mHealth Intelligence (3/9, Melchionna) reports, “Telehealth utilization increased nationally by 11.4 percent between November and December 2021 and rose from 4.4 to 4.9percent of all medical claim lines, according to FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker.” According to the December report, “mental health conditions remained at No. 1 nationally,” and “acute respiratory disease was another diagnosis taking up a large share of telehealth claim lines in all regions during this time.” Moreover, “hypertension entered the top five telehealth diagnoses in the South, as did joint and soft tissue diseases in the Northeast.”

Related Links:

— “National Telehealth Use Skyrocketed Amid Omicron Surge “Mark Melchionna, mHealth Intelligence, March 9, 2022

HealthDay (3/9, Preidt) reports, “People with serious mental illness,” that is, “bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder,” appear to “have up to double the risk of heart disease, and should have their heart health monitored from a young age,” investigators concluded.
        
Healio (3/9, Buzby) reports the study observed “elevated 10-year” cardiovascular “risk…among patients with a serious mental illness aged 18 to 59 years without” cardiovascular disease “at baseline.” What’s more, “patients with serious mental illness were more likely to smoke and have BMI of 30 kg/m² or more compared with patients without a serious mental illness,” the study revealed. The findings of the 591,257-patient study were published online March 9 ahead of print in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Heart Risks Double for People With Bipolar, Schizophrenia “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 9, 2022

HealthDay (3/8, Mann) reports research indicates that some people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may “improve and return to normal” rather than go on to develop dementia. Investigators arrived at this conclusion after they “analyzed data on 619 U.S. Catholic nuns, age 75 and up, in a long-running study of aging and Alzheimer’s disease.” The study revealed that “participants who earned a bachelor’s degree had more than double the chances of getting their memory back compared to those with a grade school or high school education.” The study also found that “language skills, including those reflected in high grades in English class or in strong writing skills…protected against dementia.” The findings were published online in the journal Neurology.

Related Links:

— “More Evidence That Education May Protect Against Dementia “Denise Mann, HealthDay, March 8, 2022

Healio (3/8, Gramigna) reports, “Compared with the general population, individuals with mental disorders had increased risk for mortality across all disorders,” researchers concluded in a 76-study, systematic review and meta-regression, the findings of which were published online ahead of print in the May issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “People with severe mental disorders have ‘persistent mortality gap’ “Joe Gramigna, Healio, March 8, 2022

MedPage Today (3/7, Wu) reports, “Concussion in kids was associated with an increased risk of mental health problems compared with orthopedic injury,” investigators concluded. The “10-year retrospective cohort study from Canada” revealed that “among over 400,000 youths ages five to 18, those who had a concussion were at greater risk for mental health problems,” as well “as self-harm…and psychiatric hospitalization.” In fact, “the incidence rate of any mental health problem was 11,141 per 100,000 person-years in the concussion group versus 7,960 per 100,000 person-years in the orthopedic injury group.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)