Psychiatric News (11/28) reports that APA’s latest Healthy Minds Poll found that “nearly one-third of U.S. adults anticipate that this holiday season will be more stressful than last year, with costs associated with holiday gifts and meals possibly contributing to this stress.” Researchers found “of the holiday stressors respondents were asked to assess, 51% expressed at least some worry about their ability to afford holiday gifts, and 23% reported being very worried about affording gifts.”

Meanwhile, “40% reported worry about finding and securing gifts, and 39% expressed worry about affording holiday meals.” In a news release, APA President Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A., said, “Economic burdens have run high in our polling for the past few years as a source of concern, and that makes sense given the challenges we’ve all shared.”

Dr. Levounis added, “Connecting with supportive family and friends is more meaningful to our mental health than the commercial aspects of the season. The kindness with which you treat yourself and those you love during the holiday season is the very best gift you can give.”

Related Links:

— “APA Poll Finds U.S. Adults Worried About Costs Associated With Holidays,” American Psychiatric Association Psychiatric News Alert, November 28, 2023

The Hill (11/27, Choi) reports, “A new retrospective study of children’s health care coverage found that roughly 1 in 5 children did not have adequate health insurance, meaning coverage that met their needs and was reasonably affordable.”

The study, published in JAMA Health Forum, looked at “children’s health insurance coverage between 2016 and 2021. Of the more than 200,000 children that were included in the study, 34.5% had public health coverage, and 65.5% were commercially insured.” Additionally, “just 4.2% of children with public coverage and 1.4% of children with commercial coverage experienced inconsistent coverage.

Children with public health coverage, however, were less likely to experience inadequate coverage, with 12.2% having this issue, compared to 33% of children with commercial coverage.”

Related Links:

— “1 in 5 children in the US have “inadequate” health insurance coverage: Study,” Joseph Choi, The Hill, November 27, 2023

HealthDay (11/27, Thompson) says, “Whole grains could be the key to Black people protecting their brains against aging and dementia, a…study reports.” In the study published in Neurology, “among Black people, those who ate the most whole grains had brains about 8.5 years younger than those who ate the least.”

Related Links:

— “Whole Grain Foods Could Help Black Seniors Avoid Alzheimer’s,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 27, 2023

Healio (11/27, Monostra) says, “Transgender and gender-expansive young people report worse quality of life mental health scores compared with the general U.S. population, according to study data.”

In the study published in Transgender Health, over the past two years, “those who received multiple gender-confirming treatments had an increase in overall score, from 63.91 at baseline to 77.39 at follow-up. … Those who did not undergo treatment had decreases in family cohesion score from 61.67 at baseline to 30 at follow-up.”

Related Links:

— “Transgender young people report worse mental health than general population,” Michael Monostro, Healio, November 27, 2023

Healio (11/27, Welsh) reports, “About 1% of women who filled an opioid prescription after childbirth had evidence of persistent opioid use in the subsequent postpartum year, researchers reported in Obstetrics & Gynecology.” In the study, “of women who initiated opioid prescriptions after childbirth, 1,282, or 10.8 per 1,000 deliveries, had new persistent opioid use in the subsequent postpartum year

New persistent opioid use rates were higher after vaginal deliveries compared with cesarean deliveries (16 vs. 9.8 per 1,000), and rates decreased from 2013 to 2021 for cesarean (from 14.2 to 7.9 per 1,000) and vaginal (from 30.5 to 6.7 per 1,000) deliveries.”

Related Links:

— “About 1% of mothers had new persistent opioid use in the first postpartum year,” Erin T. Welsh, Healio, November 27, 2023