News Briefs – May 2025
by INELDA
Native Americans Face More EOL Interventions
The health disparities among disadvantaged groups appear to continue through the end of life, according to recent research published in JCO Oncology Practice. A study comparing medical interventions in the month leading up to death of both Native American and White people with lung cancer revealed differences in how end-of-life care is experienced among these two populations.
Compared with White patients, Native patients had more hospital admissions, increased frequency of emergency department visits, and higher rates of hospital death. This may be in part because of limited palliative care opportunities among tribal communities, which often face barriers such as geographic isolation and limited resources. That explanation would be in line with findings about other minority populations: Patients in hospitals that largely serve Black and Hispanic people are one third less likely to get palliative care compared with people in more homogenized hospitals.
The paper’s author, Manali Patel, points out that previous attempts to explain discrepant end-of-life care among American Indians pointed to tribal members’ supposed reluctance to engage in discussions around death and dying. However, as Patel writes, “Consistently, when discussions regarding a patients’ care wishes at the end of life are approached with cultural humility and sensitivity and framed as such, American Indians are just as likely to discuss their end-of-life care preferences as non-American Indian population.”
United States Is an Outlier in Avoidable Deaths
The number of avoidable deaths in high-income countries around the globe has decreased, according to research recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine. One notable outlier: The United States, which saw an increase in avoidable deaths in the decade of 2009 to 2019, to the tune of 33 additional deaths per 100,000 people.
Across the European Union, avoidable deaths—defined by Science News as deaths per year among people under age 75 that would not have occurred had reliable, timely health care been available—dropped by 24 deaths per 100,000 people. Around the world, member nations of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which spans both Americas, Europe, and Asia, saw 19 fewer deaths per 100,000 people.
Avoidable deaths are one metric used when analyzing the effectiveness of a health care system. This makes the United States’ position all the more noteworthy, as the country spends more on health care than any other nation in the study. While the United States was not the only nation that saw a rise in avoidable deaths (Mexico, Turkey, Bulgaria, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom also had greater rates than previous years), the size and scope of its rise is noteworthy, spanning all 50 states. This research covered 2009 to 2019, meaning deaths related to COVID-19 are not accounted for.
Promising Alzheimer’s Drug Approved for Use in Europe
People in Europe who have Alzheimer’s disease are on track to have a new medication option. The European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use reversed an earlier decision regarding the drug Leqembi, approving it for clinical use, reports the Associated Press.
Leqembi, developed by Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai, helps clear amyloid plaque—the sticky plaque that has been linked to Alzheimer’s—from the brain and has been shown to induce a meaningful reduction in early-stage cognitive decline. The European regulatory body had withheld marketing approval, citing the drug’s side effects, which can include bleeding in the brain.
While Leqembi was approved for use in the United States more than two years ago, the drug’s rollout is expected to take place over several years. A competing drug from Eli Lilly was also approved for use in the United States but was rejected in Europe. Eli Lilly has asked for the decision to be reviewed. Alzheimer’s disease is currently the seventh-leading cause of death globally, according to the World Health Organization
