Login
Researchers Study Treatment for Chronic Pain in Childhood Cancer Survivors
Treatments that could help alleviate the chronic pain experienced by thousands of childhood cancer survivors are being investigated by scientists and researchers in the U.K.
About eight out of 10 children survive their cancer for 10 years or more but more than half of them report delayed and ongoing pain in adulthood.
Dr. Richard Hulse, a sensory neurophysiologist at Nottingham Trent University’s school of science and technology, is researching the pathways through which chemotherapy causes patients to experience ongoing pain by damaging nerve cells, as part of a two-year study funded by the Medical Research Foundation.
Hulse said cancer treatments such as chemotherapy in early life could damage nerve cells that detect pain, and could alter how pain is experienced as the patient becomes an adult.
Children’s BMI Can Affect Their Future Lung Function
An abnormal BMI (body mass index) in children — be it high or low — can now be associated with impaired lung function, but if their BMI is normalized before they reach adulthood, the impairment can be offset, researchers from Karolinska Institutet report. Their results, which are based on data collected under the BAMSE project in Sweden, are presented in The European Respiratory Journal.
One in ten people have reduced lung function development in childhood and cannot achieve maximal lung capacity in adulthood, increasing the risk of serious health problems such as cardiovascular disease, lung disease and diabetes.
One risk factor associated with impaired lung function development is abnormal weight and height. The most common body measurement, BMI, takes account of weight, but not muscle and fat composition.
Study Shows Students Experienced Increased Psychological Distress During COVID-19, but Utilized Fewer Support Services
Ph.D. in Public Health candidate Elaine Russell and her mentor Kenneth Griffin, professor in the department of Global and Community Health, in George Mason University’s College of Public Health, worked with Tolulope Abidogun, also a Ph.D. in Public Health student, and former Global and Community Health professor Lisa Lindley, now of Lehigh University, to analyze data from the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment in an effort to understand how university students’ mental health needs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students’ psychological distress, well-being, and utilization of mental health services in the United States: Populations at greatest risk” was published online in Frontiers in Public Health on Oct. 30.
“More U.S. college students suffered from mental health concerns during the pandemic, but fewer received necessary mental health treatment,” says Russell.
This study is the first to use a national dataset to examine changes in university students’ psychological well-being and their utilization of mental health services from pre-COVID-19 to peak pandemic.
Do you have a news tip? We want to hear from you!
Better Prepared Emergency Departments Could Save Children’s Lives
Implementing high pediatric readiness for all U.S. emergency departments is highly cost-effective and would lower mortality among young patients, according to a study published in the October issue of Health Affairs.
The researchers found that increasing emergency department pediatric readiness would cut deaths among young patients seeking emergency care by 42%, yielding 69,100 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) for the 11-state cohort. This translated to a cost of $9,300 per QALY gained or $244,000 per life saved.
Nationally, achieving high readiness would yield about 194,000 additional discounted life-years and 179,000 additional discounted QALYs. Up-front implementation costs would be approximately $260 million.
“Delivering appropriate, timely care to kids with injuries or acute illnesses can make the difference between complete recovery and many years of disability or childhood death,” senior author Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, Ph.D., also from Stanford University, said in a statement. “We found that the cost of being ready was well below the threshold that people think of as ‘value for money’ in health care.”
Six Children Died From Pesticide Poisoning in South Africa, Lab Analysis Finds
Six children who died in a South African township earlier this month had ingested a chemical compound used in pesticides, the country’s health minister said on Monday, in a case that has prompted calls for tighter food safety controls.
Local media have reported that the children died after eating snacks bought from an informal cornershop in the Soweto township near Johannesburg. “The cause of death is unequivocally organophosphate … a group of substances, which are usually used in agriculture or as pesticides,” Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told reporters as he announced the findings of a toxicology analysis.
