When the pandemic began, spending on mental health services skyrocketed and it continues to rise even as use of telehealth services leveled off. That’s the key takeaway from a new study published Aug. 25 in JAMA Health Forum. Some rules for expanded payment for telehealth services have now expired, so it’s not known whether this level of spending will continue, according to researchers at the RAND Corporation and Castlight Health. “If greater utilization of health services drives higher health care spending, insurers may begin pushing back on the new status quo,” said lead author Jonathan Cantor, a policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “Insurers may look for ways to curb costs and that could mean less flexibility about using telehealth for mental health services,” he said in a RAND news release. Cantor and his colleagues found that spending on mental health services rose 53.7% between March 2020 and August 2022 in a large group of people with employer-provided insurance. Use of mental health services increased by nearly 39%, according to the research, which used claims data from about 7 million commercially insured adults. The analysis included anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and PTSD. The claims information was from Castlight Health, a health benefit manager for employer-sponsored health insurance plans for about 200 employers nationwide. From March 2020 to December 2020,…  read on >  read on >

Paper straws, meant to be an eco-friendly alternative to plastic, may not be better for the environment, a new study concludes, warning that they also contain “forever chemicals” that can harm human health. “Straws made from plant-based materials, such as paper and bamboo, are often advertised as being more sustainable and eco-friendly than those made from plastic,” said researcher Thimo Groffen, an environmental scientist at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. “However, the presence of PFAS in these straws means that’s not necessarily true.” For this study, published Aug. 24 in the journal Food Additives and Contaminants, Groffen and colleagues tested 39 straw brands in a variety of materials for poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Straws were paper, bamboo, glass, stainless steel and plastic. Each straw went through two rounds of testing for PFAS. PFAS were found in 69% of the straws. Testing detected 18 different PFAS. These chemicals were found in 90% of paper straws; about 80% of bamboo straws; 75% of plastic straws, and 40% of glass straw brands. PFAS were not detected in any of the five types of steel straws tested. The most commonly found PFAS was perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which has been banned worldwide since 2020. Testing also detected trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFMS). These “ultra-short-chain” PFAS are highly water soluble and so might leach out of straws…  read on >  read on >

Smoke from Canadian wildfires sent high numbers of people suffering from asthma attacks to America’s emergency rooms this spring and summer, according to two new reports. From April 30 to August 4, 2023, smoke from out-of-control wildfires in Canada increased emergency room visits for asthma by 17% over average, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. East Coast states, from New York down to Virginia, were especially affected, as were a swath of Midwest states including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. “These results highlight the need to reduce smoke exposure during wildfires and can help guide emergency response planning,” said CDC epidemiologist Cristin McArdle, who led the study. A second report focused on asthma-linked ER visits in New York state during the first two weeks of June when Canadian wildfire smoke blanketed the state. On the worst day, June 7, levels of tiny airborne particles called PM2.5 rose to levels that were six times higher than average for western New York and 13-fold higher for people living in New York City. That study was led by CDC epidemiologist Haillie Meek. PM2.5 are products of combustion and are a hazard for people with asthma and other respiratory and cardiovascular health conditions (including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]), because they can lodge deep in the respiratory tract and even enter…  read on >  read on >

The American middle-class squeeze has grown even worse in recent years, with many in the “forgotten middle” facing financial pressure and poor health as they near retirement age, a new study reports. Essentially, the U.S. middle class has split in two, and those relegated to the lower-middle are facing tough times in retirement, said lead researcher Jack Chapel. He is a doctoral candidate in economics at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “We see that the middle class is hollowing out a little bit and separating out into this lower-middle and upper-middle,” Chapel said. “People in this lower-middle group compared to people in the upper-middle group are going to be living longer lives, but living a longer proportion of their life with worse health.” For the study, researchers fed federal survey data into a computer simulation to estimate future life expectancy and disability for people in their 50s at different times between 1994 and 2018. Quality-adjusted life expectancy — living not just longer, but healthier — increased by 5% for people in the upper-middle economic status group, the results showed. However, their lower-middle peers didn’t experience a similar increase. Instead, their quality-adjusted life expectancy has stagnated, the researchers found. They will live longer, but also will suffer more in their old age. For example, an average 60-year-old woman in…  read on >  read on >

