Latest news with #Pediatrics
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
White House MAHA Report may have garbled science by using AI, experts say
Some of the citations that underpin the science in the White House's sweeping 'MAHA Report' appear to have been generated using artificial intelligence, resulting in numerous garbled scientific references and invented studies, AI experts said Thursday. Of the 522 footnotes to scientific research in an initial version of the report sent to The Washington Post, at least 37 appear multiple times, according to a review of the report by The Washington Post. Other citations include the wrong author, and several studies cited by the extensive health report do not exist at all, a fact first reported by the online news outlet NOTUS on Thursday morning. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Some references include 'oaicite' attached to URLs - a definitive sign that the research was collected using artificial intelligence. The presence of 'oaicite' is a marker indicating use of OpenAI, a U.S. artificial intelligence company. A common hallmark of AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, is unusually repetitive content that does not sound human or is inaccurate -as well as the tendency to 'hallucinate' studies or answers that appear to make sense but are not real. AI technology can be used legitimately to quickly survey the research in a field. But Oren Etzioni, a professor emeritus at the University of Washington who studies AI, said he was shocked by the sloppiness in the MAHA Report. 'Frankly, that's shoddy work,' he said. 'We deserve better.' 'The MAHA Report: Making Our Children Healthy Again,' which addressed the root causes of America's lagging health outcomes, was written by a commission of Cabinet officials and government scientific leaders. It was led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of misstating science, and written in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump. It blames exposure to environmental toxins, poor nutrition and increased screen time for a decline in Americans' life expectancy. One reference in the initial version of the report cited a study entitled 'Overprescribing of Oral Corticosteroids for Children With Asthma' to buttress the idea that children are over-medicated. But that study didn't appear to exist. There is a similar Pediatrics article from 2017 with the same first author but different co-authors. Later Thursday, that Pediatrics article was swapped in for the apparently nonexistent study in the version of the report available online. An article credited to U.S. News & World Report about children's recess and exercise time was initially cited twice to support claims of declining physical activity among U.S. children, once with only part of the link shown. It listed Mlynek, A. and Spiegel, S. as different authors. Neither referred to Kate Rix, who wrote the story. Neither Mlynek nor Spiegel appear to be actual reporters for the publication. As of Thursday evening, Rix had been swapped in as the author on one of the references in the version of the report available online. Nearly half of the 522 citations in the initial version of the report included links to articles or studies. But a Post analysis of all the report's references found that at least 21 of those links were dead. Former governor and current New York City mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo was caught up in controversy last month after a housing policy report he issued used ChatGPT and garbled a reference. Attorneys have faced sanctions for using nonexistent case citations created by ChatGPT in legal briefs. The garbled scientific citations betray subpar science and undermine the credibility of the report, said Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. 'This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point,' he said. 'It cannot be used for any policymaking. It cannot even be used for any serious discussion, because you can't believe what's in it.' When asked about the nonexistent citations at a news briefing Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House has 'complete confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his team at HHS.' 'I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA Report that are being addressed, and the report will be updated, but it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government, and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government,' Leavitt said. At some point between 1 and 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, the MAHA Report file was updated on the White House site to remove mentions of 'corrected hyperlinks' and one of the 'oaicite' markers. Another 'oaicite' marker, attached to a New York Times Wirecutter story about baby formula, was still present in the document until it was removed Thursday evening. The White House continued to update the report into the night. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said that 'minor citation and formatting errors have been corrected, but the substance of the MAHA report remains the same - a historic and transformative assessment by the federal government to understand the chronic disease epidemic afflicting our nation's children.' 'Under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy, our federal government is no longer ignoring this crisis, and it's time for the media to also focus on what matters,' Nixon said. Kennedy has long vowed to use AI to make America's health care better and more efficient, recently stating in a congressional hearing that he had even seen an AI nurse prototype 'that could revolutionize health delivery in rural areas.' Peter Lurie, president of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, said he was not surprised by the presence of possible AI markers in the report. Lurie said he had asked his own staff to look into it after noticing that the report linked to one of his organization's fact sheets but credited the Department of Agriculture and HHS as the authors. 