When adult children begin taking care of aging parents, conflict is common and often inevitable as new relationships, dynamics and realities emerge. Autonomy is often a central tension in caregiving, especially at the end of life. A study out of the University of Missouri suggests having difficult, frank conversations to ease tensions.

"Conflict is stressful," said study author Jacquelyn Benson, an assistant professor at UM. "However, it also is necessary and can lead to positive change." Benson and colleagues analyzed data from a clinical trial involving end-of-life caregiving, particularly in hospice situations. One common finding was that if all parties honestly discussed and came to terms with respective duties, responsibilities and expectations, the caregiving burden lessened significantly.

According to Benson: "Avoiding conflict altogether is not the answer because it's an unrealistic goal. Instead, caregivers should have conversations with hospice staff about ways they can improve their caregiving experience by communicating their needs and concerns with the person they are caring for and other family members."

Call Me When You're Better

With each year, we grow more attached to our cellphones. For some people, they might as well be physically attached — at least then the phones might help break falls.

Between 1998 and 2017, the rate of cellphone-related injuries climbed from 2 per million people to 28 per million. Roughly one-third were injuries to the head and face, typically lacerations, often while walking and talking and subsequently falling. People ages 13-29 were most likely to suffer injury while distracted.

Get Me That, Stat!

A new federal study reports that U.S. retail drug prices in 2018 dropped by 1% — not much but still the first decline in more than 40 years. Counter that good news, however, with the fact that private health care spending increased 4.6% to an annual average of $11,172 per person in 2018. Out-of-pocket expenses like copays and deductibles jumped 2.8%.

Counts

1 in 4: Ratio of high school students who are e-cigarette users.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Stories for the Waiting Room

You see the highway signs: "Don't text and drive." Well, you're supposed to see them. Too many drivers may be looking down, texting. A Bloomberg News analysis of 30,000 drivers found that 30% texted or were otherwise distracted less than 5% of the time behind the wheel. (An alarming 1% were distracted 45%-50% of driving time.) The rate of texting while driving increased 30% during holidays.

Forty-eight states ban texting while driving, but an estimated 3,000 people still die each year from distracted driving, and experts think the actual number is much higher.

Doc Talk

Acnestis: The area of the body that can't be reached for scratching. In humans, that's between the shoulder blades.

Mania of the Week

Doromania: An obsession with giving gifts.

Observation

"A psychiatrist asks a lot of expensive questions your wife asks for nothing."

— Comedian Joey Adams

Medical History

This week in 1935, the use of eye prints — the pattern of capillaries in the retina — was described as a new scientific method for identification because every individual's eye pattern is as unique as fingerprints. The use of retinal scans is still pretty novel, though, seen mostly in spy and heist movies.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, and yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of an actual published research study: "Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans."

The 2002 study by University of Stockholm scientists involved training chickens to react to the average human female face but not to an average male face (or vice versa). In subsequent testing, the chickens showed preferences for faces consistent with human sexual preferences. In other words, the birds liked better-looking people better.

The researchers said the findings revealed something about the evolution of sexual preferences, but even with that — and a hometown advantage — they have yet to receive a Nobel Prize.

Self-Exam

Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself this question: Which body part lies above the other — philtrum or glabella?

Answer: The glabella is the smooth space between your eyebrows, above your nose. The philtrum is the cleft between the bottom of the nose and the top lip.

Med School

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, a popular cure for stuttering was to cut off half of the stutterer's tongue. Obviously it didn't work, and patients sometimes died due to uncontrolled bleeding. The procedure, called a hemiglossectomy, is still performed today, but only in certain cases of oral cancer.

Last Words

"I think I'm going to make it."

Richard Loeb (1905-1936) was half of the notorious duo of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, who were convicted in 1924 of murdering 14-year-old Bobby Franks, a cousin of Loeb's. Both avoided the death sentence (Clarence Darrow was their lawyer), but Loeb was killed in prison by another inmate, who stabbed him with a razor. Leopold died in 1971 at the age of 66 from a diabetes-related heart attack. He had been released from prison in 1958 after serving 33 years of a "life plus 99 years" sentence.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: klimkin at Pixabay