public-health

Continuous tracking of one participant showed how metabolic and physiological health measures can shift substantially over time in response to lifestyle changes. Most people learn about their health through an annual screening, a single snapshot that can miss what happens during the rest of the year. Researchers at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, [...]

Exercise may not be a powerful weight-loss tool on its own, but it appears to play a much bigger role in preventing lost weight from returning. By preserving muscle, supporting metabolism, improving fat burning, and regulating appetite and blood sugar, regular activity can make long-term weight maintenance easier.

Pancreatic cancer patients with at least 21 natural teeth survived nearly two years longer after surgery than those with fewer teeth in a study of 339 people. Researchers suspect tooth loss may reflect decades of inflammation, frailty, nutrition, and other factors tied to the body’s overall resilience.

A comprehensive analysis of nearly 1.6 million patients suggests that popular diabetes and obesity medications may increase the risk of a rare condition that causes sudden vision loss, though the absolute risk remains very low.

KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.

A recent study published by Imène Kacem et al. in Frontiers in Psychiatry found an association between electric power plant workers’ exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) and negative impacts to mental health and sleep quality. ELF-EMF, commonly referred to simply as EMF, is an exposure people experience from close proximity to electrical grid infrastructure, includ…

A Welsh birthdate cutoff linked shingles vaccination to fewer new dementia diagnoses, then to fewer dementia-related deaths among people already diagnosed, but the later estimate was imprecise and neither study makes the vaccine a dementia treatment.

BackgroundAdolescence is a vulnerable developmental stage associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and stress, which can adversely affect academic performance and quality of life. Despite growing concern about adolescent mental health in Saudi Arabia, evidence among secondary school students remains limited. This study assessed the prevalence and severity of depression, anxiety, …

Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-67970-4 Correlates of nurse-reported health education competence through knowledge sharing in chinese hospitals

Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-68384-y Caputo fractional-order modelling of HPV-induced cervical cancer progression under vaccination, screening and treatment controls

Automatic crash notification (ACN) systems should become a standard safety feature in every new vehicle, like seat belts and air bags, according to a new paper by members of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT), published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS). The authors note that, today, ACN is often offered as a premium connected-vehicle service th…

Polymicrobial periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is often defined by recovery of two or more microorganisms from the same clinical episode, but this numerical definition is biologically incomplete. A second organism may represent a true co-pathogen, colonization, contamination, reagent background, nonviable DNA after antimicrobial exposure, or an analytically plausible signal of uncertain clini…

U.S. poison centers have recorded a sharp long-term rise in liver injuries linked to medications and other foreign substances, with most severe enough to require inpatient care. Reports to U.S. poison centers involving liver damage from medications, supplements, alcohol, and other substances rose nearly 400% between 2000 and 2024, according to research from UVA Health. [...]

(RAND) – The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology offers great promise for medicine and public health, including the potential to yield transformative societal benefits. Yet this same convergence could introduce serious global health and national security risks. As … Read More