This week: grandma gets a knee replacement and now her friends want one, doctors' educated spouses are reluctant to move out to the country, and Donald Trump drops an Obamacare replacement plan. Also, more evidence that adverse experiences at home effect children's performance in school, and that less coal in the atmosphere leads to better health. Plus we've thrown in a video about how neuroscience can shape drug policy.
Study Links Kindergartners' Rocky Home Lives With Poor School Performance
A new study that tracked 1,000 urban kindergartners over the course of a year shows that when children experienced trouble at home, their grades and behavior in school suffered. Kaiser Health News has more.
Pollution Is Expensive, But It's Cheaper Than It Used To Be
Using emissions and population data, researchers came up with a dollar amount for the impact of air pollution on Americans' health. The number shocked us, but it's actually a big improvement over the previous decade - in large part due to the decline of coal. The Allegheny Front has the story.
Keeping Up With The Jones' Latest Medical Procedure
It doesn't seem to matter how old we are: whether it's an Xbox or a backyard swimming pool, we want what our friends and neighbors have. Among the 70 + set, it seems the hot item is medical procedures - whether or not they're really necessary. Doctor and writer John Henning Schumann unpacks this phenomenon for NPR's Shots blog.
Watch: Embedding Neuroscience In Public Health
To some extent, all of our brains are wired to seek out addictive substances. But recent research suggests that in societies with significant inequality, lower income individuals may be at higher risk for addiction. We found this 5-minute talk by Stanford University psychiatrist Keith Humphreys pretty fascinating.
"Trumpcare" Would Bring Back Pre-existing Condition Rules, Swap Tax Credits For Deductions
Donald Trump released a healthcare plan Wednesday night. Like other Republicans, he would repeal Obamacare and allow insurance companies to go back to turning down people with pre-existing conditions, or charging them higher premiums. Something unique to Trump: he would allow people to deduct their premiums from their taxes. Vox's Sarah Kliff says such a policy would favor the rich. Read Kliff's analysis.
The Rural Physician Shortage: What Love's Got To Do With It
These days, professionals with advanced degrees (like doctors) tend to marry other highly educated folks. In a way, this is great: it shows how far women have come in the past 50 years. But when it comes to recruiting physicians to rural areas, professional spouses present a challenge. Kaiser Health News takes a look at the numbers, and some possible solutions.
