Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Millions Of Lost Years: Study Shines Light On Impact Of Childhood Cancers When They Go Undiagnosed, Untreated
Childhood cancer’s toll amounts to a total of more than 11 million lost healthy years each year — a sum that could be lower if kids got adequate care around the globe. According to a study published Monday in the journal Lancet, underdiagnosis of cancer and lack of access to treatment facilities contributed to death and disability, wiping out those millions of healthy years when children and their families could have instead been spending their resources, time and energies in other ways. And that’s not just bad for them — it’s bad for their communities and beyond. (Santhanam, 7/30)
A new study recently published in the journal Brain Injury points out that 72% of TBI-related emergency department visits among children and adolescents are attributable to specific consumer products and activities. Using 2010-2013 data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP), researchers found that between those years, children aged 1-19 years accounted for 4.1 million non-fatal TBI-related emergency department visits. (Pirani, 7/31)
Despite improvements in teen birth rates and child health insurance rates, more Connecticut children are living in single parent families and households that pay more than 30% of their income for housing, according to the 2019 Kids Count Data Book, an annual report on children’s wellbeing throughout the country. (Lyons, 7/30)
Living near oil and gas wells may increase a woman’s risk of having a baby with a congenital heart defect. Researchers writing in Environment International reported on 3,324 infants born in Colorado from 2005 to 2011, comparing 536 babies with heart defects to 2,860 controls matched for sex, maternal smoking, race and ethnicity. (Bakalar, 7/30)