News Briefs – JULY-AUGUST 2022
by INELDA
Grief Increases Inflammation
A team of scientists has found that stress experienced by bereaved spouses exacerbates interleukin-6, a proinflammatory cytokine, creating increased inflammation within the body. The study monitored 111 bereaved adults, from 35 to 84 years old, who had lost a spouse in the past year. By obtaining blood samples from the study participants, the team was able to analyze how stress affected each individual through simulated stress scenarios. Participants who reported high levels of grief after the loss of their partners had a 19% higher level of interleukin-6 in their bloodstreams than those who reported less grief. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, grief was associated with deep sorrow, numbness, yearning, and loss of focus. This is the first study to demonstrate that symptoms generated by grief and acute stress promote inflammation.
Study Finds Preparing for Death Improves Quality of Life
The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (JPSM) published a study that evaluated the relationship between cancer patients’ death preparedness and their psychological distress, quality of life (QOL), and end-of-life care. The study looked at four levels of preparedness in 383 patients within the last six months of their lives: no death preparedness, cognitive death preparedness only, emotional death preparedness only, and sufficient death preparedness. Scientists found that patients who had no death preparedness or cognitive death preparedness only reported increases in anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms. Those patients who had emotional death preparedness only were more likely to receive chemotherapy or immunotherapy and hospice care. By contrast, individuals who had sufficient death preparedness did not choose any life-sustaining treatments during the last month of life. This study concluded that conjoint cognitive and emotional preparedness for death is associated with cancer patients’ lower psychological distress, better quality of life, reduced anti-cancer therapy, and increased hospice-care utilization.
Health Inequities Cost $320 Billion a Year
The Deloitte actuary team developed a model that quantified the link between health-care spending and health-care disparities related to race, socioeconomic status, and sex/gender. By analyzing diseases that required high financial payouts, the team projected that costs could balloon to $1 trillion by 2040 if these inequities are not addressed. This projected rise in health-care spending could cost the average American at least $3,000 annually, up from today’s cost of $1,000 per year. The study goes on to say, “Health-care incumbents, industry disruptors, community organizations, and government agencies each have a role to play in removing the barriers that lead to health inequities and turning unaffordable costs into opportunities.” Findings showed that “inequities across the U.S. health system limit underserved people’s access to affordable, high-quality care, create avoidable costs and financial waste that span society, and impact every individual’s potential to achieve health and well-being.”