Latest news with #lifeExpectancy
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Life expectancy of women with HIV in B.C. hasn't increased as much as men's: new research
While British Columbians living with HIV are living much longer than a few decades ago, the life expectancy for women isn't increasing at the same rate as men's, according to a recent study by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Data gathered between 1996 to 2001 and 2012 to 2020 shows that in B.C., men's life expectancy rose from 44 to 68 years old, while the life expectancy for women only rose from 42 to 61 years old. B.C.'s healthcare system began providing free, highly effective antiretroviral therapy to people living with HIV 1996 which, as the authors note, increased life expectancy substantially. Researchers had expected the life expectancy gap between men and women to narrow over time, but were surprised to find the gap widened. "The life expectancy gap between men and women living with HIV should be narrowing, not getting worse," said the study's lead author Katherine W. Kooij in a release. They noted that this differs from what is observed in the general population globally, where women with HIV tend to live longer than men. "We suspect that this discrepancy is driven by an unequal burden on women due to adverse socio-structural factors including barriers to accessing healthcare, unemployment, poverty, unstable housing, stigma, and discrimination," it said. In the population studied, women more often lived in less wealthy neighborhoods and more often reported injection drugs as a transmission risk factor. In addition, women with HIV more often had substance use disorders than men with HIV. Scott Elliott, CEO of the Dr. Peter Centre, which serves people living with HIV in Vancouver, said the organization has been working to strengthen its programs for women. He said that, based on his experience, it is harder to attract and keep women in care programs than it is men, because women are often caregivers themselves. "They're taking care of others. Many of them have kids and families," he said. "And so they often don't come into care… until it's very, very advanced." Elliott said that because men make up the majority of the population of people living with HIV, many of the support programs in Vancouver and across the country are designed for men, or are overrun by men. "We get a lot of resistance or a lot of shame and a lot of fear about women coming into services," said Elliott, adding the Dr. Peter Centre has introduced women's only programming to try to mitigate this. He said the key to helping women with HIV is ensuring they have access to care that works for them. What has worked for the Dr. Peter Centre is to have a long-term relationship with the patient. "It's a complex illness," he said. "If they're going to a doctor's office and have to wait two hours, it's not gonna work... If there's other aspects like food, housing, access to medication that isn't looked after, it's not gonna work." The study recommends women with HIV be provided with better supports, including low-barrier care, better housing and community connection.
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Life expectancy of women with HIV in B.C. hasn't increased as much as men's: new research
Social Sharing While British Columbians living with HIV are living much longer than a few decades ago, the life expectancy for women isn't increasing at the same rate as men's, according to a recent study by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Data gathered between 1996 to 2001 and 2012 to 2020 shows that in B.C., men's life expectancy rose from 44 to 68 years old, while the life expectancy for women only rose from 42 to 61 years old. B.C.'s healthcare system began providing free, highly effective antiretroviral therapy to people living with HIV 1996 which, as the authors note, increased life expectancy substantially. Researchers had expected the life expectancy gap between men and women to narrow over time, but were surprised to find the gap widened. "The life expectancy gap between men and women living with HIV should be narrowing, not getting worse," said the study's lead author Katherine W. Kooij in a release. They noted that this differs from what is observed in the general population globally, where women with HIV tend to live longer than men. "We suspect that this discrepancy is driven by an unequal burden on women due to adverse socio-structural factors including barriers to accessing healthcare, unemployment, poverty, unstable housing, stigma, and discrimination," it said. In the population studied, women more often lived in less wealthy neighborhoods and more often reported injection drugs as a transmission risk factor. In addition, women with HIV more often had substance use disorders than men with HIV. Scott Elliott, CEO of the Dr. Peter Centre, which serves people living with HIV in Vancouver, said the organization has been working to strengthen its programs for women. He said that, based on his experience, it is harder to attract and keep women in care programs than it is men, because women are often caregivers themselves. "They're taking care of others. Many of them have kids and families," he said. "And so they often don't come into care… until it's very, very advanced." Elliott said that because men make up the majority of the population of people living with HIV, many of the support programs in Vancouver and across the country are designed for men, or are overrun by men. B.C. HIV advocates raising the alarm about increasing rates in Canada 6 months ago Duration 2:27 "We get a lot of resistance or a lot of shame and a lot of fear about women coming into services," said Elliott, adding the Dr. Peter Centre has introduced women's only programming to try to mitigate this. He said the key to helping women with HIV is ensuring they have access to care that works for them. What has worked for the Dr. Peter Centre is to have a long-term relationship with the patient. "It's a complex illness," he said. "If they're going to a doctor's office and have to wait two hours, it's not gonna work... If there's other aspects like food, housing, access to medication that isn't looked after, it's not gonna work."
