Jayati Das-Munshi, PhD., from King’s College London, and colleagues examined associations between COVID and death in people with SMI (February 2020 to April 2021). The analysis included 7,146 individuals with SMI and 653,024 primary care patients without SMI.

The researchers found that following COVID infection, the SMI group experienced a greater risk for death compared with controls (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.53). Death from COVID was more likely among Black Caribbean/Black African people than White people (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.22), with similar associations seen in the SMI group and non-SMI group. For every additional multimorbidity condition, the adjusted hazard ratios for death following COVID infection were 1.06 in the SMI group and 1.16 in the non-SMI group.

“These are stark findings and highlight the health inequalities that exist for people living with severe mental illness, people from racialized groups, and people from different regions of the country,” Das-Munshi said in a statement. “The pandemic shone a light on these inequalities, and we must learn from this to develop new policies and improve service provision.”

One author disclosed financial ties to Janssen, GSK, and Takeda.

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Anna Døssing, MD, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and colleagues conducted a systematic review of randomized trials to explore the effectiveness of pharmacological interventions for hand OA. Seventy-two trials with 7,609 participants were included; 65 trials with 5,957 participants were eligible for the quantitative synthesis, examining 29 pharmacological interventions.

For the study, Døssing and her colleagues reviewed 65 studies of close to 5,250 people with hand osteoarthritis. The studies looked at 29 types of treatment for the condition.

Injections were found to be ineffective, but most people in the study received injections for osteoarthritis in the base of their thumb. Hydroxychloroquine, an arthritis medication that affects the immune system, was also found to be ineffective for hand arthritis, and the effectiveness of topical creams and gels for pain wasn’t clear, the study showed.

The findings were published Sept. 28 in the journal RMD Open.

The article reveals a “surprising lack of effectiveness of intra-articular glucocorticoids, a widely employed and traditionally fundamental treatment for hand arthritis, specifically thumb-base arthritis,” said Daniel Polatsch, MD, co-director of The New York Hand and Wrist Center of Lenox Hill Hospital and an associate professor in the department of orthopedic surgery at Zucker School of Medicine/Northwell in New York City.

“This discovery stands in stark contrast to the prevailing beliefs and experiences of most hand surgeons, myself included, in our clinical practice,” Polatsch said.

Ekaterina Zotcheva, Ph.D., from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, and colleagues evaluated the association of trajectories of occupational PA at ages 33 to 65 years with the risk for dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at age 70 years or older. The analysis included 7,005 participants.

The researchers found that absolute unadjusted risks for dementia and MCI were 8.8 and 27.4%, respectively, for those with a stable low PA trajectory; 8.2 and 33.3%, respectively, for those with increasing, then decreasing PA; 16.0 and 35%, respectively, for those with stable intermediate; and 15.4 and 40.2%, respectively, for those with stable high PA trajectories. Participants with a stable high trajectory had a higher risk for dementia (relative risk ratio [RRR], 1.34) and MCI (RRR, 1.80) in an adjusted analysis, while participants with a stable intermediate trajectory had a higher risk for MCI (RRR, 1.36) versus the stable low trajectory. Participants with increasing then decreasing occupational PA had a 24% lower risk for dementia and an 18% higher risk for MCI than the stable low PA group, although this was not statistically significant.

“Consistently working in an occupation with intermediate or high occupational PA was linked to an increased risk of cognitive impairment, indicating the importance of developing strategies for individuals in physically demanding occupations to prevent cognitive impairment,” the authors write.

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David C. Classen, MD, from the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, and colleagues assessed whether EHR safety performance is associated with the EHR frontline user experience. The analysis included 112 US adult hospitals using the National Quality Forum Leapfrog Health IT Safety Measure and the ARCH Collaborative EHR User experience survey (5,689 respondents; 2017 to 2019).

The researchers found that hospitals scored a mean of 0.673 on the Leapfrog Health IT safety measure (range, 0.297 to 0.973) and had a mean ARCH EHR user experience score of 3.377 (range, 1 [best] to 5 [worst]). The association between the overall safety score and overall user experience score had an adjusted β coefficient score of 0.011. There was a significant association between the ARCH overall score and 10 subcategory scores of the Leapfrog Health IT safety score, while the overall Leapfrog score was associated with the eight subcategory scores of the ARCH user experience score.

“This finding suggests that improving EHR usability, which is a current well-known pain point for EHR users, could have direct benefits in terms of improved EHR safety,” the authors write.

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David A. Raichlen, Ph.D., from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues examined whether there is an association between accelerometer-assessed sedentary behavior and incident dementia in a retrospective study involving 49,841 adults aged 60 years or older who were followed for a mean of 6.72 years.

The researchers found that 414 individuals were diagnosed with incident all-cause dementia during follow-up. There was a significant nonlinear association between time spent in sedentary behavior and incident dementia in fully adjusted models. The hazard ratios for dementia were 1.08, 1.63, and 3.21 for 10, 12, and 15 hours per day, respectively, relative to a median of 9.27 hours/day. Per 1,000 person-years, the adjusted incidence rate of dementia was 7.49, 8.06, 12.00, and 22.74 for 9.27, 10, 12, and 15 hours/day, respectively.

Mean daily sedentary bout length and maximum daily sedentary bout length were significantly associated with a higher risk for incident dementia, but after adjustment for time spent in sedentary behavior, the associations were no longer significant. The number of sedentary bouts per day was not associated with the risk for incident dementia.

