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Long COVID comes into focus, showing older patients fare worse
These findings help define long COVID, guiding providers and patients through the recovery process, Barak Mizrahi, MSc, of KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal, Israel, and colleagues reported.
“To provide efficient continuous treatment and prevent adverse events related to potential long term effects and delayed symptoms of COVID-19, determining the magnitude and severity of this phenomenon and distinguishing it from similar clinical manifestations that occur normally or following infections with other pathogens is essential,” the investigators wrote in The BMJ.
To this end, they conducted a retrospective, nationwide cohort study involving 1,913,234 people who took a polymerase chain reaction test for SARS-CoV-2 between March 1, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2021. They compared a range of long-term outcomes at different intervals post infection, and compared these trends across subgroups sorted by age, sex, and variant. Outcomes ranged broadly, including respiratory disorders, cough, arthralgia, weakness, hair loss, and others.
The investigators compared hazard ratios for each of these outcomes among patients who tested positive versus those who tested negative at three intervals after testing: 30-90 days, 30-180 days, and 180-360 days. Statistically significant differences in the risks of these outcomes between infected versus uninfected groups suggested that COVID was playing a role.
“The health outcomes that represent long COVID showed a significant increase in both early and late phases,” the investigators wrote. These outcomes included anosmia and dysgeusia, cognitive impairment, dyspnea, weakness, and palpitations. In contrast, chest pain, myalgia, arthralgia, cough, and dizziness were associated with patients who were in the early phase, but not the late phase of long COVID.
“Vaccinated patients with a breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection had a lower risk for dyspnea and similar risk for other outcomes compared with unvaccinated infected patients,” the investigators noted.
For the long COVID outcomes, plots of risk differences over time showed that symptoms tended to get milder or resolve within a few months to a year. Patients 41-60 years were most likely to be impacted by long COVID outcomes, and show least improvement at 1 year, compared with other age groups.
“We believe that these findings will shed light on what is ‘long COVID’, support patients and doctors, and facilitate better and more efficient care,” Mr. Mizrahi and coauthor Maytal Bivas-Benita, PhD said in a joint written comment. “Primary care physicians (and patients) will now more clearly understand what are the symptoms that might be related to COVID and for how long they might linger. This would help physicians monitor the patients efficiently, ease their patients’ concerns and navigate a more efficient disease management.”
They suggested that the findings should hold consistent for future variants, although they could not “rule out the possibility of the emergence of new and more severe variants which will be more virulent and cause a more severe illness.”
One “major limitation” of the study, according to Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, a physiatrist and professor and chair of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, is the lack of data for fatigue and dysautonomia, which are “the major presentations” that she sees in her long COVID clinic.
“The authors of the article focus on the primary damage being related to the lungs, though we know this is a systemic disease beyond the respiratory system, with endothelial dysfunction and immune dysregulation,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez, who is also director of COVID recovery at the University of Texas Health Science Center, said in an interview.
Although it was reassuring to see that younger adults with long COVID trended toward improvement, she noted that patients 41-60 years “still had pretty significant symptoms” after 12 months.
“That [age group comprises] probably the majority of my patients that I’m seeing in the long COVID clinic,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez said. “If you look at the whole thing, it looks better, but then when you drill down to that age group where you’re seeing patients, then it’s not.”
Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez is so busy managing patients with long COVID that new appointments in her clinic are now delayed until May 31, so most patients will remain under the care of their primary care providers. She recommended that these physicians follow guidance from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who offer consensus statements based on clinical characteristics, with separate recommendations for pediatric patients.
Our understanding of long COVID will continue to improve, and with it, available recommendations, she predicted, but further advances will require persistent effort.
“I think no matter what this [study] shows us, more research is needed,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez said. “We can’t just forget about it, just because there is a population of people who get better. What about the ones who don’t?”
The investigators and Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez disclosed no conflicts of interest.
These findings help define long COVID, guiding providers and patients through the recovery process, Barak Mizrahi, MSc, of KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal, Israel, and colleagues reported.
“To provide efficient continuous treatment and prevent adverse events related to potential long term effects and delayed symptoms of COVID-19, determining the magnitude and severity of this phenomenon and distinguishing it from similar clinical manifestations that occur normally or following infections with other pathogens is essential,” the investigators wrote in The BMJ.
To this end, they conducted a retrospective, nationwide cohort study involving 1,913,234 people who took a polymerase chain reaction test for SARS-CoV-2 between March 1, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2021. They compared a range of long-term outcomes at different intervals post infection, and compared these trends across subgroups sorted by age, sex, and variant. Outcomes ranged broadly, including respiratory disorders, cough, arthralgia, weakness, hair loss, and others.
The investigators compared hazard ratios for each of these outcomes among patients who tested positive versus those who tested negative at three intervals after testing: 30-90 days, 30-180 days, and 180-360 days. Statistically significant differences in the risks of these outcomes between infected versus uninfected groups suggested that COVID was playing a role.
“The health outcomes that represent long COVID showed a significant increase in both early and late phases,” the investigators wrote. These outcomes included anosmia and dysgeusia, cognitive impairment, dyspnea, weakness, and palpitations. In contrast, chest pain, myalgia, arthralgia, cough, and dizziness were associated with patients who were in the early phase, but not the late phase of long COVID.
“Vaccinated patients with a breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection had a lower risk for dyspnea and similar risk for other outcomes compared with unvaccinated infected patients,” the investigators noted.
For the long COVID outcomes, plots of risk differences over time showed that symptoms tended to get milder or resolve within a few months to a year. Patients 41-60 years were most likely to be impacted by long COVID outcomes, and show least improvement at 1 year, compared with other age groups.
“We believe that these findings will shed light on what is ‘long COVID’, support patients and doctors, and facilitate better and more efficient care,” Mr. Mizrahi and coauthor Maytal Bivas-Benita, PhD said in a joint written comment. “Primary care physicians (and patients) will now more clearly understand what are the symptoms that might be related to COVID and for how long they might linger. This would help physicians monitor the patients efficiently, ease their patients’ concerns and navigate a more efficient disease management.”
They suggested that the findings should hold consistent for future variants, although they could not “rule out the possibility of the emergence of new and more severe variants which will be more virulent and cause a more severe illness.”
One “major limitation” of the study, according to Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, a physiatrist and professor and chair of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, is the lack of data for fatigue and dysautonomia, which are “the major presentations” that she sees in her long COVID clinic.
“The authors of the article focus on the primary damage being related to the lungs, though we know this is a systemic disease beyond the respiratory system, with endothelial dysfunction and immune dysregulation,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez, who is also director of COVID recovery at the University of Texas Health Science Center, said in an interview.
Although it was reassuring to see that younger adults with long COVID trended toward improvement, she noted that patients 41-60 years “still had pretty significant symptoms” after 12 months.
“That [age group comprises] probably the majority of my patients that I’m seeing in the long COVID clinic,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez said. “If you look at the whole thing, it looks better, but then when you drill down to that age group where you’re seeing patients, then it’s not.”
Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez is so busy managing patients with long COVID that new appointments in her clinic are now delayed until May 31, so most patients will remain under the care of their primary care providers. She recommended that these physicians follow guidance from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who offer consensus statements based on clinical characteristics, with separate recommendations for pediatric patients.
Our understanding of long COVID will continue to improve, and with it, available recommendations, she predicted, but further advances will require persistent effort.
“I think no matter what this [study] shows us, more research is needed,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez said. “We can’t just forget about it, just because there is a population of people who get better. What about the ones who don’t?”
The investigators and Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez disclosed no conflicts of interest.
These findings help define long COVID, guiding providers and patients through the recovery process, Barak Mizrahi, MSc, of KI Research Institute, Kfar Malal, Israel, and colleagues reported.
“To provide efficient continuous treatment and prevent adverse events related to potential long term effects and delayed symptoms of COVID-19, determining the magnitude and severity of this phenomenon and distinguishing it from similar clinical manifestations that occur normally or following infections with other pathogens is essential,” the investigators wrote in The BMJ.
To this end, they conducted a retrospective, nationwide cohort study involving 1,913,234 people who took a polymerase chain reaction test for SARS-CoV-2 between March 1, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2021. They compared a range of long-term outcomes at different intervals post infection, and compared these trends across subgroups sorted by age, sex, and variant. Outcomes ranged broadly, including respiratory disorders, cough, arthralgia, weakness, hair loss, and others.
The investigators compared hazard ratios for each of these outcomes among patients who tested positive versus those who tested negative at three intervals after testing: 30-90 days, 30-180 days, and 180-360 days. Statistically significant differences in the risks of these outcomes between infected versus uninfected groups suggested that COVID was playing a role.
“The health outcomes that represent long COVID showed a significant increase in both early and late phases,” the investigators wrote. These outcomes included anosmia and dysgeusia, cognitive impairment, dyspnea, weakness, and palpitations. In contrast, chest pain, myalgia, arthralgia, cough, and dizziness were associated with patients who were in the early phase, but not the late phase of long COVID.
“Vaccinated patients with a breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection had a lower risk for dyspnea and similar risk for other outcomes compared with unvaccinated infected patients,” the investigators noted.
For the long COVID outcomes, plots of risk differences over time showed that symptoms tended to get milder or resolve within a few months to a year. Patients 41-60 years were most likely to be impacted by long COVID outcomes, and show least improvement at 1 year, compared with other age groups.
“We believe that these findings will shed light on what is ‘long COVID’, support patients and doctors, and facilitate better and more efficient care,” Mr. Mizrahi and coauthor Maytal Bivas-Benita, PhD said in a joint written comment. “Primary care physicians (and patients) will now more clearly understand what are the symptoms that might be related to COVID and for how long they might linger. This would help physicians monitor the patients efficiently, ease their patients’ concerns and navigate a more efficient disease management.”
They suggested that the findings should hold consistent for future variants, although they could not “rule out the possibility of the emergence of new and more severe variants which will be more virulent and cause a more severe illness.”
One “major limitation” of the study, according to Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, a physiatrist and professor and chair of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, is the lack of data for fatigue and dysautonomia, which are “the major presentations” that she sees in her long COVID clinic.
“The authors of the article focus on the primary damage being related to the lungs, though we know this is a systemic disease beyond the respiratory system, with endothelial dysfunction and immune dysregulation,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez, who is also director of COVID recovery at the University of Texas Health Science Center, said in an interview.
Although it was reassuring to see that younger adults with long COVID trended toward improvement, she noted that patients 41-60 years “still had pretty significant symptoms” after 12 months.
“That [age group comprises] probably the majority of my patients that I’m seeing in the long COVID clinic,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez said. “If you look at the whole thing, it looks better, but then when you drill down to that age group where you’re seeing patients, then it’s not.”
Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez is so busy managing patients with long COVID that new appointments in her clinic are now delayed until May 31, so most patients will remain under the care of their primary care providers. She recommended that these physicians follow guidance from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who offer consensus statements based on clinical characteristics, with separate recommendations for pediatric patients.
Our understanding of long COVID will continue to improve, and with it, available recommendations, she predicted, but further advances will require persistent effort.
“I think no matter what this [study] shows us, more research is needed,” Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez said. “We can’t just forget about it, just because there is a population of people who get better. What about the ones who don’t?”
The investigators and Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez disclosed no conflicts of interest.
FROM THE BMJ
Low-carb, high-fat, calorie-unrestricted diet improves type 2 diabetes
This was true regardless of an individual’s calorie intake, in the randomized controlled trial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Patients with T2D who ate a low-carb, high-fat diet (LCHF) lost more weight and saw greater improvements in both glycemic control and insulin resistance than those who ate a high-carb, low-fat diet (HCLF), reported lead author Camilla Dalby Hansen, MD, of University of Southern Denmark, Odense, and colleagues, suggesting that this is an effective, nonpharmaceutical treatment option for T2D.
The trial enrolled 185 patients with T2D, for whom low-calorie diets are often recommended to induce weight loss and improve glycemic control.
The trouble with this common recommendation, the investigators wrote, is that it induces hunger, so few patients stick to it.
“Therefore, calorie-unrestricted diets may be a better alternative to achieve long-term maintenance,” Dr. Hansen and colleagues wrote, noting that this approach “is not widely investigated.”
Study methods and results
In the new study, participants were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to follow the LCHF or HCLF diet for 6 months, with no restriction on calorie intake. Patients were evaluated at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months (3 months after discontinuation). Parameters included glycemic control, serum lipid levels, and metabolic markers. The final analysis included 165 patients.
While patients in both groups lost weight, those in the LCHF group lost, on average, about 8 pounds more than the HCLF group, a significant difference. While the LCHF diet was associated with greater improvements in glycemic control (HbA1c) than the HCLF diet, it also led to slightly greater increases in LDL levels. In both groups, HDL levels increased, and triglycerides decreased, without significant differences between groups.
The above changes were not sustained 3 months after finishing the diet.
“I believe we have sufficient data to include LCHF as one of the diet options for people with type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Hansen said in a written comment, considering all available data.
Although the diet did lead to significant clinical benefits, she predicted that some patients would still struggle with adherence in the real world.
“The LCHF diet can be difficult for some people to follow,” Dr. Hansen said. “It is a bit more expensive, and it can be difficult to comply to in social gatherings, simply because our society is not suited for this type of diet.”
The magic of unrestricted calories
Jay H. Shubrook, DO, diabetologist and professor at Touro University of California, Vallejo, offered a similar view.
“When you start to fiddle with the diet, it affects not only the person, but all the people they eat with, because eating is a communal experience,” Dr. Shubrook said, in an interview.
Still, he said the present study is “a big deal,” because T2D is a “noncommunicable pandemic,” and “anything we could do that disrupts this process is very important.”
While some may struggle to follow the LCHF diet, Dr. Shubrook predicted better long-term adherence than the low-calorie diet usually recommended.
“What’s magic about this study is because it wasn’t calorie restricted, I think it made it a little bit more flexible for people to continue,” Dr. Shubrook said.
He added that he thinks patients will need a fair amount of coaching and education about food choices in order to lose weight on a diet without calorie restrictions.
Not the first study of its kind
In a written comment, Jeff Volek, PhD, RD, professor at the Ohio State University, Columbus, called the present study “another important piece of work, demonstrating yet again, that a low-carbohydrate eating pattern is superior to a high-carbohydrate approach in people with insulin resistance.”
Yet Dr. Volek, who has conducted numerous studies on low-carbohydrate diets, also said there is “little here that is new or surprising.”
He went on to admonish Dr. Hansen and colleagues for failing to recognize those who have already broken ground in this area.
“Unfortunately, these authors do not give credit to the many researchers who have published extensively on low-carbohydrate diets in the past, and instead make claims about being the first to study a calorie unrestricted low-carb diet in individuals with T2D, which is clearly not the case,” Dr. Volek said. “There is a large body of literature showing similar findings with better control over diet, larger cohorts, longer follow-up, and more comprehensive biomarker assessment.”
He noted that data supporting low-carb diets for T2D have been sufficient since at least 2019, when the American Diabetes Association updated their guidance on the subject.
Citing a paper published in Diabetes Care, he said, “Low-carbohydrate eating patterns, especially very-low-carbohydrate eating patterns, have been shown to reduce A1C and the need for antihyperglycemic medications.”
The study was funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation, Danish Diabetes Academy, Odense University Hospital, and others. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with Eli Lilly, Amgen, UCB, and others. Dr. Shubrook disclosed relationships with Abbot, AstraZeneca, Bayer, and others.
This was true regardless of an individual’s calorie intake, in the randomized controlled trial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Patients with T2D who ate a low-carb, high-fat diet (LCHF) lost more weight and saw greater improvements in both glycemic control and insulin resistance than those who ate a high-carb, low-fat diet (HCLF), reported lead author Camilla Dalby Hansen, MD, of University of Southern Denmark, Odense, and colleagues, suggesting that this is an effective, nonpharmaceutical treatment option for T2D.
The trial enrolled 185 patients with T2D, for whom low-calorie diets are often recommended to induce weight loss and improve glycemic control.
The trouble with this common recommendation, the investigators wrote, is that it induces hunger, so few patients stick to it.
“Therefore, calorie-unrestricted diets may be a better alternative to achieve long-term maintenance,” Dr. Hansen and colleagues wrote, noting that this approach “is not widely investigated.”
