A study finds that factors beyond a person’s control, like socioeconomic status and whether their mom smoked or was obese, can influence whether they are overweight or obese as teenagers or adults. Glenna Nightingale of the University of Edinburgh, UK and colleagues report these findings on March 26, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Housing tends to be a key part of household wealth, but despite its importance, it has been difficult to measure the value of a property. In a new article, researchers studied the impact of a popular machine learning pricing algorithm on the U.S. housing market. The study found that, overall, the algorithm benefitted the market.

A large majority of older Americans feel that health insurance – including Medicare – should cover anti-obesity medications, according to a new study. And more than half of older adults who meet criteria for obesity say they’re interested in trying one of these drugs to manage their weight.

About The Study: In this survey study of older U.S. adults, most participants agreed that Medicare should cover weight management medications and more than half of those with body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater were interested in using them. These results should inform decisions to include weight management medications in the Medicare and commercial insurance programs, as well as utilization policies to control health care costs.

New University of Georgia research has found that employers and policymakers might want to start paying attention to how workers are feeling, because employee happiness contains critical economic information.