The AP (6/26, Bose ) says, “Racial and ethnic inequities in health care are found in every state in the U.S. despite the passage of legislation intended to improve health outcomes for minorities and increased awareness of health care disparities over the past two decades, according to a new national report released Wednesday.” The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report “detailed how structural racism and people’s surroundings have contributed to worse health outcomes for minorities,” and offered “recommendationsand solutions to health care organizations and the federal government, like a more diverse workforce and adjusting payment systems to make health care more affordable.”

The Hill (6/26, Daniels) says, “The report found that racial and ethnic minorities are significantly less likely to have primary care,” and “during emergency room visits, minorities experience longer wait times and are assigned less acute triage severity scores.” Meanwhile, “long-term care facilities serving minority residents offer fewer clinical services and have lower staffing levels.” In order to address the issue, “one action is to report data on the inequities. The report calls on the Office of Management and Budget to aggressively enforce requirements for routine collection of race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation and language data by all federal health care agencies and research programs.” Additionally, the report “urges the National Institutes of Health and other research funders to expand funding for research aimed at addressing health care inequities, structural racism and health-related social needs.”

Related Links:

— “Health care needs to diversify its workforce to get rid of racial inequalities, a new report says,”Devna Bose, AP, June 26, 2024

CNN (6/26, Holcombe ) reports, “Lonely isn’t just how many people are around – it’s how you feel. And it may impact your stroke risk, according to a new study” published in eClinicalMedicine. Specifically, “older adults who reported being chronically lonely had a 56% higher risk of stroke than those who were consistently rated low on the loneliness scale, according to” the study. Although “there was a strong increase in risk for people who scored high on loneliness at both points of the survey, there was not a clear association with stroke risk in those who only scored high at one point in time, [lead study author Dr. Yenee] Soh said.”

Related Links:

— “This non-medical intervention may reduce your stroke risk,”Madeline Holcombe, CNN, June 26, 2024

Healio (6/25, Welsh ) reports, “Postpartum readmission risk was higher for women with stillbirth vs. live birth deliveries, with mental health/substance use disorders and thromboembolism accounting for more, and hypertension fewer, readmissions following stillbirth.” The study “demonstrated postpartum readmission within 6 weeks of discharge among 2.7% of women who had stillbirth deliveries compared with 1.6% of women with live birth deliveries (RR = 1.65; 95% CI, 1.47-1.86).” The results were published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Related Links:

— “Higher postpartum readmission risk after stillbirth delivery vs. live birth,”Erin T. Welsh, Healio, June 25, 2024

Psychiatric News (6/25) reports, “Physicians who screen positive for depressive symptoms as interns are more likely to screen positive up to 10 years later than their peers who did not, a study in JAMA Network Open has found.” In the study, “overall, 35.2% of participants had elevated PHQ-9 scores on at least one quarterly survey during their intern year. A greater proportion of participants in this group had elevated scores at their annual follow-ups than those who did not have elevated scores as interns, as follows: 21.9% vs 6.6% at year 1; 8.8% vs 2.4% at year 5; 8.9% vs 3.7% at year 8.”

Related Links:

— “Depressive Symptoms During Intern Year Found To Persist Through Residency and Beyond, Psychiatric News, June 25, 2024

Healio (6/25, Mahoney) reports, “Eating disorder symptoms and insulin omission appeared prevalent among patients with insulin-dependent diabetes, with more women and girls presenting with eating disorder symptoms, according to data published in Eating Behaviors.” In the study, “the researchers concluded that the overall prevalence of eating disorder symptoms was 24% (95% CI, 0.21–0.28).” The study also found “a pooled prevalence of insulin omission of 21% (95% CI, 0.13–0.33).”

Related Links:

— “Eating disorder symptoms affect 24% of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes,”Moira Mahoney, Healio , June 25, 2024