Public Health News

October 1, 2023

Top Headlines

'Monstrous Births' and the Making of Race in the Nineteenth-Century United States

Sep. 7, 2023 — From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, 'monstrous births' -- malformed or anomalous fetuses -- were, to Western medicine, an object of superstition. In 19th-century America, they became instead ...

Racial and Socioeconomic Differences Still Determine Survival Rates of Premature Babies in the US

Sep. 5, 2023 — The US continues to face stark inequalities in preterm birth and mortality rates between mothers of differing socioeconomic status and race, finds a new ...

Nearly Half of Dog Owners Are Hesitant to Vaccinate Their Pets

Aug. 31, 2023 — A new study found that more than half of people who own dogs expressed some level of canine vaccine hesitancy -- i.e. skepticism about vaccinating their pets against rabies and other diseases. An estimated 45 percent of US households own a dog; ...

Acting Fast When an Epidemic Hits

Aug. 31, 2023 — Researchers have developed a method for forecasting the short-term progression of an epidemic using extremely limited amounts of ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:42pm EDT

How to Keep People out of the Emergency Room

Sep. 19, 2023 — New research shows helping immigrants schedule primary-care appointments lowers their number of emergency-room ...

Socioeconomic Status May Be an Uneven Predictor of Heart Health

Sep. 13, 2023 — The benefits of four measures of socioeconomic status (education, income, employment status and health insurance) on ideal heart health were greater for non-Hispanic white adults compared to Black, ...

Air Pollution Has Decreased Across the US, but New Research Finds Health Burdens Remain Unequal Among Racial Groups

Sep. 1, 2023 — Health benefits that have resulted from reductions in fine particulate air pollution aren't distributed equally among populations in the U.S., a new ...

Kindergarten Conduct Problems Could Cost Society Later, Researchers Find

Aug. 30, 2023 — A new economic analysis has linked, for the first time, conduct problems among kindergarten students with significant costs to society in terms of crime and associated medical expenses and lost ...

New Research Establishes Enduring Connection Between Racial Segregation, Childhood Blood Lead Levels

Aug. 30, 2023 — Living in a racially segregated neighborhood puts Black children at a higher risk of having elevated blood lead levels, and this association has ...

Grow-Your-Own Households Eat More Fruit and Vegetables and Waste Less

Aug. 22, 2023 — Household fruit and vegetable production, in allotments and gardens, could be key to a healthy and food-secure population, a new study has ...

Natural Language Processing to Extract Social Risk Factors Influencing Health

Aug. 21, 2023 — A new study has found that a natural language processing (NLP) system showed excellent performance when ported to a new health system and tested on ...

Extreme Heat May Hasten Cognitive Decline in Vulnerable Populations

Aug. 15, 2023 — A new study finds that ongoing extreme heat can worsen cognitive decline among vulnerable groups -- particularly Black older adults and those living in poor ...

A New Way to Evaluate the Impact of Medical Research

Aug. 14, 2023 — A new study suggests that the 'impact factor' used to evaluate scientific journals and research papers does not accurately capture the impact of medical papers on health outcomes for all patients, ...

Infant Formula Safety Checks Can Be Improved With Stratified Sampling

Aug. 11, 2023 — Producers of infant formula employ comprehensive food safety systems, including product testing to ensure those systems are working. A new study finds that some testing methods are more powerful at ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

Study Pinpoints the Length of Incidental Activity Linked to Health Benefits

Sep. 29, 2023 — A new wearables study tracking over 25,000 people provides the best evidence yet that short bouts of incidental activity, the kind we do as part of daily living, could reduce risk of heart attack, ...

Increased Risk of Depression and Anxiety When in Higher Education, Study Finds

Sep. 29, 2023 — Young people who are in higher education in England face a small increased risk of depression and anxiety, compared to their peers who are not attending higher education, finds a new ...

Study Reveals Reductions in Breast Cancer Screening Uptake During COVID-19 Pandemic

Sep. 12, 2023 — A review of COVID-19 studies globally has revealed reductions in breast cancer screening participation during 2020, with differences between geographic regions and healthcare ...

