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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In a rare bit of good news tied to the coronavirus pandemic, researchers say pediatric fractures plummeted by nearly 60% this past spring. Investigators say the finding likely reflects the sudden evaporation of organized sports and curtailed playground use due to the threat of COVID-19. "We compared fracture incidence in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic -- March 15 to April 15 -- to the same monthly interval in the years 2018 and 2019," explained study author Joshua Bram, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania. "There was a 58% decrease in the number of fractures per day presenting to our hospital in 2020 compared to the previous years," noted Bram. Fracture cases dropped from roughly 23 per day in...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- While opioids were grabbing the headlines, cocaine overdose deaths in the United States have marched upward, nearly tripling over five years, a new government report shows. After a period of stability, cocaine-induced deaths rose by about 27% per year, on average, from 2013 through 2018, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. "While much attention has been given to the increase in drug overdose deaths involving opioids, it's also important to recognize that deaths involving other drugs, such as cocaine, have also increased in recent years," said Dr. Holly Hedegaard, lead researcher and injury epidemiologist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). In 2018, those most likely to die from...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 7, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Maybe it was the meme that pointed out how Shakespeare used his time in quarantine to write "King Lear." Maybe it was all those photos of sourdough bread in your social media feed. Maybe you're just bored. Whatever the spark – you're ready to take on a hobby. Good idea, experts say. "The process of being creative does a whole bunch of really good things for us," physically and mentally, said James C. Kaufman, professor of educational psychology at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Kaufman, who has written extensively about creativity, said there are many reasons why a stimulating hobby can help us. The first is pretty simple: It's fun. That's mentally healthy, Kaufman said, because...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Facebook chatter from the anti-vaccination movement now frames the issue as one of civil liberties, a new study finds. As a COVID-19 vaccine gets closer to becoming a reality, opposition from so-called anti-vaxxer groups could become a political movement, researchers warn. For the study, the investigators looked at more than 250,000 posts on 204 Facebook pages opposing vaccines between October 2009 and October 2019. Opposition has traditionally centered on medical safety and government conspiracy theories. But vaccine opponents have recast their objections, saying it is a civil right to refuse vaccination. The latest recent spike in the anti-vaxxer movement was a 2019 Facebook campaign with posts that included a U.S. state in their...