Health Findings

Menthol bans lead to smoking cessation

Banning menthol in cigarettes can lead to more people quitting the deadly habit, according to a study published in April in Tobacco Control.

The study examined the impact of menthol bans across seven Canadian provinces between 2016 and 2018. Researchers found that after the ban, menthol smokers were significantly more likely to attempt to quit than nonmenthol smokers, at nearly 59% versus 49%, respectively. Daily menthol smokers were nearly twice as likely than daily nonmenthol users to quit following the ban, and menthol smokers who had quit previous to the ban were less likely to relapse after the ban.

The study involved a national sample of almost 1,100 nonmenthol smokers and 138 menthol smokers surveyed before and after the Canadian bans. Researchers noted the public health benefits of a menthol ban would likely be even greater in the U.S., where prevalence of menthol cigarette use and sales are much higher than in Canada. In April, the Food and Drug Administration announced it was moving to ban menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars.

“This has important public health and equity implications for countries such as the (U.S.), where menthol cigarette use is substantially higher among Blacks compared with other racial or ethnic groups,” the study stated.

Doctors view female patients as experiencing less pain than male patients, a study finds.

Photo courtesy Andrew Popov, iStockphoto

Gender bias impacts pain assessments

Women’s pain is often viewed as less intense than men’s, which could lead to disparities in treatment.

In a March study in the Journal of Pain, researchers set up two experiments — the first involved asking 50 people to watch videos of male and female patients suffering from shoulder pain. The second one replicated the first but with 200 people who later completed the Gender Role Expectation of Pain questionnaire, which measures gender-related stereotypes related to pain. Overall, the study found that female patients were perceived to be in less pain than their male peers who reported and exhibited the same intensities of pain.

In addition, participants said female patients would benefit more than male patients from psychotherapy instead of medication.

“These findings suggest that gender biases in pain estimation may be an obstacle to effective pain care, and that experimental approaches to characterizing biases, such as the one we tested here, could inform the development of interventions to reduce such biases,” researchers wrote.

Poor sleep linked to dementia risk

Lack of sleep in middle-age may be associated with dementia later in life, finds a new study.

Published in April in Nature Communications, researchers examined data from nearly 8,000 people participating in the Whitehall II study — a longitudinal survey of British civil servants — using a 25-year follow-up. They found a higher dementia risk associated with sleeping six hours or less at ages 50 and 60, compared with those who typically slept seven hours a night.

Persistent short sleep times at ages 50, 60 and 70 were associated with a 30% increased dementia risk later in life, even when accounting for sociodemographic, behavioral, cardiometabolic and mental health factors.

“Public health messages to encourage good sleep hygiene may be particularly important for people at a higher risk of dementia,” researchers wrote.

COVID-19 risky for pregnant women

Pregnant women with COVID-19 face a significantly higher risk of severe maternal and newborn complications than those who do not have the disease, finds a recent study.

Published in April in JAMA Pediatrics, the study examined data from 2,100 pregnant women in 43 hospitals in 18 low-, middle- and high-income nations, including the U.S. Researchers found that pregnant women with COVID-19 were at higher risk for preeclampsia, severe infections, admittance to a intensive care unit, maternal death, preterm birth, and severe perinatal morbidity and mortality. Women with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 faced fewer risks, but were still at elevated risk for maternal morbidity and preeclampsia.

Overall, the risk of dying during pregnancy or in the post-pregnancy period was 22 times higher in pregnant women with COVID-19 than those not infected with the disease. About 13% of infants born to women with COVID-19 tested positive for the disease, the study found, and breast-feeding did not appear to increase transmission risk.

“There is an urgent need to follow up with these patients and infants because of possible long-term health effects, including long-term COVID-19,” the study stated.

Clean air is important to health, but many people in minority communities are at high risk of breathing polluted air.

Photo by Adamkaz, courtesy iStockphoto

Minorities exposed to more air pollution

In the U.S., people of color are exposed to disproportionately high levels of fine particulate air pollution, which is associated with tens of thousands of excess deaths each year, according to a study published in April in Science Advances.

