mHealth Intelligence (1/12, Melchionna) reports, “Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Fair Health Monthly Telehealth Regional tracker reported that telehealth use fell nationally and in every US census region last October, except usage in the Northeast.” The tracker found that “nationally, telehealth use dropped 3.7 percent, from 5.4 percent of medical claim lines in September to 5.2 percent in October.” Furthermore, “at the national level and in most regions, COVID-19 diagnoses fell,” while “acute respiratory diseases and infections rose in the diagnoses rankings.”

Related Links:

— “New Data Shows Telehealth Usage Drops by 4% Nationally Mark Melchionna” , mHealth Intelligence, January 12, 2023

Bloomberg (1/11, Pham) reports, “The effects of long COVID tend to resolve within a year of mild infection, with vaccinated people at lower risk of breathing difficulties compared with unvaccinated people, according to a study” in which “researchers examined the health records of almost 2 million people in Israel who tested for COVID-19 over a 19-month period.” More than “70 long COVID conditions were analyzed within a group of infected and matched uninfected members.”

NBC News (1/11, Edwards) reports “symptoms – such as chest pain, cough, muscle aches and hair loss – tended to fade away within a year.” The findings were published in The BMJ.

CNN (1/11, LaMotte) reports, “Only slight differences appeared between men and women in the study, but children had fewer early symptoms than adults, which were mostly gone by year’s end.”

Related Links:

— “Long Covid Study Shows Symptoms Fading for Mild Infections “Lisa Pham, Bloomberg, January 11, 2023

Psychiatric News (1/11) reports, “Children with a family history of schizophrenia who have early deficits in ‘set shifting,’” that is, “the ability to fluidly move from one cognitive task to another,” may “be at increased risk for psychotic experiences in later childhood compared with children who have similar deficits but no family history of schizophrenia,” researchers concluded in a study that “assessed neurocognition in 449 children aged seven years who were participants in the Danish High Risk and Resilience Study – a prospective cohort study of children who have at least one biological parent with a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis, bipolar disorder, or neither diagnosis.” The findings were published online Dec. 22 in the Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Related Links:

— “Cognitive Deficits in Early Childhood Linked to Later Psychotic Experiences, Psychiatric News, January 11, 2023

Medscape (1/11, Yasgur, Subscription Publication) reports, “Sleep complaints by patients with a major depressive episode (MDE) may be a red flag signaling a higher risk for developing other psychiatric disorders,” investigators concluded after studying “three-year incidence rates of psychiatric disorders in almost 3000 patients experiencing an MDE.” The study revealed that “having a history of difficulty falling asleep, early morning awakening, and hypersomnia increased risk for incident psychiatric disorders.” The findings were published online Dec. 21 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (1/10, George) reports, “Moderate-to-severe hearing loss was linked with a higher prevalence of dementia,” researchers concluded in “a cross-sectional study of Medicare beneficiaries.” In the 2,413-older adult study, “dementia prevalence among people with moderate-to-severe hearing loss was higher than it was among people with normal hearing.” Additionally, in “people with moderate-to-severe hearing loss…hearing aid use was associated with a lower prevalence of dementia compared with no hearing aid use.” The findings were published online in a research letter in JAMA.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)