Health

Medical Express -  A new study using data from COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia suggests that physical isolation does not lead to an increase in feelings of loneliness. Loneliness, a subjective feeling of social disconnection, is associated with a range of health problems from heart disease to depression. It also increases a person's risk of early death to a level comparable with smoking and obesity.

Lead author Dr. Nancy Kong from the Center for Health Economics Research and Evaluation at the University of Technology Sydney said loneliness is a pervasive and growing problem.

"There is a widely held belief that physical isolation directly leads to increased loneliness. We felt the COVID lockdowns provided a natural experiment to see if this was true," said Dr. Kong. "What we found is that 'being lonely' and 'being alone' are very different experiences."

The study, "Physical isolation and loneliness: Evidence from COVID lockdowns in Australia," was recently published in the Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organization, with co-author Jack Lam from the University of Melbourne. The researchers tracked more than 17,000 individuals from around Australia from 2018 to 2020 using data from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. 

Newsweek - Medicare Advantage has denied more prior authorization requests from seniors in recent years, according to a new report from health policy research firm KFF that was published Thursday. Medicare Advantage, the privatized version of Medicare, serves a little more than half of all seniors on Medicare. The health insurance has several pros compared to traditional Medicare, including lower premiums and dental or vision coverage as an add-on. However, seniors on Medicare Advantage often have to get prior authorization to get certain types of treatments and they are also restricted to select providers within their network. The number of prior authorization requests denied by Medicare Advantage grew between 2021 and 2022 from 5.8 to 7.4 percent. Altogether, 3.4 million prior authorization requests were denied, according to KF

Axios - COVID is now the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., down from third at the height of the pandemic, according to CDC data released today. The leading causes of death last year were heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries. Just over 3 million people died in the U.S. last year, about 6% less than the year before