'The idea that they would envelop themselves in the shroud of scientific excellence while producing a report that relies heavily on AI is just shockingly hypocritical,' said Lurie, who was a top Food and Drug Administration official in the Obama administration, where he wrote such government reports. There are many pitfalls in modern AI, which is 'happy to make up citations,' said Steven Piantadosi, a professor in psychology and neuroscience at the University of California at Berkeley. 'The problem with current AI is that it's not trustworthy, so it's just based on statistical associations and dependencies,' he said. 'It has no notion of ground truth, no notion of ... a rigorous logical or statistical argument. It has no notions of evidence and how strongly to weigh one kind of evidence versus another. ' The Post previously reported that the document stretched the boundaries of science with some of its conclusions. Several sections offer misleading representations of findings in scientific papers. Related Content Harvard celebrates graduation in the shadow of its fight with Trump Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil's detention ruled likely unconstitutional Despite ceasefire, India and Pakistan are locked in a cultural cold war
Time of India
5 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Infants prone to sleep, appetite issues in long Covid; preschoolers to dry cough: US study
Infants under two-years-old, suffering from long Covid are more likely to experience trouble sleeping, fussiness, poor appetite, stuffy nose, and cough, while children aged three to five are more likely to have a dry cough and tiredness, according to a new study in the US. "Children with these symptoms often had worse overall health, lower quality of life, and delays in development," co-first author Tanayott Thaweethai, associate director of biostatistics research and engagement at Massachusetts General Hospital, US, said. Long Covid refers to symptoms that persist well beyond having recovered from an acute COVID-19 infection. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, are the latest from the US National Institutes of Health's 'RECOVER' initiative, aimed at understanding and preventing long Covid. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like CHAMPAGNE RUINART VALAP Iscriviti ora Undo An earlier analysis by the team in August 2024, found that children aged six to 11 displayed brain- and stomach-related symptoms such as headache, trouble focussing and sleeping, while teenagers experienced a loss of smell and taste, fatigue and physical pain. Notably, teens were found to display long Covid symptoms more similar to adults -- who often report brain fog and fatigue -- than to children. Live Events This study is "important because it shows that long COVID symptoms in young children are different from those in older children and adults," Thaweethai said. "Infants (or) toddlers (0-2 years) with infection history were more likely to experience trouble sleeping, fussiness, poor appetite, stuffy nose, and cough, and preschool-aged children (3-5 years) were more likely to experience dry cough and daytime tiredness (or) sleepiness or low energy," the authors wrote. The researchers examined 472 infants and 539 preschoolers, of which 278 infants and 399 pre-schoolers had previously suffered from COVID-19. The participants were enrolled between March 2022 and July 2024. Among those with a history of infection, 40 infants (14 per cent) and 61 pre-school children (15 per cent) were identified as having long Covid. Symptoms lasting at least 90 days after COVID infection for both age groups were analysed -- 41 symptoms in the infant group and 75 in preschoolers. Parts of India, including Delhi-NCR, West Bengal and Karnataka, are seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases, which have been attributed to Omicron sub-variants. Severity of infections as of now is generally mild and there is no cause for worry, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had said on May 26.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Majority of Youth Overdose Deaths from 2018 to 2022 Were Driven by Fentanyl Alone
Study Reveals Changing Nature of U.S. Drug Supply NEW YORK, May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fatal drug overdoses among youth aged 15 to 24 in the United States involving synthetic opioids alone—not mixed with other substances—soared by 168 percent over the five-year time period of 2018 to 2022, a new study shows. Published online today in the journal Pediatrics, the work also found that youth overdose rates and drug combinations varied significantly across age, sex and race/ethnicity. Led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the new study is the first, say investigators, to identify which specific combinations of drugs drove synthetic opioid-involved fatal overdoses among young people across sociodemographic groups over time. Overdoses that involved synthetic opioids alone—predominantly fentanyl—had the highest rates of fatalities when compared to overdoses involving other drug combinations examined by the researchers. This was regardless of age, sex and race/ethnicity. "Before we looked at the data, we thought we would find that the majority of fatal youth overdoses involved fentanyl combined with other substances, such as prescription opioids or cocaine," said Noa Krawczyk, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Population Health, and senior author of the study. "Instead, we found the opposite—that most deaths were caused by fentanyl alone. Our analysis sheds light on the changing nature and risks of the drug supply and how they impact key demographic groups. Some may think they are taking one substance but are actually exposed to another." According to Krawczyk, who is also associate director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at NYU Langone, their findings underscore the need to tailor overdose prevention strategies that include harm reduction services specifically to youth to prevent death and suffering among this under-studied population. How the Study was Conducted Analyzing data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the researchers characterized trends in overdose death involving synthetic opioids (predominantly fentanyl) alone, as well as in combination with five common other drugs (benzodiazepines, heroin, prescription opioids, cocaine, and other stimulants) among youth aged 15-24 across age, sex and race/ethnicity over five years (from 