Study methods and results
In the new study, participants were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to follow the LCHF or HCLF diet for 6 months, with no restriction on calorie intake. Patients were evaluated at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months (3 months after discontinuation). Parameters included glycemic control, serum lipid levels, and metabolic markers. The final analysis included 165 patients.
While patients in both groups lost weight, those in the LCHF group lost, on average, about 8 pounds more than the HCLF group, a significant difference. While the LCHF diet was associated with greater improvements in glycemic control (HbA1c) than the HCLF diet, it also led to slightly greater increases in LDL levels. In both groups, HDL levels increased, and triglycerides decreased, without significant differences between groups.
The above changes were not sustained 3 months after finishing the diet.
“I believe we have sufficient data to include LCHF as one of the diet options for people with type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Hansen said in a written comment, considering all available data.
Although the diet did lead to significant clinical benefits, she predicted that some patients would still struggle with adherence in the real world.
“The LCHF diet can be difficult for some people to follow,” Dr. Hansen said. “It is a bit more expensive, and it can be difficult to comply to in social gatherings, simply because our society is not suited for this type of diet.”
The magic of unrestricted calories
Jay H. Shubrook, DO, diabetologist and professor at Touro University of California, Vallejo, offered a similar view.
“When you start to fiddle with the diet, it affects not only the person, but all the people they eat with, because eating is a communal experience,” Dr. Shubrook said, in an interview.
Still, he said the present study is “a big deal,” because T2D is a “noncommunicable pandemic,” and “anything we could do that disrupts this process is very important.”
While some may struggle to follow the LCHF diet, Dr. Shubrook predicted better long-term adherence than the low-calorie diet usually recommended.
“What’s magic about this study is because it wasn’t calorie restricted, I think it made it a little bit more flexible for people to continue,” Dr. Shubrook said.
He added that he thinks patients will need a fair amount of coaching and education about food choices in order to lose weight on a diet without calorie restrictions.
Not the first study of its kind
In a written comment, Jeff Volek, PhD, RD, professor at the Ohio State University, Columbus, called the present study “another important piece of work, demonstrating yet again, that a low-carbohydrate eating pattern is superior to a high-carbohydrate approach in people with insulin resistance.”
Yet Dr. Volek, who has conducted numerous studies on low-carbohydrate diets, also said there is “little here that is new or surprising.”
He went on to admonish Dr. Hansen and colleagues for failing to recognize those who have already broken ground in this area.
“Unfortunately, these authors do not give credit to the many researchers who have published extensively on low-carbohydrate diets in the past, and instead make claims about being the first to study a calorie unrestricted low-carb diet in individuals with T2D, which is clearly not the case,” Dr. Volek said. “There is a large body of literature showing similar findings with better control over diet, larger cohorts, longer follow-up, and more comprehensive biomarker assessment.”
He noted that data supporting low-carb diets for T2D have been sufficient since at least 2019, when the American Diabetes Association updated their guidance on the subject.
Citing a paper published in Diabetes Care, he said, “Low-carbohydrate eating patterns, especially very-low-carbohydrate eating patterns, have been shown to reduce A1C and the need for antihyperglycemic medications.”
The study was funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation, Danish Diabetes Academy, Odense University Hospital, and others. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with Eli Lilly, Amgen, UCB, and others. Dr. Shubrook disclosed relationships with Abbot, AstraZeneca, Bayer, and others.
This was true regardless of an individual’s calorie intake, in the randomized controlled trial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Patients with T2D who ate a low-carb, high-fat diet (LCHF) lost more weight and saw greater improvements in both glycemic control and insulin resistance than those who ate a high-carb, low-fat diet (HCLF), reported lead author Camilla Dalby Hansen, MD, of University of Southern Denmark, Odense, and colleagues, suggesting that this is an effective, nonpharmaceutical treatment option for T2D.
The trial enrolled 185 patients with T2D, for whom low-calorie diets are often recommended to induce weight loss and improve glycemic control.
The trouble with this common recommendation, the investigators wrote, is that it induces hunger, so few patients stick to it.
“Therefore, calorie-unrestricted diets may be a better alternative to achieve long-term maintenance,” Dr. Hansen and colleagues wrote, noting that this approach “is not widely investigated.”
Study methods and results
In the new study, participants were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to follow the LCHF or HCLF diet for 6 months, with no restriction on calorie intake. Patients were evaluated at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months (3 months after discontinuation). Parameters included glycemic control, serum lipid levels, and metabolic markers. The final analysis included 165 patients.
While patients in both groups lost weight, those in the LCHF group lost, on average, about 8 pounds more than the HCLF group, a significant difference. While the LCHF diet was associated with greater improvements in glycemic control (HbA1c) than the HCLF diet, it also led to slightly greater increases in LDL levels. In both groups, HDL levels increased, and triglycerides decreased, without significant differences between groups.
The above changes were not sustained 3 months after finishing the diet.
“I believe we have sufficient data to include LCHF as one of the diet options for people with type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Hansen said in a written comment, considering all available data.
Although the diet did lead to significant clinical benefits, she predicted that some patients would still struggle with adherence in the real world.
“The LCHF diet can be difficult for some people to follow,” Dr. Hansen said. “It is a bit more expensive, and it can be difficult to comply to in social gatherings, simply because our society is not suited for this type of diet.”
The magic of unrestricted calories
Jay H. Shubrook, DO, diabetologist and professor at Touro University of California, Vallejo, offered a similar view.
“When you start to fiddle with the diet, it affects not only the person, but all the people they eat with, because eating is a communal experience,” Dr. Shubrook said, in an interview.
Still, he said the present study is “a big deal,” because T2D is a “noncommunicable pandemic,” and “anything we could do that disrupts this process is very important.”
While some may struggle to follow the LCHF diet, Dr. Shubrook predicted better long-term adherence than the low-calorie diet usually recommended.
“What’s magic about this study is because it wasn’t calorie restricted, I think it made it a little bit more flexible for people to continue,” Dr. Shubrook said.
He added that he thinks patients will need a fair amount of coaching and education about food choices in order to lose weight on a diet without calorie restrictions.
Not the first study of its kind
In a written comment, Jeff Volek, PhD, RD, professor at the Ohio State University, Columbus, called the present study “another important piece of work, demonstrating yet again, that a low-carbohydrate eating pattern is superior to a high-carbohydrate approach in people with insulin resistance.”
Yet Dr. Volek, who has conducted numerous studies on low-carbohydrate diets, also said there is “little here that is new or surprising.”
He went on to admonish Dr. Hansen and colleagues for failing to recognize those who have already broken ground in this area.
“Unfortunately, these authors do not give credit to the many researchers who have published extensively on low-carbohydrate diets in the past, and instead make claims about being the first to study a calorie unrestricted low-carb diet in individuals with T2D, which is clearly not the case,” Dr. Volek said. “There is a large body of literature showing similar findings with better control over diet, larger cohorts, longer follow-up, and more comprehensive biomarker assessment.”
He noted that data supporting low-carb diets for T2D have been sufficient since at least 2019, when the American Diabetes Association updated their guidance on the subject.
Citing a paper published in Diabetes Care, he said, “Low-carbohydrate eating patterns, especially very-low-carbohydrate eating patterns, have been shown to reduce A1C and the need for antihyperglycemic medications.”
The study was funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation, Danish Diabetes Academy, Odense University Hospital, and others. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with Eli Lilly, Amgen, UCB, and others. Dr. Shubrook disclosed relationships with Abbot, AstraZeneca, Bayer, and others.
FROM ANNALS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE
Immune dysregulation may drive long-term postpartum depression
Postpartum depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder that persist 2-3 years after birth are associated with a dysregulated immune system that is characterized by increased inflammatory signaling, according to investigators.
These findings suggest that mental health screening for women who have given birth should continue beyond the first year post partum, reported lead author Jennifer M. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues.
“Delayed postpartum depression, also known as late-onset postpartum depression, can affect women up to 18 months after delivery,” the investigators wrote in the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology. “It can appear even later in some women, depending on the hormonal changes that occur after having a baby (for example, timing of weaning). However, the majority of research on maternal mental health focuses on the first year post birth, leaving a gap in research beyond 12 months post partum.”
To address this gap, the investigators enrolled 33 women who were 2-3 years post partum. Participants completed self-guided questionnaires on PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and provided blood samples for gene expression analysis.
Sixteen of the 33 women had clinically significant mood disturbances. and significantly reduced activation of genes associated with viral response.
“The results provide preliminary evidence of a mechanism (e.g., immune dysregulation) that might be contributing to mood disorders and bring us closer to the goal of identifying targetable biomarkers for mood disorders,” Dr. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara said in a written comment. “This work highlights the need for standardized and continual depression and anxiety screening in ob.gyn. and primary care settings that extends beyond the 6-week maternal visit and possibly beyond the first postpartum year.”
Findings draw skepticism
“The authors argue that mothers need to be screened for depression/anxiety longer than the first year post partum, and this is true, but it has nothing to do with their findings,” said Jennifer L. Payne, MD, an expert in reproductive psychiatry at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
In a written comment, she explained that the cross-sectional design makes it impossible to know whether the mood disturbances were linked with delivery at all.
“It is unclear if the depression/anxiety symptoms began after delivery or not,” Dr. Payne said. “In addition, it is unclear if the findings are causative or a result of depression/anxiety symptoms (the authors admit this in the limitations section). It is likely that the findings are not specific or even related to having delivered a child, but rather reflect a more general process related to depression/anxiety outside of the postpartum time period.”
Only prospective studies can answer these questions, she said.
Dr. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara agreed that further research is needed.
“Our findings are exciting, but still need to be replicated in larger samples with diverse women in order to make sure they generalize,” she said. “More work is needed to understand why inflammation plays a role in postpartum mental illness for some women and not others.”
The study was supported by a Cedars-Sinai Precision Health Grant, the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, University of California, Los Angeles, and the National Institute of Mental Health. The investigators and Dr. Payne disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
Postpartum depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder that persist 2-3 years after birth are associated with a dysregulated immune system that is characterized by increased inflammatory signaling, according to investigators.
These findings suggest that mental health screening for women who have given birth should continue beyond the first year post partum, reported lead author Jennifer M. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues.
“Delayed postpartum depression, also known as late-onset postpartum depression, can affect women up to 18 months after delivery,” the investigators wrote in the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology. “It can appear even later in some women, depending on the hormonal changes that occur after having a baby (for example, timing of weaning). However, the majority of research on maternal mental health focuses on the first year post birth, leaving a gap in research beyond 12 months post partum.”
To address this gap, the investigators enrolled 33 women who were 2-3 years post partum. Participants completed self-guided questionnaires on PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and provided blood samples for gene expression analysis.
Sixteen of the 33 women had clinically significant mood disturbances. and significantly reduced activation of genes associated with viral response.
“The results provide preliminary evidence of a mechanism (e.g., immune dysregulation) that might be contributing to mood disorders and bring us closer to the goal of identifying targetable biomarkers for mood disorders,” Dr. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara said in a written comment. “This work highlights the need for standardized and continual depression and anxiety screening in ob.gyn. and primary care settings that extends beyond the 6-week maternal visit and possibly beyond the first postpartum year.”
Findings draw skepticism
“The authors argue that mothers need to be screened for depression/anxiety longer than the first year post partum, and this is true, but it has nothing to do with their findings,” said Jennifer L. Payne, MD, an expert in reproductive psychiatry at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
In a written comment, she explained that the cross-sectional design makes it impossible to know whether the mood disturbances were linked with delivery at all.
“It is unclear if the depression/anxiety symptoms began after delivery or not,” Dr. Payne said. “In addition, it is unclear if the findings are causative or a result of depression/anxiety symptoms (the authors admit this in the limitations section). It is likely that the findings are not specific or even related to having delivered a child, but rather reflect a more general process related to depression/anxiety outside of the postpartum time period.”
Only prospective studies can answer these questions, she said.
Dr. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara agreed that further research is needed.
“Our findings are exciting, but still need to be replicated in larger samples with diverse women in order to make sure they generalize,” she said. “More work is needed to understand why inflammation plays a role in postpartum mental illness for some women and not others.”
The study was supported by a Cedars-Sinai Precision Health Grant, the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, University of California, Los Angeles, and the National Institute of Mental Health. The investigators and Dr. Payne disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
Postpartum depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder that persist 2-3 years after birth are associated with a dysregulated immune system that is characterized by increased inflammatory signaling, according to investigators.
These findings suggest that mental health screening for women who have given birth should continue beyond the first year post partum, reported lead author Jennifer M. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues.
“Delayed postpartum depression, also known as late-onset postpartum depression, can affect women up to 18 months after delivery,” the investigators wrote in the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology. “It can appear even later in some women, depending on the hormonal changes that occur after having a baby (for example, timing of weaning). However, the majority of research on maternal mental health focuses on the first year post birth, leaving a gap in research beyond 12 months post partum.”
To address this gap, the investigators enrolled 33 women who were 2-3 years post partum. Participants completed self-guided questionnaires on PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and provided blood samples for gene expression analysis.
Sixteen of the 33 women had clinically significant mood disturbances. and significantly reduced activation of genes associated with viral response.
“The results provide preliminary evidence of a mechanism (e.g., immune dysregulation) that might be contributing to mood disorders and bring us closer to the goal of identifying targetable biomarkers for mood disorders,” Dr. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara said in a written comment. “This work highlights the need for standardized and continual depression and anxiety screening in ob.gyn. and primary care settings that extends beyond the 6-week maternal visit and possibly beyond the first postpartum year.”
Findings draw skepticism
“The authors argue that mothers need to be screened for depression/anxiety longer than the first year post partum, and this is true, but it has nothing to do with their findings,” said Jennifer L. Payne, MD, an expert in reproductive psychiatry at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
In a written comment, she explained that the cross-sectional design makes it impossible to know whether the mood disturbances were linked with delivery at all.
“It is unclear if the depression/anxiety symptoms began after delivery or not,” Dr. Payne said. “In addition, it is unclear if the findings are causative or a result of depression/anxiety symptoms (the authors admit this in the limitations section). It is likely that the findings are not specific or even related to having delivered a child, but rather reflect a more general process related to depression/anxiety outside of the postpartum time period.”
Only prospective studies can answer these questions, she said.
Dr. Nicoloro-SantaBarbara agreed that further research is needed.
“Our findings are exciting, but still need to be replicated in larger samples with diverse women in order to make sure they generalize,” she said. “More work is needed to understand why inflammation plays a role in postpartum mental illness for some women and not others.”
The study was supported by a Cedars-Sinai Precision Health Grant, the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, University of California, Los Angeles, and the National Institute of Mental Health. The investigators and Dr. Payne disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF REPRODUCTIVE IMMUNOLOGY
Dapagliflozin reduces hospitalizations in patients with CKD
These findings add to a growing body of evidence supporting a range of positive benefits from dapagliflozin, including reduced risks of mortality, cardiovascular events, and kidney events, lead author Meir Schechter, MD, PhD, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and colleagues wrote in Annals of Internal Medicine.“Although cardiovascular and kidney outcomes with SGLT2 inhibitors have been studied extensively, there is a paucity of data evaluating the effects of SGLT2 inhibitors on hospitalizations for any cause.”
The findings are based on a post hoc analysis of the DAPA-CKD trial, which involved 4,304 patients with CKD in 21 countries. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive dapagliflozin 10 mg orally once a day or matching placebo. The present analysis quantified first hospitalizations for any cause, all hospitalizations, cause-specific hospitalizations, and several related outcomes.
After a median follow-up of 2.4 years, 28% of the population had been hospitalized a total of 2,072 times.
Compared with placebo, dapagliflozin significantly reduced risk of first hospitalization by 16% (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.75-0.94) and rate of all hospitalizations by 21% (rate ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.70-0.89). These findings remained significant regardless of type 2 diabetes status, with significant benefits seen across reasons for admission, including renal/urinary disorders, cardiac disorders, neoplasms, and metabolism/nutrition disorders. In addition, dapagliflozin was associated with shorter mean time in hospital (2.3 vs. 2.8 days; P = .027) and longer time alive and out of hospital (354.9 vs. 351.7; P = .023).
