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Women dominate health workforce but gaps remain, study finds

Women have driven the expansion of the global health workforce over the past three decades, yet substantial workforce shortages remain, according to a new study published in The Lancet Public Health.

18 Aug 2026

Multiple long-term conditions raise pregnancy risks, study finds

Women who begin pregnancy with two or more pre-existing, long-term physical or mental health conditions have 20% higher risk of miscarriage, 69% higher risk of severe nausea and vomiting, and around four times the risk of anxiety and depression, compared with those with no long-term conditions.

18 Aug 2026

Health visitor support helps mothers stay smoke-free after childbirth

Women who receive health visitor support alongside smoking relapse prevention advice are more likely to remain smoke-free after childbirth, according to University of East Anglia (UEA) research.

18 Aug 2026

Racism shapes grief and bereavement experiences, major UK study finds

Racism directly impacts how people experience grief and bereavement, according to the largest study of its kind.

18 Aug 2026

Study links dollar store food quality to worse health outcomes

While consumers may save a few bucks on groceries at dollar stores, they end up paying a higher price with their health.

18 Aug 2026

Prenatal exposure to higher water fluoride levels associated with lower child cognition

Pregnant mothers who lived in neighborhoods where public drinking water fluoride levels were near or above the current U.S. recommended levels tended to have children who scored lower on tests of fluid reasoning as fluoride levels increased, according to a new study supported by the National Institutes of Health's Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

18 Aug 2026

Study: Many patients struggle to understand online test results

You get a message that a test result is available in your online patient portal. Do you look at it right away, or do you wait to hear from your health care provider?

18 Aug 2026

Habitual pork consumption supports clinically meaningful weight loss, study finds

According to a peer-reviewed study published May 29, 2026 in Nutrition & Diabetes, adults with overweight or obesity (mean BMI: 33.6 kg/m²; mean age: 47.7 years) who reported continuing to eat pork while participating in a 6-month digital weight management program lost a clinically significant 5.3% of starting body weight and improved their overall diet quality scores by 4.3 points.

18 Aug 2026

Two-year symptom tracking better predicts long-term mental health of disaster survivors

Nearly 15 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, many survivors are still living with the psychological effects of the disaster.

18 Aug 2026

A New York skincare survey found mercury where consumers might not expect it

Targeted surveillance of 197 skin-lightening and skincare products purchased in New York City from 2009 to 2022 found detectable mercury in 29%, with 18% exceeding the FDA’s 1 ppm limit and concentrations reaching 27,000 ppm. All mercury-positive products were manufactured abroad, mercury was rarely disclosed on labels, and the findings highlight regulatory, health-equity, and environmental justice concerns.

18 Aug 2026

Intravenous iron use among Australian women climbs dramatically over the past decade

The number of Australian women receiving intravenous iron treatments has surged dramatically over the past decade, with new research revealing that one in 20 women of reproductive age received intravenous iron in 2024.

18 Aug 2026

TB preventive treatment delivers real-world gains for people with HIV

Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for about a quarter of all AIDS deaths. In 2024, it was also the leading cause of death among people with HIV. This is despite TB being a preventable and curable disease.

17 Aug 2026

AI can recreate food convincingly, but there is one thing it still struggles to trigger

AI-generated food images matched real food images in perceived healthiness and estimated calorie content but were rated as less realistic and elicited lower willingness to eat. A subset of hyperrealistic AI images received stronger appetitive ratings, suggesting that perceived realism may shape how synthetic food imagery is evaluated.

17 Aug 2026

New genetic mutations linked to malaria drug resistance discovered

Researchers searching for genetic clues to the growing problem of malaria drug resistance identified new mutations associated with the parasite's decreased susceptibility to current treatment.

17 Aug 2026

Beauty tutorials in social media increase use of hormone-disrupting products by teens

Personal care products are among the largest everyday sources of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and high schoolers who follow social media influencers or watch beauty tutorials seem to use considerably more of them, according to Rutgers researchers.

17 Aug 2026

Food fraud costs the UK up to £2 billion a year

Researchers developed the first model to estimate the total annual economic cost of food fraud in the UK, placing it between £0.4 billion and £2 billion. Although food fraud appears relatively rare, individual crime schemes can cause substantial harm, with businesses bearing most costs and strong quality controls helping protect major supply chains.

17 Aug 2026

What 720,000 adults reveal about artificial sweeteners and diabetes risk

A meta-analysis of six prospective cohort studies involving 721,003 adults found that higher artificial sweetener intake was associated with a 31% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The evidence was rated low certainty because of substantial heterogeneity, observational study designs, and potential residual confounding, meaning the findings do not establish causation.

16 Aug 2026

What happens to body fat when people follow the Eatwell Guide?

Higher adherence to the UK Eatwell Guide was associated with lower BMI, waist circumference, total body fat, and trunk fat in more than 156,000 UK Biobank participants. The associations persisted prospectively across demographic, physical activity, and genetic-risk groups, supporting the role of diet quality in weight management.

16 Aug 2026

Poverty linked to higher childhood deaths from congenital anomalies

Swansea University researchers have led major European study investigating how socio-economic circumstances influence survival among children born with major congenital anomalies.

14 Aug 2026