Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Nov. 14, 2022

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Nov. 14, 2022–Nov. 18, 2022.

USA Today (11/17, Hassanein) reports, “Preterm births last year reached their highest peak since 2007—with more than 18,000 babies born before 37 weeks of gestational age in the United States, according to” the annual March of Dimes “Report Card.” The report found that “in 2021, roughly 10.5% of U.S. babies were born premature.” It also discovered that “Asian and Pacific Islander mothers saw the largest preterm birth increase,” while “Black and Native mothers’ preterm birth rates remained highest.”

NBC News (11/17, Edwards) reported “the number of babies born too early has hit a 15-year high, putting an increasingly large number of infants at risk for physical and intellectual disabilities, the March of Dimes reported.” The data mark a 4% increase in premature births compared to 2020.

HealthDay (11/17, Mundell) reports “rates of premature delivery have been rising steadily since 2014, earning the United States a D+ on the March of Dimes’ annual Report Card.”

The AP (11/17, Tanner) reports U.S. “home births increased slightly in the pandemic’s second year, rising to the highest level in decades, according to a government report published Thursday.” Among nearly four “million births in 2021, nearly 52,000 occurred at home, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed.” That number is “up about 12% from 2020, following a 22% rise from 2019 to 2020.”

CNN (11/17, Hassan) reports the number of “home births in the United States in 2021” marked “the highest level since at least 1990, according to” the report. Home births rose by “21% for Black women, 15% for Hispanic women and 10% for White women in 2021.”

MedPage Today (11/17, D'Ambrosio) reports “home births increased from an absolute 1.26% of total births in 2020 to 1.41% in 2021, representing an increase of 6,000 births, reported” the researchers.

CNN (11/15, Christensen) reports, “The five-year lung cancer survival rate has increased 21%, from 21% in 2014 to 25% in 2018, making what experts call ‘remarkable progress’ – but it is still the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.” Still, “in communities of color, a person’s odds of surviving five years after diagnosis are much lower, at only 20%, according to the 2022 State of Lung Cancer report, which was published by the American Lung Association on Tuesday.”

Healio (11/15, Shinkle) says that, however, “less than 6% of eligible Americans have undergone lung cancer screening, according to” the report. The article adds, “Screening participation is ‘critically low’ across the country, report authors concluded, with rates as low as 1% in individual states.”

CNN (11/14, LaMotte) reports, “Sleeping in a room exposed to outdoor artificial light at night may increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a study of nearly 100,000 Chinese adults.” Researchers found that “people who lived in areas of China with high light pollution at night were about 28% more likely to develop diabetes than people who lived in the least polluted areas.” The study was published in the journal Diabetologia.

MedPage Today (11/14, Minerd) reports “each quintile increase of artificial light exposure was associated with a 7% increase in diabetes prevalence.” Additionally, artificial light exposure “was linked with higher HbA1c and fasting glucose levels as well as reductions in beta cell function.”

Medscape (11/11, Young, Subscription Publication) reported, “Dementia prevalence is dropping in the United States,” investigators concluded. In fact, “new data from the Health and Retirement Study...show that the prevalence of dementia among individuals aged 65 and older dropped from 12.2% in 2000 to 8.5% in 2016—a 30.1% decrease.” Additionally, the study revealed “a substantial increase in the level of education between 2000 and 2016.” The study authors theorized that “the decline in dementia prevalence reflects larger socioeconomic changes in the United States as well as prevention strategies to reduce cardiovascular disease.” The findings were published online in PNAS.

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