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Healthy life for a healthy ageing — Mohammad Tariqur Rahman
MAY 31 — Eternity is what man desires, with or without knowing the purpose of having an eternal life. Albeit, achieving that eternal life remains either in a dream, fiction, or in divine pledge in the life hereafter. Then, a more realistic expectation (goal) for a man is to dream of a prolonged life in this world. According to the World Health Report 1998, the average life expectancy at birth in 2025 was expected to be 73 years, which was 48 years in 1955, and 65 years in 1995. Today, on average, people live more than 73 years. Average life expectancy in Europe, Oceania, America, and Japan is close to 80 years. In Malaysia, it is more than 74 years. Indeed, the prediction came true. In other words, the dream of having a prolonged life is now a reality. How long will people live who will be born in the year 2040 and beyond? The more pressing question is to fathom the expected lifespan of those who are in their 40s or younger today. Looking at the trend of increasing life span, it is not unlikely that they might live longer than those who were in their 40s twenty years ago. Turning the dream of a prolonged life into a reality came with a price — the cost of coping with the ageing population. Developed countries are facing the challenges of declining labour force participation and increased healthcare costs to cope with the ageing population. Malaysia will not be an exception. The simple and straightforward policy strategy is to estimate the potential ratio of the aged population, then prepare the necessary infrastructure, including the required number of geriatricians and caregivers to provide support for the elderly. Given the rise of artificial intelligence, the countermeasure to deal with a declining labour force participation and increased healthcare costs might be easier than anticipated. Developed countries are facing the challenges of declining labour force participation and increased healthcare costs to cope with the ageing population. — Unsplash pic For example, replacing human labour with AI, especially by developed nations, would minimise the shortage of human labour in the long run. But that will not solve the problem of the burden of the growing aged population in society. Every nation has to deal with the elderly. At the same time, there is a strong possibility that the elderly in the future might face different health complications from those of today. It is well known that the risk of developing dementia rises steeply with age in people of 60 years. In addition to that, a population-based study in Seoul suggested a potential link between Covid-19 vaccination, particularly mRNA vaccines, and increased incidences of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. If that trend continues, dealing with the cognitively impaired elderly will require additional measures than those with physical ailments. Besides, dealing with the elderly in 2040 and beyond will come with different sets of challenges. Those who are in their 40s today will belong to the elderly by 2040 and beyond. Several unforeseen health determinants emerge among these current youths and adults that were less prevalent among their earlier counterparts. According to the Department of Statistics, at the Ministry of Economy (Malaysia), the number of marriages decreased 12.5 per cent from 215,022 (2022) to 188,100 (2023). Arguably, happy marriages are linked to a healthy life at an older age. Besides, a family life comes with an opportunity for family care of the elderly by their next generations. Hence, those who are forced or intended to continue unmarried life might face unforeseen mental and physical health concerns in their old age. Struggles with economic precarity, job security, and workplace stress are more common among the current generations of youths and adults. This array of continuous physical and psychological stress incubates the potential non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, at an older age. In other words, those who are in their 40s living a stressful life are expected to face challenging health issues in their old age. Finally, the experience of Covid-19 made us ponder with caution if there should be another emerging pandemic that will be equally or more fatal for the elderly with or without the comorbidity of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In summary, the elderly in 2040 and beyond might struggle more with cognitive impairment, non-infectious diseases, and above all, psychological distress. Therefore, the long-term policy to ensure good health for the aged population is not only about building infrastructure but also ensuring that the youths and adults today will have a healthy life for a healthy ageing. At the same time, the possibility of unforeseen fatality of the elderly with another potential pandemic must remain in the backdrop of the policy platform. * Professor Mohammad is the Deputy Executive Director (Development, Research & Innovation) at International Institute of Public Policy and Management (Inpuma), Universiti Malaya, and can be reached at [email protected] ** This is the personal opinion of the writers or publications and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
The MAHA Report's AI fingerprints, annotated
The White House's 'Make America Healthy Again' report, which issued a dire warning about the forces responsible for Americans' declining life expectancy, bears hallmarks of the use of artificial intelligence in its citations. That appears to have garbled citations and invented studies that underpin the report's conclusions. Trump administration officials have been repeatedly revising and updating the report since Thursday as news outlets, beginning with NOTUS, have highlighted the discrepancies and evidence of nonexistent research.
The Verge
4 days ago
- Health
- The Verge
RFK Jr.‘s ‘Make America Healthy Again' report seems riddled with AI slop
There are some questionable sources underpinning Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s controversial 'Make America Healthy Again' commission report. Signs point to AI tomfoolery, and the use of ChatGPT specifically, which calls into question the veracity of the White House report meant to address reasons for the decline in US life expectancy. An investigation by NOTUS found dozens of errors in the MAHA report, including broken links, wrong issue numbers, and missing or incorrect authors. Some studies were misstated to back up the report's conclusions, or more damningly, didn't exist at all. At least seven of the cited sources were entirely fictitious, according to NOTUS. Another investigation by The Washington Post found that at least 37 of the 522 citations appeared multiple times throughout the report. Notably, the URLs of several references included 'oaicite,' a marker that OpenAI applies to responses provided by artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT, which strongly suggests its use to develop the report Generative AI tools have a tendency to spit out false or incorrect information, known as 'hallucinations.' That would certainly explain the various errors throughout the report — chatbots have been found responsible for similar citation issues in legal filings submitted by AI experts and even the companies building the models. Nevertheless, RFK Jr has long advocated for the 'AI Revolution,' and announced during a House Committee meeting in May that 'we are already using these new technologies to manage health care data more efficiently and securely.' In a briefing on Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to concerns about the accuracy of the citations while evading any mention of AI tools. Leavitt described the errors as 'formatting issues' and defended the health report for being 'backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government.' The Washington Post notes that the MAHA report file was updated on Thursday to remove some of the oaicite markers and replace some of the non-existent sources with alternative citations. In a statement given to the publication, Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said '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.'