To conduct the study, researchers used an air quality model to estimate particulate matter pollution, more commonly known as PM 2.5, from more than 5,000 sources listed in the 2014 Environmental Protection Agency’s National Emissions Inventory. Overall, researchers found that nearly all major emission categories across states contributed to a “systemic PM exposure disparity experienced by people of color.”

In 2014, according to the findings, exposure from all sources of particulate matter pollution was higher than average for Black, Hispanic and Asian people, as well as for other people of color, while it was lower than average for whites. Of the emission sources that created the largest exposure disparities, four of the top six were the same among people of color: industry, light-duty gasoline vehicles, construction and heavy-duty diesel vehicles.

“This phenomenon is systemic, holding for nearly all major sectors, as well as across states and urban and rural areas, income levels and exposure levels,” the study said.

Police detention harms mental health

Youth with mental health disorders who are detained by police are often still struggling with such disorders many years later, finds an April study.

Published in JAMA Pediatrics, the study is based on data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a 15-year longitudinal study of more than 1,800 youths who spent time in a temporary juvenile detention center in Cook County, Illinois.

Researchers found that nearly two-thirds of males and more than one-third of females with one or more existing psychiatric disorders when they entered detention still had a disorder 15 years later. Compared to females, males had more than three times the odds of having a persistent psychiatric disorder.

Fifteen years after leaving detention, disruptive behavior and substance use disorders were most common among study participants. Whites had 1.6 times greater odds of behavioral disorders and more than 1.3 times greater odds of substance use disorders throughout the study period than both Black and Hispanic participants.

“The pediatric health community should advocate for early identification and treatment of disorders among youths in the justice system,” the study stated.

Physical inactivity tied to chronic pain

People who are less physically active may face greater risk of severe infection and death from COVID-19, according to an April study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Analyzing data on nearly 48,500 adults diagnosed with COVID-19 between January and October 2020, researchers found that people who had been consistently inactive during the two years prior to the pandemic were more likely to be admitted to a hospital, require intensive care and to die than patients who had consistently met physical activity guidelines.

Specifically, COVID-19 patients who were consistently inactive were more than twice as likely to be admitted to a hospital than patients who had done 150 minutes or more of physical activity every week. Consistently inactive patients were also 73% more likely to require intensive care and twoand-a-half times more likely to die.

“We recommend that public health authorities inform all populations that short of vaccinations and following public health safety guidelines such as social distancing and mask use, engaging in regular physical activity may be the single most important action individuals can take to prevent severe COVID-19 and its complications, including death,” the study said.

Less rain and longer dry spells have parched U.S. Western states, a new study finds

Photo courtesy Taglas, iStockphoto

Droughts last longer in US Western states

Droughts have gotten longer and rainfall more erratic across most of the western U.S. in the past 50 years, a new study finds.

Based on daily meteorological observations between 1976 and 2019 at 337 long-term weather stations across the U.S. West, researchers estimated that total yearly rainfall has decreased by an average of 0.4 inches, while the longest dry spells within a year grew from 20 days to 32 days.

The study, published in April in Geophysical Research Letters, found overall increases in rainfall variability for multiple regions in the West, which also became significantly hotter and drier over the study period. Periods of drought increased across most of the region, with the exception of the Northern Plains and Northern Rockies.

“These findings indicate that, against a backdrop of warming and drying, large regions of the western U.S. are experiencing intensification of precipitation variability, with likely detrimental consequences for essential ecosystem services,” the study said.

Housing subsidies benefit veterans

Housing subsidies not only reduce homelessness among U.S. veterans. The assistance can also cut health care costs, according to a study published in May in Health Affairs.

Researchers examined data on a veterans housing programs to see if there was an impact on health care costs. More specifically, researchers focused on the Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, which partners with community organizations to provide financial assistance to veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The study found that, on average, people receiving the assistance incurred $352 lower health costs per quarter than those not receiving the housing assistance.

Veterans who received the assistance also experienced fewer hospital visits and an average reduction in health care costs of $2,800 over a two-year period.

Linking housing and health care could impact future approaches, said study co-author Richard Nelson, PhD, a research associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah.