Publisher Health

Financial stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic took a distinct toll on adolescent mental health and contributed to depressive symptoms, according to a new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The study, published today in The Lancet Regional Health — Americas, found the effect was most pronounced in low-income adolescents but also affected all income groups who experienced financial strain due to loss of income.
“People often think children do not feel or understand financial stress, but this study shows not only that they do, but that this stress also takes a toll on their mental health,” said senior author Ran Barzilay, MD, PhD, child psychiatrist and an assistant professor at the Lifespan Brain Institute (LiBI) of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “Given the strain inflation is likely placing on families’ finances, our findings underscore that financial stress is a key risk factor for adolescent mental health during economic crises and that addressing this stress is important given the current global youth mental health crisis.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on global public health, but it has also contributed to a global economic crisis, which has both exacerbated financial issues in struggling families and introduced newfound financial strain to many others. Prior research at CHOP and LiBI has shown an association between pandemic-associated income loss and financial stress and depressive symptom in adults. However, despite an ongoing global youth mental health crisis, there previously was little data on the impact of financial stress on adolescent mental health.
To better understand this relationship, the CHOP researchers analyzed data from 9,720 adolescents who were a part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study®), a diverse sample of more than 10,000 U.S. children between the ages of 11 and 14. The researchers investigated the specific association of financial strain with adolescent mental health between May 2020 and May 2021. All participants had pre-pandemic data on household income and mental health.
The researchers found that adolescents whose families lost wages due to the pandemic were more likely to be Black (19.5% vs. 12.2%), Hispanic (22.0% vs. 12.9%), and below the poverty line (15.2% vs 4.2%) than those who did not. Those groups also expressed greater levels of stress about the financial impacts of the pandemic. Both pandemic-related wage loss and financial stress were more prevalent among youth with lower pre-pandemic household income — in other words, the poor were more likely to become poorer, with greater negative impacts on mental health.
Youth from families who lost wages, regardless of pre-pandemic income, reported more depressive symptoms compared to those from families who did not lose wages; they also reported experiencing more perceived stress. The association between financial stress and depressive symptoms was significant even when accounting for pre-pandemic mental health.
In addition to establishing an association between financial stress and depressive symptoms, the researchers also wanted to better understand the mechanics of how wage loss contributes poor adolescent mental health. To do so, they analyzed longitudinal data to identify factors that mediate the path from household pandemic-related wage loss at the beginning of the pandemic to youth’s depressive symptoms a year later. They found that both the youth’s subjective financial stress as well as family conflict contributed to poor adolescent mental health, suggesting that financial hardship impacts children and adolescents through a complex network of indirect pathways.
“Although this research focused specifically on pandemic-related wage loss, we suspect financial strain is a broader mental health risk factor for children and adolescents that is relevant during any time of economic uncertainty,” Dr. Barzilay said. “Future studies should look at targeting youth’s financial stress and family conflict to ease the mental health impact of difficult financial circumstances.”
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Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found disparities in the completion of follow-up concussion care, particularly among pediatric patients who are publicly insured and identify as Black, suggesting barriers to care exist. The findings, recently published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, will help inform research funded by a newly awarded grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aimed at addressing disparities in concussion care across socioeconomic groups.
Concussions are a major public health issue, with nearly 2 million occurring annually in children and adolescents. While recovery times vary due to a variety of factors, both early detection and adherence to follow-up guidance on post-injury activity positively affect long-term outcomes, as well as recovery time. Yet access to care, and the ability to complete follow-up care recommendations, is not equally distributed among all concussion patients, especially those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantages. This study was designed to help determine where disparities exist in concussion care, with an emphasis on determining which demographic groups may be most at-risk for health care inequities.
In this retrospective study, the researchers reviewed medical records of children seen in CHOP primary care clinics to determine whether pediatric concussion patients adhered to providers’ follow-up recommendations and continued care until doctors cleared them to return to full activity. The study evaluated variations in patients’ adherence to follow-up recommendations by analyzing data available in the medical record, including race, ethnicity, insurance, age, sex, how the patients were injured and whether the patient sustained repeat head injuries.
The study found that out of 755 total patients, non-Hispanic black patients and publicly insured or self-paying patients were less likely to complete follow-up recommendations (70.6% for both of those groups) compared with non-Hispanic White patients and privately insured patients (83.5% and 82.9%, respectively). After adjusting for age, sex, injury mechanism, and repeated injuries, non-Hispanic black patients were more than 50% less likely to complete follow-up care recommendations and publicly insured patients were 40% less likely to do so compared to their non-Hispanic white and privately insured peers, respectively.
“We know from prior research that patients who are unable to adhere to concussion care recommendations, specifically those around activity and active rehabilitation strategies, may have longer recovery times and worse symptoms over time,” said senior study author Daniel J. Corwin, MD, MSCE, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Emergency Department Lead of the Minds Matter Concussion Program at CHOP. “This study provides us with a basis to explore the individual- and system-level barriers that may prevent adherence to care, which ultimately will inform how we provide targeted approaches and establish more equitable care to reduce disparities among pedaitric concussion patients.”
To help address these disparities, researchers in the Minds Matter Concussion Program were recently awarded a four-year grant from the CDC to identify additional disparities in concussion outcomes. Researchers plan to analyze electronic health records of patients seen within the CHOP network and evaluate the implementation of primary-care based interventions in urban and suburban practices. The goal is to facilitate accurate concussion diagnosis and management as well as identify those in need of specialist referral. The study will analyze school re-entry data after concussion from the BrainSTEPS program of the Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Education, while also leveraging partnerships with with urban schools and sports programs to improve education and access to concussion care.
This recently published study was supported by a pilot grant from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness (now known as Clinical Futures). Research reported in this publication was also supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under award no. R01NS097549, and by grant funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
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Breastfed babies are believed to suffer fewer allergic conditions, like eczema and food allergies, than formula-fed babies; yet the reason has not been well understood. Now, a new study by Penn State College of Medicine finds that small molecules found in most humans’ breast milk may reduce the likelihood of infants developing allergic conditions like atopic dermatitis and food allergies. The researchers said the discovery could lead to strategies for mothers — such as encouragement and support for breastfeeding or dietary and exercise interventions — to help lower the odds of their babies developing allergies.
Atopic conditions, like food allergies, asthma and a skin condition called atopic dermatitis occur in approximately one-third of children as a result of inappropriate activation of the immune system to environmental exposures.
“Infants who breastfeed beyond three months may have a lower risk for these conditions, but we don’t fully understand the biology behind this,” said Dr. Steven Hicks, associate professor of pediatrics and pediatrician at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital.
Hicks’ research focuses on the relationship between the environment, biology and neurodevelopment and growth in children. His prior studies demonstrate how micro ribonucleic acids (miRNAs), tiny molecules that can regulate gene expression throughout the body, can be used to diagnose certain health conditions like concussion or autism.
“There are nearly 1,000 different kinds of miRNAs in human breast milk and composition varies due to maternal characteristics like weight, diet and genetics,” Hicks said. “We hypothesized that four of these miRNAs could have a protective effect against infant allergies based on prior research showing relationships between these miRNAs and certain allergic conditions.”
The researchers followed 163 mothers who planned to breastfeed for at least four months and their infants from birth through 12 months. They tracked how long each baby breastfed, and measured the miRNA composition of each mother’s breast milk over the course of lactation (0, 4 and 16 weeks). The team calculated the amount of specific miRNAs infants consumed based on reported breastfeeding patterns and the concentration of certain miRNAs in mothers’ milk samples. The researchers evaluated infants for atopic dermatitis, food allergies and wheezing throughout the study.
Of the infants studied, 41 (25%) developed atopic dermatitis, 33 (20%) developed a food allergy and 10 (6%) had wheezing. Infants who did not develop atopy consumed greater amounts, on average, of miRNA-375-3p (miR-375) in their mothers’ breastmilk, than infants who developed atopy. There were no other differences in maternal traits, infant traits or environmental exposures between infants with atopy and infants without atopy. The researchers also found that levels of this miRNA increased throughout lactation and that mothers with a lower body mass index tended to have a higher concentration of miR-375. The results were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Sept. 27.
