County rates per 100,000 are seen in five ranges or quintiles.(Map adapted by Kentucky Health News)
Deaths from colorectal cancer in Appalachian Kentucky declined from 1999 to 2020, but far less than the rate of decline in the rest of the nation.?
That’s the upshot of a University of Kentucky study analyzing death data.
It found that in the 54 Kentucky counties served by the Appalachian Regional Commission, the mortality rate fell from 31.24 deaths per 100,000 residents in 1999 to 24.46 per 100,000 in 2020. But the national rate dropped by almost half, from 27 Americans per 100,000 in 1999 to 14.81 in 2020.
During the entire 21 years covered by the study, the colorectal-cancer death rate in Appalachian Kentucky was about 26 per 100,000 residents. In the 66 non-Appalachian counties, the rate was about 22 per 100,000. The national rate was 19.43 deaths per 100,000. Kentucky has the fourth highest death rate.
The study, in the journal Gastroenterology, used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the causes of death for Americans 15 or older. Its lead author is Dr. Syed Hassan, a research coordinator and clinical research scientist in UK’s Department of Internal Medicine.
Hassan “said efforts to enhance screening rates should be improved and more education on colorectal cancer is needed,” according to a UK news release.
He noted that In Appalachian Kentucky, nearly 41% of the colorectal cancer deaths occurred at home, suggesting that many victims might not have been seen by a doctor until the cancer had significantly advanced.
“That’s concerning, in my opinion,” Hassan said. “Access to health care, lifestyle related modifiable risk factors and education are important factors we should further work upon.”
Hassan also said anxiety about colonoscopies and other cancer screenings, and lack of education about the disease, may also play a role: “Many of these patients might’ve believed that they probably wouldn’t be able to afford as much care due to their socioeconomic status.”
Screening for colon cancer is recommended to start at age 45, because cancers of the colon and rectum tend to occur after age 40, but recent studies have shown increases in younger people, especially those with risk factors.
These cancers tend to run in families; studies show that if a close relative has had colorectal cancer, you can be predisposed to polyps — precancerous lesions that can lead to the development of the cancer,
Other risk factors include age and lifestyle factors such as smoking, sedentary living, obesity, a diet rich in red meat, salt and saturated fats or a low-fiber diet.
This article is republished from Kentucky Health News, ?an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
For the past four years, at least one lawmaker has annually tried to reform Kentucky’s certificate of need (CON) laws. (Getty Images)
Dr. Bruce A. Scott, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Louisville, was sworn in Tuesday, June 11, as the 179th president of the?American Medical Association, the nation’s largest organization of physicians.
“I became a physician to care for patients, and we all know that’s getting tougher every day,” Scott said in his inaugural address. “Our health-care system should help physicians provide good care, not get in the way!” He said “The AMA does for physicians and our patients what we as individual physicians cannot do.”
Scott said “two decades of spiraling Medicare payment cuts and ever-increasing administrative burdens” have increased burnout among doctors to the point that “almost two-thirds of physicians show signs of burnout. One-third plan to reduce their hours. One in five physicians are hoping to stop practicing or retire in the next two years.
“We can’t afford to lose even one more doctor! As a physician in an independent practice, I live these issues every day. I see my colleagues struggling. I feel the urgency of the moment. I will bring that urgency to my presidency. You better believe I’m ready to fight.”
Scott?has been president of his state and county medical associations and remains on their boards. “As a leader of these associations, he has fought for access to care for vulnerable populations, improvement in public health and reduction of administrative burdens in health care,” an AMA?news release?said. He joined the AMA Board of Trustees in 2015 and was speaker of the AMA House of Delegates starting in 2019.
Board-certified in both otolaryngology and facial plastic surgery, Scott is president of?Kentuckiana Ear, Nose & Throat, a six-physician independent private practice group, medical director of?Premier Ambulatory Surgery Center, and holds a clinical appointment at the?University of Louisville?medical school.
Scott is a director of?Health2047, the AMA’s Silicon Valley-based innovation subsidiary that finds and funds tech-enabled commercial health-care enterprises. “In this role he is helping shape the future of medicine to empower patients and healthcare providers with meaningful and measurable impact,” the release said.
He has written many articles for medical journals,?as well as chapters in otolaryngology textbooks, He?earned his undergraduate degree at?Vanderbilt University, completed his medical education and residency at the?University of Texas.
In his?inaugural address, Scott told how he suffered a penetrating hand injury when he was 12 and a surgeon told his parents “that I was unlikely to ever regain normal use of my hand, and I would probably lose at least two fingers,” but Dr. Joseph Kutz, Louisville’s world-renowned hand surgeon, “saved my hand and spared my fingers, forever changing the course of my life — and, although I didn’t know it at the time, putting me on the path that led to tonight. To this stage, to this incredible moment. I am a surgeon, using this very hand, because of a doctor.”
Scott and his wife Christy have three adult children. He is the second Kentuckian in recent years to be AMA president; Dr. Steven Stack, the state public-health commissioner sicne January 2020, was president in 2016-17.
This article is republished from?Kentucky Health News,??an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
]]>Dr. Wendell Roy Kingsolver, a longtime physician and advocate for family medicine and public health, especially in rural Kentucky, died Thursday, May 30. He was 95 and lived in Nicholasville.
After graduation from the University of Kentucky and an internship and residency, Kingsolver set up a family practice at Carlisle in his home Nicholas County. He was one of the few physicians in the area and served patients of all ages at all hours in emergency, operating, and delivery rooms, He was among the first physicians certified by the American Board of Family Practice, and trained UK medical students in rural family practice as they lived in his home and learned what a diverse rural medical career was like.
In the 1960s he was a medical volunteer in the Republic of Congo, and later on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and the Newfoundland coast town of St. Anthony.?After retiring from five decades of full-time private practice, he was a public-health doctor for the Wedco District Health Department in in Nicholas, Harrison, Bourbon and Scott counties.
Kingsolver was an early adopter of organic farming, and he and his first wife Virginia were founding members of the Sierra Club chapter in Kentucky, the group that built Lake Carnico in Nicholas County, and the First Christian Church in Carlisle, where he was an elder and sang in the choir. He was a board member of the Cane Ridge Meeting House, where the Disciples of Christ denomination began. He enjoyed birdwatching and served a term as president of the Kentucky Ornithological Society. He and Ginny, who predeceased him, established a KOS scholarship for young people interested in the study of birds, and worked to preserve natural land in Nicholas County, some of it donated to the Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park.
Kingsolver was born in Winchester on July 21, 1928 to Roy Alva Kingsolver and Louise Auxier Kingsolver.
His survivors include his wife, Eva Lee (Lynam Kanatzar) Kingsolver; son Robert (Paula) Kingsolver; daughter and noted author Barbara Kingsolver (Steven Hopp); and Ann Kingsolver, former director of the Appalachian Center at UK. A viewing will be held Tuesday, June 4, at 2 p.m., followed by the funeral at 4 p.m., at Milward Funeral Home, 391 Southland Drive in Lexington.
Information for this article was taken from the obituary.
This article is republished from Kentucky Health News, ?an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
]]>Warby Parker, an online retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses, has agreed to pay at least $55,200 to Kentucky for allowing 69 Kentuckians to take its online vision test, contrary to state law, Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office said in a news release Friday.
Coleman’s office alleged that from July to October 2021, 69 Kentuckians were improperly given Warby Parker’s online test. “When the attorney general’s Office of Consumer Protection alerted Warby Parker of the problem, the company cooperated with the investigation and took the test offline,” the release said. “Following a voluntary settlement process, Warby Parker will be penalized $138,000. If there are no further violations for five years, the amount will be reduced to $55,200.”
The “Get a Prescription” page on Warby Parker’s website says the online vision test is available to people who “reside in an eligible state, due to state-level regulations,” and disqualifies residents of Alaska, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington and West Virginia, using their two-letter postal abbreviations.
Kentucky consumers may complain about a business operating in the state to Coleman’s office at https://www.ag.ky.gov/Resources/Consumer-Resources/Consumers/Pages/Consumer-Complaints.aspx.
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