Roundup: About 25% of U.S. Adults Report a Disability, the Highest Number Yet, Says the CDC; and More News

CDC: About 1 in 4 U.S. Adults Report a Disability, Led by Cognitive Impairments

More than 1 in 4 — or more than 70 million adults —  in the United States reported having a disability, according to an update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based on the latest data collected in 2022. This is up from 61 million adults in 2016, the first year the CDC began collecting such data.

Cognitive disability – involving serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions -- emerged as the most prevalent disability in the U.S. in 2022, affecting 14 percent of adults, according to the annual update to the CDC’s Disability and Health Data System.

Today, July 26, 2024, marks the 34^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the CDC notes in its report. “These findings underscore the fact that people with disabilities are a large part of every community and population,” states the CDC. “Many of us know, or are, someone with a disability, and disability inclusion is beneficial for all.”

For the first time, the report on disabilities collected data on experiences with Long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting three months or longer that the person did not have before the initial infection with COVID. “Of particular concern is the finding that Long COVID symptoms were more prevalent among people with disabilities (10.8 percent) than among those without disabilities (6.6 percent), stated the CDC.

The CDC noted the following in its update: Older adults reported a higher disability prevalence (44 percent of people aged 65 years and older) compared to other age groups. When examining disability status by race/ethnicity, the groups with the highest prevalence (both 39 percent) identified as American Indian or Alaska Native and Other/Multi-race.

The CDC has profile fact sheets that provide an overview of disability in each state, including the percentages and characteristics of adults with and without disabilities

Overall, the disabilities covered in the report included:

• Cognition: Serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions (13.5 percent of adults).
• Mobility: Serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs (12.2 percent of adults).
• Independent living: Serious difficulty doing errands alone, such as visiting a doctor's office (7.7 percent of adults).
• Hearing: Deaf or serious difficulty hearing (6.2 percent of adults).
• Vision: Blind or serious difficulty seeing, even when wearing glasses (5.5 percent of adults).
• Self-care: Difficulty dressing or bathing (3.6 percent of adults).

Rates of ‘Long COVID’ Significantly Lower Among Those Vaccinated, Major New Study Finds

The risk of developing “long COVID” – persistent or lingering symptoms following initial infection -- has “decreased significantly” over the past four years, according to an analysis of data by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The study attributed about 70 percent of the risk reduction to vaccination against COVID-19, and 30 percent to changes over time, including the virus’s “evolving characteristics and improved detection and management of COVID-19,” states a news release from Washington University School of Medicine.

The findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, are based on a review of millions of de-identified medical records in a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system. The study included 441,583 veterans with COVID-19 infections, and more than 4.7 million uninfected veterans, from March 1, 2020, through Jan. 31, 2022.

“The research on declining rates of long COVID marks the rare occasion when I have good news to report regarding this virus,” said the study’s senior author, Ziyad Al-Aly, M.D., a Washington University clinical epidemiologist and global leader in COVID-19 research, in a statement. “The findings also show the positive effects of getting vaccinated.”

Long COVID refers to the lingering and debilitating effects on health experienced by about 10 percent of people who have been infected with COVID-19.

Although the latest findings sound reassuring, Dr. Al-Aly tempered the good news. “Long COVID is not over,” he added in a statement. “We cannot let our guard down. This includes getting annual COVID vaccinations, because they are the key to suppressing long COVID risk. If we abandon vaccinations, the risk is likely to increase.”

“There is a significant difference in risk during the delta (2021) and omicron (2022) variants of COVID between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. The risk of long COVID was 9.5 percent among those in the unvaccinated groups during the delta era, and 7.7 percent during omicron. Among the vaccinated, the rate of long COVID during delta was 5.3 percent and 3.5 percent during omicron.

Reducing Screen Time to 3 Hours a Week Improves Mental Health of Children, Researchers Find

A team of mental health specialists from several institutions across Denmark have found that reducing screen time for children to just three hours a week can result in significant improvements in their mental health.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the research team outlined their randomized clinical trial involving 89 families and the impact of reducing screen time on electronic devices – which are regularly used by kids to watch videos, take part in gaming, interact on social media, and communicate with family and friends.

“Based on data from 45 European countries, 25 percent of 11- to 15-year-old adolescents reported symptoms related to psychological health (such as nervousness, irritability, and difficulties falling asleep),” researchers state in their introduction. Moreover, individuals are particularly vulnerable to negative or stressful environmental experiences during adolescence, they add.

For the new study, families were randomly allocated to a screen media reduction group or a control group. Participants allocated to the intervention group had to reduce their leisure-time screen media use to three hours per week or less per person, and hand over smartphones and tablets, states the study. The participants included 181 children from 10 cities in Denmark.

The researchers concluded that “a short-term reduction in leisure-time screen media use within families positively affected psychological symptoms of children and adolescents, particularly by mitigating internalizing behavioral issues and enhancing pro-social behavior.” They added that more research is needed to confirm whether these effects are sustainable in the long term.