just over 2,600 young people who identified as transgender or gender-nonconforming. The investigators found that transgender youth were 5.4 times more likely than cisgender youth to have insomnia. They were also three times more likely to have sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. (Cisgender means they identify with the gender assigned at birth). The results show a concerning number of individuals with disorders that harm sleep quality, said co-author Dr. Ronald Gavidia, a sleep medicine physician at the university. Other research has suggested that transgender youth and adults also have a high prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms. These are known to affect sleep quality and health, and they may be contributing to insomnia in this group, the study authors noted. “Given this higher prevalence of sleep disorders in relation to cisgender youth, clinicians should consider screening and testing this population for…  read on >  read on >