With 2023 predicted to be the hottest year on record, a new study is pointing to another potential consequence of heat waves: faster declines in older adults’ memory and thinking skills. The study, of nearly 9,500 older U.S. adults, found that those with greater exposure to heat waves over 12 years also showed a steeper decline in cognitive function — critical mental skills like memory, reasoning and judgment. The connection was specifically seen among older Black Americans and those living in poorer neighborhoods — groups who typically have fewer resources to protect themselves from scorching summer heat. Experts stressed that the findings show only an association between heat and cognitive decline, and cannot pin the blame on temperature extremes. Cognitive decline is complex and influenced by many factors, said lead researcher Eunyoung Choi, a postdoctoral associate at NYU School of Global Public Health in New York City. “Isolating the specific effect of extreme heat from this complex web is a challenging task,” she said. At the same time, there are reasons that repeated exposure to heat waves could affect older adults’ mental acuity, according to Choi. For one, there could be direct effects: Extreme heat can dull mental performance in the short term, and continued exposure over time might promote inflammation and damage brain cells. Sizzling temperatures could also act in indirect ways, Choi said.…  read on >  read on >

Living through days of smoky air from Canadian wildfires in June was unpleasant for New York City residents, but new data shows it wasn’t as immediately concerning for their lungs as feared. The research finds breathing-related hospital visits weren’t much worse in the city on these days than when pollen is especially high, though longer-term impacts aren’t so clear. “Thankfully, the respiratory effects of the wildfire smoke in June were not much worse than what had been seen on really bad pollen days back in the spring, and despite what many New Yorkers may have feared on seeing hazy, orange air,” study co-author Wuyue Yu said in an NYU news release. Yu is a doctoral student at NYU Langone Health in New York City. The researchers, from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, looked at the first six months of 2023, analyzing daily levels of PM2.5, tiny particles that can be breathed deep into the lungs. When wildfire smoke was at a peak in June, asthma-related visits to the ER rose 3% on average for every 10 microgram increase in PM 2.5 per cubic meter of air. On the smokiest day, 335 people visited emergency departments for their asthma — significantly more than the daily average of 188 earlier in the year. This peak wildfire number was only slightly higher than the 302 visits recorded on…  read on >  read on >

Young people have high levels of distress about climate change, and a new study argues that their anguish could be key to fighting it. “People of all ages are being affected by the climate crisis. Young people in particular, though, will live through more of the unfolding hazards of the climate crisis than older generations,” said researcher Emma Lawrance, mental health innovations fellow at Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation. “Children born today will experience seven times the number of heat waves of their grandparents, for instance,” she noted. “At the same time, they are not yet in traditional positions of power to make the changes they know are urgently needed to safeguard their future.” For the research, Lawrance and her colleagues surveyed 539 people in the United Kingdom between 16 and 24 years of age. In all, 64.3% had moderate or high levels of climate distress. Those with diagnosed mental health conditions were significantly more likely to be among this group. Those who were more well-to-do had significantly higher odds for experiencing moderate as opposed to low climate distress. And guys were less likely to have high levels of climate distress. A child psychiatrist in New York hears the alarm coming from young people all the time. “If you speak to many young people today they will often say, ‘I’m worried about…  read on >  read on >

An international research team has achieved the first complete sequencing of the human Y chromosome, which is closely linked to male development. This is the last of the human chromosomes to be fully sequenced, an effort that may shed light on everything from fertility to disease. The work was led by the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium, which is a team of researchers funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in Bethesda, Md., part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The new sequence fills in gaps across more than 50% of the Y chromosome’s length. The research, published Aug. 23 in Nature, uncovered important genomic features, including factors in sperm production. While both the X and Y chromosomes have a central role in sexual development, the factors involved are spread across the genome and very complex, according to the study. Other recent work has shown that genes on the Y chromosome contribute to other aspects of human biology, including cancer risk. Researchers completed the first human genome sequence 20 years ago, but there were gaps in the sequences of all 24 chromosomes. While some had just small gaps, more than half of the Y chromosome’s sequence was unknown. The Y chromosome is unusually repetitive, which made its sequence particularly difficult to complete. Study authors explained the challenge with an example of reading a book.…  read on >  read on >

Millions of Americans who experience major depression will suffer a relapse, but a new study suggests that learning to focus on the positive, rather than the negatives in everyday life, might help reduce those odds. “What we started to realize is it’s not just about how people with depression process negative information but there’s something interesting about how they process positive information that might really be important in sustaining their negative mood or depressed mood,” said study co-author Lira Yoon, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Thinking “it might be important to examine both at the same time,” Yoon’s team analyzed 44 past studies to better understand how much time those with a history of major depression spend processing negative and positive information. The meta-analysis included more than 2,000 people who had a history of major depressive disorder and more than 2,200 without it. The studies looked at participants’ responses to negative, positive and neutral information, such as photos of people or words that were happy, sad or neither. The mentally healthy participants tended to respond faster to emotional and non-emotional information, regardless of whether it was positive, negative or neutral. They also had a significant difference in how much time they spent processing positive versus negative information. Those who had major depressive disorder spent more time on the…  read on >  read on >