“These findings highlight additional benefits of dapagliflozin beyond those seen for cardiovascular and kidney events, all-cause and cause-specific mortality, eGFR [estimated glomerular filtration rate] slope, and albuminuria and should be considered when evaluating the totality of evidence favoring provision of dapagliflozin to patients with CKD,” the investigators concluded.
Positive data, positive experiences
Shree Mulay, MD, a nephrologist in private practice in western Tennessee, said this study is “one of several other articles that already exist” demonstrating the broad benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors.
“The evidence is pretty substantial,” Dr. Mulay said in an interview. “I think SGLT2 inhibitors are the new statin of this era. ... I won’t be surprised if in the next year or 2 or 3 they truly become the standard of care.”
Dr. Mulay also speaks from experience working in both the chronic and acute setting, where he’s observed “some magical stuff happening” in patients started on SGLT2 inhibitors, especially those in heart failure who are fluid overloaded.
“It’s phenomenal stuff,” Dr. Mulay said. “You can really stabilize patients’ hemodynamics.”
In the private health care setting, he described widespread enthusiasm among nephrologists, although others still appear skeptical.
“It’s really our cardiology colleagues that I feel are underprescribing it,” Dr. Mulay said. “So, I’m kind of taking it on myself, when I see a heart failure patient, to go ahead and put them on this.”
It’s unclear why some cardiologists seem apprehensive, Dr. Mulay continued, although he suggested that unclear guidelines and a lack of first-hand experience may be to blame.
Nephrologists and cardiologists sometimes agree
In the academic arena, Leslie Gewin, MD, associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the John Cochran VA Hospital, also in St. Louis, has seen similar support for SGLT2 inhibitors among both nephrologists and cardiologists.
“We had a joint nephrology-cardiology medicine grand rounds at Wash U in St. Louis maybe 2 weeks ago,” Dr. Gewin said in an interview. “The cardiologists and nephrologists tag-teamed to present data about SGLT2 inhibitors, and we kind of joked that this was the one thing we both could get behind and support.”
Still, she has seen some reluctance among non-nephrology clinicians lacking SGLT2 experience, specifically when managing patients who have poor kidney function.
“There can be some hesitancy among physicians if the GFR is low,” Dr. Gewin said. “That’s where I’ve had to sort of push the envelope with non-nephrologists, saying: ‘Look, we feel pretty comfortable starting down to a GFR of about 20.’ ”
Early rises in creatinine may also spook providers, she noted.
“Sometimes, when we start SGLT2 inhibitors, the creatinine increases slightly, and the [primary care provider] gets concerned,” Dr. Gewin said. “We say: ‘No, this is expected. Don’t worry, hold the course, this is a good drug.’ ”
Like Dr. Mulay, Dr. Gewin said the present study offers further encouragement for the efficacy of this drug class. She also said sufficient data have been published to allay earlier concerns about potential safety signals, such as bone fractures and amputations.
“SGLT2 inhibitors seem to be a lot safer than what we initially had thought,” Dr. Gewin said. “That’s very encouraging.”
The study was funded by AstraZeneca. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with Bayer, Janssen, Gilead, and others. Dr. Gewin and Dr. Mulay disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
These findings add to a growing body of evidence supporting a range of positive benefits from dapagliflozin, including reduced risks of mortality, cardiovascular events, and kidney events, lead author Meir Schechter, MD, PhD, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and colleagues wrote in Annals of Internal Medicine.“Although cardiovascular and kidney outcomes with SGLT2 inhibitors have been studied extensively, there is a paucity of data evaluating the effects of SGLT2 inhibitors on hospitalizations for any cause.”
The findings are based on a post hoc analysis of the DAPA-CKD trial, which involved 4,304 patients with CKD in 21 countries. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive dapagliflozin 10 mg orally once a day or matching placebo. The present analysis quantified first hospitalizations for any cause, all hospitalizations, cause-specific hospitalizations, and several related outcomes.
After a median follow-up of 2.4 years, 28% of the population had been hospitalized a total of 2,072 times.
Compared with placebo, dapagliflozin significantly reduced risk of first hospitalization by 16% (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.75-0.94) and rate of all hospitalizations by 21% (rate ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.70-0.89). These findings remained significant regardless of type 2 diabetes status, with significant benefits seen across reasons for admission, including renal/urinary disorders, cardiac disorders, neoplasms, and metabolism/nutrition disorders. In addition, dapagliflozin was associated with shorter mean time in hospital (2.3 vs. 2.8 days; P = .027) and longer time alive and out of hospital (354.9 vs. 351.7; P = .023).
“These findings highlight additional benefits of dapagliflozin beyond those seen for cardiovascular and kidney events, all-cause and cause-specific mortality, eGFR [estimated glomerular filtration rate] slope, and albuminuria and should be considered when evaluating the totality of evidence favoring provision of dapagliflozin to patients with CKD,” the investigators concluded.
Positive data, positive experiences
Shree Mulay, MD, a nephrologist in private practice in western Tennessee, said this study is “one of several other articles that already exist” demonstrating the broad benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors.
“The evidence is pretty substantial,” Dr. Mulay said in an interview. “I think SGLT2 inhibitors are the new statin of this era. ... I won’t be surprised if in the next year or 2 or 3 they truly become the standard of care.”
Dr. Mulay also speaks from experience working in both the chronic and acute setting, where he’s observed “some magical stuff happening” in patients started on SGLT2 inhibitors, especially those in heart failure who are fluid overloaded.
“It’s phenomenal stuff,” Dr. Mulay said. “You can really stabilize patients’ hemodynamics.”
In the private health care setting, he described widespread enthusiasm among nephrologists, although others still appear skeptical.
“It’s really our cardiology colleagues that I feel are underprescribing it,” Dr. Mulay said. “So, I’m kind of taking it on myself, when I see a heart failure patient, to go ahead and put them on this.”
It’s unclear why some cardiologists seem apprehensive, Dr. Mulay continued, although he suggested that unclear guidelines and a lack of first-hand experience may be to blame.
Nephrologists and cardiologists sometimes agree
In the academic arena, Leslie Gewin, MD, associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the John Cochran VA Hospital, also in St. Louis, has seen similar support for SGLT2 inhibitors among both nephrologists and cardiologists.
“We had a joint nephrology-cardiology medicine grand rounds at Wash U in St. Louis maybe 2 weeks ago,” Dr. Gewin said in an interview. “The cardiologists and nephrologists tag-teamed to present data about SGLT2 inhibitors, and we kind of joked that this was the one thing we both could get behind and support.”
Still, she has seen some reluctance among non-nephrology clinicians lacking SGLT2 experience, specifically when managing patients who have poor kidney function.
“There can be some hesitancy among physicians if the GFR is low,” Dr. Gewin said. “That’s where I’ve had to sort of push the envelope with non-nephrologists, saying: ‘Look, we feel pretty comfortable starting down to a GFR of about 20.’ ”
Early rises in creatinine may also spook providers, she noted.
“Sometimes, when we start SGLT2 inhibitors, the creatinine increases slightly, and the [primary care provider] gets concerned,” Dr. Gewin said. “We say: ‘No, this is expected. Don’t worry, hold the course, this is a good drug.’ ”
Like Dr. Mulay, Dr. Gewin said the present study offers further encouragement for the efficacy of this drug class. She also said sufficient data have been published to allay earlier concerns about potential safety signals, such as bone fractures and amputations.
“SGLT2 inhibitors seem to be a lot safer than what we initially had thought,” Dr. Gewin said. “That’s very encouraging.”
The study was funded by AstraZeneca. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with Bayer, Janssen, Gilead, and others. Dr. Gewin and Dr. Mulay disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
These findings add to a growing body of evidence supporting a range of positive benefits from dapagliflozin, including reduced risks of mortality, cardiovascular events, and kidney events, lead author Meir Schechter, MD, PhD, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and colleagues wrote in Annals of Internal Medicine.“Although cardiovascular and kidney outcomes with SGLT2 inhibitors have been studied extensively, there is a paucity of data evaluating the effects of SGLT2 inhibitors on hospitalizations for any cause.”
The findings are based on a post hoc analysis of the DAPA-CKD trial, which involved 4,304 patients with CKD in 21 countries. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive dapagliflozin 10 mg orally once a day or matching placebo. The present analysis quantified first hospitalizations for any cause, all hospitalizations, cause-specific hospitalizations, and several related outcomes.
After a median follow-up of 2.4 years, 28% of the population had been hospitalized a total of 2,072 times.
Compared with placebo, dapagliflozin significantly reduced risk of first hospitalization by 16% (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.75-0.94) and rate of all hospitalizations by 21% (rate ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.70-0.89). These findings remained significant regardless of type 2 diabetes status, with significant benefits seen across reasons for admission, including renal/urinary disorders, cardiac disorders, neoplasms, and metabolism/nutrition disorders. In addition, dapagliflozin was associated with shorter mean time in hospital (2.3 vs. 2.8 days; P = .027) and longer time alive and out of hospital (354.9 vs. 351.7; P = .023).
“These findings highlight additional benefits of dapagliflozin beyond those seen for cardiovascular and kidney events, all-cause and cause-specific mortality, eGFR [estimated glomerular filtration rate] slope, and albuminuria and should be considered when evaluating the totality of evidence favoring provision of dapagliflozin to patients with CKD,” the investigators concluded.
Positive data, positive experiences
Shree Mulay, MD, a nephrologist in private practice in western Tennessee, said this study is “one of several other articles that already exist” demonstrating the broad benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors.
“The evidence is pretty substantial,” Dr. Mulay said in an interview. “I think SGLT2 inhibitors are the new statin of this era. ... I won’t be surprised if in the next year or 2 or 3 they truly become the standard of care.”
Dr. Mulay also speaks from experience working in both the chronic and acute setting, where he’s observed “some magical stuff happening” in patients started on SGLT2 inhibitors, especially those in heart failure who are fluid overloaded.
“It’s phenomenal stuff,” Dr. Mulay said. “You can really stabilize patients’ hemodynamics.”
In the private health care setting, he described widespread enthusiasm among nephrologists, although others still appear skeptical.
“It’s really our cardiology colleagues that I feel are underprescribing it,” Dr. Mulay said. “So, I’m kind of taking it on myself, when I see a heart failure patient, to go ahead and put them on this.”
It’s unclear why some cardiologists seem apprehensive, Dr. Mulay continued, although he suggested that unclear guidelines and a lack of first-hand experience may be to blame.
Nephrologists and cardiologists sometimes agree
In the academic arena, Leslie Gewin, MD, associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the John Cochran VA Hospital, also in St. Louis, has seen similar support for SGLT2 inhibitors among both nephrologists and cardiologists.
“We had a joint nephrology-cardiology medicine grand rounds at Wash U in St. Louis maybe 2 weeks ago,” Dr. Gewin said in an interview. “The cardiologists and nephrologists tag-teamed to present data about SGLT2 inhibitors, and we kind of joked that this was the one thing we both could get behind and support.”
Still, she has seen some reluctance among non-nephrology clinicians lacking SGLT2 experience, specifically when managing patients who have poor kidney function.
“There can be some hesitancy among physicians if the GFR is low,” Dr. Gewin said. “That’s where I’ve had to sort of push the envelope with non-nephrologists, saying: ‘Look, we feel pretty comfortable starting down to a GFR of about 20.’ ”
Early rises in creatinine may also spook providers, she noted.
“Sometimes, when we start SGLT2 inhibitors, the creatinine increases slightly, and the [primary care provider] gets concerned,” Dr. Gewin said. “We say: ‘No, this is expected. Don’t worry, hold the course, this is a good drug.’ ”
Like Dr. Mulay, Dr. Gewin said the present study offers further encouragement for the efficacy of this drug class. She also said sufficient data have been published to allay earlier concerns about potential safety signals, such as bone fractures and amputations.
“SGLT2 inhibitors seem to be a lot safer than what we initially had thought,” Dr. Gewin said. “That’s very encouraging.”
The study was funded by AstraZeneca. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with Bayer, Janssen, Gilead, and others. Dr. Gewin and Dr. Mulay disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
FROM ANNALS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE
RSV surge stuns parents and strains providers, but doctors offer help
RSV cases peaked in mid-November, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, with RSV-associated hospitalizations in the United States among patients 0-4 years having maxed out five times higher than they were at the same time in 2021. These surges strained providers and left parents scrambling for care. Fortunately, pediatric hospitalizations appear to be subsiding.
In interviews, the parents of the child who had a severe case of RSV reflected on their son’s bout with the illness, and doctors described challenges to dealing with the surge in RSV cases this season. The physicians also offered advice on how recognize and respond to future cases of the virus.
Sebastian Witt’s story
“I didn’t even know what RSV was,” said Malte Witt, whose son, Sebastian, 2, was recently hospitalized for RSV in Denver.
Mr. Witt and his wife, Emily Witt, both 32, thought they were dealing with a typical cold until Sebastian’s condition dramatically deteriorated about 36 hours after symptom onset.
“He basically just slumped over and collapsed, coughing uncontrollably,” Mr. Witt said in an interview. “He couldn’t catch his breath.”
The Witts rushed Sebastian to the ED at Children’s Hospital Colorado, expecting to see a doctor immediately. Instead, they spent the night in an overcrowded waiting room alongside many other families in the same situation.
“There was no room for anyone to sit anywhere,” Mr. Witt said. “There were people sitting on the floor. I counted maybe six children hooked up to oxygen when we walked in.”
After waiting approximately 45 minutes, a nurse checked Sebastian’s oxygen saturation. The readings were 79%-83%. This range is significantly below thresholds for supplemental oxygen described by most pediatric guidelines, which range from 90 to 94%.
The nurse connected Sebastian to bottled oxygen in the waiting room, and a recheck 4 hours later showed that his oxygen saturation had improved.
But the improvement didn’t last.
“At roughly hour 10 in the waiting room – it was 4 in the morning – you could tell that Seb was exhausted, really not acting like himself,” Mr. Witt said. “We thought maybe it’s just late at night, he hasn’t really slept. But then Emily noticed that his oxygen tank had run out.”
Mr. Witt told a nurse, and after another check revealed low oxygen saturation, Sebastian was finally admitted.
Early RSV surge strains pediatric providers
With RSV-associated hospitalizations peaking at 48 per 100,000 children, Colorado has been among the states hardest hit by the virus. New Mexico – where hospitalizations peaked at 56.4 per 100,000 children – comes in second. Even in states like California, where hospitalization rates have been almost 10-fold lower than New Mexico, pediatric providers have been stretched to their limits.
“Many hospitals are really being overwhelmed with admissions for RSV, both routine RSV – relatively mild hospitalizations with bronchiolitis – as well as kids in the ICU with more severe cases,” said Dean Blumberg, MD, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health, Sacramento, said in an interview.
Dr. Blumberg believes the severity of the 2022-2023 RSV season is likely COVID related.
“All community-associated respiratory viral infections are out of whack because of the pandemic, and all the masking and social distancing that was occurring,” he said.
This may also explain why older kids are coming down with more severe cases of RSV.
“Some children are getting RSV for the first time as older children,” Dr. Blumberg said, noting that, historically, most children were infected in the first 2 years of life. “There are reports of children 3 or 4 years of age being admitted with their first episode of RSV because of the [COVID] pandemic.”
This year’s RSV season is also notable for arriving early, potentially catching the community off guard, according to Jennifer D. Kusma, MD, a primary care pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
“People who should have been protected often weren’t protected yet,” Dr. Kusma said in an interview.
Treatments new, old, and unproven
On Nov. 17, in the midst of the RSV surge, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued updated guidance for palivizumab, an RSV-targeting monoclonal antibody labeled for children at risk of severe RSV, including those with pre-existing lung or heart conditions, and infants with a history of premature birth (less than or equal to 35 weeks’ gestational age).
“If RSV disease activity persists at high levels in a given region through the fall and winter, the AAP supports providing more than five consecutive doses of palivizumab to eligible children,” the update stated.
Insurance companies appear to be responding in kind, covering additional doses for children in need.
“[Payers] have agreed that, if [palivizumab] needs to be given for an additional month or 2 or 3, then they’re making a commitment that they’ll reimburse hospitals for providing that,” Dr. Blumberg said.
