https://medicalxpress.com/preventive-medicine-news/ en-us Latest medical news and research in Preventive medicine Doctors recommend getting your flu shot annually, since the specific influenza strain it targets varies from year to year. But what if the shot could be more effective while protecting against more strains? Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine are one step closer to making this happen. When the immune system sees a new strain of a familiar virus, it typically focuses on the parts it "remembers" most, even if those regions have changed. "Epitope-spanning antigenic variation reprograms immunodominance and broadens immunity in sequential influenza vaccination" was recently published in Nature Communications. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-flu-shot-epitope-widen.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:00:03 EDT news695491082 Extending vaccination opportunities, involving community members alongside health care professionals in communicating about vaccines, and providing financial incentives are among the most effective ways to increase vaccine uptake, finds an analysis of international trial evidence published by The BMJ. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-vaccination-access-community-outreach-incentives.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:30:06 EDT news695467686 Adolescents who consume more ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have significantly higher odds of being overweight or obese, according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Mekuriaw Nibret Aweke of the University of Gondar, Ethiopia, and colleagues. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-ultra-food-intake-sharply-higher.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:00:11 EDT news695466061 A substantial amount of medical information provided by five popular chatbots is inaccurate and incomplete, with half (50%) of the responses problematic: 30% were somewhat, and 20% were highly problematic. These are the results of a study published in the journal BMJ Open. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-popular-ai-chatbots-confidently-medical.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:30:04 EDT news695294988 Timing exercise to match body clock chronotype—the natural predisposition to morning or evening alertness—may lower cardiovascular disease risk among those who are already vulnerable, suggests research published in the open access journal Open Heart. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-body-clock-chronotype-cardiovascular-disease.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:30:03 EDT news695294521 Restricting calories has long been recognized as a powerful way to live longer, with periods of intermittent fasting proving more effective than a steady diet. However, the mechanism behind this phenomenon has been unclear. Research led by UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists and published in Nature Communications suggests it's not the fast itself that extends life, but how the body metabolically pivots during refeeding after fasting. Although the findings were made in Caenorhabditis elegans, a roundworm often used as a lab model, they could eventually lead to new ways to boost health in humans. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-fasting-longer-lifespan.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:20:01 EDT news695375356 Researchers at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have found that stopping mass drug administration for Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) was associated with an increase in infections from other parasitic worms, threatening disease control efforts. The study, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, suggests that once wider community treatment programs for LF ended, school-aged children were nearly twice as likely to be infected with the intestinal roundworm Ascaris lumbricoides. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-community-wide-treatment-linked-resurgence.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:40:07 EDT news695301481 In a study involving over 600,000 people, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have investigated how changes in weight between the ages of 17 and 60 are linked to the risk of dying from various diseases. The results show a clear pattern: weight gain early in adulthood has the greatest impact. The work is published in the journal eClinicalMedicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-weight-gain-20s-health-impact.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:20:08 EDT news695300761 In many parts of East Africa, small pools of water that form after heavy rainfall are ideal breeding sites for the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have analyzed how such environmental conditions affect the effectiveness of mosquito nets. They combined high-resolution climate and hydrology models with malaria data from Kenya to enable better assessments of when and where the nets are especially effective at preventing infections. Their results have been published in Scientific Reports. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-malaria-effectively-climate.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:40:06 EDT news695287801 Yellow fever is a viral disease that is spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. The symptoms range from mild fever-like aches and pains to severe liver disease with bleeding, often accompanied by yellowing skin and eyes. As of now, we do not have antiviral drugs to cure these diseases, as most of the treatments are limited to easing symptoms. Hence, prevention via vaccination is our best bet against this disease. A recent study has found that a new yellow fever vaccine, called vYF by Sanofi, works just as well as the current licensed vaccine, YF-VAX. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-yellow-fever-vaccine-safety-effectiveness.html Sat, 11 Apr 2026 02:00:01 EDT news695041269 Researchers from the University of California San Diego have found that local sales bans on flavored tobacco in California are associated with reduced youth vaping over time without increasing cigarette smoking. The findings, based on an analysis of more than 2.8 million middle and high school students, were published April 10, 2026, in JAMA Health Forum. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-flavored-tobacco-linked-youth-vaping.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:40:01 EDT news695047091 Madison professors suggest longevity gains across all states and regions for people born between 1941 and 2000, in contrast to previous estimates suggesting a century of stagnation or even declines in parts of the South. Published in the journal BMJ Open, the study by Héctor Pifarré i Arolas and Jason Fletcher of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, along with José Andrade of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, challenges recent estimates that portrayed progress on extending longevity in the United States as sharply divergent across states and regions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-bleak-picture-state-gaps-longevity.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:00:01 EDT news695047544 Adding as little as 1,700 to 5,500 steps per day can offset the risk of a list of chronic diseases—including obesity, diabetes and sleep apnea—according to a new study from a corresponding author with Vanderbilt Health. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-adding-day-offsets-chronic-disease.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 13:40:01 EDT news695045821 The numbers are sobering: nearly 80% of the world's teenagers don't get enough physical activity, according to the World Health Organization. But a new longitudinal study from Université de Montréal suggests the seeds of that sedentary lifestyle—or an active one—may be sown much earlier than anyone realized. Like when a child is 2.5 years of age. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-play-age-decade-motion.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:00:06 EDT news695033641