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Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Study finds a steep decline in mothers' mental health
Advertisement The surgeon general's report led the researchers behind the new study to begin analyzing data from nearly 200,000 mothers who participated in the National Survey of Children's Health, an annual survey of households with children up to age 17. Researchers found that 1 in 20 mothers reported her mental health was poor or fair in 2016; by 2023 the ratio was about 1 in 12. In contrast, 1 in 22 fathers surveyed reported fair or poor mental health in 2023. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up There are limitations to the study, which was cross-sectional, meaning it looked at snapshots in time but did not follow the same women year over year. It also relied on self-reporting. Still, the findings were not surprising to experts in the field of maternal mental health, who have been observing the decline in emotional well-being for years. Advertisement Dr. Tamar Gur, endowed director of the Soter Women's Health Research Program at Ohio State University, said that if nothing else, the new findings would help reassure the mothers she treats that they are not the only ones struggling. 'Now I have something I can point to when I'm seeing a patient and say, 'You're not alone in this,'' Gur, who was not involved in the study, said. 'This is happening nationally, and it's a real problem.' The new study was not designed to address the question of why maternal mental health seems to be on the decline, but one of its authors, Jamie Daw, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, has some theories. Daw and others pointed to several factors that may have hurt maternal mental health over the past decade or so, including the high costs of housing, increasing child care costs, and soaring food prices, which can each put financial and emotional pressure on families. Those stressors exist on top of longstanding concerns, including that women continue to carry a heavier burden at home and the continued lack of national paid parental leave. Other experts pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a cause of the decline in mental health, but Daw said the drop predated the pandemic. 'This is about broader trends that extend beyond the pandemic,' Daw said, while acknowledging the pandemic had given declines in mental health a 'boost.' Some mental health experts say the women they see in their practices continue to reel from the effects of the pandemic. Advertisement 'We all got much more isolated during COVID,' said Dr. Catherine Birndorf, founder of the Motherhood Center of New York, who was not involved in the new study. 'I think coming out of it, people are still trying to figure out, 'Where are my supports?'' Crystal Schiller, director of the Center for Women's Mood Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that the past few years had been a 'perfect storm for women's mental health.' 'The stress of the pandemic kicked off a mental health crisis for many people that has never fully recovered, in large part because most Americans can't access high-quality mental health care,' she said. The United States has long faced a shortage of therapists, and many of those who would benefit from therapy cannot afford it. Schiller and other experts also noted that mothers may face particular challenges in carving out time for therapy when they are balancing work and raising children. While the new findings build on years of escalating warnings about the state of American mothers' mental well-being, experts said one potential bright spot from the new study was that it may reflect the fact that mothers had become more vocal about their mental health struggles and more comfortable disclosing them with friends, family members, and health care providers and on social media. 'I do think people are becoming more outspoken about what's happening to them,' Birndorf said. This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Nearly half of US states risk a caregiving crisis, study warns
(NewsNation) — A new study is bringing renewed attention to one of the United States' most fragile support systems: caregiving. Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, in a study sponsored by Otsuka American Pharmaceutical, found that nearly half of all U.S. states are at risk of falling into a caregiving crisis. The warning comes amid a national shortage of care professionals and growing pressure on families providing unpaid support. According to the report, the U.S. is currently short 1.8 million care workers, including both medical and non-medical roles, ranging from personal care assistants to registered nurses. Type 2 diabetes: Can it be reversed? Healthcare occupations are projected to grow faster than the average through 2033, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. On average, about 1.9 million openings are projected each year, driven by both new job growth and the need to replace workers who leave the field permanently. At the same time, demand is surging due to longer life spans, rising illnesses and aging baby boomers. More than 53 million Americans already provide unpaid care to a loved one. Of those, 60% also have jobs and nearly three in ten have quit a job due to the demands of caregiving. 'It's often unpaid work. They have to take time off from their work, their lives. They have to give up hobbies, friendships,' said Dr. Rehan Aziz, an eldercare specialist. The report found that support for family caregivers varies widely. Based on caregiver supply, Medicare support, and demographics, the study found the most critical states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The report also found 16 states to be 'high risk' for caregiving collapse. Among them are three of the nation's most populous: Texas, California and Pennsylvania. As care costs rise faster than wages, even middle-class families are feeling the strain. The financial and emotional toll, the study found, is already compromising the health and stability of millions of households. US family diagnosed with disease linked to bats in Costa Rican caves 'There's actually a very high rate of depression among caregivers. It's almost 30 to 50%, and we believe that this high rate of depression is because the work is not supported,' Aziz said. The study urges state and federal officials to invest in stronger support systems, including paid leave, flexible workplace policies and stronger Medicaid coverage. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
