Becker's Behavioral Health reported: ADHD diagnoses among US children climb to 13.8%: 4 things to know

The share of U.S. children and adolescents ages 5-17 who have ever received an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis rose from 9.9% in 2019 to 13.8% in 2025, according to CDC data published Oct. 29.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics released the findings as a QuickStats feature in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Nazik Elgaddal of the National Center for Health Statistics wrote the analysis, which draws on National Health Interview Survey data from 2019 through 2025. The estimates measure whether a child had ever received an ADHD diagnosis, not whether the condition is currently active or under treatment. The CDC also published a supplementary table with year-by-year figures by sex.

Here are four things to know:
1. The overall rate increased over six years. Lifetime ADHD diagnoses among school-age children grew from 9.9% in 2019 to 13.8% in 2025, a gain of 3.9 percentage points.
2. The gain amounts to a roughly 39% relative increase in the share of children who have received an ADHD diagnosis.
3. Diagnoses rose among both boys and girls. The share of boys with an ADHD diagnosis rose from 13.2% in 2019 to 17.5% in 2025, while the share among girls rose from 6.5% to 9.9%, the data show.
4. Boys are more likely to have been diagnosed. In 2025, 17.5% of boys had ever received an ADHD diagnosis, compared with 9.9% of girls.

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Cook County Health reported: Saturday vaccination clinics will offer flu and COVID-19 vaccines at locations throughout suburban Cook County at no cost. 

SUBURBAN COOK COUNTY, IL – Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) is launching “Spread Facts, Not Flu & COVID,” a new public awareness campaign encouraging suburban Cook County residents to protect themselves and their families from respiratory illness by getting vaccinated and getting trusted information.  

The campaign comes as flu season approaches and misinformation about vaccines continues to make it harder for people to know which health information they can trust. Consisting of Pace bus ads and digital ads on Meta, TikTok and Google Search, the campaign targets communities with lower vaccination rates that may face barriers to accessing vaccines and reliable health information.    

“Flu is not just a bad cold. It can cause serious illness, hospitalization and death, particularly among older adults, young children and people with certain health conditions,” said Dr. Kiran Joshi, chief operating officer of Cook County Department of Public Health. “Our message is simple: spread facts, not flu. Get your information from trusted medical and public health sources and take steps now to protect yourself and the people around you.” 

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NBC News: Nearly Half Of U.S. Teens 13 To 17 Say They Gambled In The Last Year, Survey Finds More than 40% of American teens ages 13 to 17 say they've gambled in the past year, according to a survey published Wednesday, raising red flags about the popularity of betting among minors. Researchers from Rutgers University's Center for Gambling Studies surveyed nearly 1,700 Americans between 13 and 27, and found that 52.5% of the respondents said they had gambled. Among those 17 and under — for whom gambling is illegal — the share was nearly 43%. (Li, 10/29)

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Health News Illinois reported: Lawmakers unveil state-backed tax plan to support independent pharmacies

Independent pharmacies would be able to access tax benefits under a state-backed plan unveiled Wednesday.

The proposal from Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, and Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, would allow eligible pharmacies and small businesses to access tax credits on payroll and on other business benefits like a sales tax exemption on qualifying building materials.

Businesses may also receive the benefits of Illinois's enterprise zone law without submitting an application for designation as a “high impact business.”

Eligible businesses would need to be independently owned, with no more than four stores and plan to make a qualifying capital investment of at least $500,000.

“We can use tax policy to help small independent businesses meet basic needs in underserved communities,” Guzzardi said in announcing the plan. “That's what (the bill) will do: help independent grocery stores and pharmacies provide affordable food and medicine in parts of our state that desperately need them."

The plan was announced with the backing of the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois Retail Merchant Association.

Rob Karr, the association’s CEO, said it is crucial for lawmakers to support businesses that are “essential to the health and well-being of communities throughout Illinois.”

“(The bill) will help relieve some pressure by providing tax benefits to independent grocery stores and pharmacies in exchange for meaningful investments, including hiring and retaining employees, and improving property and storefronts,” he said.

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Press Release Number: CB26-TPS.63

OCT. 28, 2026 — The U.S. Census Bureau today released the Educational Attainment in the United States: 2025 table package, examining the education level of adults age 18 and older by age, sex, race, nativity, and other demographic and social characteristics.

The data are based on statistics from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.  

Highlights

Age

• In 2025, among people between the ages of 18 and 24, 65% had completed high school, 19% had earned an associate’s degree or higher, and 16% had less than a high school education.
• In 2025, about 43% of people between the ages of 25 and 54 and 35% of people age 55 and older held a bachelor’s degree or higher.

