Virginia Terrell knew she wouldn’t be allowed visitors after she checked into the hospital with COVID-19 late last month, but being braced for that reality didn’t make her week-and-a-half stay any easier. “You get pretty lonely,” said Terrell, 59, who was treated at WakeMed and Duke Health hospitals in Raleigh, N.C. “It’s helpful knowing that… read on > read on >
Family history, race and sex are among the factors that increase a child’s risk of asthma, a new study shows. “These findings help us to better understand what groups of children are most susceptible to asthma early in life,” said study co-author Christine Cole Johnson, chair of public health sciences at Henry Ford Health System… read on > read on >
Two-thirds of spinal fractures suffered by American children and teens occur in car crashes when they aren’t wearing seat belts, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data on more than 34,500 U.S. patients younger than 18 who suffered spinal fractures between 2009 and 2014. Teens aged 15 to 17 accounted for about 63% of the… read on > read on >
A help in ‘ruff’ times: When it comes to coping with the stress of college life, new research shows that vulnerable students are far better served by therapy dogs than stress management courses. In the study, more than 300 students at Washington State University were randomly assigned to participate in one of three different types… read on > read on >
Infants exposed to secondhand smoke in the womb and early childhood are likely to have weaker lungs, a new study suggests. The finding is based on levels of blood cotinine during pregnancy and childhood; blood cotinine is the result of the body processing nicotine. Harvard Medical School researchers tied increased levels of the byproduct with… read on > read on >
The actual number of U.S. children hospitalized due to COVID-19 may be lower than current figures suggest, a new study indicates. That’s because counts of hospitalized children who test positive for COVID-19 may include those who were admitted for other reasons and have no COVID symptoms, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers explained. Throughout the… read on > read on >
Researchers have reported the first case of COVID-19 causing dangerous, recurring blood clots in a patient’s arm. The report offers new insight into how the damage of inflammation caused by COVID-19 can linger and how best to treat recurring clots, the Rutgers University researchers said. There have been reports of lower extremity blood clots in… read on > read on >
Women who develop diabetes in pregnancy don’t tend to make healthy diet or exercise changes to help fight it, a new study finds. That could have dire consequences: Gestational (pregnancy-related) diabetes raises the risks of high blood pressure in mothers, larger babies, cesarean delivery, low blood sugar in newborns, and development of chronic diabetes later… read on > read on >
Plenty of teens are burdened with a chronic and often paralyzing fear of being harshly judged by others. Unfortunately, many can’t get in-person treatment that could help. But now a team of Swedish researchers says that an entirely online version of a widely used behavioral therapy technique can deliver significant relief to those affected. The… read on > read on >
Teens may be much more diverse in their gender identities than widely thought, a new study suggests. In a survey of nearly 3,200 high school students in one U.S. school district, researchers found that almost 10% were “gender-diverse.” That meant they identified as a gender other than the sex on their birth certificate. Often, those… read on > read on >
