HealthDay (8/23, Bernstein) reports, “While a higher percentage of black children show the symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (AD/HD) “than white kids, they are less likely to be diagnosed or treated for the disorder,” researchers found after following some “4,000 children in grades 5, 7 and 10” from various areas around the US.

During the study, investigators found that “rates of diagnosis for” AD/HD “were consistently higher among white children, with 19 percent diagnosed by the 10th grade compared to 10 percent of blacks by 10th grade.” The findings were published online Aug. 23 in Pediatrics.

In a video segment for MedPage Today (8/23), F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, assistant professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, discusses the study and somewhat disagrees with its findings.

Related Links:

— “ADHD More Often Missed in Minority Kids,” James Bernstein, HealthDay, August 23, 2016.

Healio (8/22) reports the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development recently launched Moms’ Mental Health Matters, a new initiative that aims “to increase awareness about depression and anxiety during and after pregnancy.” The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development developed free materials on the signs and symptoms of the conditions that can occur “during pregnancy and after childbirth.”

Related Links:

— “NIH launches initiative to raise awareness of maternal mental health,” Healio, August 22, 2016.

HealthDay (8/22, Mozes) reports new research found being unsatisfied at your job in your 20s and 30s can “undermine your health by mid-life,” but having work you enjoy could “pay health dividends.” The study found that disenchanted worker had “worse mental health” by their 40s, and “were more likely to suffer from routine sleep trouble and anxiety compared with satisfied or increasingly satisfied participants.”

Researchers surveyed more than 6,400 men and women participating in a long-running study that began in 1979. According to the researchers “physical health appeared to suffer among those who consistently expressed low satisfaction with work or whose satisfaction fell over time.”

Related Links:

— “Unhappy at Work in Your 20s, Unhealthy in Your 40s?,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, August 22, 2016.

On the front of its New York section, the New York Times (8/21, MB1, Glaser, Subscription Publication) reported in a nearly 2,700-word story that suicidologist Madelyn Gould, PhD, MPH, a professor of epidemiology in Columbia University’s psychiatry department, is urging New York “authorities to put barriers on bridges and other buildings, something that copious amounts of research show is effective” in preventing suicides.

Even though “the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the George Washington Bridge, has put dozens of signs and several telephones on it to link desperate callers to trained crisis counselors,” some “93 people have died at the bridge” over the past seven years. Now, the Port Authority plans “to erect a safety barrier on the bridge, a project that will not be completed before 2024.”

Dr. Gould would like that barrier completed much sooner, commenting, “From the perspective of saving people’s lives, why not move up that time frame?”

Related Links:

— “A Suicidologist’s New Challenge: The George Washington Bridge,” GABRIELLE GLASER, New York Times, August 19, 2016.

Bloomberg News (8/19, Tracer) reported that according to a study conducted by Avalere Health, consumers are getting fewer options under Affordable Care Act plans. Data show about “36 percent of the approximately 500 rating regions in the US may have just one health insurer when the 2017 signup season starts on Nov. 1,” while an additional “19 percent could have just two carriers.” The article said by comparison, in 2016, some two-thirds of areas had three or more insurers competing for consumers’ business.

On its website, CNBC (8/19, Mangan) reported that the analysis indicates seven states, including Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming, will have only one insurer offering ACA plans in 2017.

Related Links:

— “Choices May Be Limited for Obamacare Shoppers, Avalere Says,” Zachary Tracer, Bloomberg News, August 19, 2016.