Hospice care is a compassionate and heartfelt enterprise, involving a medical team dedicated to maintaining a person’s comfort and dignity as they face the final curtain. Now, new research shows hospice is also incredibly cost-effective as a health care service, a new report says. For-profit hospice providers generate substantial savings for Medicare, according to a…  read on >  read on >

Some Americans should get more than one shot of the updated COVID vaccines because their age or certain health conditions make them more vulnerable to severe infections, U.S. health officials advised this week. Six months after their first shot, people 65 and older and those who are immunocompromised should receive a second dose of the vaccines…  read on >  read on >

The recommended first age at which Americans should get the pneumococcal vaccine has been lowered from 65 to 50, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday. “Lowering the age for pneumococcal vaccination gives more adults the opportunity to protect themselves from pneumococcal disease at the age when risk of infection substantially increases,”…  read on >  read on >

Anxiety is driving more children with potentially dangerous food allergies to seek out psychological care, a new study finds. Focusing on one Ohio hospital, the researchers found a more than 50% jump in psychology referrals for kids with food allergies between 2018 and 2023. “Our center has devoted significant resources to address the psychosocial support…  read on >  read on >

In a move that further toughens safety standards for lead paint dust, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced the finalization of a rule that declares any detectable amount of the toxin in a home or child care center to be hazardous. “Too often our children, the most vulnerable residents of already overburdened communities, are…  read on >  read on >

Stress is flooding the nation as the 2024 U.S. presidential election nears its climax. This stress is only natural, but it can be managed, said Eric Storch, vice chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “There is uncertainty with change,” Storch said in a Baylor news release. “People worry…  read on >  read on >

Babies who breathe in polluted air tend to have higher rates of peanut allergy as they grow up, but the same wasn’t true for immune-based conditions like egg allergy or eczema, Australian researchers report. Why the connection to peanut allergy in particular? That’s not yet clear, said study lead author Dr. Diego Lopez, of the…  read on >  read on >