“The fact that miR-375 content increased during the course of lactation may explain why sustained breastfeeding has been associated with reduced atopy in certain studies,” Hicks said. He noted that the greatest increase of miR-375 happened in the first month following birth, but that the upward trend continued between months one and four. “In contrast with formula, which does not contain human miRNAs, miR-375 is present in more than 99% of human milk samples, and it accounts for just under 1% of all miRNAs in breastmilk.”
According to Hicks, the findings from this study could lead to new interventions to help prevent infants from developing allergies. Future research will focus on confirming these findings, defining the mechanisms through which miR-375 prevents allergies and exploring interventions to boost miR-375 levels in maternal breast milk. Hicks also said that with further research miR-375 might one day be added to formula, which currently contains no miRNAs, to help address the disparity that formula-fed babies are more likely to develop atopic conditions.
Ramin Beheshti, Desirae Chandran, Kaitlyn Warren and Alexandra Confair of Penn State College of Medicine also contributed to this study. The researchers declare no related conflicts of interest.
This study was funded by a grant from the Gerber Foundation. The opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Gerber Foundation.
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Materials provided by Penn State. Original written by Zachary Sweger. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Airway inflammation and emphysema are more common in marijuana smokers than cigarette smokers, according to a study published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Researchers said the difference may be due to the way that marijuana is smoked and the fact that marijuana smoke enters the lungs unfiltered.
Marijuana is one of the most widely used psychoactive substances in the world and the most-commonly smoked substance after tobacco. Its use has increased in recent years amid legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada and many states in the U.S. The growing use has created an urgent need for information on marijuana’s effects on the lungs, something that is currently lacking.
“We know what cigarettes do to the lungs,” said study author Giselle Revah, M.D., a cardiothoracic radiologist and assistant professor at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada. “There are well researched and established findings of cigarette smoking on the lungs. Marijuana we know very little about.”
To find out more, Dr. Revah and colleagues compared chest CT results from 56 marijuana smokers with those of 57 non-smoking controls and 33 tobacco-only smokers.
Three-quarters of the marijuana smokers had emphysema, a lung disease that causes difficulty with breathing, compared with 67% of the tobacco-only smokers. Only 5% of the non-smokers had emphysema. Paraseptal emphysema, which damages the tiny ducts that connect to the air sacs in the lungs, was the predominant emphysema subtype in marijuana smokers compared to the tobacco-only group.
Airway inflammation was also more common in marijuana smokers than non-smokers and tobacco-only smokers, as was gynecomastia, enlarged male breast tissue due to a hormone imbalance. Gynecomastia was found in 38% of the marijuana smokers, compared with 11% of the tobacco-only smokers and 16% of the controls.

Error-prone DNA replication and repair may lead to mutations and cancer in individuals who inherit a mutant copy of the BRCA1 gene, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The discovery has potential implications for preventing the development of cancer in patients with these mutations.
The study, published Sept. 12 in Molecular Cell, provides new insights into why individuals who inherit a mutation in one copy of the BRCA1 gene often develop mutations in their remaining normal copy of the BRCA1 gene, setting the stage for tumors to develop. When these individuals’ cells are under stress, replication of the normal BRCA1 gene stalls because of the highly repetitive DNA sequences in the gene that create physical barriers to machinery that copies DNA. To fix the stall, an error-prone DNA repair mechanism kicks in.
“We have identified some of the first steps in cancer development in people carrying inherited BRCA1 mutations,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Jeannine Gerhardt, assistant professor of stem cell biology in obstetrics and gynecology and the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.
The BRCA1 gene encodes an important DNA-repair protein, explained the study’s lead author Dr. Madhura Deshpande, a research associate in the Center for Reproductive Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Deshpande said that people who inherit one mutant and one normal copy produce about half as much of this DNA-repair protein as people with two normal copies.
