Everyone knows the health risks of carrying too much fat around the waist and hips, but UVA Health scientists are developing a noninvasive way to assess the health risks of unseen fat around the heart.

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, U.S. youths ages 0 to 19 years experienced important disparities in firearm and motor vehicle crash fatality rates and increases over time when considering the intersectionality by age group, sex, race, and ethnicity. These findings suggest that a multipronged strategy focused on individual, community, and policy level approaches for specific high-risk groups for each injury mechanism is necessary to address these leading causes of death in U.S. youths.

About The Study: In this longitudinal cohort study, medical cannabis laws were associated with increased cannabis use disorder and cannabis poisoning diagnoses, and recreational cannabis laws were associated with increased cannabis poisoning in adults ages 18 to 64 with employer-sponsored health insurance. Communities with increased access to cannabis may experience increased health care use and costs due to increases in cannabis poisoning and cannabis use disorder, and new clinical and policy interventions are needed to curb these rising diagnoses. 

About The Study: In this study, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia were associated with an increased risk of new-onset migraine, headache, epilepsy, sleep disorder, or mental fatigue within months to years after giving birth. Guidelines recommend follow-up after delivery for women with gestational hypertension and preeclampsia for their increased risk of cardiovascular disease. At these visits, caregivers should also pay attention to persisting or new-onset of neurological symptoms, since this group of women appears to be vulnerable to developing or experiencing neurological disorders.

About The Study: Between 2020 and 2023, buprenorphine dispensing increased among adolescents but decreased among young adults. The increases likely reflect successful outreach to pediatricians, enhanced prescribing through telehealth, and elimination of waiver requirements; these changes might differentially affect young adults, who might be less likely to access health care.

Patients in emergency departments who are treated by physicians with a high propensity to admit those they see into the hospital are more likely to be discharged after only a short stay, suggesting a possible unnecessary admission, while they are no less likely to die.

Hospitals that have adopted the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) “hospital-at-home” program, which serves as an alternative to admission to brick-and-mortar facilities, are concentrated in large, urban, not-for-profit, and academic hospitals, highlighting need for targeted incentives to expand program to smaller, rural, and non-teaching hospitals.