An uptick in autism diagnoses; a new provider toolkit for sickle cell disease; 10-year outcomes of weight-loss surgery in adolescents – Morning medical update

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Autism diagnoses trending upward

An investigation of more than 12 million patients enrolled in major U.S. health care systems was published in the journal JAMA Network Open, and determined that the number of people diagnosed with autism increased by 175% between 2011 and 2022. The increase was especially dramatic in young adults, aged 26-34, a group that saw a 450% increase. Health Day has more.

New provider toolkit for sickle cell disease

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a new Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Health Care Provider Toolkit, building on the CMS SCD Action Plan, released in September 2023. The toolkit consists of six sections meant to equip healthcare providers with the knowledge and tools necessary to deliver quality care to individuals with SCD, including screening and diagnosis, treatment, comprehensive care for people with SCD, CMS programs and resources that support comprehensive SCD care, supporting multi-disciplinary care across settings and resources for individuals with SCD and those who support them.

Long-term outcomes of bariatric surgery in adolescents

A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reexamined adolescents with severe obesity who had undergone weight-loss surgery at age 19 or younger, after 10 years. Study participants with an average age of 17 underwent gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy weight-loss surgery. Upon reexamination after 10 years, those participants sustained an average of 20% reduction in body mass index (BMI), in addition to a 55% reduction of type 2 diabetes, 57% reduction of hypertension and a 54% reduction of abnormal cholesterol, in both gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy.