HealthDay (5/14, Thompson) reports, “Children in the United States are exposed to a high rate of violence in their everyday lives,” according to the results of a survey published online May 13 in JAMA Pediatrics. “The survey found that children wander through a world of violence that runs the gamut from school bullying and playground assault to sexual abuse and domestic violence.”

MedPage Today (5/14, Walsh) reports, “Although rates of violence against children declined 2.2 percentage points between 2008 and 2011, children continue to be frequently subjected to various types of assault and abuse.” For example, “two of every five children (41.2%) surveyed reported a physical assault during the preceding year, according to David Finkelhor, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, and colleagues.” What’s more, “one in ten was actually injured by the attack,” the survey found.

Related Links:

— “Many U.S. Kids Victims of Violence, Abuse: Survey, “Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, May 13, 2013.

The Wall Street Journal (5/14, D1, Reddy, Subscription Publication) discusses cognitive-training games that are designed to improve brain functionality and are the focus of a expanding research examining their ability to thwart cognitive declines that often accompany age. The Journal notes that a government-funded study published this month found that playing the game Double Decision can delay as well as reverse declines in brain function that come with aging, adding to an earlier trial which found that older people who played different cognitive games had better health-related outcomes, driving records, and improved performance of daily tasks such as meal preparation. Such research has prompted groups like AARP to offer discounts for various games that have demonstrated observable benefits.

Related Links:

— “When Computer Games May Keep the Brain Nimble, “Sumathi Reddy, The Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2013.

HealthDay (5/14, Doheny) reports, “Cancer patients who participate in the creative arts – such as music therapy, dance, art therapy and writing – may be helping to reduce the anxiety, depression and pain that can be associated with their diagnosis, according to” research published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The researchers came to this conclusion after looking at data from 27 studies which included approximately 1,500 participants. HealthDay adds, “Taking part in these creative arts ‘is an opportunity for these patients to complement the healing process above and beyond the physical,’ said Timothy Puetz, presidential management fellow at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Office of the Director.”

Related Links:

— “Creative Arts May Help Cancer Patients Cope, “Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay, May 13, 2013.

MedPage Today (5/14, Bankhead) reports, “Parent- and teacher-reported rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD] do not appear to overestimate the true prevalence of the condition, according to a” research letterpublished online May 13 in JAMA Pediatrics. “The AD/HD prevalence in California was found to be about 6% among children 4 to 17, and 4.7% among insured children ages 5 to 11, using teacher and parent reports, Susanna N. Visser, MS, of the CDC, and co-authors found.” These results “were in line with a recent California study using a large administrative claims database, which found a rate of 4.9% among insured children ages 5 to 11 (JAMA Pediatr 2013; 1o67: 282-288).”

Related Links:

— “Adult-Observed ADHD Reflects True Rate in Kids, “Charles Bankhead, MedPage Today, May 13, 2013.

CQ (5/14, Scully, Subscription Publication) reports that each year, Congress approves “an unknown sum of money” on efforts to reduce the military’s suicide rate, which has doubled over the past decade. However, this means Congress is funding over 900 programs, and now officials are trying to discover which programs are working and which aren’t. Despite efforts to reduce suicides, the “rate has grown from 10.3 to 18.3 out of every 100,000 persons during the past decade.” It is feared that the “shear number of separate suicide prevention initiatives” means the Pentagon or Congress lacks a “coherent strategy to deal with the problem beyond simply throwing money at it.” Defense officials saw a minor decline in suicides to around 300 a year in 2010 and 2011, but “preliminary figures for 2012 indicate that the rate climbed once again to about 349.” The DoD’s Defense Suicide Prevention Office plans to inventory the programs and their costs by Oct. 1.

HealthDay (5/11, Gordon) reported, “Nearly 10 percent of teenagers experience some form of violence in their dating relationships, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dating violence encompasses physical, emotional and sexual abuse, the CDC notes.” HealthDay added, “A study in the January issue of Pediatrics found that teens who had experienced dating violence were more likely to binge drink, smoke, have depression symptoms, think about suicide and experience additional intimate partner violence than were their peers who’d never experienced dating violence.”

People In Same-Sex Relationships May Also Suffer From Abuse. HealthDay (5/11, Gordon) reported, “Though many teens find it difficult to talk about dating violence or abuse, the shroud of secrecy may be even harder to get through for same-sex couples.” The article went on to recount the experiences of one New York woman who was involved in an abusive relationship with a female partner.

Related Links:

— “When Teen Dating Turns Abusive and Violent, “Serena Gordon, HealthDay, May 11, 2013.

In a New York Times (5/13, Stuckler, Basu, Subscription Publication) op-ed headlined “How Austerity Kills,” Sanjay Basu of Stanford’s Prevention Research Center and Oxford sociology researcher David Stuckler write that in their new book on austerity, they “estimate that 4,750 ‘excess’ suicides – that is, deaths above what pre-existing trends would predict – occurred from 2007 to 2010” in the US. They say a “correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century.” They argue that austerity measures have extended and increased unemployment, and thus deserve some of the blame.

Related Links:

— “How Austerity Kills, “David Stuckler, The New York Times, May 12, 2013.

NBC Nightly News (5/9, story 9, 0:25, Williams) reported, “New numbers on memory loss raising concerns of a full blown Alzheimer’s crisis for the generation now entering middle age. One in eight Americans over 60 now report increasing memory loss.”

Bloomberg News (5/9, Armour) reported, “About one-third of those Americans also said they had functional difficulties including the ability to work or do household chores, according to a report…from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” published in the May 10 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, “only 19 percent of the people with memory loss or confusion discussed their problems with a health-care provider.” The findings come “from a 2011 survey of almost 60,000 people in 21 states, the CDC said.”

Related Links:

— “One in 8 Americans at Least 60 Report Memory Loss, “Stephanie Armour, Bloomberg News, May 9, 2013.

Medscape (5/9, Canavan) reports that according to the results of a 524-patient study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting, “nearly a third of children and adolescents screened in an emergency department program are at risk for suicide, and of these, 17% report knowledge of a gun in or around their home.” The study’s author, Stephen Teach, MD, of the Children’s National Medical Center, stated, “Nearly half of youth suicides involve firearms, and 90% of individuals who attempt suicide with guns kill themselves.”

Reuters (5/7, Seaman) reports that according to a study published online May 6 in JAMA Neurology, the offspring of people who are long-lived appear to develop symptoms of dementia later than other people. Nevertheless, by the time people reach their nineties, the rate of Alzheimer’s appears to be about the same percentage as those from families that are not so long-lived.

HealthDay (5/7, Reinberg) reports that researchers “followed more than 1,800 participants (1,510 family members and 360 spouses as “controls”) in the US-Danish Long Life Family Study, which is evaluating genetic and non-genetic factors associated with extreme longevity.” Next, investigators “looked at the onset of Alzheimer’s disease among blood relatives within long-living families and compared that with similar data on their spouses.” Notably, the “sons and daughters, average age 70, of exceptionally long-lived people had less than half the risk of Alzheimer’s disease than their similarly aged spouses.”

Related Links:

— “Could family longevity protect against dementia?, “Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, May 6, 2013.