International Classification of Diseases News and Research

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New model improves short- and long-term disease risk prediction

Researchers developed ALADYNOULLI, a Bayesian generative model that combines longitudinal health records, age, and polygenic risk to identify reproducible disease signatures across more than 683,000 participants. In UK Biobank testing, the framework achieved stronger short- and long-term risk discrimination than established clinical scores while revealing disease subgroups and genetic associations.

16 Jul 2026

Breast and prostate cancer survival worsens with metabolic syndrome

A SEER-Medicare analysis of more than 200,000 adults aged 66 and older found that metabolic syndrome was associated with about twice the adjusted hazard of death from any cause after breast or prostate cancer. The condition was also linked to higher cancer-specific, cardiovascular-specific, and liver-failure-specific mortality, although the observational design prevents causal conclusions.

14 Jul 2026

Most hospital readmissions after heart failure are not heart-related

A study reveals that non-cardiovascular medications increase hospital readmission risks in heart failure patients, highlighting the need for better management.

8 Jul 2026

Blood protein clocks flag higher risks of death and chronic disease

Proteomic age clocks applied to two European cohorts linked faster biological aging with smoking, alcohol use, physical inactivity, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and several cancers. The Global proteomic clock predicted mortality as well as established lifestyle risk factors, while organ-specific clocks showed stronger links with related cancers of the kidney, lung, and stomach.

30 Jun 2026

Faster biological aging may help explain rising cancer rates in younger adults

A new study found that later birth cohorts showed greater biological aging, measured by systemic age-gap clocks. Greater biological aging was associated with higher early-onset solid cancer risk, especially lung, gastrointestinal, and uterine cancers.

29 Jun 2026

Study links COVID-19 to higher sleep apnea risk years after infection

Researchers analyzed more than 910,000 adults and found that SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a higher adjusted risk of new-onset obstructive sleep apnea up to 4.5 years later. The association appeared in both hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients, supporting targeted screening in higher-risk post-COVID groups while highlighting the need for objective sleep testing.

24 Jun 2026

Sustained weight loss reduces risk of future atrial fibrillation

Announcing a new article publication for Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications journal. The long-term effects of sustained weight gain and loss on atrial fibrillation (AF) risk remain unclear.

4 Jun 2026

Preschool gaming habits may shape problematic gaming symptoms later in life

The study identifies preschool gaming as a strong predictor of adult internet gaming disorder, highlighting the role of early exposure in addiction risk.

29 May 2026

Could blocking inflammation help treat difficult-to-treat depression?

A small proof-of-concept RCT found that tocilizumab, an IL-6 receptor blocker, showed a non-significant but clinically suggestive pattern of improvement in difficult-to-treat depression linked to low-grade inflammation. The study found that baseline hs-CRP, rather than IL-6, may help identify patients most likely to respond, supporting larger trials of immune-targeted depression care.

22 May 2026

New research maps the biological toll of drinking

A new review published in the journal Addiction confirms drinking causes substantial harm to health. Some of those harms may be reversible if the person reduces or stops drinking.

14 May 2026

Global health progress reversing in several critical areas, WHO warns

While there have been meaningful improvements in global health over the past decade, with millions benefiting from better prevention, treatment and access to essential services, persistent and emerging challenges mean that the world remains off track to achieve any of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

13 May 2026

Maternal weight before pregnancy may shape toddlers’ development

A nationwide Korean cohort study of 258,367 mother-child pairs found that maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was associated with developmental delay risk in children aged 18 to 36 months. Children of underweight mothers showed modest early risks that later attenuated, while obesity-related risks persisted across developmental domains.

29 Apr 2026

TikTok chatter could help predict where the opioid crisis is heading next

A large-scale analysis of 569,581 TikTok comments found that opioid-related discussions may help track and forecast synthetic opioid overdose mortality in the US. Recovery, harm reduction, drug use, drug sourcing, and loss-related conversations provided near-real-time signals that improved 6-month forecasting accuracy.

28 Apr 2026

Large US study finds never-married adults face higher risk for most major cancers

A large US population-based study found that never-married adults had higher cancer incidence than ever-married adults across most cancer types, with the largest disparities seen in older adults and in Black men. The pattern was especially strong for HPV-related, tobacco-related, and several reproductive cancers, suggesting marital status may act as an important social marker of cancer risk.

9 Apr 2026

Researchers track how youth drinking deaths changed worldwide over 31 years

A global analysis of GBD 2021 data found that youth drinking contributed to 417,198 deaths across 194 WHO member countries and territories between 1990 and 2021, with deaths declining from 13,346 to 10,563 over the period. Boys and young men bore a far higher burden, and most alcohol-attributable deaths were linked to transport injuries, interpersonal violence, and self-harm, with marked disparities across SDI levels and countries.

6 Apr 2026

High-dose flu shots inked to lower Alzheimer's dementia risk in older adults

A large US claims-based study found that adults aged 65 and older who received a high-dose flu vaccine had a lower observed risk of Alzheimer dementia than those who received a standard-dose vaccine, with the association lasting up to 25 months in per-protocol analyses and 28 months in intention-to-treat analyses. The signal appeared stronger and more sustained in women, though the authors stress that the findings are observational and need confirmation in longer prospective studies.

2 Apr 2026

Study links social media addiction to worse student mental health and points to family as a key buffer

A study of 627 Saudi university students found that higher social media addiction was associated with more anxiety and depression, while family environment fully mediated those links in the statistical model. The findings suggest that supportive family relationships may help buffer the mental health burden associated with problematic social media use, although the cross-sectional design does not establish causation.

25 Mar 2026

New review calls for biologically grounded approach to psychiatric diagnosis

A comprehensive invited review published today in Brain Medicine confronts one of the most persistent paradoxes in modern medicine: psychiatry remains the only major clinical discipline that diagnoses complex illness primarily through conversation and symptom checklists, while fields such as oncology and cardiology long ago embraced laboratory markers, imaging, and molecular profiling.

10 Mar 2026

Specific gut bacteria may signal long-term risk of heart and metabolic disease

Researchers analyzed gut microbiome profiles from 4,792 adults in the HELIUS cohort and tracked cardiometabolic outcomes over time to determine whether specific microbes predict disease risk. Certain microbes were linked to higher or lower cardiovascular risk, while plant-derived microbial metabolites suggested potential diet–microbiome interactions influencing heart health.

9 Mar 2026

Are socially isolated people more likely to develop cancer? Study of 350,000 adults explores the risk

A large UK Biobank study of more than 350,000 adults found that social isolation, but not loneliness alone, was associated with a modest increase in overall cancer risk during over 11 years of follow-up. The association was stronger in women and appeared partly linked to socioeconomic disadvantage, unhealthy behaviors, and inflammatory processes.

3 Mar 2026