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Will the MAHA movement embrace sobriety?
If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as health secretary, he’ll be handed control over a broad range of issues. He and his allies in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement already have some targets in mind, including products, policies, foods, and drinks that they believe are worsening the nation’s health. But alcohol — which carries similar health risks to those of ultra-processed foods — is not yet on the list.
Kennedy is in long-term recovery from drugs and alcohol, and has said he attends nine AA meetings per week. He hasn’t spoken recently about alcohol as a driver of chronic disease and death, but others in his sphere have. Marty Makary, Trump’s pick to lead the FDA, has referred to alcohol as a “blind spot” in the larger conversation about public health.
Read more from STAT’s Isabella Cueto on how likely we are to see a new temperance movement in the U.S.
Accreditation could drastically improve prison health care, per study
Practically everybody in the U.S. receives health care from accredited institutions, as it’s how facilities get Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. (A nonprofit called the Joint Commission affirms health care quality and safety.) There’s no similar financial incentive when it comes to health care provided in prison or jail, so just 17% of correctional facilities in the U.S. have sought a voluntary accreditation (from yet another organization, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care). But it makes a difference — accreditation reduces mortality among incarcerated people and improves quality standards, according to a new randomized controlled trial.
The study is currently published as a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, meaning that it hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. Researchers followed 44 small to midsize jails across the country as half pursued accreditation (with a discount thanks to the study). They found that completing the accreditation process reduced the average deaths per month by up to 93% in the six months after the expected time of an on-site visit by the accreditor.
Part of why mortality was reduced so much might be that there’s simply a great deal of room for improvement, the authors wrote. The process had no effect on the way prison staff perceive people who are incarcerated or the financial investments that institutions make toward health care. Still, it’s the first RCT across jails as well as the first focused on health care accreditation.
1 million
That’s how many people in the U.S. a new study estimates will develop dementia in the year 2060. It’s about double the number of people who developed the cognitive condition in 2020. The risk of dementia is highest among Black people and those who carry a variant of the APOE4 gene. Of course, this is an estimate, not a promise. The research — based on a cohort study of 15,000 people and U.S. Census projections for the population, published in Nature Medicine — can’t take into account any medical advances or policy developments that may occur.
How to make raw milk safe
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Scientists have always cautioned against drinking raw milk. But as bird flu began circulating in dairy cows across the country last spring, the warnings became more vehement. By the fall, the virus was found in commercially available raw milk. The exact health risks of drinking this milk are unknown, but recent research supports the fear that it may be dangerous.
I was surprised, then, to read a First Opinion essay published today by audio documentarian Bianca Garcia, who argues that raw milk as a product isn’t inherently dangerous with the appropriate management. Garcia has been reporting on raw milk for months, and points to South Carolina as an example of a state with vigorous regulations around testing and sanitation for the raw milk market.
It’s a provocative idea, but Garcia comes with evidence for a sort of harm reduction approach. Read more.
Study shows a shift to ‘natural’ birth control or none at all
People in the U.K. are using effective hormonal birth control methods less than they were five years ago, according to a study published yesterday in BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health. At the same time, more people are using “natural” methods like tracking one’s period and body temperature to make fertility predictions. There’s also been a significant increase in the number of people not using any birth control at all, per the study.
To assess recent trends, researchers compared the self-reported birth control practices of around 33,400 people who sought an abortion in early 2018 with 55,000 people who did in early 2023. Just 0.4% people in 2018 used “natural” birth control, while 2.5% did in 2023. Hormonal methods decreased from 18.8% to 11.3%, while those using no birth control increased from 55.8% to almost 70%.
The changes are part of a larger trend of apparent hesitancy to take the pill. About half of reproductive-age females in the U.K. took the pill in 2010, but by 2018 it was down to 14%. The study authors point to both personal preference and a lack of access as potential motivators, but say more research is needed.
The rush to ensure clinical algorithms don’t discriminate
Over the last four years, health systems across the country have stopped using several clinical tools that use race to predict patient outcomes, replacing them with race-free versions that carry less risk of perpetuating inequitable care.
But there are plenty — like, hundreds or thousands — of other calculators and algorithms used every day to make decisions about patients, many of which use race, sex, and other federally-protected traits. As a deadline for federally funded health systems to vet those tools for discrimination approaches in May, it’s still unclear how they’ll tackle the challenge. STAT’s Katie Palmer talked to experts about potential next steps. Read more.
What we’re reading
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Have Americans ever really been healthy? New York Times
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The cost of being a family caregiver: Burnout, debt, stress, The Cut
- Q&A: How this federal court ruling helps nursing home residents with disabilities, STAT
- Not just sober-curious, but neo-temperate, Atlantic
- Tariffs on medical items should be reinvested in the health care supply chain, STAT