For ineligible patients, such as Sebastian, who was born prematurely at 36 weeks – 1 week shy of the label requirement – treatment relies upon supportive care with oxygen and IV fluids.
At home, parents are left with simpler options.
Dr. Blumberg and Dr. Kusma recommended keeping children hydrated, maintaining humidified air, and using saline nose drops with bulb suction to clear mucus.
In the Witts’ experience, that last step may be easier said than done.
“Every time a nurse would walk into the room, Sebastian would yell: ‘Go away, doctor! I don’t want snot sucker!’” Mr. Witt said.
“If you over snot-suck, that’s really uncomfortable for the kid, and really hard for you,” Ms. Witt said. “And it doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s just very hard to find a middle ground, where you’re helping and keeping them comfortable.”
Some parents are turning to novel strategies, such as nebulized hypertonic saline, currently marketed on Amazon for children with RSV.
Although the AAP offers a weak recommendation for nebulized hypertonic saline in children hospitalized more than 72 hours, they advise against it in the emergency setting, citing inconsistent findings in clinical trials.
To any parents tempted by thousands of positive Amazon reviews, Dr. Blumberg said, “I wouldn’t waste my money on that.”
Dr. Kusma agreed.
“[Nebulized hypertonic saline] can be irritating,” she said. “It’s saltwater, essentially. If a parent is in the position where they’re worried about their child’s breathing to the point that they think they need to use it, I would err on the side of calling your pediatrician and being seen.”
Going in, coming home
Dr. Kusma said parents should seek medical attention if a child is breathing faster and working harder to get air. Increased work of breathing is characterized by pulling of the skin at the notch where the throat meets the chest bone (tracheal tugging), and flattening of the belly that makes the ribcage more prominent.
Mr. Witt saw these signs in Sebastian. He knew they were significant, because a friend who is a nurse had previously shown him some examples of children who exhibited these symptoms online.
“That’s how I knew that things were actually really dangerous,” Mr. Witt said. “Had she not shown me those videos a month and a half before this happened, I don’t know that we would have hit the alarm bell as quickly as we did.”
After spending their second night and the following day in a cramped preoperative room converted to manage overflow from the emergency department, Sebastian’s condition improved, and he was discharged. The Witts are relieved to be home, but frustrations from their ordeal remain, especially considering the estimated $5,000 in out-of-pocket costs they expect to pay.
“How is this our health care system?” Ms. Witt asked. “This is unbelievable.”
An optimistic outlook
RSV seasons typically demonstrate a clear peak, followed by a decline through the rest of the season, suggesting better times lie ahead; however, this season has been anything but typical.
“I’m hopeful that it will just go away and stay away,” Dr. Kusma said, citing this trend. “But I can’t know for sure.”
To anxious parents, Dr. Blumberg offered an optimistic view of RSV seasons to come.
“There’s hope,” he said. “There are vaccines that are being developed that are very close to FDA approval. So, it’s possible that this time next year, we might have widespread RSV vaccination available for children so that we don’t have to go through this nightmare again.”
Dr. Blumberg and Dr. Kusma disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
RSV cases peaked in mid-November, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, with RSV-associated hospitalizations in the United States among patients 0-4 years having maxed out five times higher than they were at the same time in 2021. These surges strained providers and left parents scrambling for care. Fortunately, pediatric hospitalizations appear to be subsiding.
In interviews, the parents of the child who had a severe case of RSV reflected on their son’s bout with the illness, and doctors described challenges to dealing with the surge in RSV cases this season. The physicians also offered advice on how recognize and respond to future cases of the virus.
Sebastian Witt’s story
“I didn’t even know what RSV was,” said Malte Witt, whose son, Sebastian, 2, was recently hospitalized for RSV in Denver.
Mr. Witt and his wife, Emily Witt, both 32, thought they were dealing with a typical cold until Sebastian’s condition dramatically deteriorated about 36 hours after symptom onset.
“He basically just slumped over and collapsed, coughing uncontrollably,” Mr. Witt said in an interview. “He couldn’t catch his breath.”
The Witts rushed Sebastian to the ED at Children’s Hospital Colorado, expecting to see a doctor immediately. Instead, they spent the night in an overcrowded waiting room alongside many other families in the same situation.
“There was no room for anyone to sit anywhere,” Mr. Witt said. “There were people sitting on the floor. I counted maybe six children hooked up to oxygen when we walked in.”
After waiting approximately 45 minutes, a nurse checked Sebastian’s oxygen saturation. The readings were 79%-83%. This range is significantly below thresholds for supplemental oxygen described by most pediatric guidelines, which range from 90 to 94%.
The nurse connected Sebastian to bottled oxygen in the waiting room, and a recheck 4 hours later showed that his oxygen saturation had improved.
But the improvement didn’t last.
“At roughly hour 10 in the waiting room – it was 4 in the morning – you could tell that Seb was exhausted, really not acting like himself,” Mr. Witt said. “We thought maybe it’s just late at night, he hasn’t really slept. But then Emily noticed that his oxygen tank had run out.”
Mr. Witt told a nurse, and after another check revealed low oxygen saturation, Sebastian was finally admitted.
Early RSV surge strains pediatric providers
With RSV-associated hospitalizations peaking at 48 per 100,000 children, Colorado has been among the states hardest hit by the virus. New Mexico – where hospitalizations peaked at 56.4 per 100,000 children – comes in second. Even in states like California, where hospitalization rates have been almost 10-fold lower than New Mexico, pediatric providers have been stretched to their limits.
“Many hospitals are really being overwhelmed with admissions for RSV, both routine RSV – relatively mild hospitalizations with bronchiolitis – as well as kids in the ICU with more severe cases,” said Dean Blumberg, MD, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health, Sacramento, said in an interview.
Dr. Blumberg believes the severity of the 2022-2023 RSV season is likely COVID related.
“All community-associated respiratory viral infections are out of whack because of the pandemic, and all the masking and social distancing that was occurring,” he said.
This may also explain why older kids are coming down with more severe cases of RSV.
“Some children are getting RSV for the first time as older children,” Dr. Blumberg said, noting that, historically, most children were infected in the first 2 years of life. “There are reports of children 3 or 4 years of age being admitted with their first episode of RSV because of the [COVID] pandemic.”
This year’s RSV season is also notable for arriving early, potentially catching the community off guard, according to Jennifer D. Kusma, MD, a primary care pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
“People who should have been protected often weren’t protected yet,” Dr. Kusma said in an interview.
Treatments new, old, and unproven
On Nov. 17, in the midst of the RSV surge, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued updated guidance for palivizumab, an RSV-targeting monoclonal antibody labeled for children at risk of severe RSV, including those with pre-existing lung or heart conditions, and infants with a history of premature birth (less than or equal to 35 weeks’ gestational age).
“If RSV disease activity persists at high levels in a given region through the fall and winter, the AAP supports providing more than five consecutive doses of palivizumab to eligible children,” the update stated.
Insurance companies appear to be responding in kind, covering additional doses for children in need.
“[Payers] have agreed that, if [palivizumab] needs to be given for an additional month or 2 or 3, then they’re making a commitment that they’ll reimburse hospitals for providing that,” Dr. Blumberg said.
For ineligible patients, such as Sebastian, who was born prematurely at 36 weeks – 1 week shy of the label requirement – treatment relies upon supportive care with oxygen and IV fluids.
At home, parents are left with simpler options.
Dr. Blumberg and Dr. Kusma recommended keeping children hydrated, maintaining humidified air, and using saline nose drops with bulb suction to clear mucus.
In the Witts’ experience, that last step may be easier said than done.
“Every time a nurse would walk into the room, Sebastian would yell: ‘Go away, doctor! I don’t want snot sucker!’” Mr. Witt said.
“If you over snot-suck, that’s really uncomfortable for the kid, and really hard for you,” Ms. Witt said. “And it doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s just very hard to find a middle ground, where you’re helping and keeping them comfortable.”
Some parents are turning to novel strategies, such as nebulized hypertonic saline, currently marketed on Amazon for children with RSV.
Although the AAP offers a weak recommendation for nebulized hypertonic saline in children hospitalized more than 72 hours, they advise against it in the emergency setting, citing inconsistent findings in clinical trials.
To any parents tempted by thousands of positive Amazon reviews, Dr. Blumberg said, “I wouldn’t waste my money on that.”
Dr. Kusma agreed.
“[Nebulized hypertonic saline] can be irritating,” she said. “It’s saltwater, essentially. If a parent is in the position where they’re worried about their child’s breathing to the point that they think they need to use it, I would err on the side of calling your pediatrician and being seen.”
Going in, coming home
Dr. Kusma said parents should seek medical attention if a child is breathing faster and working harder to get air. Increased work of breathing is characterized by pulling of the skin at the notch where the throat meets the chest bone (tracheal tugging), and flattening of the belly that makes the ribcage more prominent.
Mr. Witt saw these signs in Sebastian. He knew they were significant, because a friend who is a nurse had previously shown him some examples of children who exhibited these symptoms online.
“That’s how I knew that things were actually really dangerous,” Mr. Witt said. “Had she not shown me those videos a month and a half before this happened, I don’t know that we would have hit the alarm bell as quickly as we did.”
After spending their second night and the following day in a cramped preoperative room converted to manage overflow from the emergency department, Sebastian’s condition improved, and he was discharged. The Witts are relieved to be home, but frustrations from their ordeal remain, especially considering the estimated $5,000 in out-of-pocket costs they expect to pay.
“How is this our health care system?” Ms. Witt asked. “This is unbelievable.”
An optimistic outlook
RSV seasons typically demonstrate a clear peak, followed by a decline through the rest of the season, suggesting better times lie ahead; however, this season has been anything but typical.
“I’m hopeful that it will just go away and stay away,” Dr. Kusma said, citing this trend. “But I can’t know for sure.”
To anxious parents, Dr. Blumberg offered an optimistic view of RSV seasons to come.
“There’s hope,” he said. “There are vaccines that are being developed that are very close to FDA approval. So, it’s possible that this time next year, we might have widespread RSV vaccination available for children so that we don’t have to go through this nightmare again.”
Dr. Blumberg and Dr. Kusma disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
RSV cases peaked in mid-November, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, with RSV-associated hospitalizations in the United States among patients 0-4 years having maxed out five times higher than they were at the same time in 2021. These surges strained providers and left parents scrambling for care. Fortunately, pediatric hospitalizations appear to be subsiding.
In interviews, the parents of the child who had a severe case of RSV reflected on their son’s bout with the illness, and doctors described challenges to dealing with the surge in RSV cases this season. The physicians also offered advice on how recognize and respond to future cases of the virus.
Sebastian Witt’s story
“I didn’t even know what RSV was,” said Malte Witt, whose son, Sebastian, 2, was recently hospitalized for RSV in Denver.
Mr. Witt and his wife, Emily Witt, both 32, thought they were dealing with a typical cold until Sebastian’s condition dramatically deteriorated about 36 hours after symptom onset.
“He basically just slumped over and collapsed, coughing uncontrollably,” Mr. Witt said in an interview. “He couldn’t catch his breath.”
The Witts rushed Sebastian to the ED at Children’s Hospital Colorado, expecting to see a doctor immediately. Instead, they spent the night in an overcrowded waiting room alongside many other families in the same situation.
“There was no room for anyone to sit anywhere,” Mr. Witt said. “There were people sitting on the floor. I counted maybe six children hooked up to oxygen when we walked in.”
After waiting approximately 45 minutes, a nurse checked Sebastian’s oxygen saturation. The readings were 79%-83%. This range is significantly below thresholds for supplemental oxygen described by most pediatric guidelines, which range from 90 to 94%.
The nurse connected Sebastian to bottled oxygen in the waiting room, and a recheck 4 hours later showed that his oxygen saturation had improved.
But the improvement didn’t last.
“At roughly hour 10 in the waiting room – it was 4 in the morning – you could tell that Seb was exhausted, really not acting like himself,” Mr. Witt said. “We thought maybe it’s just late at night, he hasn’t really slept. But then Emily noticed that his oxygen tank had run out.”
Mr. Witt told a nurse, and after another check revealed low oxygen saturation, Sebastian was finally admitted.
Early RSV surge strains pediatric providers
With RSV-associated hospitalizations peaking at 48 per 100,000 children, Colorado has been among the states hardest hit by the virus. New Mexico – where hospitalizations peaked at 56.4 per 100,000 children – comes in second. Even in states like California, where hospitalization rates have been almost 10-fold lower than New Mexico, pediatric providers have been stretched to their limits.
“Many hospitals are really being overwhelmed with admissions for RSV, both routine RSV – relatively mild hospitalizations with bronchiolitis – as well as kids in the ICU with more severe cases,” said Dean Blumberg, MD, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health, Sacramento, said in an interview.
Dr. Blumberg believes the severity of the 2022-2023 RSV season is likely COVID related.
“All community-associated respiratory viral infections are out of whack because of the pandemic, and all the masking and social distancing that was occurring,” he said.
This may also explain why older kids are coming down with more severe cases of RSV.
“Some children are getting RSV for the first time as older children,” Dr. Blumberg said, noting that, historically, most children were infected in the first 2 years of life. “There are reports of children 3 or 4 years of age being admitted with their first episode of RSV because of the [COVID] pandemic.”
This year’s RSV season is also notable for arriving early, potentially catching the community off guard, according to Jennifer D. Kusma, MD, a primary care pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
“People who should have been protected often weren’t protected yet,” Dr. Kusma said in an interview.
Treatments new, old, and unproven
On Nov. 17, in the midst of the RSV surge, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued updated guidance for palivizumab, an RSV-targeting monoclonal antibody labeled for children at risk of severe RSV, including those with pre-existing lung or heart conditions, and infants with a history of premature birth (less than or equal to 35 weeks’ gestational age).
“If RSV disease activity persists at high levels in a given region through the fall and winter, the AAP supports providing more than five consecutive doses of palivizumab to eligible children,” the update stated.
Insurance companies appear to be responding in kind, covering additional doses for children in need.
“[Payers] have agreed that, if [palivizumab] needs to be given for an additional month or 2 or 3, then they’re making a commitment that they’ll reimburse hospitals for providing that,” Dr. Blumberg said.
For ineligible patients, such as Sebastian, who was born prematurely at 36 weeks – 1 week shy of the label requirement – treatment relies upon supportive care with oxygen and IV fluids.
At home, parents are left with simpler options.
Dr. Blumberg and Dr. Kusma recommended keeping children hydrated, maintaining humidified air, and using saline nose drops with bulb suction to clear mucus.
In the Witts’ experience, that last step may be easier said than done.
“Every time a nurse would walk into the room, Sebastian would yell: ‘Go away, doctor! I don’t want snot sucker!’” Mr. Witt said.
“If you over snot-suck, that’s really uncomfortable for the kid, and really hard for you,” Ms. Witt said. “And it doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s just very hard to find a middle ground, where you’re helping and keeping them comfortable.”
Some parents are turning to novel strategies, such as nebulized hypertonic saline, currently marketed on Amazon for children with RSV.
Although the AAP offers a weak recommendation for nebulized hypertonic saline in children hospitalized more than 72 hours, they advise against it in the emergency setting, citing inconsistent findings in clinical trials.
To any parents tempted by thousands of positive Amazon reviews, Dr. Blumberg said, “I wouldn’t waste my money on that.”
Dr. Kusma agreed.
“[Nebulized hypertonic saline] can be irritating,” she said. “It’s saltwater, essentially. If a parent is in the position where they’re worried about their child’s breathing to the point that they think they need to use it, I would err on the side of calling your pediatrician and being seen.”
Going in, coming home
Dr. Kusma said parents should seek medical attention if a child is breathing faster and working harder to get air. Increased work of breathing is characterized by pulling of the skin at the notch where the throat meets the chest bone (tracheal tugging), and flattening of the belly that makes the ribcage more prominent.
Mr. Witt saw these signs in Sebastian. He knew they were significant, because a friend who is a nurse had previously shown him some examples of children who exhibited these symptoms online.
“That’s how I knew that things were actually really dangerous,” Mr. Witt said. “Had she not shown me those videos a month and a half before this happened, I don’t know that we would have hit the alarm bell as quickly as we did.”