To understand why the remaining functional BRCA1 gene copy often becomes mutated too, the team studied the DNA replication in human embryonic stem cells as well as human breast epithelial cells with one mutant copy of the BRCA1 gene. The human embryonic stem cells were generated in the Center for Reproductive Medicine by Dr. Nikica Zaninovic and Dr. Zev Rosenwaks. They exposed the cells to a chemical to mimic environmental stress on the cells. They discovered that as the DNA in these cells unzips into two strands to make a copy of the DNA for each new cell, the machinery that copies the DNA stalls at the BRCA1 gene because of the gene’s repetitive DNA sequences. The team also demonstrated for what is believed to be the first time that the BRCA genes are fragile sites and are prone to breakage. Because the cells only have half as much of the BRCA1 protein available to repair the breaks, the cells turn to a more error-prone backup DNA repair mechanism called microhomology-mediated break-induced replication (MMBIR), Dr. Deshpande explained.
The team also examined tumor cells from women with breast cancer linked to inherited BRCA1 mutations. They found mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, like deletions and insertions, likely caused by the faulty MMBIR process.
“We are currently interested in finding other additional error-prone repair mechanisms that might contribute to the genomic instability and mutagenesis in these cells,” Dr. Deshpande said. Dr. Gerhardt said the team is simultaneously looking to identify the real-life environmental stressors that trigger replication problems and faulty DNA repair in BRCA1-linked breast cancers.
The team is also working to develop strategies to prevent the use of error-prone DNA repair mechanisms in women with inherited BRCA1 mutations. For example, they are testing the protective effects of dietary compounds that are linked to reduced breast cancer risk in BRCA1 mutation carriers. If they are successful, they may be able to identify drugs or other interventions that could prevent cancer in women with inherited BRCA1 mutations and provide an alternative to the existing invasive preventive measures like pre-emptive mastectomy or ovary removal.
“I believe we can intervene and find compounds that will prevent patients with inherited BRCA1 mutations from accumulating mutations that lead to cancer,” Dr. Gerhardt said.
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An analysis of massive amounts of genetic data on the SARS-CoV-2 virus suggests that COVID-19 variants worldwide are repeatedly evolving the same mutations, according to a study published today in eLife and carried out by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute.
The analysis was made possible by a new web-based tool called Taxonium that allows the analysis of reams of data collected by scientists around the globe to monitor the genetic trajectory of the virus. Taxonium can be used by scientists to monitor the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses or organisms.
Scientists have long tracked the evolution of viruses. But the urgent situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic launched a massive global collaboration that collected and sequenced the genomes of 13 million SARS-CoV-2 samples — far more genetic data than had ever been generated before. However, most existing tools designed to trace viral evolution cannot handle that much data.
“We needed a new tool that would allow us to explore the family tree represented by these millions of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences,” says the study’s author Theo Sanderson, a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow at the Francis Crick Institute in London, UK.
To help, Sanderson built Taxonium — a free, web-based interface that allows scientists to analyse the genetic relationships between tens of millions of virus samples. Scientists can access and analyse the data through a website or a desktop app. Taxonium can help them search for viruses with specific genetic mutations, or in a particular location, and zoom in on large viral family trees to find the information they need.
Sanderson teamed up with scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to build a SARS-CoV-2-specific version of Taxonium called Cov2Tree, which organises publicly available data on more than six million SARS-CoV-2 sequences into evolutionary trees. Using the tool, the team tracked the recent evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and found that many separate regions of the tree showed the acquisition of similar changes in the Spike protein. The analysis suggests that the same mutations are occurring again and again in different individuals around the world and are persisting.
“Scientists worldwide have used Cov2Tree to track the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s evolution,” says Sanderson. “But this application is probably just the start. Taxonium could be used to study the evolutionary tree of countless other viruses and bacteria.”
Sanderson notes that Taxonium is just one part of a growing ecosystem of freely available online tools to help scientists manage what he calls the “avalanche of sequencing data.” Scientists can use many of the tools together, and some of them have distinct features from Taxonium that may be better suited for specific tasks.
“With sequencing getting cheaper and cheaper, genetic sequence datasets as large as those created for SARS-CoV-2 are likely to become more common in the future,” concludes Sanderson. “New tools to manage those datasets, like Taxonium, will be crucial to managing this new scale of data.”
