Persons with disabilities earn less
On average, there’s a 21.4% pay gap between persons with and without disabilities. Infact, they earn 79 cents to every dollar earned by persons without disabilities. At 16 years and older persons with disabilities had an average annual income of about $11,500 less than persons without disabilities ($43,400 and $55,200, respectively).
Source: Statscan
The role of Exposome
Referred to as Exposome research, this relatively new field looks at long-term exposures caused by the environments and domains where people live, work, pray and play throughout their lives and their impact on a person’s risk or resilience to disease. Researchers may look, for instance, at the impact of air pollution on AD/ADRD, the life course impact of residential history on health outcomes, the connection between the exposure as it links to brain or gut health.
Source: Science Direct
Let them eat grapes
Consumption of grapes has been found to benefit retinal structure and function in the eyes of older adults. A 16 week study found that eating 1.5 cups of grapes a day positively impacted macular pigment accumulation and other biomarkers of eye health.
Source: Food and Function
Is rest best?
After a concussion, it may not be wise to stay off school, as previously prescribed. In a cohort study of 1600 youth ages 5-18, collected in nine Canadian pediatric emergency departments, results suggested that, beyond a few days, getting back into class may be better after all because it.
1) Avoids negative effects of isolation by socializing
2) Reduces stress from missing school
3) Maintains a normal sleep/wake cycle
4) Facilitates light to moderate physical activity.
Source: Science Daily
Augmented empathy
A sacred cow of human capacity, the ability to empathize, may be transformed especially in places where its lacking such as workplaces, public spaces and on-line where is empathy is lacking and its absence is painful and costly. Uses include:
• Healthcare staff receiving practical, richer more diverse training in clinical situation by virtual patients
• AI transcribing and summarize doctor-patient conversations into non-technical, jargon free, translatable notes that can be accessible to patients and families.
• Real time warnings and bans/penalties in games using AI solution called ToxMod, to monitor of hate speech, bullying or harmful or discriminatory language
• The ability to detect early Alzheimer’s from listening to 10 minutes of someone’s speech patterns and intonations or diabetes within 10 seconds of speech.
Source: Future Normal
Buzzwords to ponder
Gender food gap: The increasing number of women around the world struggle to feed themselves as they are sidelined, underpaid and forced into domestic situations. Its said that one hundred and fifty million more women and girls don’t know where their next meal is coming from compared to men and boys. Zero-dose children: Those who haven’t received even the most essential vaccines. Most concerning of course communities where children are deprived of clean water, healthcare and nutrition. Child wasting: The most life-threatening form of malnutrition in which a child has very low weight for their height.
Source: NPR
Health costs wrecking retirement
In an effort to encourage better early life planning, a new study is drawing attention to healthcare costs that retirees are shocked to experience. One-third of Canadian boomers who are fully or partially retired say their healthcare issues (physical and mental health related) are not only taking away their some of their later life enjoyment but their significantly cutting into their anticipated retirement budgets.
Source: Sun Life
Losing autism diagnosis
As many as 40% of autistic toddlers no longer meet diagnostic criteria by the time they are at school age, according to a new study. In particular, 61% of girls and 32% of boys showed nonperistence.
Source: JAMA Pediatrics
Deep sleep matters
As little as a 1% reduction in deep sleep per year for people over sixty translates into a 27% increased risk of dementia according to researchers in Melbourne, Australia. They even adjusted data for medication use, smoking, sex, cohort and anxiolytic use, and genetic risk over their 17 years of follow-up.
Source: Monash University
