Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Feb. 20, 2023

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Feb. 20, 2023–Feb. 24, 2023.

CNN (2/23, LaMotte) reports that “following five good sleep habits added nearly five years to a man’s life expectancy and almost 2.5 years to a woman’s life,” according to findings from a preliminary study slated for presentation at ACC.23/WCC. A statement on the study read, “Compared to individuals who had zero to one favorable sleep factors, those who had all five were 30% less likely to die for any reason, 21% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, 19% less likely to die from cancer, and 40% less likely to die of causes other than heart disease or cancer.”

Healio (2/23, Swain) reports the study “analyzed 172,321 participants...who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 2013 and 2018,” all of whom “were given a low-risk sleep pattern score based on five parameters: sleep duration of 7 to 8 hours per day, difficulty falling asleep two times per week or less, trouble staying asleep two times per week or less, no use of sleep medication and feeling rested after waking up at least five times per week.”

According to The Hill (2/22, Mueller), on Feb. 21, the FDA “widened an advisory on artificial tear products to include additional ones manufactured by Global Pharma Healthcare Private Limited over concerns of a potential bacterial contamination that could result in blindness or death.” The agency’s “warning now urges consumers and health care professionals not to use EzriCare Artificial Tears, Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears and Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Eye Ointment, which are intended to be sterile.”

CNN (2/21, McPhillips, Wallace) reports, “Middle-age workers who tend to earn a low wage have an elevated mortality risk, especially when they experience unstable employment, according to a study.” Investigators “tracked employment and health metrics for about 4,000 workers in the U.S. across a 12-year period, using data...collected between 1992 and 2018.” The data indicated that “workers who had a sustained history of low wages—annual earnings below the poverty line for a family of four—were 38% more likely to die over the course of 12 years than those who had never experienced low-wage earnings.” The findings were published in JAMA.

The New York Times (2/20, Belluck) reports a study published in Nature Medicine suggests “spinal cord stimulation could eventually help some of the many people who experience strokes.” For the study comprising two patients, the “researchers implanted strands of eight electrodes in two locations, corresponding to where neurosensory fibers from the arm and the hand enter the spinal cord.” Then, for “five days a week for four hours each day, researchers activated the stimulation, calibrated it to determine optimal parameters for each patient and asked them to attempt various movements and tasks.”

USA Today (2/20, Weintraub) reports these findings “mark the first time” epidural stimulation “has been used to restore arm and hand movements to people immobilized by stroke.”

MedPage Today (2/17) reported, “Prophylactic use of three monoclonal antibodies was associated with substantial reductions in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-related infections and hospitalizations in children under 5, a systematic review and meta-analysis showed.” The researchers found that “across 14 randomized controlled trials involving over 18,000 high-risk children, moderate- to high-certainty evidence showed that nirsevimab, palivizumab, and motavizumab were associated with significant reductions in RSV-related infections and hospitalizations per 1,000 participants compared with placebo.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

AMA Morning Rounds news coverage is developed in affiliation with Bulletin Healthcare LLC. Subscribe to Morning Rounds Daily.