Suicide rates are on the rise among American children, but the increase is greatest among girls, a new study finds. “Overall, we found a disproportionate increase in female youth suicide rates compared to males, resulting in a narrowing of the gap between male and female suicide rates,” said study author Donna Ruch. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among Americans aged 10 to 19, with rates historically higher in boys than girls. However, recent reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a greater increase in suicide rates among girls than boys. In this study, the researchers examined data on youth suicides from 1975 through 2016. The findings showed that youth suicide rates for both sexes fell in the early 1990s. But they have increased for both sexes since 2007, with larger increases among girls than boys, particularly among girls aged 10 to 14. Rates of female suicides by hanging or suffocation are approaching those of males, which is troubling considering the “gender paradox” in suicidal behavior, according to study co-author Jeff Bridge, director of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research. Females have higher rates of nonfatal suicidal behavior, such as thinking about and attempting suicide, but more males die by…  read on >

Coupons, samples, branded hats and T-shirts: When teens use or wear promotional items from companies that make alternative tobacco products like electronic cigarettes, they are more likely to try those products, new research shows. The study included 757 California teens, aged 13 to 19, who were followed for a year. At the beginning of the year, none of them had ever used alternative tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, pipes and hookahs. However, 81 owned items that promoted tobacco products, including 52 who owned promotional items for e-cigarettes. During the next year, 129 participants (17%) started using alternative tobacco products but not traditional cigarettes, and 12 began using traditional cigarettes alone or in combination with alternative tobacco products, the findings showed. Before adjusting for other factors, the researchers found that teens who owned promotional items were 2.3 times more likely to try alternative tobacco products than those who did not. After adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, maternal education level and baseline alcohol and cigarette use, teens who owned promotional materials were 2.1 times more likely to begin using alternative tobacco products. Among teens who tried both alternative tobacco products and cigarettes, the influence of owning promotional materials was not statistically significant, the researchers said. The findings were published online May 17 in JAMA Network Open. “The increase in use of alternative tobacco…  read on >

The rise in colon cases among younger adults that’s been seen in the United States is also occurring in wealthier nations worldwide, new research shows. In the decade leading up to 2014, the number of cases of colon cancer among people under 50 increased by 3% a year in Denmark, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, and by 1% per year in Britain. The increase was most pronounced among those aged 20 to 29, noted a team led by Dr. Marzieh Araghi, from International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. Among twenty-somethings, colon cancer cases rose by 18% a year in Denmark and 11% in Norway, according to the study published May 16 in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hematology. “Although the incidence of colorectal cancer in adults younger than 50 years remains much lower compared with that in older age groups, our findings are of concern and highlight the need for action to counteract the rising burden of the disease in younger people,” Araghi said in a journal news release. The increase in cases among the young runs counter to declines in colon cancer among people over 50, the researchers pointed out. For example, between 2004 and 2014 cases of colon cancer fell each year among people over 50 — by 2% in Australia and Canada, 3% in New Zealand, and 1% annually in…  read on >

Here’s another health danger climate change will deliver in the coming years: New research warns that back-to-back heat waves that go on for days will become more common as the planet warms. The elderly and the poor will be the least prepared to weather this threat, the investigators noted. But hospital ERs and emergency service providers will also be vulnerable to the public health havoc that such “compound heat waves” will likely inflict. “By compound heat wave, we mean multiple heat waves — or possibly individual extremely hot days — occurring one after the other separated by short cooler breaks,” explained study author Jane Wilson Baldwin. She’s a postdoctoral research associate with the Princeton Environmental Institute in New Jersey. An example, Baldwin said, would be five extremely hot days, followed by a respite of a couple of cooler days, and then three more extremely hot days. Such repetitive scorchers are not confined to some distant future, the study found. They are already here, with heat waves and droughts currently pegged as the direct cause of roughly 20% of natural disaster deaths in the continental United States, more than any other single natural cause. “However, these events will become significantly more common with global warming,” noted Baldwin. “In the present climate, only about 10% of heat waves exhibit these compound structures. Without drastic changes to carbon…  read on >

Transgender women on gender-confirming hormone therapy have increased odds of breast cancer, but the overall risk is low and not as high as it is for the general female population, a new study finds. Trans women are those who were declared male at birth but identify as female. Previous research has shown that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increases breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, but it was unclear whether the same was true for trans women receiving hormone treatment. The new study looked at 2,260 trans women and 1,229 trans men who received gender-affirming hormone therapy at a clinic in the Netherlands between 1972 and 2016. The researchers found that trans women on hormone therapy had a higher breast cancer risk than the general male population. And transgender men (female sex assigned at birth, male gender identity) were found to have a lower breast cancer risk than the general female population. Average age at the start of hormone treatment was 31 for trans women and 23 for trans men, and average treatment time was 13 years for trans women and eight years for trans men, according to the report. Among the trans women, 15 cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed at an average age of 50. On average, those patients had received hormone treatment for 18 years. That rate was higher than that in…  read on >

If you’re part of a multi-generational home, you’re in good company. The number of Americans living with two or more adult generations of one family rose during the last recession and has grown to an all-time high during the recovery. More than 64 million Americans live in a multi-generational home, according to a census analysis by the Pew Research Center. About half of such households include two generations, while almost 27 million more have three — such as grandparents, parents and grandchildren. That’s a lot of opinions to have under one roof. Here are suggestions to help make such living arrangements emotionally healthy and even rewarding for everyone. First, establish ground rules for all aspects of communal life, from how to handle disagreements to who puts out the trash. Write up and post a list of responsibilities that takes into account each family member’s strengths and abilities. Next, create a spreadsheet for family expenses such as monthly bills and weekly food shopping, and what every person’s contributions are. This should include everything from gas for the car to internet and wireless services if everyone is on a shared family plan (great for saving money). Depending on each person’s financial circumstances, the amounts might not always be divided equally, but there will be fewer money arguments if there’s a family-wide consensus about what’s fair. For harmony,…  read on >