After spending their second night and the following day in a cramped preoperative room converted to manage overflow from the emergency department, Sebastian’s condition improved, and he was discharged. The Witts are relieved to be home, but frustrations from their ordeal remain, especially considering the estimated $5,000 in out-of-pocket costs they expect to pay.
“How is this our health care system?” Ms. Witt asked. “This is unbelievable.”
An optimistic outlook
RSV seasons typically demonstrate a clear peak, followed by a decline through the rest of the season, suggesting better times lie ahead; however, this season has been anything but typical.
“I’m hopeful that it will just go away and stay away,” Dr. Kusma said, citing this trend. “But I can’t know for sure.”
To anxious parents, Dr. Blumberg offered an optimistic view of RSV seasons to come.
“There’s hope,” he said. “There are vaccines that are being developed that are very close to FDA approval. So, it’s possible that this time next year, we might have widespread RSV vaccination available for children so that we don’t have to go through this nightmare again.”
Dr. Blumberg and Dr. Kusma disclosed no relevant conflicts of interest.
Watching violent TV in preschool linked with emotional, behavioral issues at age 12
Preschoolers who watch violent television are more likely to have emotional and behavioral issues at the age of 12, according to investigators.
These findings align with previous studies that have shown the negative effects of watching violent content, reinforcing the importance of restricting childhood screen time, lead author Linda S. Pagani, PhD, of Université de Montréal and colleagues reported.
Past research measured the immediate or short-term effects of seeing violent media. This study examined how TV violence could be leading to issues almost a decade later, the investigators wrote in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.
Their study looked at 1,976 children from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a random representative cohort of boys and girls followed since their births in 1997 and 1998.
At the cohort study follow-ups at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years, the parents of these children reported if their kids watched violent TV, showing that about half of them were exposed. At age 12, the same children were scored by their teachers on a range of psychosocial outcomes, including emotional distress, inattentive behavior, disorderly behavior, social withdrawal, classroom engagement, and overall academic achievement. At this second time point, the children also scored themselves on their own academic motivation and confidence in writing.
To adjust for other factors that could be playing a role, the investigators accounted for participant characteristics at various ages between 5 months and 12 years, as well as differences in parenting styles, home environment, and socioeconomic status.
Dr. Pagani noted that these were not “garden-variety” statistical techniques.
“We did them in such a way that we set ourselves up for not finding results,” Dr. Pagani said in an interview. “That’s why this is really interesting.”
She and her colleagues found that watching TV violence during preschool was significantly associated with multiple negative outcomes at age 12.
For girls, negative outcomes included greater emotional distress, less classroom engagement, lower academic achievement, and less academic motivation. Boys showed greater emotional distress, decreased attention, disorderly behavior, social withdrawal, less classroom engagement, lower academic achievement, and less academic motivation.
“As expected, early screen violence exposure seems to come at a cost,” the investigators wrote.
Seeing TV through a child’s eyes
According to Dr. Pagani, many parents think that TV shows watched by preschoolers – like cartoons – are harmless, but these parents need to understand that the brains of children are not yet fully developed.
“The kid has an interpretation that’s very concrete,” Dr. Pagani said. “They don’t have abstract thinking.”
Because of this, kids who see “good guys” beating up “bad guys” don’t understand that the violence is comical and justified; they just see violence being used to address social disagreement, Dr. Pagani said. This leads children to believe that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems in daily life. Children are also more likely to see hostility in others when it isn’t present, leading to conflict.
Although the natural response to these findings is to restrict childhood exposure to violent content, this may be easier said than done, the investigators noted, particularly because TV is no longer the only screen in the home, as it was when this study began. Nowadays, parents need to monitor multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers, all of which may negatively impact normal brain development.
“People think this technology is innocuous,” Dr. Pagani said. “We are asleep at the wheel.”
She advised parents to wake up and follow the World Health Organization guidelines for sedentary screen time. The guidelines call for no screen time at all until a child is at least 2 years old, and then less than 1 hour per day until age 5.
“It’s the parents who should be in charge,” she said. “They’re the ones who have the cognitive ability to make decisions for their children.”
Choosing quality time over screen time
Loredana Marchica, PhD, of Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University, also in Montreal, expressed confidence in the study findings, because the results line up with past research, and because the investigators accounted for other explanations.
There is a “very strong probability” that watching violent TV in preschool leads to psychological issues down the line, Dr. Marchica said.
If a child is exposed to violent content, then parents should help children understand the difference between what happens in TV shows and real life, she added, as this can reduce negative effects on behavior.
“Parents need to explain that it’s a TV show,” Dr. Marchica said. “It’s not real, and if [that violent act] happened in real life, it would actually hurt a person.”
In addition to limiting screen time and explaining any violent content, she encouraged parents to spend quality time with their children, especially during the preschool years.
“Those are the years to fortify the attachment you have with that child,” Dr. Marchica said. “Even 15 minutes a day of quality, interactive play time can make such a difference in their development, their imagination, and their social engagement and abilities.”
Parents should also try to have conversations with their young children, she said, noting that it’s okay to share personal feelings, as this teaches kids how to manage their own emotions.
“Not everything is wonderful in life, and we’re allowed to talk about that,” Dr. Marchica said. “[Parents can say,] ‘Mommy had a bad day today. This bad thing happened. But here’s what I did to make myself feel better.’ ”
Dr. Pagani and coauthors termed their findings “robust,” but also cautioned that, in their correlational study, TV violence cannot be interpreted as causal. In other limitations, they noted that the study relies on a single parent-reported item that yielded a low rate of reported exposure. Or the findings could result from other things, such as family chaos or parenting style or something else.
The longitudinal study was supported by Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon, the Institut de la Statistique du Québec, the Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur, and others. The investigators and Dr. Marchica reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
Preschoolers who watch violent television are more likely to have emotional and behavioral issues at the age of 12, according to investigators.
These findings align with previous studies that have shown the negative effects of watching violent content, reinforcing the importance of restricting childhood screen time, lead author Linda S. Pagani, PhD, of Université de Montréal and colleagues reported.
Past research measured the immediate or short-term effects of seeing violent media. This study examined how TV violence could be leading to issues almost a decade later, the investigators wrote in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.
Their study looked at 1,976 children from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a random representative cohort of boys and girls followed since their births in 1997 and 1998.
At the cohort study follow-ups at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years, the parents of these children reported if their kids watched violent TV, showing that about half of them were exposed. At age 12, the same children were scored by their teachers on a range of psychosocial outcomes, including emotional distress, inattentive behavior, disorderly behavior, social withdrawal, classroom engagement, and overall academic achievement. At this second time point, the children also scored themselves on their own academic motivation and confidence in writing.
To adjust for other factors that could be playing a role, the investigators accounted for participant characteristics at various ages between 5 months and 12 years, as well as differences in parenting styles, home environment, and socioeconomic status.
Dr. Pagani noted that these were not “garden-variety” statistical techniques.
“We did them in such a way that we set ourselves up for not finding results,” Dr. Pagani said in an interview. “That’s why this is really interesting.”
She and her colleagues found that watching TV violence during preschool was significantly associated with multiple negative outcomes at age 12.
For girls, negative outcomes included greater emotional distress, less classroom engagement, lower academic achievement, and less academic motivation. Boys showed greater emotional distress, decreased attention, disorderly behavior, social withdrawal, less classroom engagement, lower academic achievement, and less academic motivation.
“As expected, early screen violence exposure seems to come at a cost,” the investigators wrote.
Seeing TV through a child’s eyes
According to Dr. Pagani, many parents think that TV shows watched by preschoolers – like cartoons – are harmless, but these parents need to understand that the brains of children are not yet fully developed.
“The kid has an interpretation that’s very concrete,” Dr. Pagani said. “They don’t have abstract thinking.”
Because of this, kids who see “good guys” beating up “bad guys” don’t understand that the violence is comical and justified; they just see violence being used to address social disagreement, Dr. Pagani said. This leads children to believe that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems in daily life. Children are also more likely to see hostility in others when it isn’t present, leading to conflict.
Although the natural response to these findings is to restrict childhood exposure to violent content, this may be easier said than done, the investigators noted, particularly because TV is no longer the only screen in the home, as it was when this study began. Nowadays, parents need to monitor multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers, all of which may negatively impact normal brain development.
“People think this technology is innocuous,” Dr. Pagani said. “We are asleep at the wheel.”
She advised parents to wake up and follow the World Health Organization guidelines for sedentary screen time. The guidelines call for no screen time at all until a child is at least 2 years old, and then less than 1 hour per day until age 5.
“It’s the parents who should be in charge,” she said. “They’re the ones who have the cognitive ability to make decisions for their children.”
Choosing quality time over screen time
Loredana Marchica, PhD, of Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University, also in Montreal, expressed confidence in the study findings, because the results line up with past research, and because the investigators accounted for other explanations.
There is a “very strong probability” that watching violent TV in preschool leads to psychological issues down the line, Dr. Marchica said.
If a child is exposed to violent content, then parents should help children understand the difference between what happens in TV shows and real life, she added, as this can reduce negative effects on behavior.
“Parents need to explain that it’s a TV show,” Dr. Marchica said. “It’s not real, and if [that violent act] happened in real life, it would actually hurt a person.”
In addition to limiting screen time and explaining any violent content, she encouraged parents to spend quality time with their children, especially during the preschool years.
“Those are the years to fortify the attachment you have with that child,” Dr. Marchica said. “Even 15 minutes a day of quality, interactive play time can make such a difference in their development, their imagination, and their social engagement and abilities.”
Parents should also try to have conversations with their young children, she said, noting that it’s okay to share personal feelings, as this teaches kids how to manage their own emotions.
“Not everything is wonderful in life, and we’re allowed to talk about that,” Dr. Marchica said. “[Parents can say,] ‘Mommy had a bad day today. This bad thing happened. But here’s what I did to make myself feel better.’ ”
Dr. Pagani and coauthors termed their findings “robust,” but also cautioned that, in their correlational study, TV violence cannot be interpreted as causal. In other limitations, they noted that the study relies on a single parent-reported item that yielded a low rate of reported exposure. Or the findings could result from other things, such as family chaos or parenting style or something else.
The longitudinal study was supported by Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon, the Institut de la Statistique du Québec, the Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur, and others. The investigators and Dr. Marchica reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
Preschoolers who watch violent television are more likely to have emotional and behavioral issues at the age of 12, according to investigators.
These findings align with previous studies that have shown the negative effects of watching violent content, reinforcing the importance of restricting childhood screen time, lead author Linda S. Pagani, PhD, of Université de Montréal and colleagues reported.
Past research measured the immediate or short-term effects of seeing violent media. This study examined how TV violence could be leading to issues almost a decade later, the investigators wrote in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.
Their study looked at 1,976 children from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a random representative cohort of boys and girls followed since their births in 1997 and 1998.
At the cohort study follow-ups at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years, the parents of these children reported if their kids watched violent TV, showing that about half of them were exposed. At age 12, the same children were scored by their teachers on a range of psychosocial outcomes, including emotional distress, inattentive behavior, disorderly behavior, social withdrawal, classroom engagement, and overall academic achievement. At this second time point, the children also scored themselves on their own academic motivation and confidence in writing.
To adjust for other factors that could be playing a role, the investigators accounted for participant characteristics at various ages between 5 months and 12 years, as well as differences in parenting styles, home environment, and socioeconomic status.
Dr. Pagani noted that these were not “garden-variety” statistical techniques.
“We did them in such a way that we set ourselves up for not finding results,” Dr. Pagani said in an interview. “That’s why this is really interesting.”
She and her colleagues found that watching TV violence during preschool was significantly associated with multiple negative outcomes at age 12.
For girls, negative outcomes included greater emotional distress, less classroom engagement, lower academic achievement, and less academic motivation. Boys showed greater emotional distress, decreased attention, disorderly behavior, social withdrawal, less classroom engagement, lower academic achievement, and less academic motivation.
“As expected, early screen violence exposure seems to come at a cost,” the investigators wrote.
Seeing TV through a child’s eyes
According to Dr. Pagani, many parents think that TV shows watched by preschoolers – like cartoons – are harmless, but these parents need to understand that the brains of children are not yet fully developed.
“The kid has an interpretation that’s very concrete,” Dr. Pagani said. “They don’t have abstract thinking.”
Because of this, kids who see “good guys” beating up “bad guys” don’t understand that the violence is comical and justified; they just see violence being used to address social disagreement, Dr. Pagani said. This leads children to believe that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems in daily life. Children are also more likely to see hostility in others when it isn’t present, leading to conflict.
Although the natural response to these findings is to restrict childhood exposure to violent content, this may be easier said than done, the investigators noted, particularly because TV is no longer the only screen in the home, as it was when this study began. Nowadays, parents need to monitor multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers, all of which may negatively impact normal brain development.
“People think this technology is innocuous,” Dr. Pagani said. “We are asleep at the wheel.”
She advised parents to wake up and follow the World Health Organization guidelines for sedentary screen time. The guidelines call for no screen time at all until a child is at least 2 years old, and then less than 1 hour per day until age 5.
“It’s the parents who should be in charge,” she said. “They’re the ones who have the cognitive ability to make decisions for their children.”
Choosing quality time over screen time
Loredana Marchica, PhD, of Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University, also in Montreal, expressed confidence in the study findings, because the results line up with past research, and because the investigators accounted for other explanations.
There is a “very strong probability” that watching violent TV in preschool leads to psychological issues down the line, Dr. Marchica said.
If a child is exposed to violent content, then parents should help children understand the difference between what happens in TV shows and real life, she added, as this can reduce negative effects on behavior.
“Parents need to explain that it’s a TV show,” Dr. Marchica said. “It’s not real, and if [that violent act] happened in real life, it would actually hurt a person.”
In addition to limiting screen time and explaining any violent content, she encouraged parents to spend quality time with their children, especially during the preschool years.
“Those are the years to fortify the attachment you have with that child,” Dr. Marchica said. “Even 15 minutes a day of quality, interactive play time can make such a difference in their development, their imagination, and their social engagement and abilities.”
Parents should also try to have conversations with their young children, she said, noting that it’s okay to share personal feelings, as this teaches kids how to manage their own emotions.
“Not everything is wonderful in life, and we’re allowed to talk about that,” Dr. Marchica said. “[Parents can say,] ‘Mommy had a bad day today. This bad thing happened. But here’s what I did to make myself feel better.’ ”
Dr. Pagani and coauthors termed their findings “robust,” but also cautioned that, in their correlational study, TV violence cannot be interpreted as causal. In other limitations, they noted that the study relies on a single parent-reported item that yielded a low rate of reported exposure. Or the findings could result from other things, such as family chaos or parenting style or something else.
The longitudinal study was supported by Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon, the Institut de la Statistique du Québec, the Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur, and others. The investigators and Dr. Marchica reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
FROM THE JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL & BEHAVIORAL PEDIATRICS
Machine learning identifies childhood characteristics that predict bipolar disorder
This is the first quantitative approach to predict bipolar disorder, offering sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 76%, respectively, reported lead author Mai Uchida, MD, director of the pediatric depression program at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues. With further development, the model could be used to identify at-risk children via electronic medical records, enabling earlier monitoring and intervention.
“Although longitudinal studies have found the prognosis of early-onset mood disorders to be unfavorable, research has also shown there are effective treatments and therapies that could significantly alleviate the patients’ and their families’ struggles from the diagnoses,” the investigators wrote in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. “Thus, early identification of the risks and interventions for early symptoms of pediatric mood disorders is crucial.”
To this end, Dr. Uchida and colleagues teamed up with the Gabrieli Lab at MIT, who have published extensively in the realm of neurodevelopment. They sourced data from 492 children, 6-18 years at baseline, who were involved in two longitudinal case-control family studies focused on ADHD. Inputs included psychometric scales, structured diagnostic interviews, social and cognitive functioning assessments, and sociodemographic data.
At 10-year follow-up, 10% of these children had developed bipolar disorder, a notably higher rate than the 3%-4% prevalence in the general population.
“This is a population that’s overrepresented,” Dr. Uchida said in an interview.
