Rural-Urban Disparity In Mortality In The U.S. From 1999 To 2019
According to an article in the June 8, 2021 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, less is known about recent trends in rural-urban differences in age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) overall in the U.S. So, investigators analyzed all deaths occurring in the U.S. using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database from 1999 to 2019. Rural residents experienced greater mortality and the disparity between rural and large metropolitan areas tripled from 1999 to 2019. Even though there were reductions in AAMRs for all ages, there was a 12.1% increase in the AAMR for rural residents aged 25 to 64 years, which was driven by an increasing AAMR among Non-Hispanic White individuals. Non-Hispanic Blacks, however, had greater AAMRs across all three U.S. Census–categorized areas than all other racial/ethnic groups. These trends could be exacerbated further by rural hospital closures and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Less Traffic, Fewer Collisions, Increased Motor Vehicular Deaths In 2020
Many individuals started working from home in March 2020 because of COVID-19, removing a commute from their daily routine. Yet, motor vehicle deaths in 2020 are estimated to be the highest since 2007 despite the decrease in miles driven, and surveys show that dangerous driving behaviors actually have increased during the pandemic. The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that 42,060 passengers died on U.S. roads in 2020, which is an 8% increase over 2019. Despite a 13% decline in vehicle-miles traveled, the preliminary estimated rate of death on U.S. roads rose 24% year over year, which is the largest increase measured since 1924, nearly a century. While there have been fewer drivers on the road, data from traffic analytics firm Inrix show a speed increase in the country’s most congested urban areas during 2020. Data show that compared to 2019, the rate of collisions in the U.S. decreased by 30% in 2020, but according to The Travelers Cos. Inc.’s 2021 Travelers Risk Index, dangerous driving behaviors also have increased.
HEALTH TECHNOLOGY CORNER
Brain Areas Involved In Seeking Information About Bad Possibilities
The term “doomscrolling” describes the act of endlessly scrolling through bad news on social media and reading every worrisome tidbit that materializes. Similarly, specific areas and cells in the brain become active when an individual is faced with the choice to learn or hide from information about an unwanted aversive event, such as a punishment that cannot be prevented. As reported in a study described on June 11, 2021 in the journal Neuron, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine discovered that by examining the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), attitudes toward punishment and reward information are not tied strictly to each other. Individuals with similar preferences for reward information can have strikingly different attitudes toward punishment information. Although the investigation studied monkeys, understanding the brain’s neural circuits underlying uncertainty may lead to better therapies for conditions, such as anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Astronomy Meets Pathology In Developing Predictive Biomarker Signatures For Immuno-Oncology
The discovery of new predictive biomarkers is critical to improving an ability to (1) predict whether a patient is likely to respond to available drugs and (2) guide treatment decisions for advanced metastatic cancers using immunotherapy. Platforms that can elucidate the spatial relationship between immune system cells and the tumor are critical to this endeavor. According to an article published on June 11 in the journal Science, recent advances in multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) have made it possible to map the tumor microenvironment across an entire tissue section mounted on a microscope slide with single-cell resolution. An innovative approach has been developed at Johns Hopkins University to analyze large mIF datasets using celestial object–mapping algorithms to identify optimized predictive phenotypic signatures rapidly. This interdisciplinary platform, called AstroPath, makes use of immunology, pathology, computer science, and astronomy to lay the foundation for rapid, efficient biomarker discovery.