2018 to 2022). The investigators found that during the five-year study period, overdoses involving synthetic opioids alone increased by 168 percent—the highest rates of fatalities compared to those that included a combination of the examined drugs, regardless of age, sex and race/ethnicity. After deaths due to synthetic opioids/fentanyl alone, the next highest rates of fatal overdoses involved fentanyl combined with cocaine or another stimulant; however, rates differed by age, sex, race/ethnicity and over time. In 2018, White non-Hispanic youth had the highest rates of overdoses involving synthetic opioids/fentanyl alone. By 2022, rates of overdose deaths involving only fentanyl among Black American, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Hispanic youth exceeded White non-Hispanic youth. When it came to the impact of sex and age, fatal overdoses across all groups were highest among males, as well as all youth aged 20 to 24. According to the research team, understanding the landscape of overdose patterns provides needed context in terms of how to best inform specific public health interventions that can prevent more deaths. Megan Miller, a research coordinator at the NYU Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy and lead author of the study, emphasized that "there are a variety of ways to engage youth and reduce their risk of overdose. Schools, places of employment, homeless shelters, child welfare services, and juvenile justice settings are all possible touchpoints to offer education and harm reduction tools such as naloxone and fentanyl test strips. Our findings highlight the need to tailor these strategies to different youth groups based on the types of drugs they are using to help prevent further overdose deaths." Limitations to the study findings, according to the investigators, include possible misclassification in mortality coding practices, as well as limited sociodemographic information. For example, youth who identify as LGBTQ+ tend to have a higher risk of overdose, yet that information was not available. Due to small sample sizes, the data did not examine youth who may identify as more than one race or ethnicity. In addition to Krawczyk and Miller, study co-authors from NYU Grossman School of Medicine include Katherine Wheeler-Martin, MPH, Amanda M. Bunting, PhD, and Magdalena Cerdá, DrPH. Funding for the study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K01DA055758. Dr. Bunting was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Award Number K01DA053435. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. About NYU Langone HealthNYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone No. 1 out of 115 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation for three years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently placed nine of its clinical specialties among the top five in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. With $14.2 billion in revenue this year, the system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise. Media Inquiries: Sasha View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE NYU Langone
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Majority of Youth Overdose Deaths from 2018 to 2022 Were Driven by Fentanyl Alone
Study Reveals Changing Nature of U.S. Drug Supply NEW YORK, May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fatal drug overdoses among youth aged 15 to 24 in the United States involving synthetic opioids alone—not mixed with other substances—soared by 168 percent over the five-year time period of 2018 to 2022, a new study shows. Published online today in the journal Pediatrics, the work also found that youth overdose rates and drug combinations varied significantly across age, sex and race/ethnicity. Led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the new study is the first, say investigators, to identify which specific combinations of drugs drove synthetic opioid-involved fatal overdoses among young people across sociodemographic groups over time. Overdoses that involved synthetic opioids alone—predominantly fentanyl—had the highest rates of fatalities when compared to overdoses involving other drug combinations examined by the researchers. This was regardless of age, sex and race/ethnicity. "Before we looked at the data, we thought we would find that the majority of fatal youth overdoses involved fentanyl combined with other substances, such as prescription opioids or cocaine," said Noa Krawczyk, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Population Health, and senior author of the study. "Instead, we found the opposite—that most deaths were caused by fentanyl alone. Our analysis sheds light on the changing nature and risks of the drug supply and how they impact key demographic groups. Some may think they are taking one substance but are actually exposed to another." According to Krawczyk, who is also associate director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at NYU Langone, their findings underscore the need to tailor overdose prevention strategies that include harm reduction services specifically to youth to prevent death and suffering among this under-studied population. How the Study was Conducted Analyzing data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the researchers characterized trends in overdose death involving synthetic opioids (predominantly fentanyl) alone, as well as in combination with five common other drugs (benzodiazepines, heroin, prescription opioids, cocaine, and other stimulants) among youth aged 15-24 across age, sex and race/ethnicity over five years (from 2018 to 2022). The investigators found that during the five-year study period, overdoses involving synthetic opioids alone increased by 168 percent—the highest rates of fatalities compared to those that included a combination of the examined drugs, regardless of age, sex and race/ethnicity. After deaths due to synthetic opioids/fentanyl alone, the next highest rates of fatal overdoses involved fentanyl combined with cocaine or another stimulant; however, rates differed by age, sex, race/ethnicity and over time. In 2018, White non-Hispanic youth had the highest rates of overdoses involving synthetic opioids/fentanyl alone. By 2022, rates of overdose deaths involving only