She offered two primary reasons for this: First, the families involved in the study were probably willing to be followed for 10 years because they had ongoing concerns about their child’s mental health. Second, the studies enrolled children diagnosed with ADHD, a condition associated with increased risk of bipolar disorder.
Using machine learning algorithms that processed the baseline data while accounting for the skewed distribution, the investigators were able to predict which of the children in the population would go on to develop bipolar disorder. The final model offered a sensitivity of 75%, a specificity of 76%, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 75%.
“To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first study using machine-learning algorithms for this purpose in pediatric psychiatry,” the investigators wrote.
Integrating models into electronic medical records
In the future, this model, or one like it, could be incorporated into software that automatically analyzes electronic medical records and notifies physicians about high-risk patients, Dr. Uchida predicted.
“Not all patients would connect to intervention,” she said. “Maybe it just means that you invite them in for a visit, or you observe them a little bit more carefully. I think that’s where we are hoping that machine learning and medical practice will go.”
When asked about the potential bias posed by psychiatric evaluation, compared with something like blood work results, Dr. Uchida suggested that this subjectivity can be overcome.
“I’m not entirely bothered by that,” she said, offering a list of objective data points that could be harvested from records, such as number of referrals, medications, and hospitalizations. Narrative text in medical records could also be analyzed, she said, potentially detecting key words that are more often associated with high-risk patients.
“Risk prediction is never going to be 100% accurate,” Dr. Uchida said. “But I do think that there will be things [in electronic medical records] that could guide how worried we should be, or how quickly we should intervene.”
Opening doors to personalized care
Martin Gignac, MD, chief of psychiatry at Montreal Children’s Hospital and associate professor at McGill University, Montreal, said the present study offers further support for the existence of pediatric-onset bipolar disorder, which “remains controversial” despite “solid evidence.”
“I’m impressed that we have 10-year-long longitudinal follow-up studies that corroborate the importance of this disorder, and show strong predictors of who is at risk,” Dr. Gignac said in an interview. “Clinicians treating a pediatric population should be aware that some of those children with mental health problems might have severe mental health problems, and you have to have the appropriate tools to screen them.”
Advanced tools like the one developed by Dr. Uchida and colleagues should lead to more personalized care, he said.
“We’re going to be able to define what your individual risk is, and maybe most importantly, what you can do to prevent the development of certain disorders,” Dr. Gignac said. “Are there any risks that are dynamic in nature, and that we can act upon? Exposure to stress, for example.”
While more work is needed to bring machine learning into daily psychiatric practice, Dr. Gignac concluded on an optimistic note.
“These instruments should translate from research into clinical practice in order to make difference for the patients we care for,” he said. “This is the type of hope that I hold – that it’s going to be applicable in clinical practice, hopefully, in the near future.”
The investigators disclosed relationships with InCarda, Baylis Medical, Johnson & Johnson, and others. Dr. Gignac disclosed no relevant competing interests.
This is the first quantitative approach to predict bipolar disorder, offering sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 76%, respectively, reported lead author Mai Uchida, MD, director of the pediatric depression program at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues. With further development, the model could be used to identify at-risk children via electronic medical records, enabling earlier monitoring and intervention.
“Although longitudinal studies have found the prognosis of early-onset mood disorders to be unfavorable, research has also shown there are effective treatments and therapies that could significantly alleviate the patients’ and their families’ struggles from the diagnoses,” the investigators wrote in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. “Thus, early identification of the risks and interventions for early symptoms of pediatric mood disorders is crucial.”
To this end, Dr. Uchida and colleagues teamed up with the Gabrieli Lab at MIT, who have published extensively in the realm of neurodevelopment. They sourced data from 492 children, 6-18 years at baseline, who were involved in two longitudinal case-control family studies focused on ADHD. Inputs included psychometric scales, structured diagnostic interviews, social and cognitive functioning assessments, and sociodemographic data.
At 10-year follow-up, 10% of these children had developed bipolar disorder, a notably higher rate than the 3%-4% prevalence in the general population.
“This is a population that’s overrepresented,” Dr. Uchida said in an interview.
She offered two primary reasons for this: First, the families involved in the study were probably willing to be followed for 10 years because they had ongoing concerns about their child’s mental health. Second, the studies enrolled children diagnosed with ADHD, a condition associated with increased risk of bipolar disorder.
Using machine learning algorithms that processed the baseline data while accounting for the skewed distribution, the investigators were able to predict which of the children in the population would go on to develop bipolar disorder. The final model offered a sensitivity of 75%, a specificity of 76%, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 75%.
“To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first study using machine-learning algorithms for this purpose in pediatric psychiatry,” the investigators wrote.
Integrating models into electronic medical records
In the future, this model, or one like it, could be incorporated into software that automatically analyzes electronic medical records and notifies physicians about high-risk patients, Dr. Uchida predicted.
“Not all patients would connect to intervention,” she said. “Maybe it just means that you invite them in for a visit, or you observe them a little bit more carefully. I think that’s where we are hoping that machine learning and medical practice will go.”
When asked about the potential bias posed by psychiatric evaluation, compared with something like blood work results, Dr. Uchida suggested that this subjectivity can be overcome.
“I’m not entirely bothered by that,” she said, offering a list of objective data points that could be harvested from records, such as number of referrals, medications, and hospitalizations. Narrative text in medical records could also be analyzed, she said, potentially detecting key words that are more often associated with high-risk patients.
“Risk prediction is never going to be 100% accurate,” Dr. Uchida said. “But I do think that there will be things [in electronic medical records] that could guide how worried we should be, or how quickly we should intervene.”
Opening doors to personalized care
Martin Gignac, MD, chief of psychiatry at Montreal Children’s Hospital and associate professor at McGill University, Montreal, said the present study offers further support for the existence of pediatric-onset bipolar disorder, which “remains controversial” despite “solid evidence.”
“I’m impressed that we have 10-year-long longitudinal follow-up studies that corroborate the importance of this disorder, and show strong predictors of who is at risk,” Dr. Gignac said in an interview. “Clinicians treating a pediatric population should be aware that some of those children with mental health problems might have severe mental health problems, and you have to have the appropriate tools to screen them.”
Advanced tools like the one developed by Dr. Uchida and colleagues should lead to more personalized care, he said.
“We’re going to be able to define what your individual risk is, and maybe most importantly, what you can do to prevent the development of certain disorders,” Dr. Gignac said. “Are there any risks that are dynamic in nature, and that we can act upon? Exposure to stress, for example.”
While more work is needed to bring machine learning into daily psychiatric practice, Dr. Gignac concluded on an optimistic note.
“These instruments should translate from research into clinical practice in order to make difference for the patients we care for,” he said. “This is the type of hope that I hold – that it’s going to be applicable in clinical practice, hopefully, in the near future.”
The investigators disclosed relationships with InCarda, Baylis Medical, Johnson & Johnson, and others. Dr. Gignac disclosed no relevant competing interests.
This is the first quantitative approach to predict bipolar disorder, offering sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 76%, respectively, reported lead author Mai Uchida, MD, director of the pediatric depression program at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues. With further development, the model could be used to identify at-risk children via electronic medical records, enabling earlier monitoring and intervention.
“Although longitudinal studies have found the prognosis of early-onset mood disorders to be unfavorable, research has also shown there are effective treatments and therapies that could significantly alleviate the patients’ and their families’ struggles from the diagnoses,” the investigators wrote in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. “Thus, early identification of the risks and interventions for early symptoms of pediatric mood disorders is crucial.”
To this end, Dr. Uchida and colleagues teamed up with the Gabrieli Lab at MIT, who have published extensively in the realm of neurodevelopment. They sourced data from 492 children, 6-18 years at baseline, who were involved in two longitudinal case-control family studies focused on ADHD. Inputs included psychometric scales, structured diagnostic interviews, social and cognitive functioning assessments, and sociodemographic data.
At 10-year follow-up, 10% of these children had developed bipolar disorder, a notably higher rate than the 3%-4% prevalence in the general population.
“This is a population that’s overrepresented,” Dr. Uchida said in an interview.
She offered two primary reasons for this: First, the families involved in the study were probably willing to be followed for 10 years because they had ongoing concerns about their child’s mental health. Second, the studies enrolled children diagnosed with ADHD, a condition associated with increased risk of bipolar disorder.
Using machine learning algorithms that processed the baseline data while accounting for the skewed distribution, the investigators were able to predict which of the children in the population would go on to develop bipolar disorder. The final model offered a sensitivity of 75%, a specificity of 76%, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 75%.
“To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first study using machine-learning algorithms for this purpose in pediatric psychiatry,” the investigators wrote.
Integrating models into electronic medical records
In the future, this model, or one like it, could be incorporated into software that automatically analyzes electronic medical records and notifies physicians about high-risk patients, Dr. Uchida predicted.
“Not all patients would connect to intervention,” she said. “Maybe it just means that you invite them in for a visit, or you observe them a little bit more carefully. I think that’s where we are hoping that machine learning and medical practice will go.”
When asked about the potential bias posed by psychiatric evaluation, compared with something like blood work results, Dr. Uchida suggested that this subjectivity can be overcome.
“I’m not entirely bothered by that,” she said, offering a list of objective data points that could be harvested from records, such as number of referrals, medications, and hospitalizations. Narrative text in medical records could also be analyzed, she said, potentially detecting key words that are more often associated with high-risk patients.
“Risk prediction is never going to be 100% accurate,” Dr. Uchida said. “But I do think that there will be things [in electronic medical records] that could guide how worried we should be, or how quickly we should intervene.”
Opening doors to personalized care
Martin Gignac, MD, chief of psychiatry at Montreal Children’s Hospital and associate professor at McGill University, Montreal, said the present study offers further support for the existence of pediatric-onset bipolar disorder, which “remains controversial” despite “solid evidence.”
“I’m impressed that we have 10-year-long longitudinal follow-up studies that corroborate the importance of this disorder, and show strong predictors of who is at risk,” Dr. Gignac said in an interview. “Clinicians treating a pediatric population should be aware that some of those children with mental health problems might have severe mental health problems, and you have to have the appropriate tools to screen them.”
Advanced tools like the one developed by Dr. Uchida and colleagues should lead to more personalized care, he said.
“We’re going to be able to define what your individual risk is, and maybe most importantly, what you can do to prevent the development of certain disorders,” Dr. Gignac said. “Are there any risks that are dynamic in nature, and that we can act upon? Exposure to stress, for example.”
While more work is needed to bring machine learning into daily psychiatric practice, Dr. Gignac concluded on an optimistic note.
“These instruments should translate from research into clinical practice in order to make difference for the patients we care for,” he said. “This is the type of hope that I hold – that it’s going to be applicable in clinical practice, hopefully, in the near future.”
The investigators disclosed relationships with InCarda, Baylis Medical, Johnson & Johnson, and others. Dr. Gignac disclosed no relevant competing interests.
FROM THE JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH
Sex-linked IL-22 activity may affect NAFLD outcomes
Interleukin-22 may mitigate nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)–related fibrosis in females but not males, suggesting a sex-linked hepatoprotective pathway, according to investigators.
These differences between men and women should be considered when conducting clinical trials for IL-22–targeting therapies, reported lead author Mohamed N. Abdelnabi, MSc, of the Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal and colleagues.
“IL-22 is a pleiotropic cytokine with both inflammatory and protective effects during injury and repair in various tissues including the liver,” the investigators wrote in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, noting that IL-22 activity has been linked with both antifibrotic and profibrotic outcomes in previous preclinical studies. “These different observations highlight the dual nature of IL-22 that likely is dictated by multiple factors including the tissue involved, pathologic environment, endogenous vs. exogenous IL-22 level, and the time of exposure.”
Prior research has left some questions unanswered, the investigators noted, because many studies have relied on exogenous administration of IL-22 in mouse models, some of which lack all the metabolic abnormalities observed in human disease. Furthermore, these mice were all male, which has prevented detection of possible sex-linked differences in IL-22–related pathophysiology, they added.
To address these gaps, the investigators conducted a series of experiments involving men and women with NAFLD, plus mice of both sexes with NAFLD induced by a high-fat diet, both wild-type and with knock-out of the IL-22 receptor.
Human data
To characterize IL-22 activity in men versus women with NAFLD, the investigators first analyzed two publicly available microarray datasets. These revealed notably increased expression of hepatic IL-22 mRNA in the livers of females compared with males. Supporting this finding, liver biopsies from 11 men and 9 women with NAFLD with similar levels of fibrosis showed significantly increased IL-22–producing cells in female patients compared with male patients.
“These results suggest a sexual dimorphic expression of IL-22 in the context of NAFLD,” the investigators wrote.
Mouse data
Echoing the human data, the livers of female wild-type mice with NAFLD had significantly greater IL-22 expression than male mice at both mRNA and protein levels.
Next, the investigators explored the effects of IL-22–receptor knockout. In addition to NAFLD, these knockout mice developed weight gain and metabolic alterations, especially insulin resistance, supporting previous work that highlighted the protective role of IL-22 against these outcomes. More relevant to the present study, female knockout mice had significantly worse hepatic liver injury, apoptosis, inflammation, and fibrosis than male knockout mice, suggesting that IL-22 signaling confers hepatoprotection in females but not males.
“These observations may suggest a regulation of IL-22 expression by the female sex hormone estrogen,” the investigators wrote. “Indeed, estrogen is known to modulate inflammatory responses in NAFLD, but the underlying mechanisms remain undefined. ... Further in vivo studies are warranted to investigate whether endogenous estrogen regulates hepatic IL-22 expression in the context of NAFLD.”
In the meantime, the present data may steer drug development.
“These findings should be considered in clinical trials testing IL-22–based therapeutic approaches in treatment of female vs. male subjects with NAFLD,” the investigators concluded.
The study was partially funded by the Canadian Liver Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Bourse d’Exemption des Droits de Scolarité Supplémentaires from the Université de Montréal, the Canadian Network on Hepatitis, and others. The investigators disclosed no competing interests.
The cytokine interleukin-22 has potential as a therapeutic for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, as it has been shown to decrease fat accumulation in hepatocytes and has various other liver protective effects such as prevention of cell death, enhancement of proliferation, and, importantly, reduction of liver fibrosis progression. Indeed, a recombinant derivative of IL22 has been studied in a clinical trial of alcoholic liver disease and has been found to be safe. However, the beneficial effect of this cytokine is context dependent. High levels of IL22 increased inflammation or fibrosis in hepatitis B infection and in toxic injury models in mouse models.
This is in line with observations that progression to cirrhosis in NAFLD is greater after menopause. On the other hand, women are more likely to develop cirrhosis than men despite higher levels of IL22, indicating more factors are at play in the progression of NAFLD. Overall, this report should alert investigators to consider the sex-specific effects of emerging therapies for NAFLD. Future IL22-based trials must include sex-based subgroup analyses.
Kirk Wangensteen, MD, PhD, is with the department of medicine, division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He declares no relevant conflicts of interest.
The cytokine interleukin-22 has potential as a therapeutic for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, as it has been shown to decrease fat accumulation in hepatocytes and has various other liver protective effects such as prevention of cell death, enhancement of proliferation, and, importantly, reduction of liver fibrosis progression. Indeed, a recombinant derivative of IL22 has been studied in a clinical trial of alcoholic liver disease and has been found to be safe. However, the beneficial effect of this cytokine is context dependent. High levels of IL22 increased inflammation or fibrosis in hepatitis B infection and in toxic injury models in mouse models.
This is in line with observations that progression to cirrhosis in NAFLD is greater after menopause. On the other hand, women are more likely to develop cirrhosis than men despite higher levels of IL22, indicating more factors are at play in the progression of NAFLD. Overall, this report should alert investigators to consider the sex-specific effects of emerging therapies for NAFLD. Future IL22-based trials must include sex-based subgroup analyses.
Kirk Wangensteen, MD, PhD, is with the department of medicine, division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He declares no relevant conflicts of interest.
The cytokine interleukin-22 has potential as a therapeutic for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, as it has been shown to decrease fat accumulation in hepatocytes and has various other liver protective effects such as prevention of cell death, enhancement of proliferation, and, importantly, reduction of liver fibrosis progression. Indeed, a recombinant derivative of IL22 has been studied in a clinical trial of alcoholic liver disease and has been found to be safe. However, the beneficial effect of this cytokine is context dependent. High levels of IL22 increased inflammation or fibrosis in hepatitis B infection and in toxic injury models in mouse models.