Pedal Power Pays Off: Mountain Biking Benefits Outweigh Risks, Research Finds

Aug. 31, 2023 — New research into injuries sustained by trail users has found mountain biking is not the dangerous, injury-plagued sport reserved for thrill-seekers that it is often perceived to be and that the ...

Parental Incarceration Increases Cardiovascular Risk in Young Adults, Study Suggests

Aug. 30, 2023 — New research suggests parental incarceration elevates cardiovascular risk in early adulthood, potentially contributing to larger health ...

Heavy Drinking, Handgun-Carrying Linked Among Rural Youth

Aug. 23, 2023 — Alcohol use and subsequent handgun carrying were positively associated during adolescence and young adulthood among individuals who grew up in rural areas, similar to findings in urban areas. ...

Wearables Will Transform Health, but Change Brings Challenges Say Researchers

Aug. 8, 2023 — Wearable technology presents immense opportunities to improve the way we live our lives, but a group of international researchers say the rapidly developing field also brings big ...

Researchers Propose a Data-Driven Strategy to Stratify Risk of Progression from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer's Disease

Aug. 4, 2023 — The projected cost of caring for millions of individuals who have Alzheimer's disease (AD) worldwide will exceed a $1 trillion in a few years. In addition to the enormous health burden, patients ...

A Natural Experiment Provides Evidence of Link Between Air Pollution and Childhood Obesity

Aug. 3, 2023 — Moving to more polluted areas was associated with an increase in body mass index, according to an analysis of more than 46,000 children and adolescents living in ...

Early-Life Lead Exposure Linked to Higher Risk of Criminal Behavior in Adulthood, Researchers Find

Aug. 1, 2023 — An evaluation of 17 previously published studies suggests that exposure to lead in the womb or in childhood is associated with an increased risk of engaging in criminal behavior in adulthood -- but ...

Link Found Between Childhood Television Watching and Adulthood Metabolic Syndrome

July 24, 2023 — A new study has added weight to the evidence that watching too much television as a child can lead to poor health in adulthood. The research found that children who watched more television were more ...

Ultra-Processed Foods Largely Missing from US Food Policy

July 20, 2023 — A new study finds that only a small number of U.S. policies consider ultra-processed foods, lagging behind countries such as Belgium, Brazil, and ...

Report Highlights Public Health Impact of Serious Harms from Diagnostic Error in US

July 17, 2023 — Improving diagnosis in health care is a moral, professional and public health imperative, according to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. However, little is known about the full scope of harms ...

The Missing Americans: Unprecedented US Mortality Far Exceeds Other Wealthy Nations

July 17, 2023 — A new study found that more than one million US deaths per year -- including many young and working-age adults -- could be avoided if the US had mortality rates similar to its peer nations. In 2021, ...

Gulf War Illness Caused by Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Not Inflammation

July 12, 2023 — Scientists contest longstanding hypothesis about mysterious illness affecting Gulf War veterans, providing first direct evidence that symptoms are driven by impaired ...

Global Efforts to Reduce Infectious Diseases Must Extend Beyond Early Childhood

July 4, 2023 — Global efforts to reduce infectious disease rates must have a greater focus on older children and adolescents after a shift in disease burden onto this demographic, according to a new ...

Maternal Mortality in the U.S. More Than Doubled Between 1999 and 2019

July 3, 2023 — A new study has found that maternal mortality rates have worsened from 1999 to 2019, hitting some racial and ethnic groups and states harder than others. The study found rates highest for Black ...

Dangerous Chatbots: AI Chatbots to Be Approved as Medical Devices?

July 3, 2023 — LLM-based generative chat tools, such as ChatGPT or Google's MedPaLM have great medical potential, but there are inherent risks associated with their unregulated use in healthcare. A new article ...

Energy Insecurity Is an Underappreciated Social and Environmental Determinant of Health

June 29, 2023 — In light of climate change and the impending transition to clean energy, many long-standing programs to address energy insecurity need to be refreshed. A new paper provides growing documentation of ...

Opioids No More Effective Than Placebo for Acute Back and Neck Pain

June 28, 2023 — Opioid pain-relieving medicines are not more effective than a placebo in relieving acute back and neck pain and may even cause harm, according to a recent ...

Friday, September 29, 2023

Tuesday, September 12, 2023