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COVID-19 vaccines saved nearly 20M lives in first year, study finds

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COVID-19 vaccination “fundamentally altered” the pandemic by saving nearly 20 million lives in the first year that vaccines were available, researchers found using a mathematical model.

“We wanted to conduct this study to understand how much worse the pandemic could have been without vaccination and, in doing so, demonstrate how many lives have been saved by generating and distributing vaccines as quickly as we did,” Oliver J. Watson, PhD, Schmidt Science Fellow at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis of the Imperial College London, told Healio. “From an investment angle, these types of estimates will also underpin how we will evaluate the global vaccination campaign.” Read the full story in Healio.

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Bereavement may increase HF mortality risk

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The death of a close family member was associated with increased risk for death among people with HF, with risk highest during the first week after the loss, according to findings from a Swedish register-based study.

“The findings of the study may call for increased attention from family members, friends and involved professionals for bereaved HF patients, particularly in the period shortly after the loss,” Krisztina László, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, told Healio. “Since this is one of the first studies in this field, we believe further studies are needed to better understand the role of stress in the prognosis of HF in order to inform clinical decision-making.” Read more in Healio.

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Physical activity correlates with lower risk of cardiovascular events in patients with CKD

Photo by Arek Adeoye on Unsplash
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Higher self-reported physical activity correlated with lower risk for cardiovascular events among patients with chronic kidney disease, according to data published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

“Although CKD guidelines include recommendations for minimal levels of physical activity, the recommendations are largely based on studies in the general population.
Read more in Healio.

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Black patients with serious illness receive worse pain management, poor communication

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Black patients with serious illness receive inferior pain management and poor communication from providers compared with their white counterparts, according to data released by Center to Advance Palliative Care.

Findings from the CAPC’s “Health Care for Black Patients with Serious Illness: A Literature Review” also showed a disproportionate burden on family caregivers of Black patients vs. white patients. Read more in Healio.

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Prenatal Exposure to Everyday Chemicals Tied to Liver Injury in Kids

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— Researchers identify a potential contributor to epidemic of pediatric NAFLD

Prenatal environmental exposure to mixtures of endocrine-disrupting chemicals was associated with a higher risk for liver injury in children, a prospective cohort study found.

In the study of over 1,000 European mother-child pairs, the likelihood of liver injury was 44-121% higher among children with prenatal exposure to organochlorine pesticides, perfluoroalkyl substances, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and metals, reported Damaskini Valvi, MD, MPH, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues. Read more in MedPage Today.

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Proactive, virtual intervention improves quality of life after discharge for COPD exacerbation

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A pragmatic health system-level intervention improved quality of life for patients discharged after COPD exacerbation but failed to reduce 180-day readmission or mortality, researchers reported.

“Despite national policy efforts to drive improvement, most patients discharged after COPD do not receive care known to improve health outcomes for COPD, and there is scant evidence that overall quality of care has improved,”David H. Au, MD, MS, professor in the department of medicine at the Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care, Seattle, and colleagues wrote in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Read more in Healio.

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People With Gum Disease Are More Prone to Heart Failure

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— Add HF to the list of cardiovascular conditions associated with periodontitis

The link between periodontal disease and heart failure (HF) was reinforced by long-term data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort.

Among study participants with full-mouth periodontal exams in 1996-1998, those with a finding of periodontal disease were significantly more likely to experience incident HF over approximately 13 years of follow-up — namely HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF; adjusted HR 1.69, 95% CI 1.18-2.43), with a nonsignificant trend of excess HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF; adjusted HR 1.35, 95% CI 0.98-1.86) as well.
Read more in MedPage Today.

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Extending Eligibility of Reinstatement of Waiting Time after Allograft Failure

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The optimal treatment for kidney failure is kidney transplantation. The shortage of kidneys available for transplantation is intensifying, creating interest in the high proportion of deceased donor kidneys discarded after procurement. The discard rate for deceased donor kidneys recovered for transplant in the United States is approximately one in five, despite evidence that transplantation with even marginal deceased donor kidneys can improve survival, quality of life, and cost, compared with dialysis. Read the full story in Nephrology Times.

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Declines in US cardiometabolic health ‘striking’; disparities persist over 2 decades

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The prevalence of optimal cardiometabolic health among U.S. adults declined in the past 2 decades, with disparity gaps widening based on age, sex, education and race, researchers reported.

Optimal cardiometabolic health was defined as optimal levels of adiposity, blood glucose, blood lipids and BP, as well as no history of clinical CVD, according to data published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Read more in Healio.

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