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JAMA Network reported: Too many effective public health–oriented interventions reach less than half of the patients who are likely to benefit from them. Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention, antiviral treatment of hepatitis C, colonoscopy after positive stool colorectal cancer screening result, and blood pressure control all fall into this category. Each is a breakthrough with a failure to follow through.¹

Cervical cancer is a quintessential example. Because of the near-perfect efficacy of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines and greater than 90% early-stage survival rate, eliminating cervical cancer is feasible. Australia is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035. Yet cervical cancer incidence is rising among US women aged 30 to 44 years,² and more than a third of US adolescents are not up to date with HPV vaccines.³

Bridging the stubborn gap between what we know and what we do in public health and health care has typically required concerted campaigns and small armies of dedicated people for identification, engagement, and treatment. The world finally eradicated smallpox not when the first vaccine emerged in the 1790s, but 2 centuries later when it finally paired vaccines with highly coordinated monitoring and containment strategies.

Could generative artificial intelligence (AI) help with radically compressing the time frame from breakthrough to follow-through? Artificial intelligence offers the ability to automate case finding, augment outreach, and assist with patient navigation. If directed to support longitudinal human relationships, AI might meaningfully benefit the public’s health. 

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KFF Health News reported: This year, KFF Health News has chronicled how rising healthcare costs are upending the lives of Americans. Reporters have heard from more than 130 people across the U.S. who are trying to afford their premiums, copayments, prescriptions, and medical bills even as housing, energy, and food costs swell. People told us they are forgoing health insurance coverage, rationing their medications, cutting back on doctor visits, and putting off health procedures.

“We’re not talking about the uninsured or those who are low-income who are struggling now,” said Rebecca Kirch, executive vice president at the National Patient Advocate Foundation. “Now it’s become an all-of-us issue.”

While healthcare costs have largely grown faster than the overall economy for decades, they’ve escalated at a dizzying pace recently. In 2023 and 2024, health spending hit its highest growth rates in two decades excluding 2020’s covid-fueled surge.

The prices that hospitals, doctors, and other clinicians charge have increased, along with how much care people are getting. Overall health spending hit nearly $5.3 trillion in 2024, up from $3 trillion a decade earlier, according to federal data.

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Pleased to share Health Affairs article by Fernando DeMaio, PhD, Fellow, Chair of the IOMC Social Determinants of Health Workgroup,  and Board Director, Board of Governors; and  David Ansell, MD, Fellow, IOMC: 

If we stop measuring differences within the population, those differences do not disappear. We simply diminish our ability to see them, understand them, and determine whether they are getting better or worse.

On September 10, 2026, the Census Bureau proposed consequential changes to the 2030 census. The proposal would remove questions about race and ethnicity from the decennial census questionnaire and prohibit questions about sexual orientation from being used in the population count. It would also change the rules governing who is considered a resident for purposes of the census, excluding many people who live in the United States but are not citizens or lawful permanent residents.

These proposals raise a deceptively simple question: Who counts in the United States?

The Census Bureau argues that there are “substantial doubts about the meaning, significance, and impact” of categorizing people by race and ethnicity and questions whether collecting such information remains useful. Race, after all, is not a biological fact. Racial and ethnic categories are socially constructed, have changed repeatedly throughout US history, and will undoubtedly continue to change. But the fact that race is socially constructed does not make its consequences trivial.

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Pleased to share a new report, “Investing in Community Health: Measuring the social return on the American Medical Association’s investment in West Side United’s impact portfolio, " Fernando De Maio, PhD, Vice President, Health Equity Research and Data Use, American Medical Association | Professor, Dept. of Sociology, DePaul University, and Fellow and Board Director on the Board of Governors, Institute of Medicine of Chicago. 

Download report here> Investing-in-community-health-report.AMA.10.2026.pdf

It’s a timely and important example of how research can support solutions for community health equity.

Stay tuned for IOMC's Leadership Summit on Dec. 16th, 2026. More details soon.

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MEDPAGE TODAY reported: WASHINGTON -- Real-world data backed the effectiveness of second-season (Beyfortus) immunizations against hospitalizations for children at high risk for severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) illness.

In the case-control study of nirsevimab-eligible children ages 8 to 23 months who were hospitalized with respiratory symptoms, the rate of RSV-positivity was less common in patients who had received nirsevimab (20% vs 42%, P<0.001), reported Angela Campbell, MD, MPH, of the CDC.

The adjusted estimated effectiveness of the long-acting monoclonal antibody against RSV-associated hospitalizations came out to 75% (86% when given within the 60 days before symptom onset and 66% when given earlier than that), according to findings presented at the IDWeek annual meeting.

"These data provide valuable real-world evidence of nirsevimab effectiveness against RSV hospitalizations for nirsevimab-eligible children in their second RSV season," said Campbell. "Overall, these estimates support the initial recommendation for use of nirsevimab as a preventive strategy in those high-risk groups."

Taylor Olson, MD, of Children's National Hospital in Washington, called these results "reassuring."

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