Tobacco-style public health campaigns are needed to spell out the full extent of the harms of ultra processed foods, argue public health experts in the open access journal BMJ Global Health. Despite strong evidence linking these products to serious health consequences, the public are in the dark about the real dangers of these ‘foods’ and have...
Why should two individuals with exactly the same risk factor profile for developing heart attacks or strokes be treated differently based purely on their race? Is it race that alters risk of these people or is race a surrogate for other factors that may be elevating risk? And how large can these race-related differences in...
Alcohol sales and consumption increased during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the effect of the increase in consumption on population health is not fully understood. In new research published in Hepatology, a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) projected rates of liver disease and associated deaths due to increased alcohol consumption...
Twenty-one months into the global pandemic, millions of Americans continue to believe misinformation about vaccination and Covid-19, and these beliefs are associated with hesitancy to get themselves and their children vaccinated – or, if they are vaccinated, to get a booster for added protection against the omicron and delta variants. In the fourth survey conducted...
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that for-profit long-term care homes had worse patient outcomes than not-for-profit homes. A new study found that of those for-profit homes, long-term care homes (LTCs) owned by private equity firms and large chains have the highest mortality rates. The study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo traced the growing...
Even for superheroes, regular physical activity and strong social bonds are important for healthy ageing, suggest researchers in the Christmas issue of The BMJ. Being able to stay healthy in later life is a crucial issue for everyone. Environmental and socioeconomic factors determine ageing trajectories at a population level, but evidence also highlights the importance of...
First study examining the impact of COVID-19 certification introduction on vaccine uptake in six countries suggests it led to increased vaccination uptake, but this depended on countries’ prior levels of vaccine coverage and availability. Countries starting at lower-than-average COVID-19 vaccine coverage (France, Israel, Italy, Switzerland) experienced a large uptick in vaccination, but there was no...
Recent cannabis use is linked to extremes of nightly sleep duration–less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours–reveals a study of a large representative sample of US adults, published online in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. This pattern was even more pronounced among heavy users–those using on 20 out of the previous 30...
As many as a half of all drinkers underestimated how drunk they were, judging themselves still safe to drive despite having exceeded the legal driving limit, according to new research. Worldwide, drunk driving is a major problem, despite decades of health promotion activities. Road traffic injuries have become the leading killer of people aged five...
The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with higher blood pressure levels among middle-aged adults across the U.S., according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation. According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure, a leading cause of heart disease, and nearly 75% of all cases remain...