“More time spent in sedentary behaviors was significantly associated with higher incidence of all-cause dementia,” the authors write. “Future research is needed to determine whether the association between sedentary behavior and risk of dementia is causal.”

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Kurt Hager, PhD, from Tufts University in Boston, and colleagues used individual-level data from 22 produce prescription locations in 12 US states from 2014 to 2020 to assess the impact on cardiometabolic health and food security outcomes.

The researchers found that after a median participation of 6.0 months, fruit and vegetable intake increased by 0.85 cups per day among adults and by 0.26 cups per day among children. Receipt of fruits and vegetables was associated with lower odds of being food-insecure (odds ratio [OR], 0.63) and higher odds of improving one level in self-reported health status for adults (OR, 1.62) and children (OR, 2.37). Glycated hemoglobin declined by −0.29 percentage points among adults with glycated hemoglobin ≥6.5%, while systolic and diastolic blood pressures declined by −8.38 mm Hg and −4.94 mm Hg, respectively, among adults with hypertension. Among adults with overweight or obesity, body mass index (BMI) declined by −0.36 kg/m² (−0.64 to −0.09), but child BMI z-score did not change −0.01 (−0.06 to 0.04).

“We know that food insecurity impacts health through several important pathways, including overall dietary quality, but also through stress and anxiety, mental health and tradeoffs between paying for food and other basic needs such as housing costs, utilities and medications,” Hager said in a statement. “These results indicate produce prescriptions may lay an important foundation for improved health and well-being.”

One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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Editorial

The poll, which comes from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, was administered July 17 through Aug. 7 to 1,850 people aged 60 to 80 years.

The poll showed that 21% of respondents said they were very interested, and another 43% said they were somewhat interested. However, only 41% of older adults who reported their health as fair or poor had heard of the RSV vaccine versus 53% of those who rated their health as good to excellent. Regardless of whether or not they had previously heard of the vaccine before the poll, more than 65% of those with a chronic health condition said they were very or somewhat interested in getting the vaccine.

“As we prepare for the first RSV season when a vaccine will be available for older adults, these early data suggest a need for public health officials, primary care providers, pharmacies, and others to target their outreach and awareness-building efforts,” poll senior advisor Preeti Malani, MD, from the University of Michigan, said in a statement.

Report

Specific microbes isolated from FDA testing include Bacillus (a bacterium) and fungal Exophiala in the Dr. Berne’s MSM Drops 5 percent Solution. In the LightEyez MSM Eye Drops—Eye Repair, FDA testing detected bacteria including Pseudomonas, Mycobacterium, Mycolicibacterium and Methylorubrum.

The Dr. Berne’s products are distributed by Dr. Berne’s Whole Health Products. The company agreed on Monday to a voluntary recall of those particular eye drops. The LightEyez products are distributed by LightEyez Limited. LightEyez has not responded to an FDA email seeking to discuss the FDA concerns, the agency said.

So far, no one has reported adverse events from using the drops, the FDA said, but the products should be thrown out because using them could lead to minor or serious vision-threatening infections that could progress to a life-threatening infection, the agency warned. Patients who have signs or symptoms of an eye infection should talk to their health care professional or seek immediate medical care.

The two eye drops included in the warning also contain methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) as an active ingredient. According to the FDA, no legally marketed ophthalmic drugs contain MSM as an active ingredient, so these products are unapproved drugs and illegally marketed in the United States. Eye drops are required by federal law to be sterile to be safe for use. The FDA said that it had sampled and tested these products because of the eye drop industry’s recent manufacturing issues with eye drops.

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Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study involving 176,000 healthcare workers and 1,662,000 non-health are workers aged 26 years or older surveyed in 2008 and followed through 2019 for cause of death. Drug overdose deaths were determined for physicians, registered nurses, other treating or diagnosing healthcare workers, health technicians, healthcare support workers, and social or behavioral health workers and non-healthcare workers.

The researchers found that during follow-up, about 0.07% of the study sample died of a drug overdose. The annual standardized rates of drug overdose death per 100,000 persons ranged from 2.3 to 15.5 for physicians and social or behavioral health workers, respectively, among health care workers. The adjusted hazards of total drug overdose deaths were significantly increased for social or behavioral health workers, registered nurses, and healthcare support workers, but not for physicians, other treating or diagnosing healthcare workers, or health technicians compared with those for non-healthcare workers. For opioid-related overdose deaths and unintentional overdose deaths, the results were generally similar.

“Our study suggests that certain groups of healthcare workers, specifically registered nurses, social or behavioral health workers, and healthcare support workers, are at increased risk for drug overdose death, indicating the need to identify and intervene on those at high risk,” the authors write.

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John J. McGrath, PhD, from Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues used data from 156,331 adult participants in the World Mental Health surveys (2001 to 2022; 29 countries) to estimate age-of-onset distributions, lifetime prevalence, and morbid risk for mental disorders.

The researchers found that the lifetime prevalence of any mental disorder was 28.6% for male respondents and 29.8 % for female respondents. By age 75 years, the morbid risk for any mental disorder was 46.4% for male respondents and 53.1% for female respondents.

At 15 years, the conditional probabilities of first onset peaked, with a median age of onset of 19 years for male respondents and 20 years for female respondents. Alcohol use disorder and major depressive disorder were the two most prevalent disorders for male respondents, while major depressive disorder and specific phobia were most prevalent for female respondents.

“By understanding the age at which these disorders commonly arise, we can tailor public health interventions and allocate resources to ensure that appropriate and timely support is available to individuals at risk,” coauthor Ronald Kessler, PhD, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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