This is in line with observations that progression to cirrhosis in NAFLD is greater after menopause. On the other hand, women are more likely to develop cirrhosis than men despite higher levels of IL22, indicating more factors are at play in the progression of NAFLD. Overall, this report should alert investigators to consider the sex-specific effects of emerging therapies for NAFLD. Future IL22-based trials must include sex-based subgroup analyses.
Kirk Wangensteen, MD, PhD, is with the department of medicine, division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He declares no relevant conflicts of interest.
Interleukin-22 may mitigate nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)–related fibrosis in females but not males, suggesting a sex-linked hepatoprotective pathway, according to investigators.
These differences between men and women should be considered when conducting clinical trials for IL-22–targeting therapies, reported lead author Mohamed N. Abdelnabi, MSc, of the Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal and colleagues.
“IL-22 is a pleiotropic cytokine with both inflammatory and protective effects during injury and repair in various tissues including the liver,” the investigators wrote in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, noting that IL-22 activity has been linked with both antifibrotic and profibrotic outcomes in previous preclinical studies. “These different observations highlight the dual nature of IL-22 that likely is dictated by multiple factors including the tissue involved, pathologic environment, endogenous vs. exogenous IL-22 level, and the time of exposure.”
Prior research has left some questions unanswered, the investigators noted, because many studies have relied on exogenous administration of IL-22 in mouse models, some of which lack all the metabolic abnormalities observed in human disease. Furthermore, these mice were all male, which has prevented detection of possible sex-linked differences in IL-22–related pathophysiology, they added.
To address these gaps, the investigators conducted a series of experiments involving men and women with NAFLD, plus mice of both sexes with NAFLD induced by a high-fat diet, both wild-type and with knock-out of the IL-22 receptor.
Human data
To characterize IL-22 activity in men versus women with NAFLD, the investigators first analyzed two publicly available microarray datasets. These revealed notably increased expression of hepatic IL-22 mRNA in the livers of females compared with males. Supporting this finding, liver biopsies from 11 men and 9 women with NAFLD with similar levels of fibrosis showed significantly increased IL-22–producing cells in female patients compared with male patients.
“These results suggest a sexual dimorphic expression of IL-22 in the context of NAFLD,” the investigators wrote.
Mouse data
Echoing the human data, the livers of female wild-type mice with NAFLD had significantly greater IL-22 expression than male mice at both mRNA and protein levels.
Next, the investigators explored the effects of IL-22–receptor knockout. In addition to NAFLD, these knockout mice developed weight gain and metabolic alterations, especially insulin resistance, supporting previous work that highlighted the protective role of IL-22 against these outcomes. More relevant to the present study, female knockout mice had significantly worse hepatic liver injury, apoptosis, inflammation, and fibrosis than male knockout mice, suggesting that IL-22 signaling confers hepatoprotection in females but not males.
“These observations may suggest a regulation of IL-22 expression by the female sex hormone estrogen,” the investigators wrote. “Indeed, estrogen is known to modulate inflammatory responses in NAFLD, but the underlying mechanisms remain undefined. ... Further in vivo studies are warranted to investigate whether endogenous estrogen regulates hepatic IL-22 expression in the context of NAFLD.”
In the meantime, the present data may steer drug development.
“These findings should be considered in clinical trials testing IL-22–based therapeutic approaches in treatment of female vs. male subjects with NAFLD,” the investigators concluded.
The study was partially funded by the Canadian Liver Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Bourse d’Exemption des Droits de Scolarité Supplémentaires from the Université de Montréal, the Canadian Network on Hepatitis, and others. The investigators disclosed no competing interests.
Interleukin-22 may mitigate nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)–related fibrosis in females but not males, suggesting a sex-linked hepatoprotective pathway, according to investigators.
These differences between men and women should be considered when conducting clinical trials for IL-22–targeting therapies, reported lead author Mohamed N. Abdelnabi, MSc, of the Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal and colleagues.
“IL-22 is a pleiotropic cytokine with both inflammatory and protective effects during injury and repair in various tissues including the liver,” the investigators wrote in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, noting that IL-22 activity has been linked with both antifibrotic and profibrotic outcomes in previous preclinical studies. “These different observations highlight the dual nature of IL-22 that likely is dictated by multiple factors including the tissue involved, pathologic environment, endogenous vs. exogenous IL-22 level, and the time of exposure.”
Prior research has left some questions unanswered, the investigators noted, because many studies have relied on exogenous administration of IL-22 in mouse models, some of which lack all the metabolic abnormalities observed in human disease. Furthermore, these mice were all male, which has prevented detection of possible sex-linked differences in IL-22–related pathophysiology, they added.
To address these gaps, the investigators conducted a series of experiments involving men and women with NAFLD, plus mice of both sexes with NAFLD induced by a high-fat diet, both wild-type and with knock-out of the IL-22 receptor.
Human data
To characterize IL-22 activity in men versus women with NAFLD, the investigators first analyzed two publicly available microarray datasets. These revealed notably increased expression of hepatic IL-22 mRNA in the livers of females compared with males. Supporting this finding, liver biopsies from 11 men and 9 women with NAFLD with similar levels of fibrosis showed significantly increased IL-22–producing cells in female patients compared with male patients.
“These results suggest a sexual dimorphic expression of IL-22 in the context of NAFLD,” the investigators wrote.
Mouse data
Echoing the human data, the livers of female wild-type mice with NAFLD had significantly greater IL-22 expression than male mice at both mRNA and protein levels.
Next, the investigators explored the effects of IL-22–receptor knockout. In addition to NAFLD, these knockout mice developed weight gain and metabolic alterations, especially insulin resistance, supporting previous work that highlighted the protective role of IL-22 against these outcomes. More relevant to the present study, female knockout mice had significantly worse hepatic liver injury, apoptosis, inflammation, and fibrosis than male knockout mice, suggesting that IL-22 signaling confers hepatoprotection in females but not males.
“These observations may suggest a regulation of IL-22 expression by the female sex hormone estrogen,” the investigators wrote. “Indeed, estrogen is known to modulate inflammatory responses in NAFLD, but the underlying mechanisms remain undefined. ... Further in vivo studies are warranted to investigate whether endogenous estrogen regulates hepatic IL-22 expression in the context of NAFLD.”
In the meantime, the present data may steer drug development.
“These findings should be considered in clinical trials testing IL-22–based therapeutic approaches in treatment of female vs. male subjects with NAFLD,” the investigators concluded.
The study was partially funded by the Canadian Liver Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Bourse d’Exemption des Droits de Scolarité Supplémentaires from the Université de Montréal, the Canadian Network on Hepatitis, and others. The investigators disclosed no competing interests.
FROM CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR GASTROENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY
Dementia prevalence study reveals inequities
based on new U.S. data from The Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
These inequities likely stem from structural racism and income inequality, necessitating a multifaceted response at an institutional level, according to lead author Jennifer J. Manly, PhD, a professor of neuropsychology in neurology at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease at Columbia University, New York.
A more representative dataset
Between 2001 and 2003, a subset of HRS participants underwent extensive neuropsychological assessment in the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study (ADAMS), providing data which have since been cited by hundreds of published studies, the investigators wrote in JAMA Neurology. Those data, however, failed to accurately represent the U.S. population at the time, and have not been updated since.
“The ADAMS substudy was small, and the limited inclusion of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native participants contributed to lack of precision of estimates among minoritized racial and ethnic groups that have been shown to experience a higher burden of cognitive impairment and dementia,” Dr. Manly and colleagues wrote.
The present analysis used a more representative dataset from HRS participants who were 65 years or older in 2016. From June 2016 to October 2017, 3,496 of these individuals underwent comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and informant interview, with dementia and MCI classified based on standard diagnostic criteria.
In total, 393 people were classified with dementia (10%), while 804 had MCI (22%), both of which approximate estimates reported by previous studies, according to the investigators. In further alignment with past research, age was a clear risk factor; each 5-year increment added 17% and 95% increased risk of MCI and dementia, respectively.
Compared with college-educated participants, individuals who did not graduate from high school had a 60% increased risk for both dementia (odds ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-2.3) and MCI (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.2). Other educational strata were not associated with significant differences in risk.
Compared with White participants, Black individuals had an 80% increased risk of dementia (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.2-2.7), but no increased risk of MCI. Conversely, non-White Hispanic individuals had a 40% increased risk of MCI (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0-2.0), but no increased risk of dementia, compared with White participants.
“Older adults racialized as Black and Hispanic are more likely to develop cognitive impairment and dementia because of historical and current structural racism and income inequality that restrict access to brain-health benefits and increase exposure to harm,” Dr. Manly said in a written comment.
These inequities deserve a comprehensive response, she added.
“Actions and policies that decrease discriminatory and aggressive policing policies, invest in schools that serve children that are racialized as Black and Hispanic, repair housing and economic inequalities, and provide equitable access to mental and physical health, can help to narrow disparities in later life cognitive impairment,” Dr. Manly said. “Two other areas of focus for policy makers are the shortage in the workforce of dementia care specialists, and paid family leave for caregiving.”
Acknowledging the needs of the historically underrepresented
Lealani Mae Acosta, MD, MPH, associate professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., applauded the investigators for their “conscious effort to expand representation of historically underrepresented minorities.”
The findings themselves support what has been previously reported, Dr. Acosta said in an interview, including the disproportionate burden of cognitive disorders among people of color and those with less education.
Clinicians need to recognize that certain patient groups face increased risks of cognitive disorders, and should be screened accordingly, Dr. Acosta said, noting that all aging patients should undergo such screening. The push for screening should also occur on a community level, along with efforts to build trust between at-risk populations and health care providers.
While Dr. Acosta reiterated the importance of these new data from Black and Hispanic individuals, she noted that gaps in representation remain, and methods of characterizing populations deserve refinement.
“I’m a little bit biased because I’m an Asian physician,” Dr. Acosta said. “As much as I’m glad that they’re highlighting these different disparities, there weren’t enough [participants in] specific subgroups like American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, to be able to identify specific trends within [those groups] that are, again, historically underrepresented patient populations.”
Grouping all people of Asian descent may also be an oversimplification, she added, as differences may exist between individuals originating from different countries.
“We always have to be careful about lumping certain groups together in analyses,” Dr. Acosta said. “That’s just another reminder to us – as clinicians, as researchers – that we need to do better by our patients by expanding research opportunities, and really studying these historically underrepresented populations.”
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Acosta reported no relevant competing interests.
based on new U.S. data from The Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
These inequities likely stem from structural racism and income inequality, necessitating a multifaceted response at an institutional level, according to lead author Jennifer J. Manly, PhD, a professor of neuropsychology in neurology at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease at Columbia University, New York.
A more representative dataset
Between 2001 and 2003, a subset of HRS participants underwent extensive neuropsychological assessment in the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study (ADAMS), providing data which have since been cited by hundreds of published studies, the investigators wrote in JAMA Neurology. Those data, however, failed to accurately represent the U.S. population at the time, and have not been updated since.
“The ADAMS substudy was small, and the limited inclusion of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native participants contributed to lack of precision of estimates among minoritized racial and ethnic groups that have been shown to experience a higher burden of cognitive impairment and dementia,” Dr. Manly and colleagues wrote.
The present analysis used a more representative dataset from HRS participants who were 65 years or older in 2016. From June 2016 to October 2017, 3,496 of these individuals underwent comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and informant interview, with dementia and MCI classified based on standard diagnostic criteria.
In total, 393 people were classified with dementia (10%), while 804 had MCI (22%), both of which approximate estimates reported by previous studies, according to the investigators. In further alignment with past research, age was a clear risk factor; each 5-year increment added 17% and 95% increased risk of MCI and dementia, respectively.
Compared with college-educated participants, individuals who did not graduate from high school had a 60% increased risk for both dementia (odds ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-2.3) and MCI (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.2). Other educational strata were not associated with significant differences in risk.
Compared with White participants, Black individuals had an 80% increased risk of dementia (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.2-2.7), but no increased risk of MCI. Conversely, non-White Hispanic individuals had a 40% increased risk of MCI (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0-2.0), but no increased risk of dementia, compared with White participants.
“Older adults racialized as Black and Hispanic are more likely to develop cognitive impairment and dementia because of historical and current structural racism and income inequality that restrict access to brain-health benefits and increase exposure to harm,” Dr. Manly said in a written comment.
These inequities deserve a comprehensive response, she added.
“Actions and policies that decrease discriminatory and aggressive policing policies, invest in schools that serve children that are racialized as Black and Hispanic, repair housing and economic inequalities, and provide equitable access to mental and physical health, can help to narrow disparities in later life cognitive impairment,” Dr. Manly said. “Two other areas of focus for policy makers are the shortage in the workforce of dementia care specialists, and paid family leave for caregiving.”
Acknowledging the needs of the historically underrepresented
Lealani Mae Acosta, MD, MPH, associate professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., applauded the investigators for their “conscious effort to expand representation of historically underrepresented minorities.”
The findings themselves support what has been previously reported, Dr. Acosta said in an interview, including the disproportionate burden of cognitive disorders among people of color and those with less education.
Clinicians need to recognize that certain patient groups face increased risks of cognitive disorders, and should be screened accordingly, Dr. Acosta said, noting that all aging patients should undergo such screening. The push for screening should also occur on a community level, along with efforts to build trust between at-risk populations and health care providers.
While Dr. Acosta reiterated the importance of these new data from Black and Hispanic individuals, she noted that gaps in representation remain, and methods of characterizing populations deserve refinement.
“I’m a little bit biased because I’m an Asian physician,” Dr. Acosta said. “As much as I’m glad that they’re highlighting these different disparities, there weren’t enough [participants in] specific subgroups like American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, to be able to identify specific trends within [those groups] that are, again, historically underrepresented patient populations.”
Grouping all people of Asian descent may also be an oversimplification, she added, as differences may exist between individuals originating from different countries.
“We always have to be careful about lumping certain groups together in analyses,” Dr. Acosta said. “That’s just another reminder to us – as clinicians, as researchers – that we need to do better by our patients by expanding research opportunities, and really studying these historically underrepresented populations.”
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Acosta reported no relevant competing interests.
based on new U.S. data from The Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
These inequities likely stem from structural racism and income inequality, necessitating a multifaceted response at an institutional level, according to lead author Jennifer J. Manly, PhD, a professor of neuropsychology in neurology at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease at Columbia University, New York.
A more representative dataset
Between 2001 and 2003, a subset of HRS participants underwent extensive neuropsychological assessment in the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study (ADAMS), providing data which have since been cited by hundreds of published studies, the investigators wrote in JAMA Neurology. Those data, however, failed to accurately represent the U.S. population at the time, and have not been updated since.
“The ADAMS substudy was small, and the limited inclusion of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native participants contributed to lack of precision of estimates among minoritized racial and ethnic groups that have been shown to experience a higher burden of cognitive impairment and dementia,” Dr. Manly and colleagues wrote.
The present analysis used a more representative dataset from HRS participants who were 65 years or older in 2016. From June 2016 to October 2017, 3,496 of these individuals underwent comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and informant interview, with dementia and MCI classified based on standard diagnostic criteria.
In total, 393 people were classified with dementia (10%), while 804 had MCI (22%), both of which approximate estimates reported by previous studies, according to the investigators. In further alignment with past research, age was a clear risk factor; each 5-year increment added 17% and 95% increased risk of MCI and dementia, respectively.
Compared with college-educated participants, individuals who did not graduate from high school had a 60% increased risk for both dementia (odds ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-2.3) and MCI (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.2). Other educational strata were not associated with significant differences in risk.
Compared with White participants, Black individuals had an 80% increased risk of dementia (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.2-2.7), but no increased risk of MCI. Conversely, non-White Hispanic individuals had a 40% increased risk of MCI (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0-2.0), but no increased risk of dementia, compared with White participants.
“Older adults racialized as Black and Hispanic are more likely to develop cognitive impairment and dementia because of historical and current structural racism and income inequality that restrict access to brain-health benefits and increase exposure to harm,” Dr. Manly said in a written comment.
These inequities deserve a comprehensive response, she added.
“Actions and policies that decrease discriminatory and aggressive policing policies, invest in schools that serve children that are racialized as Black and Hispanic, repair housing and economic inequalities, and provide equitable access to mental and physical health, can help to narrow disparities in later life cognitive impairment,” Dr. Manly said. “Two other areas of focus for policy makers are the shortage in the workforce of dementia care specialists, and paid family leave for caregiving.”
Acknowledging the needs of the historically underrepresented
Lealani Mae Acosta, MD, MPH, associate professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., applauded the investigators for their “conscious effort to expand representation of historically underrepresented minorities.”
The findings themselves support what has been previously reported, Dr. Acosta said in an interview, including the disproportionate burden of cognitive disorders among people of color and those with less education.
Clinicians need to recognize that certain patient groups face increased risks of cognitive disorders, and should be screened accordingly, Dr. Acosta said, noting that all aging patients should undergo such screening. The push for screening should also occur on a community level, along with efforts to build trust between at-risk populations and health care providers.
While Dr. Acosta reiterated the importance of these new data from Black and Hispanic individuals, she noted that gaps in representation remain, and methods of characterizing populations deserve refinement.
“I’m a little bit biased because I’m an Asian physician,” Dr. Acosta said. “As much as I’m glad that they’re highlighting these different disparities, there weren’t enough [participants in] specific subgroups like American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, to be able to identify specific trends within [those groups] that are, again, historically underrepresented patient populations.”
Grouping all people of Asian descent may also be an oversimplification, she added, as differences may exist between individuals originating from different countries.
“We always have to be careful about lumping certain groups together in analyses,” Dr. Acosta said. “That’s just another reminder to us – as clinicians, as researchers – that we need to do better by our patients by expanding research opportunities, and really studying these historically underrepresented populations.”
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging. The investigators disclosed additional relationships with the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Acosta reported no relevant competing interests.
FROM JAMA NEUROLOGY
Novel YouTube study detects colonoscopy misinformation, guides better content creation
Don’t just sit there. Post something.
To combat misinformation about colonoscopy, health care providers (HCPs) should engage more with social media platforms and create accurate, engaging educational videos, according to investigators.
An assessment of top-ranking YouTube videos about colonoscopy by both lay people and HCPs revealed numerous inaccuracies, which have potentially contributed to public hesitancy to undergo appropriate screening, reported lead author Austin L. Chiang, MD, MPH, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Philadelphia, and colleagues.
“The prevalence and predictors of misinformation among contents on social media platforms such as YouTube with regard to colonoscopy remain unknown,” the investigators wrote in Gastro Hep Advances. They noted that previous research characterized YouTube as a “suboptimal” resource for information about colonoscopy, although those studies did not use validated instruments.
For the present cohort study, Dr. Chiang and colleagues performed a YouTube search for “colonoscopy” on Nov. 21, 2020. Results with more than 250,000 views were included in the analysis, netting 69 videos. Of these, 39 were posted by lay people, while the remaining 30 were posted by HCPs.
Three board-certified gastroenterologists measured video quality with two validated instruments for evaluating consumer health information: DISCERN and the Patient Education Material Assessment Tool (PEMAT) understandability score. Any video with a DISCERN score less than 2 or a PEMAT score less than 50% was deemed “inaccurate or of low scientific quality per established standards.” The investigators also scored likelihood of recommending a video to a patient on a 5-point Likert scale.
More than half of the videos were low quality based on DISCERN (52.2%) and PEMAT (59.4%) criteria. Videos that featured an HCP scored significantly higher on both scales, while videos created by HCPs were more likely to meet minimum-quality criteria and be recommended to patients.
Specifically, only 20.5% of videos created by laypeople made the grade, compared with 66.7% (PMAT) and 83.3% (DISCERN) of videos made by HCPs, depending on the quality instrument. It therefore follows that an HCP creator was the greatest predictive factor for a high-quality video, according to the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve.
“Our analysis demonstrates a disturbing proportion of inaccuracies and poor scientific quality information among the most viewed YouTube videos around colonoscopy using validated instruments for consumer information,” the investigators wrote.
Types of misinformation varied. Some of the videos contradicted current recommendations and intentionally overstated colonoscopy risk, while others called for screening every year.
“Although it is disheartening to imagine the influence of these inaccurate videos on millions of people, it may be helpful to learn from them and dissect why they have succeeded in attracting viewers,” the investigators wrote.
So which videos had the most views? To put it bluntly, it was the funny, “gross” stuff. The top-ranking colonoscopy videos featured comedians talking about their colonoscopies or had shocking footage, like worms wiggling during an endoscopic exam of a patient with a parasitic infection.
How to create better content
While these acts may be hard to follow for the average gastroenterologist-YouTuber, Dr. Chiang and colleagues did detect one video characteristic that should be avoided: complexity. Multivariate analysis showed that endoscopic footage was a negative effect modifier for clarity and understandability.
“The main challenge of any video content is striking a balance between brevity and accuracy/comprehensiveness,” the investigators wrote. “When describing endoscopic videos to lay audiences, gastroenterologists must be careful to provide appropriate clinical context and use wording that is concise and easily comprehended.”
More broadly, the investigators called for a three-pronged approach to combat misinformation by creating better content.
First, they advised HCPs to increase participation on social media channels, with a focus on promoting health equity among at-risk and non–English-speaking audiences. Second, they asked professional societies such as the American Gastroenterological Association to assist HCPs with the fundamentals of content creation, including techniques in storytelling and videography. Finally, they proposed HCPs partner with lay creators, following a common strategy in traditional media in which celebrities share scientifically grounded medical information.
“Although the prevalence of inaccurate colonoscopy videos is concerning, an understanding of existing health misinformation and a proactive approach to cultivate professional content creation may help provide patients with high-quality information to help achieve colorectal cancer screening targets and improve health outcomes,” the investigators concluded.
The study was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chiang is an employee of Medtronic and holds a seat on the YouTube Health Advisory Board. The other investigators disclosed no competing interests.
The advent of social media ushered in the promise of a new age of information democratization. Unfortunately, the reality of increasingly accessible information – including misinformation – has disabused us of the notion that this increased accessibility is an unalloyed good. “Fake news” abounds, and in an era in which “truth” seems to be in the eye of the beholder – or influencer – medical misinformation appetizingly presented to the public is a particular hazard to public health. This is one of the first studies to offer an objective description of the medical information landscape as it pertains to the field of gastroenterology.
There is a tension between accessibility and quality of information within social media, the modern public forum. This study highlights that tension and serves both as a call-to-arms and a guide for experts on how to displace the amateurs and hucksters who are confusing those who’ve come to the forum not for entertainment but for information.
Jason M. Brown, MD, is assistant professor and Grady site fellowship director, division of digestive diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta. Dr. Brown reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
The advent of social media ushered in the promise of a new age of information democratization. Unfortunately, the reality of increasingly accessible information – including misinformation – has disabused us of the notion that this increased accessibility is an unalloyed good. “Fake news” abounds, and in an era in which “truth” seems to be in the eye of the beholder – or influencer – medical misinformation appetizingly presented to the public is a particular hazard to public health. This is one of the first studies to offer an objective description of the medical information landscape as it pertains to the field of gastroenterology.
There is a tension between accessibility and quality of information within social media, the modern public forum. This study highlights that tension and serves both as a call-to-arms and a guide for experts on how to displace the amateurs and hucksters who are confusing those who’ve come to the forum not for entertainment but for information.
Jason M. Brown, MD, is assistant professor and Grady site fellowship director, division of digestive diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta. Dr. Brown reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
The advent of social media ushered in the promise of a new age of information democratization. Unfortunately, the reality of increasingly accessible information – including misinformation – has disabused us of the notion that this increased accessibility is an unalloyed good. “Fake news” abounds, and in an era in which “truth” seems to be in the eye of the beholder – or influencer – medical misinformation appetizingly presented to the public is a particular hazard to public health. This is one of the first studies to offer an objective description of the medical information landscape as it pertains to the field of gastroenterology.
There is a tension between accessibility and quality of information within social media, the modern public forum. This study highlights that tension and serves both as a call-to-arms and a guide for experts on how to displace the amateurs and hucksters who are confusing those who’ve come to the forum not for entertainment but for information.
Jason M. Brown, MD, is assistant professor and Grady site fellowship director, division of digestive diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta. Dr. Brown reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
Don’t just sit there. Post something.
To combat misinformation about colonoscopy, health care providers (HCPs) should engage more with social media platforms and create accurate, engaging educational videos, according to investigators.
An assessment of top-ranking YouTube videos about colonoscopy by both lay people and HCPs revealed numerous inaccuracies, which have potentially contributed to public hesitancy to undergo appropriate screening, reported lead author Austin L. Chiang, MD, MPH, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Philadelphia, and colleagues.
“The prevalence and predictors of misinformation among contents on social media platforms such as YouTube with regard to colonoscopy remain unknown,” the investigators wrote in Gastro Hep Advances. They noted that previous research characterized YouTube as a “suboptimal” resource for information about colonoscopy, although those studies did not use validated instruments.
For the present cohort study, Dr. Chiang and colleagues performed a YouTube search for “colonoscopy” on Nov. 21, 2020. Results with more than 250,000 views were included in the analysis, netting 69 videos. Of these, 39 were posted by lay people, while the remaining 30 were posted by HCPs.
Three board-certified gastroenterologists measured video quality with two validated instruments for evaluating consumer health information: DISCERN and the Patient Education Material Assessment Tool (PEMAT) understandability score. Any video with a DISCERN score less than 2 or a PEMAT score less than 50% was deemed “inaccurate or of low scientific quality per established standards.” The investigators also scored likelihood of recommending a video to a patient on a 5-point Likert scale.
More than half of the videos were low quality based on DISCERN (52.2%) and PEMAT (59.4%) criteria. Videos that featured an HCP scored significantly higher on both scales, while videos created by HCPs were more likely to meet minimum-quality criteria and be recommended to patients.
Specifically, only 20.5% of videos created by laypeople made the grade, compared with 66.7% (PMAT) and 83.3% (DISCERN) of videos made by HCPs, depending on the quality instrument. It therefore follows that an HCP creator was the greatest predictive factor for a high-quality video, according to the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve.
“Our analysis demonstrates a disturbing proportion of inaccuracies and poor scientific quality information among the most viewed YouTube videos around colonoscopy using validated instruments for consumer information,” the investigators wrote.
Types of misinformation varied. Some of the videos contradicted current recommendations and intentionally overstated colonoscopy risk, while others called for screening every year.
“Although it is disheartening to imagine the influence of these inaccurate videos on millions of people, it may be helpful to learn from them and dissect why they have succeeded in attracting viewers,” the investigators wrote.
So which videos had the most views? To put it bluntly, it was the funny, “gross” stuff. The top-ranking colonoscopy videos featured comedians talking about their colonoscopies or had shocking footage, like worms wiggling during an endoscopic exam of a patient with a parasitic infection.
How to create better content
While these acts may be hard to follow for the average gastroenterologist-YouTuber, Dr. Chiang and colleagues did detect one video characteristic that should be avoided: complexity. Multivariate analysis showed that endoscopic footage was a negative effect modifier for clarity and understandability.
“The main challenge of any video content is striking a balance between brevity and accuracy/comprehensiveness,” the investigators wrote. “When describing endoscopic videos to lay audiences, gastroenterologists must be careful to provide appropriate clinical context and use wording that is concise and easily comprehended.”
More broadly, the investigators called for a three-pronged approach to combat misinformation by creating better content.
First, they advised HCPs to increase participation on social media channels, with a focus on promoting health equity among at-risk and non–English-speaking audiences. Second, they asked professional societies such as the American Gastroenterological Association to assist HCPs with the fundamentals of content creation, including techniques in storytelling and videography. Finally, they proposed HCPs partner with lay creators, following a common strategy in traditional media in which celebrities share scientifically grounded medical information.
“Although the prevalence of inaccurate colonoscopy videos is concerning, an understanding of existing health misinformation and a proactive approach to cultivate professional content creation may help provide patients with high-quality information to help achieve colorectal cancer screening targets and improve health outcomes,” the investigators concluded.
The study was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chiang is an employee of Medtronic and holds a seat on the YouTube Health Advisory Board. The other investigators disclosed no competing interests.
Don’t just sit there. Post something.
To combat misinformation about colonoscopy, health care providers (HCPs) should engage more with social media platforms and create accurate, engaging educational videos, according to investigators.
An assessment of top-ranking YouTube videos about colonoscopy by both lay people and HCPs revealed numerous inaccuracies, which have potentially contributed to public hesitancy to undergo appropriate screening, reported lead author Austin L. Chiang, MD, MPH, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Philadelphia, and colleagues.
“The prevalence and predictors of misinformation among contents on social media platforms such as YouTube with regard to colonoscopy remain unknown,” the investigators wrote in Gastro Hep Advances. They noted that previous research characterized YouTube as a “suboptimal” resource for information about colonoscopy, although those studies did not use validated instruments.
For the present cohort study, Dr. Chiang and colleagues performed a YouTube search for “colonoscopy” on Nov. 21, 2020. Results with more than 250,000 views were included in the analysis, netting 69 videos. Of these, 39 were posted by lay people, while the remaining 30 were posted by HCPs.
Three board-certified gastroenterologists measured video quality with two validated instruments for evaluating consumer health information: DISCERN and the Patient Education Material Assessment Tool (PEMAT) understandability score. Any video with a DISCERN score less than 2 or a PEMAT score less than 50% was deemed “inaccurate or of low scientific quality per established standards.” The investigators also scored likelihood of recommending a video to a patient on a 5-point Likert scale.
More than half of the videos were low quality based on DISCERN (52.2%) and PEMAT (59.4%) criteria. Videos that featured an HCP scored significantly higher on both scales, while videos created by HCPs were more likely to meet minimum-quality criteria and be recommended to patients.
Specifically, only 20.5% of videos created by laypeople made the grade, compared with 66.7% (PMAT) and 83.3% (DISCERN) of videos made by HCPs, depending on the quality instrument. It therefore follows that an HCP creator was the greatest predictive factor for a high-quality video, according to the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve.
“Our analysis demonstrates a disturbing proportion of inaccuracies and poor scientific quality information among the most viewed YouTube videos around colonoscopy using validated instruments for consumer information,” the investigators wrote.
Types of misinformation varied. Some of the videos contradicted current recommendations and intentionally overstated colonoscopy risk, while others called for screening every year.
“Although it is disheartening to imagine the influence of these inaccurate videos on millions of people, it may be helpful to learn from them and dissect why they have succeeded in attracting viewers,” the investigators wrote.
So which videos had the most views? To put it bluntly, it was the funny, “gross” stuff. The top-ranking colonoscopy videos featured comedians talking about their colonoscopies or had shocking footage, like worms wiggling during an endoscopic exam of a patient with a parasitic infection.
How to create better content
While these acts may be hard to follow for the average gastroenterologist-YouTuber, Dr. Chiang and colleagues did detect one video characteristic that should be avoided: complexity. Multivariate analysis showed that endoscopic footage was a negative effect modifier for clarity and understandability.
“The main challenge of any video content is striking a balance between brevity and accuracy/comprehensiveness,” the investigators wrote. “When describing endoscopic videos to lay audiences, gastroenterologists must be careful to provide appropriate clinical context and use wording that is concise and easily comprehended.”
More broadly, the investigators called for a three-pronged approach to combat misinformation by creating better content.
First, they advised HCPs to increase participation on social media channels, with a focus on promoting health equity among at-risk and non–English-speaking audiences. Second, they asked professional societies such as the American Gastroenterological Association to assist HCPs with the fundamentals of content creation, including techniques in storytelling and videography. Finally, they proposed HCPs partner with lay creators, following a common strategy in traditional media in which celebrities share scientifically grounded medical information.
“Although the prevalence of inaccurate colonoscopy videos is concerning, an understanding of existing health misinformation and a proactive approach to cultivate professional content creation may help provide patients with high-quality information to help achieve colorectal cancer screening targets and improve health outcomes,” the investigators concluded.
The study was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chiang is an employee of Medtronic and holds a seat on the YouTube Health Advisory Board. The other investigators disclosed no competing interests.
FROM GASTRO HEP ADVANCES