Study assessed health outcomes at six and 12 months for 1,276 COVID-19 patients who had been discharged from a hospital in Wuhan (China) between January and May 2020. Though most symptoms had resolved by 12 months, around one half of survivors still experienced at least one ongoing symptom (most commonly fatigue or muscle weakness), and...
The presence of mercury in the world’s oceans has ramifications for human health and wildlife, especially in coastal areas where the majority of fishing takes place. But while models evaluating sources of mercury in the oceans have focused on mercury deposited directly from the atmosphere, a new study led by Peter Raymond, professor of ecosystem...
Climate change is no longer a distant worry, discussed solely among scientists and environmentalists. Climate change is happening now, and it’s hurting millions of people and costing billions of dollars annually. But the Earth is an astoundingly complex system, and tracing a line from greenhouse gas emissions through natural disasters and all the way to...
A survey of mostly African American adults living in and around one of Georgia’s largest cities found that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was greatest among those age 18 to 29, investigators say. “Age is the main driver,” says Dr. Justin Xavier Moore, epidemiologist at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, with those 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed having 21-fold...
Over the last 50 years, income inequality between households increased significantly, but not because people changed who they marry. According to new research led by University of Wisconsin–Madison professor of sociology Christine Schwartz, the tendency of people to marry those with similar jobs has not changed much. But the changing availability of spouses with particular jobs...
Cities are hubs of human activity, supercharging the exchange of ideas and interactions. Scaling theory has established that, as cities grow larger, they tend to produce more of pretty much everything from pollution and crime to patents and wealth. On average, people in larger cities are better off economically. But a new study published in the Journal of...
Cases of COVID-19 are surging around the world, but the course of the pandemic varies widely country to country. To provide you with a global view as we approach a year and a half since the official declaration of the pandemic, The Conversation’s editors from around the world commissioned articles looking at specific countries and...
The opioid crisis has resulted in more than 500,000 overdose deaths over the past two decades. The federal government, states and other entities have filed litigation against drug manufacturers, suppliers and pharmacies as one approach to address the harm and suffering caused by inappropriate opioid prescribing practices. Billions of dollars of funds have since been...
Hospitals have long embraced the practice of outsourcing some services to specialized companies. Much of this outsourcing is for nonclinical tasks such as laundry, information technology and cybersecurity, and outsourcing those types of services can boost efficiency and quality. However, over the past few years there has been a fast-growing trend of hospitals outsourcing clinically...
During the COVID-19 pandemic months of March 2020 to September 2020, U.S. alcohol retail store sales increased compared to usual trends while food services and drinking places sales decreased markedly during the same period, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. These results indicate an increase in home drinking...
