NASA sees Himalayan snow from Cyclone Hudhud's remnants

Substance abuse is the fastest growing health concern for older adults. New findings show that drinking levels are high enough to be concerning and tend to spike around the times older adults receive their social security checks. These results may have prevention implications for social workers working with low-income seniors. Substance abuse is the fastest growing health concern for older adults, a segment of the population that is likewise rapidly increasing. Heavy drinking among older persons is associated with an increased risk of health problems like diabetes, ...

Most women reduce or stop drinking alcohol upon discovery of pregnancy. A new study looks at changes in alcohol use, and factors contributing to these changes, among women with unwanted pregnancies. Findings indicate that most women with unwanted pregnancies quit or reduce alcohol consumption once they discover their pregnancies, and that some may be substituting alcohol for drugs once they discover their pregnancies. Most women reduce or stop drinking alcohol upon discovery of pregnancy. However, little information exists about changes in alcohol use, and factors ...

Mexico is a nearby destination where younger U.S. residents can legally drink heavily. However, high levels of drinking on the U.S. side are not always linked to recent travel to Mexico. New findings show that higher levels of drinking among U.S.-Mexico border youth are closely linked to their patterns of bar attendance, but not to how they think about drinking. Due to a legal drinking age of 18 years, cheaper alcohol, and marketing tactics of local bars that specifically target youth, Mexico is an attractive and geographically nearby destination where younger U.S. ...

Researchers know that alcohol-dependent individuals (ALC) sustain neurocognitive impairment even after detoxification. A new study examines specific domains of cognitive recovery in conjunction with smoking status. Findings show that smoking status influenced the rate and level of neurocognitive recovery during eight months of abstinence in the ALC group. Numerous studies have shown that individuals with an alcohol use disorder perform worse than those without one on multiple neurocognitive domains of function following detoxification from alcohol, although the level ...

Boston, MA — Switching from nonprofit to for-profit status appears to boost hospitals' financial health but does not appear to lower the quality of care they provide or reduce the proportion of poor or minority patients receiving care, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Critics of for-profit hospitals have argued that they are worse at providing good care to patients and that therefore we should limit them," said Ashish Jha, professor of health policy and management at HSPH and senior author of ...

Medical practices in less competitive health-care markets charge more for services, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study, based on U.S. health-care data from 2010, provides important new information about the effects of competition on prices for office visits paid by preferred provider organizations, known more commonly as PPOs. PPOs are the most common type of health insurance plan held by privately insured people in the United States. The study will be ...

Searching a health service pricing website before using the service was associated with lower payments for clinical services such as advanced imaging and laboratory tests, according to a study in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA. Recent changes in the health care insurance market have resulted in commercially insured patients bearing a greater proportion of their health care costs. As patients have an increasing responsibility to pay for their care, they will likely demand access to prices charged for that care. Several state-administered initiatives have increased price ...

Hospital conversion from nonprofit to for-profit status in the 2000s was associated with better subsequent financial health but had no relationship to the quality of care delivered, mortality rates, or the proportion of poor or minority patients receiving care, according to a study in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA. During the past decade, there has been increasing attention to the growing number of nonprofit or public hospitals that have become for-profit. These conversions are controversial. Advocates argue that for-profit organizations bring needed resources and experienced ...

An examination of the relationship between physician competition and prices paid by private preferred provider organizations (PPOs) for common office visits finds that more competition is associated with lower prices paid to physicians in 10 large specialties, according to a study in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA. Physicians are increasingly moving away from solo and smaller practices toward larger organizations. These changes may be beneficial if larger practices with more resources are better able to coordinate care, adopt process improvements, increase use of information ...

From the perspective of the insurers and patients, between 2009 and 2012, hospital-owned physician organizations in California incurred higher expenditures for commercial health maintenance organization enrollees for professional, hospital, laboratory, pharmaceutical and ancillary services than did physician-owned organizations, according to a study in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA. Hospitals and multihospital systems are acquiring medical groups and physician practices as part of a strategy to build integrated delivery systems capable of providing the full range of ...