https://medicalxpress.com/preventive-medicine-news/ en-us Latest medical news and research in Preventive medicine Korean women with heart disease showed higher awareness and treatment of major risk factors, but lower control rates, pointing to the need for sex-specific strategies to close the gap, according to a study being presented at ACC Asia 2026 Together with KSC Spring Conference taking place in Gyeongju, South Korea, on April 17–18. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-korean-women-cvd-gaps-factor.html Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:00:06 EDT news695464733 A significant number of Brazilians engage in improper food hygiene and handling practices at home. Examples include washing meat in the kitchen sink and failing to properly wash vegetables. These findings were revealed by a nationwide survey that examined food hygiene, handling, and storage habits in 5,000 households of various income levels across all regions of Brazil. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-poor-hygiene-food-bacterial-outbreaks.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:00:03 EDT news695486225 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has paused decisions on uses for dozens of "forever chemicals," also known as PFAS. The delay includes proposed changes regarding how several of these chemicals can be used, according to one of two people familiar with the situation who spoke to The Washington Post. The two commented anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the press. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-epa-delays-decisions-chemicals.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:20:04 EDT news695489341 Replacing just one meat dish with a vegetarian option in workplace cafeterias can significantly shift what people eat, cutting both calories and carbon emissions, according to a new study from researchers at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. In the new study published in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, researchers tested the change in six English worksite cafeterias, asking managers to swap one meat-based lunch option for a vegetarian dish while keeping prices, choice and all other menu features the same. Customers were not told about the change, and meat options remained available. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-simple-menu-tweak-boost-vegetarian.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:00:01 EDT news695484721 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 New research from the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute found that most Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) quality measures designated as "topped out" by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) were reported by only a small fraction of eligible physicians, suggesting these measures may not reflect consistently high performance across clinicians. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-medicare-quality-capped-eligible-doctors.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:40:04 EDT news695468104 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 For years, a central debate in tobacco policy has been whether taxing e-cigarettes might unintentionally drive vapers back to traditional cigarettes. A new study published in Health Economics suggests that those fears may be misplaced for adult vapers. This national analysis was conducted by the Center for Tobacco Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC–James). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-cigarette-taxes-vaping-adult.html Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:20:09 EDT news695483942 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 When health risks become visible in black and white, perspectives often shift. A study from Umeå University shows that when ultrasound images of atherosclerosis in subjects' carotid arteries are combined with a motivational dialogue, the patients are more likely to be motivated to improve their lifestyle habits and take preventive medication. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-artery-images-nurse-boosted-heart.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:40:06 EDT news695384731 Older Chinese immigrants living in neighborhoods with greater access to community amenities, services, and supportive infrastructure experienced slower cognitive decline over time, according to Rutgers Health researchers. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-neighborhood-amenities-infrastructure-cognitive-decline.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:00:03 EDT news695377429 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 A new survey from two food industry groups shows growing interest in meat as a "healthy" food choice, even as doctors warn that too much red meat can raise health risks. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-meat-consumption-protein-trend-experts.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:00:03 EDT news695394030 Over the past decade, as youth e-cigarette use reached what the Surgeon General labeled epidemic proportions, at least 30 U.S. states and numerous local municipalities have implemented excise taxes on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) to curb consumption. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-vaping-taxes-teen-nicotine.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:40:03 EDT news695390101 Aggressive policing tactics like stop-and-frisk are linked to worse newborn health outcomes in neighborhoods where such tactics are most pervasive, University of Oregon research finds. Babies of non-Hispanic Black mothers had lower birth weights in New York City neighborhoods where police made more on-the-street stops, even when controlling for variables like income and education, according to the research, which analyzed data from 2006 to 2013. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-racial-profiling-aggressive-policing-affect.html Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:20:03 EDT news695376721 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 Efforts to crack down on illegal e-cigs in the U.S. may not be keeping pace with sales, a new government report suggests. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-crackdown-vapes-falling-short.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:40:01 EDT news695295401 Air pollution just isn't what it used to be. While levels of lead and sulfur dioxide have dropped due to environmental regulations, other threats to air quality persist. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-limit-health-posed-polluted-air.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:40:02 EDT news695281624 Chronic hepatitis B is substantially prevalent across the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), affecting an estimated 0.7% of the population in the region in 2022, according to a new study published in Eurosurveillance. While this overall burden represents a decrease from the 2005 to 2015 estimate of 1%, infection rates vary significantly across countries, with the highest estimates found in countries in southern and eastern Europe, and the lowest in northern and western countries. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-chronic-hepatitis-affect-million-eu.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:20:03 EDT news695305040 Nearly 12,000 people in the U.K. who received a first dose of the MenB vaccine will now be offered a second shot starting next week, after a deadly meningitis outbreak linked to a university in Kent. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-meningitis-vaccine-doses-uk-outbreak.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:20:03 EDT news695296263 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 As the risk of measles remains an ongoing concern, herd immunity in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is already slipping. According to data obtained via The Washington Post in January 2026, 1 in 3 Allegheny County kindergartners were in a classroom too far below adequate vaccination coverage to stop a measles outbreak during the 2023–24 school year. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-declining-vaccination-allegheny-county-kindergarten.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:20:01 EDT news695294282 An increasing number of U.S. states have passed laws that allow health care providers—including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists—to refuse to treat patients based on their personal or religious beliefs. While these conscientious objection laws have long existed for issues such as abortion, their effects on LGBTQ+ people have not been well studied. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-doctors-lgbtq-patients-states-religious.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:00:09 EDT news695294161 Marriage, it turns out, may come with a side-effect no one puts in the vows: people who have been married seem less likely to develop cancer than those who have never married at all. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-marriage-cancer-benefits.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:20:02 EDT news695293682 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 U.S. medical organizations are looking to reduce deaths caused by heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer, with new guidelines that reframe prevention as a lifelong battle that begins with testing in childhood. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-heart-disease-qa-specialist-shift.html Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:00:06 EDT news695042464 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