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TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Children whose mothers were given an epidural during labor may face a slightly heightened risk of autism, a large, new study suggests. Researchers found that the rate of autism was a little higher among those kids, versus their peers whose mothers did not get epidural pain relief during childbirth: 1.9% versus 1.3%. The reasons for the difference are not yet known. And experts stressed that the findings do not prove epidurals directly raise the odds of a future autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. "I don't think people should be panicked," said senior researcher Anny Xiang, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California's Department of Research and Evaluation. For one, she said, the rates of ASD were low in both study groups. Instead, the...

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Blood clots in the veins – particularly those that break off and travel to the lungs – can be fatal and have become increasingly so. Yet many adults know little about their risks or the growing evidence that healthy habits can help prevent clots. "A key barrier in the United States is that awareness of this disease is not very good," Dr. Mary Cushman said of the condition known as venous thromboembolism. VTE includes two types of clots: deep vein thrombosis, called DVT, usually in the leg, and pulmonary embolism, or PE, which is when a DVT breaks free and lodges in the lungs, where they often are fatal. There were roughly 370,000 PE and 857,000 DVT events in the United States in 2016, the last year for which statistics were...

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Dr. Brad Cotton enjoyed working on the front lines as an emergency room doctor. Yet in March, as the coronavirus pandemic burst through the doors at hospitals across the world, Cotton left that more dangerous work behind. "I left emergency medicine because that was much higher risk. I'm actually still working full time for urgent care, but the urgent care -- as we have it structured -- is much, much lower risk," said Cotton, 66, a doctor at Immediate Health Associates in the Columbus, Ohio, area. "I'm not intubating patients who are breathing lungfuls of COVID in my face," added Cotton, who is also a fellow with the American College of Emergency Physicians. Cotton isn't alone. Doctors throughout the United States reported in a recent survey...

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Up to 7.7 million U.S. workers lost jobs with employer-sponsored health insurance during the coronavirus pandemic, and 6.9 million of their dependents also lost coverage, a new study finds. Workers in manufacturing, retail, accommodation and food services were especially hard-hit by job losses, but unequally impacted by losses in insurance coverage. Manufacturing accounted for 12% of unemployed workers in June. But because the sector has one of the highest rates of employer-sponsored coverage at 66%, it accounted for a bigger loss of jobs with insurance (18%) and 19% of potential coverage loss when dependents are included. Nearly 3.3 million workers in accommodation and food services had lost their jobs as of June -- 30% of the industry's...