fentanyl among Black American, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Hispanic youth exceeded White non-Hispanic youth. When it came to the impact of sex and age, fatal overdoses across all groups were highest among males, as well as all youth aged 20 to 24. According to the research team, understanding the landscape of overdose patterns provides needed context in terms of how to best inform specific public health interventions that can prevent more deaths. Megan Miller, a research coordinator at the NYU Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy and lead author of the study, emphasized that "there are a variety of ways to engage youth and reduce their risk of overdose. Schools, places of employment, homeless shelters, child welfare services, and juvenile justice settings are all possible touchpoints to offer education and harm reduction tools such as naloxone and fentanyl test strips. Our findings highlight the need to tailor these strategies to different youth groups based on the types of drugs they are using to help prevent further overdose deaths." Limitations to the study findings, according to the investigators, include possible misclassification in mortality coding practices, as well as limited sociodemographic information. For example, youth who identify as LGBTQ+ tend to have a higher risk of overdose, yet that information was not available. Due to small sample sizes, the data did not examine youth who may identify as more than one race or ethnicity. In addition to Krawczyk and Miller, study co-authors from NYU Grossman School of Medicine include Katherine Wheeler-Martin, MPH, Amanda M. Bunting, PhD, and Magdalena Cerdá, DrPH. Funding for the study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K01DA055758. Dr. Bunting was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Award Number K01DA053435. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. About NYU Langone HealthNYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone No. 1 out of 115 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation for three years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently placed nine of its clinical specialties among the top five in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. With $14.2 billion in revenue this year, the system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise. Media Inquiries: Sasha View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE NYU Langone Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Medscape
19-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Screening Teens, Clinicians Discover a Tampon Access Crisis
Asking teenage girls about their access to menstruation products can help pediatricians gain a better understanding of the resources their patients need, whether it be more education or pads and tampons, according to a new study published in Pediatrics . An academic pediatric clinic in North Carolina implemented a three-question screener inquiring if teens had problems acquiring products to manage their periods, such as pads and tampons. Researchers found 1 in 10 of 73 girls had these issues. Some girls reported they resorted to using toilet paper as menstrual pads or missed school because they were worried about bleeding through their clothing. Clinicians who screened the teens reported that patient responses were sometimes surprising and opened dialogue for broader conversations about menstrual health. 'I was surprised: I feel like, 30%...of my teens have screened positive, and sometimes even just the period poverty screener itself makes me probe a little bit more on questions,' said one clinician involved in the study. 'And even if they're not positive on the screener, sometimes they'll realize they really actually don't have the things that they need.' The study took place in 2022 during well visits at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist's Downtown Health Plaza Pediatric Clinic in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with a patient population with mostly Medicaid coverage. Teens were also asked if they had ever missed school (7%) or experienced anxiety because of their period (10%). Girls who answered yes to any of the questions received a bag of menstrual supplies and information about where to obtain additional free products. The clinic partnered with a local chapter of The Period Project, a nonprofit aimed at eliminating menstrual poverty. The North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology in 2022 called for clinicians to ask their patients about access to menstrual products, educate them about menstruation, and speak openly with girls about their periods. A recent study found that 1 in 3 girls who visited an emergency department in Washington, DC, said they were unable to afford supplies or had to use cloth, toilet paper, tissues, or rags as alternatives. Tambu Kudze, MD Girls who struggle to afford supplies may 'resort to using products beyond their recommended use,' which increases their risk for toxic shock syndrome, said Tambu Kudze, MD, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, who was not associated with the study. The use of items like cloth or toilet paper can also increase the risk for vulvar irritation, poor hygiene, and infection, Kudze said. However, asking questions about access to menstrual products is not a widespread clinical practice, said Callie Brown, MD, an associate professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and senior author of the study. Callie Brown, MD 'I would say honestly that some of these teens lack understanding for their menstrual cycles in general, and not understanding that it can be irregular, and how much they need to use pads and tampons,' said one clinician. 'Sometimes, they're using them inappropriately, so the education part has been an issue for some kids.' Kudze said that written questionnaires could easily be integrated into clinical practice and might help patients disclose their struggles. 'One of my biggest takeaways from the study is we can ask these questions, but it's important to then have the resources,' Kudze said. 'You can't just say 'I'm sorry that you don't have pads' and then leave it there.' Kudze and Brown reported having no disclosures. The study was independently funded.