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Some commercial earbuds can perform as well as hearing aids. The result, presented November 15 in the journal iScience, could help a large proportion of people with hearing loss access more affordable sound amplification devices.
Hearing loss has broad health impacts, but professional hearing aids are expensive and require multiple visits to otolaryngologists and audiologists for tuning. These factors lead to major barriers for many to access professional hearing aids. One estimate suggests nearly 75% of people with hearing loss in the United States do not use hearing aids.
“There’s also a social stigma associated with hearing aids,” says Yen-fu Cheng, the study’s corresponding author and an otolaryngologist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. “Many patients are reluctant to wear them because they don’t want to appear old. So, we started exploring if there’re are more accessible alternatives.”
Apple came out with a feature called “Live Listen” in 2016 that allows people to use its wireless earphones, AirPods, and iPhone for sound amplification. The feature makes AirPods functionally similar to a personal sound amplification product, which is designed for people with normal hearing for certain occasions like birdwatching.
Cheng and his team wanted to investigate whether AirPods, which are widely available devices, can serve as alternative hearing aids. The team compared Airpods 2 and AirPods Pro — the model with a noise canceling feature — with a type of premium hearing aids and a basic pair of hearing aids. The premium hearing aids cost $10,000, and the basic type cost $1,500. Both models of AirPods are significantly cheaper than hearing aids, with AirPods 2 costing $129 and AirPods Pro costing $249. Notably, AirPods Pro met four out of five technology standards for hearing aids.
The team tested the four devices with 21 participants with mild to moderate hearing loss. The researchers read a short sentence, such as “the electricity bills went up recently,” to participants, who were asked to repeat their words verbatim wearing the devices. They found AirPods Pro performed similarly well compared with basic hearing aids in a quiet environment and is slightly inferior to premium hearing aids. AirPods 2, while having the lowest performance among the four, helped participants hear more clearly compared with wearing no hearing aids.
In a noisy environment, AirPods Pro showed comparable performance to premium hearing aids when the noises came from the lateral direction of the participant. But when the noises came from the front of the participants, both AirPods models failed to help participants hear better.
“Two reasons may account for the difference between the two scenarios,” says Ying-Hui Lai, the study’s co-author and a bioengineer at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taipei. “It may relate to the trajectories soundwaves travel with, as well as the advanced signal processing algorithm by premium hearing aids. This finding will hopefully inspire engineers to design hearing aids and personal sound amplification products that are more sensitive in certain directions.” He adds that AirPods Pro appears to perform better than AirPods 2, likely because of its noise-canceling feature.
“Globally, the wireless earphone market is growing rapidly. Some companies are interested in exploring the possibility of designing earbuds with sound amplification features. Our study proves that the idea is plausible,” Lai says.
As a clinician, Cheng says persuading patients to use hearing aids is often challenging. “These wireless earbuds are of course not perfect, but they would be a good starting point for many patients who don’t have access to professional hearing aids. They will see an increase in quality of life even with these earbuds.” Cheng says.
This work is supported by Veterans General Hospitals and University System of Taiwan Joint Research Program, and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
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Leprosy is one of the world’s oldest and most persistent diseases but the bacteria that cause it may also have the surprising ability to grow and regenerate a vital organ.
Scientists have discovered that parasites associated with leprosy can reprogramme cells to increase the size of a liver in adult animals without causing damage, scarring or tumors.
The findings suggest the possibility of adapting this natural process to renew ageing livers and increase healthspan — the length of time living disease-free — in humans.
Experts say it could also help regrow damaged livers, thereby reducing the need for transplantation, which is currently the only curative option for people with end-stage scarred livers.
Previous studies promoted the regrowth of mouse livers by generating stem cells and progenitor cells — the step after a stem cell that can become any type of cell for a specific organ — via an invasive technique that often resulted in scarring and tumour growth.
To overcome these harmful side-effects, Edinburgh researchers built on their previous discovery of the partial cellular reprogramming ability of the leprosy-causing bacteria, Mycobacterium leprae.

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York have identified 35 genes that are particularly highly expressed in people with long-term Lyme disease. These genes could potentially be used as biomarkers to diagnose patients with the condition, which is otherwise difficult to diagnose and treat.
The findings, published November 15 in thejournal Cell Reports Medicine, may also lead to new therapeutic targets. The study is the first to use transcriptomics as a blood test to measure RNA levels in patients with long-term Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness that is not well understood. Approximately 30,000 diagnosed cases are reported to the CDC each year, but the estimated real number is closer to 476,000 cases, carrying an annual healthcare cost of about $1 billion in the United States. While most patients are diagnosed and treated with antibiotics at the earliest stages of Lyme disease, about 20 percent of the patients develop long-term complications,which could include arthritis, neurologic symptoms, and/or heart problems.
“We wanted to understand whether there is a specific immune response that can be detected in the blood of patients with long-term Lyme disease to develop better diagnostics for this debilitating disease. There still remains a critical unmet need, as this disease so often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed,” said Avi Ma’ayan, PhD, Professor, Pharmacological Sciences, and Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Bioinformatics at Icahn Mount Sinai, and senior author of the paper. “Not enough is understood about the molecular mechanisms of long-term Lyme disease.”
As part of the study, RNA sequencing was conducted using blood samples from 152 patients with symptoms of post-treatment Lyme disease to measure their immune response. Combined with RNA sequencing data from 72 patients with acute Lyme disease and 44 uninfected controls, the investigators observed differences in gene expression and found that most of the post-treatment Lyme disease patients had a distinctive inflammatory signature compared with the acute Lyme disease group.
In addition, by analyzing the differentially expressed genes in this study along with genes that are differentially expressed due to other infections from other published studies, the researchers identified a subset of genes that were highly expressed, which have not been previously established for this Lyme-associated inflammatory response.
Using a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning, the researchers further reduced the group of genes to establish an mRNA biomarker set capable of distinguishing healthy patients from those with acute or post-treatment Lyme disease. A gene panel that measures the expression of the genes the investigators identified could be developed as a diagnostic to test for Lyme.
“We should not underestimate the value of using omics technologies, including transcriptomics, to measure RNA levels to detect the presence of many complex diseases, like Lyme disease. A diagnostic for Lyme disease may not be a panacea but could represent meaningful progress toward a more reliable diagnosis and, as a result, potentially better management of this disease,” said Dr. Ma’ayan.
Next, the investigators plan to repeat the study using data from single-cell transcriptomics and whole blood, apply the machine learning approach to other complex diseases that are difficult to diagnose, and develop the diagnostic gene panel and test it on samples from patients.
The project was partially supported by funds from the Cohen Lyme & Tickborne Disease Initiative and National Institutes of Health grant P30AR070254.

Adolescents who underwent sleeve gastrectomy, a type of weight-loss surgery that involves removing part of the stomach, were less likely to go the emergency room or be admitted to the hospital in the five years after their operations than those who had their stomachs divided into pouches through gastric bypass surgery, according to new research.
Rates of complications, death and subsequent surgery were similar in both groups, University of Michigan researchers found in an analysis published in JAMA.
All the patients studied had Medicaid, the largest health insurance provider for those under the age of 19 in the United States.
“Prior research had found that sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass resulted in significant weight loss and low complication rates in adolescents with severe obesity,” said Ryan Howard, M.D., a general surgery resident at University of Michigan Health. “But the comparative outcomes of these two procedures, which might help inform health insurance policy and decision-making, had yet to be explored for adolescents insured by Medicaid.”
The researchers identified just over 1,110 patients who had undergone one of the two weight-loss surgeries between 2012 and 2018, a relatively small number compared to the more than 95,000 patients covered by Medicare who had either gastric bypass or a sleeve gastrectomy in the same time period.
Howard says the disparity could be due to access issues or concerns about bariatric surgery as a weight-loss treatment for youth.
Additional authors include Jie Yang, Ph.D., and Jyothi Thumma, M.P.H., of the University of Michigan Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy and Anne Ehlers, M.D., M.P.H., Sean O’Neill, M.D., Ph.D., Dana Telem, M.D., M.P.H., and Justin B. Dimick, M.D., M.P.H., all of Michigan Medicine.
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Materials provided by Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan. Original written by Mary Clare Fischer. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.