The Washington Post (7/15, McMahan) says, “About 7 percent of U.S. adults – nearly 18 million people – had suffered from long covid as of early last year, according to a recent report.” The survey also found “just 6 percent of the vaccinated and boosted respondents reported long covid symptoms vs. 8 percent of those who weren’t vaccinated.” The findings were published in JAMA. (One of the symptoms of long covid is depression.)

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthPayerIntelligence (7/15, Waddill ) reports, “CMS released a brief [PDF] exploring the status of children with autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Medicaid and CHIP.” About “5% of children between the ages of three and seventeen who are under public coverage have autism or ASD.” Meanwhile, “2% of children with private coverage and 2% of children without coverage were reported as having autism or ASD.” The federal agency “found that 8% of boys ages three to eleven and 8% of boys ages twelve to seventeen had autism or ASD, compared to 3% and 2% of female children respectively.”

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— “CMS shares Medicaid, CHIP data on children with ASD, autism,”Kelsey Waddill, HealthPayerIntelligence, July 15, 2024

Psychiatric News (7/12) reported study results show that youth who took part “in a two-week family intervention to reduce time spent on smartphones and other screen media showed improved behaviors relative to youth that did not participate.” Psychiatric News added, “While acknowledging that ‘more research is needed to confirm whether these effects are sustainable in the long term,’ the study authors noted that this clinical trial data provides a causal link between a reduction in screen time and improvements in psychological symptoms.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Short-Term Digital Break Improves Child Behavior, Study Finds, Psychiatric News, July 12, 2024

The Washington Post (7/13, Blakemore) reported research examined “the reasons young adults give for not drinking, which researchers say could help in crafting public health messaging aimed at reducing alcohol abuse.” Researchers concentrated on 614 individuals who did online surveys regarding their utilization of alcohol. Of the participants, the average age of whom was 21.5, 64.5% were White and 54.2% were male. The leading reasons participants provided for abstaining from consuming alcohol “on a given day were ‘I wasn’t interested in drinking’ (83.4 percent of non-drinking days), followed by ‘I didn’t want to get drunk’ (81.8 percent) and ‘I don’t usually drink on this night of the week’ (58.7 percent, mostly Sunday through Thursday).” The findings were published in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

mHealthIntelligence (7/10, Vaidya ) reports, “Telemental healthcare service availability has declined since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), with only 79 percent of mental health treatment facilities offering telehealth after May 2023 compared to 81 percent before then, new research shows.” The study also found “the availability of audio-only telehealth declined from” 49.3% of facilities to 34.1%, “and the availability of telehealth for comorbid mental health and alcohol use disorder declined from” 76.3% of facilities to 66.5%. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Telemental health service availability declined post-PHE,”Anuja Vaidya, mHealthIntelligence, July 10, 2024