22-05-2025
- Health
- Axios
Pennsylvania's "invisible workforce" provides $32 billion in unpaid care
Retired New Hope resident Diane Chew gave up a second act as a business and life coach to care for her husband, Ben, full time after he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia five years ago. Why it matters: She's part of Pennsylvania's "invisible workforce" of family caregivers providing an estimated $32.5 billion in unpaid care this year, per a new report from researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. That's up from $22 billion in 2023. The big picture: Nationwide, millions of families are helping to fill the void of a "shrinking healthcare workforce," per the report. The U.S. is facing a nursing shortage that's projected to reach more than 63,000 nurses in 2030, per the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. With little help from their states, many family caretakers are left drained from juggling competing responsibilities, including work and caring for children. What they're saying: "We have soul contracts," Chew, 69, says of her commitment to her husband, whom she met at Penn State five decades ago. Chew doesn't qualify for state aid. She has had to dip into the couple's retirement fund to pay for Ben's care, which costs $15,000 a month, including help from a night nurse so Chew can sleep. It'd be less expensive to place Ben at a full-time dementia care residential facility, but Chew can't stand the thought of doing that to the "love of my life." "I have siblings," says Chew, who posts about caretaking and the couple's adventures on social media. "If I have to end up on their couch one of these days, I will." How it works: Researchers used Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2024 to assign hourly wages to various caretaking roles — nurse, cook, financial planner — that they used to calculate unpaid labor totals for each state. Because most dementia patients require round-the-clock care, such caretakers would need to make at least $100,000 to be fairly compensated for the hours of unpaid work they perform, John McHugh, one of the report's lead researchers, tells Axios. Dementia care accounts for 40% of Pennsylvania's unpaid caregiver costs, per a statewide snapshot. Threat level: Nearly half of U.S. states are on the brink of caretaking crises, including Florida ($60.7 billion), Louisiana ($12.8 billion) and Georgia ($26.8 billion), which require immediate attention, per the report. Pennsylvania is one of 21 states that are considered "safe for now," the report says, though researchers warn rising dementia cases could push some of those states over a tipping point. Cuts to programs like Medicaid, which some Republicans in the House are pushing, could also propel "some of these states into an at-risk category," McHugh says. Zoom in: Pennsylvania's situation is stable thanks to an influx of nurses, as well as more than 4,500 home care agencies operating in the Commonwealth, according to the state Department of Health. The state has about 85 home health aides per 1,000 residents over 65, per the report. Yes, but: Pennsylvania has an aging population; 20% of the state's residents are 65 and up. What we're watching: The report calls for Pennsylvania lawmakers to enact paid family leave and provide tax credits to ease the financial burden on unpaid caretakers.
The Hindu
08-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Is climate change increasing the levels of toxic arsenic in our rice?
When it comes to food, most Indians cannot imagine a day without rice. Lunch is rice, and rice is lunch – and rice is also sometimes breakfast or dinner or just part of a number of other food items we consume. But how healthy is the rice we are eating? Scientists have known for a while now that a lot of rice contains some amount of arsenic. A new study that was published in The Lancet Planetary Health last month, however, had some newer, more worrying findings: it found that with rising carbon emissions and rising temperatures, the arsenic levels in rice will rise. The study was conducted over a 10-year period on 28 different strains of paddy rice at four different locations in China. Arsenic is a known carcinogen – it is linked to cancers including lung and bladder cancer as well as to other serious health conditions. So what does this study mean for India, which is a large rice-growing and rice-eating country and one that is also experiencing climate change effects? What does arsenic do to your body in the long term? Are there methods to grow rice that decrease the amount of arsenic in it? What can you do to make the rice you are eating at home safer? Guests: Lewis Ziska, associate rofessor, environmental health sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and Keeve Nachman, professor of environmental health and engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Jude Francis Weston Listen to more In Focus podcasts:
