Air pollution raises flu risks
Breathing high levels of air pollution can increase the odds of getting sick from the flu, new science shows.
Researchers compared the number of reported flu cases in more than 80 cities in China over five years with air pollution data. They found that influenza cases increased during periods in which the cities had higher levels of nitrogen and sulfurous dioxides in the air.
Nitrogen dioxide, also known as NO2, is primarily generated by fossil fuel use in cars, trucks and other transportation and by power plants. Sulfurous dioxide, also known as SO2, is largely linked to fossil fuel burning from power plants and industry.
Although air pollution levels have dropped in China in the past decade, the nation still ranks 13th for the worst air pollution globally, according to the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index. About 2 million people in China die each year from air pollution-related causes.
In the new study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the association between flu and air pollution was strongest among children, in subtropical cities and during cold months.
A second study in the same issue, conducted in Guangzhou, China, looked at the length of air pollution exposure and its relationship to flu. Researchers found that even short-term exposure to NO2, SO2, carbon monoxide and particle pollution — also known as PM2.5 and PM10 — increased risks for influenza. Exposure to PM2.5 raised flu risks for people ages 60 and older in particular.
Previous research has found that air pollutants can aggravate chronic lung conditions such as asthma as well as make immune cells less effective at fighting off influenza. As many as 650,000 respiratory-related deaths each year around the world are linked to seasonal flu.
More experienced doctors less likely to see Medicaid patients
Senior doctors care for patients of color or those who are covered by Medicaid less often than their junior colleagues, which means those patients may see less-experienced doctors.
Published Dec. 13 in JAMA Network Open, the study looked at claims data from a national health provider on more than 134 million patients. Researchers found that office-based senior physicians who worked in cognitive health — such as those who worked in primary care or endocrinology — saw 1.6% fewer Medicaid patients and 1.2% fewer patients of color compared to their junior counterparts in the same offices.
Office-based senior physicians who worked in procedural care, such as surgeons, saw 2.9% fewer Medicaid patients and 1.7% fewer patients of color than junior workers. Similar trends were also found using Medicare data, the study said.
Emergency medicine physicians and radiologists, who do not usually see patients by scheduled appointment, did not experience the same disparities.
The researchers suggested that more senior physicians may be less willing to see Medicaid patients because of lower reimbursement rates or higher administrative burdens required by the federal program. That gap may contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in care, as more than 60% of Medicaid users are people of color.
Women more likely to survive gunshot wounds
Women who are shot are less likely to die than male victims, even with the same level of injury severeness.
Using records from a national trauma database, researchers matched data on U.S. gunshot victims by injury severity, existing health conditions, health insurance and other factors.
They found that 18.5% of the women victims died in the hospital while being treated, compared to 20% of men — who made up more than three quarters of the patients. The women patients also had fewer complications, such as deep vein thrombosis, and were less likely to need assisted breathing.
In general, the women victims tended to be white, slightly older than the males and to have private insurance. But existing health conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, were similar, according to the study, which was published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open.
The researchers called for additional studies to determine if equitable care is being providing to gunshot patients of both sexes.
They also suggested biology may play some role in the differences. They noted that estrogen in women is believed to boost immune response, while testosterone in men can lower it. Blood also tends to clot more quickly in women.
Despite their higher survival rate, women in the U.S. are 21 times more likely to die from firearm injuries than women in other high-income nations.
Suicide rates increase for US workers
Workers in the mining, construction and entertainment industries have some of the nation’s highest suicide rates, new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds.
About 37,600 working-age people died by suicide in the U.S. in 2021, which was the first full calendar year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The suicide rate that year for working-age Americans was 33% higher than it was two decades ago, according to the study, which was published Dec. 14 in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Report.
Overall suicide rates among people ages 18-64 were 32.1 per 100,000 among men and 8.0 among women, but those deaths varied widely by occupation, the study found.
On the high end, suicide rates were 147.5 per 100,000 for men working in aerospace products and parts manufacturing and 126.2 for men in the performing arts, spectator sports and related industries. Other occupations at elevated risk for suicide among male workers included logging, fishing, hunting, trapping and coal mining.
For women, occupations with the highest suicide rates were the performing arts, spectator sports and related industries, at 46.5 per 100,000; drinking establishments and the alcohol industry, at 28.7; and specialized design services, at 20.7.
On the low end, suicide was least common for men in business operations, financial operations, education, training and library occupations. Women were least likely to die by suicide in industries that included management, office, administrative support and mathematical work.
In general, suicide risk is higher for workers in low-skilled jobs and for those with low educational levels and socioeconomic status, the study said.
People who have access to lethal means of suicide at work, such as a gun, are also at higher risk for suicide, as are those who experience high stress on the job, according to the researchers, who were affiliated with CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and National Center for Health Statistics. They called on workplaces to provide peer support, increase access to mental health services and reduce stigma.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public-health journalist.
