PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

People from some racial and ethnic groups may face barriers to obtaining obesity medications

Asians, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics less likely to have used obesity medications in the last year compared to whites

2024-12-18
(Press-News.org) Asians, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics were significantly less likely than whites to use obesity-management medications to lower their weight compared with whites, new research suggests. The differences could not be fully explained by income or education level, health insurance coverage or clinical need.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, is one of the few to compare the use of obesity-management medications across racial and ethnic groups, and the first to consider how socioeconomic status might contribute to these disparities, said Dr. Kimberly Narain, primary care physician, obesity medicine specialist and researcher in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who co-authored the paper with Dr. Christopher Scannell, primary care physician and researcher at USC.

The findings suggest that more research is needed to explain these differences, she said.

“People who are Asian typically develop diseases related to obesity such as Type 2 diabetes at lower levels of obesity than people who are non-Hispanic white,” Narain said. “Black and Hispanic individuals are more likely to experience obesity, develop diseases related to obesity and suffer complications from obesity-related diseases than people who are non-Hispanic white.”

“Our findings suggest that people with obesity from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds may face barriers to obtaining medications to treat obesity,” she said.

The researchers used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for the years 2011-2016, 2018 and 2020, controlling them for demographics, socioeconomic status, obesity class, diabetes status, number of chronic conditions, insurance status and geographic region. The study sample contained 91,100 adults who were eligible for obesity management drugs. Of those, 68% were classified as obese and 32% were classified as overweight with at least one weight-related condition. Broken down by race and ethnicity, about 3% were Asian, 14% were Black, just under 16% were Hispanic, and about 68% were white.

The researchers focused on all FDA-approved medications to treat obesity available during the time period of the study. They also conducted an analysis that considered potential off-label use of GLP-1 receptor agonists FDA-approved for the treatment of diabetes, which also may lead to weight loss.

They found that Asians were 64% less likely, Blacks 49% less likely, and Hispanics 30% less likely than whites to use obesity-management medications, after taking level of obesity, number of clinical conditions, diabetes status, insurance type, demographics, socioeconomic status and census region into account. 

While income, education, health insurance type and clinical need did not fully account for these disparities, the researchers suggest that lower education and either a lack of insurance, reliance on public health insurance or inadequate health insurance coverage may at least partially explain the disparities among Blacks and Hispanics, while lower Body Mass Index (BMI) may explain some of it among Asians. In addition, there may be cultural differences in the acceptance of larger body types and the acceptability of medications to treat obesity that may underlie some of these differences. Lastly, differences in how medical providers communicate with individuals across racial and ethnicity may be playing a role in these differences.

There are limitations to the findings. The researchers could not determine causality about relationships between race, ethnicity and use; they had to rely on BMI, which is a flawed measure among some groups, for eligibility for the medications; and the medications they considered did not include newer FDA-approved obesity medications.

But a full understanding of the factors that drive, or prevent, use of these medications among racially and ethnically diverse populations is crucial to ensuring that everyone has equal access to these medications, Narain said.

“It will be important to gather information from racially and ethnically diverse individuals regarding their perspectives on using medications to treat obesity,” she said. “We need more investigation into the role of other potential drivers of these differences that we didn’t consider in this study, such as health insurance benefit design.”

Narain is supported by a NIH/NIA K08 award (K08AG068372-01), a pilot grant from the NIH/NIDDK UCLA LIFT-UP (Leveraging Institutional support For Talented, Underrepresented Physicians and/or Scientists) (1U24DK132746-01) and the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center Leichtman-Levine TEM Scholars Fund.

Article: [Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 10.1007/s40615-024-02248-x]

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Microplastics in the air may be leading to lung and colon cancers

2024-12-18
A review of 3,000 studies also suggests these minute plastic air particles may be causing male and female infertility. Tires and degrading garbage shed tiny pieces of plastic into the air, creating a form of air pollution that UC San Francisco researchers suspect may be causing respiratory and other illnesses.   A review of some 3,000 studies implicates these particles in a variety of serious health problems. These include male and female infertility, colon cancer and poor lung function. The particles also may contribute to chronic pulmonary inflammation, ...

Elevated levels of ‘forever chemicals’ found in several smartwatch wrist bands

2024-12-18
Smartwatches and fitness trackers have become ubiquitous forms of wearable tech, accompanying many people throughout their days (and nights). But they may expose the skin to so-called forever chemicals in the process. More expensive wristbands made from fluorinated synthetic rubber revealed particularly high amounts of one forever chemical, perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), according to a study published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters.   “This discovery stands out because of the very high concentrations of one type of forever chemical found in items that are in prolonged contact with ...

Potentially harmful bacteria slip through antimicrobial showerheads

2024-12-18
To guard against harmful waterborne pathogens, many consumers, including managers of health-care facilities, install antimicrobial silver-containing showerheads. But in ACS ES&T Water, researchers now report that these fixtures are no “silver bullet.” In real-world showering conditions, most microbes aren’t exposed to the silver long enough to be killed. However, the composition of rare microbes in water from these showerheads varied with each type of fixture tested. The stream of droplets and fine mist that form during a shower could be inhaled or swallowed. Installing showerheads ...

Children’s Hospital Colorado research transforms the standard of care for childhood cancer

2024-12-18
After participating in a global clinical trial, leaders at the Children’s Hospital Colorado (Children’s Colorado) Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and the University of Colorado Cancer Center are celebrating results so transformative, they change the standard of care for treating most kids with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer. The new therapy is less toxic than traditional chemotherapy, resulting in significantly fewer side effects like severe infections, mouth sores and bone marrow suppression, ...

Nature’s instructions: How fungi make a key medicinal molecule

Nature’s instructions: How fungi make a key medicinal molecule
2024-12-18
For roughly a century, ever since Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928, fungi have proven to be a goldmine for medicines. They’ve provided treatments for a wide range of diseases, from infections and high cholesterol to organ rejection and even cancer. However, the process by which fungi synthesize some of their most potent compounds remains opaque. This is especially true of cyclopentachromone, a key building block in fungal products whose derivatives have shown promise in fighting cancer and reducing inflammation, among other medicinal properties. Reading Nature’s Instructions While chemists have made progress in creating ...

Michael Courtney of Turku Bioscience Center receives grant for research on SYNGAP1 missense variants and drug repurposing from SynGAP Research Fund (SRF) dba Cure SYNGAP1

Michael Courtney of Turku Bioscience Center receives grant for research on SYNGAP1 missense variants and drug repurposing from SynGAP Research Fund (SRF) dba Cure SYNGAP1
2024-12-18
Mill Valley, CA – December 18, 2024 – The SynGAP Research Fund 501(c)(3) dba Cure SYNGAP1 announced a $108,867 grant to Dr. Michael Courtney and Dr. Li-Li Li at the Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku, Finland, to advance their research on SYNGAP1 missense variants. Their project seeks to better understand the functional impact of these mutations and explore drug repurposing as a potential therapeutic approach.  Dr. Courtney’s team will use advanced phenotyping techniques to assess how SYNGAP1 missense variants impact the protein’s ...

Sexism is a risk factor for memory decline among women

2024-12-18
NEW YORK, NY (Dec. 18, 2024)--Women born in the most sexist U.S. states experience faster memory decline in later years compared to women born in the least sexist states, a new study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has found.   The difference between being born in the most versus the least sexist state was equivalent to nine years of cognitive aging.  The study is one of a growing number of studies that have investigated links between structural sexism and health. Structural sexism, like structural racism, does not refer to personal incidences but to inequality in resources and power ...

Study supports new blood-based biomarker to detect early brain changes leading to cognitive impairment and dementia

2024-12-18
To identify and follow blood vessel-related changes in the brain that contribute to cognitive impairment and dementia, researchers and clinicians typically rely on MRI to evaluate “downstream” biological markers – those at the end of a cascade of events. But a multicenter study led by UCLA researchers could lead to a cost-effective blood test to identify changes occurring near the top of the chain, potentially identifying at-risk patients at an earlier stage. “We studied a protein in the blood that is critical in the formation ...

Genetic testing changes course of care in children with neurodevelopmental conditions

2024-12-18
Adding genetic testing to the evaluation of pediatric patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) resulted in more individualized care, including changes in medication, referrals to clinical trials or specialists, and surveillance for potential medical issues, according to a new UCLA Health study.   Children that present with neurodevelopmental differences, such as autism or global development delay, have high rates of co-occurring neuropsychiatric conditions, and almost half have an underlying genetic diagnosis. The current practice of relying on primary care doctors to refer patients to specialists can create delays in diagnoses and interventions for children ...

ChatGPT errors show it cannot replace finance professionals, yet

2024-12-18
PULLMAN, Wash. – While large language models like ChatGPT can do well when choosing multiple-choice answers on financial licensing exams, they falter when dealing with more nuanced tasks. A Washington State University-led study analyzed more than 10,000 responses to financial exam questions by the artificial intelligence language models BARD, Llama and ChatGPT. The researchers asked the models to not only choose answers but also explain the reasoning behind them, then compared those text answers to those by human professionals. ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Inflammation may explain why women with no standard modifiable risk factors have heart attacks and strokes

Unusual carbon dioxide-rich disk detected around young star challenges planet formation models

Treetop Tutorials: Orangutans learn how to build their beds by peering at others and a lot of practice!

Scientists uncover key protein in cellular fat storage

Study finds significant health benefits from gut bugs transfer

UC Riverside pioneers way to remove private data from AI models

Total-body PET imaging takes a look at long COVID

Surgery to treat chronic sinus disease more effective than antibiotics

New online tool could revolutionize how high blood pressure is treated

Around 90% of middle-aged and older autistic adults are undiagnosed in the UK, new review finds

Robot regret: New research helps robots make safer decisions around humans

Cells ‘vomit’ waste to promote healing, mouse study reveals

Wildfire mitigation strategies can cut destruction by half, study finds

Sniffing out how neurons are made

New AI tool identifies 1,000 ‘questionable’ scientific journals

Exploring the promise of human iPSC-heart cells in understanding fentanyl abuse

Raina Biosciences unveils breakthrough generative AI platform for mRNA therapeutics featured in Science

Yellowstone’s free roaming bison drive grassland resilience

Turbulent flow in heavily polluted Tijuana River drives regional air quality risks

Revealed: Genetic shifts that helped tame horses and made them rideable

Mars’ mantle is a preserved relic of its ancient past, seismic data reveals

Variation inside and out: cell types in fruit fly metamorphosis

Mount Sinai researchers use AI and lab tests to predict genetic disease risk

When bison are room to roam, they reawaken the Yellowstone ecosystem

Mars’s interior more like Rocky Road than Millionaire’s Shortbread, scientists find

Tijuana River’s toxic water pollutes the air

Penn engineers send quantum signals with standard internet protocol

Placebo pain relief works differently across human body, study finds

New method could monitor corrosion and cracking in a nuclear reactor

Pennington Biomedical researchers find metabolic health of pregnant women may matter more than weight gain

[Press-News.org] People from some racial and ethnic groups may face barriers to obtaining obesity medications
Asians, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics less likely to have used obesity medications in the last year compared to whites