New research distinguishing between passive and mentally active sitting in association with dementia has found that adults who engaged in extended durations of mentally passive sedentary behaviors had a higher risk of dementia. Replacing passive with mentally active sedentary behaviors was shown to reduce the risk of dementia onset in later life. The study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, has the potential to inform public health guidelines and preventive strategies to reduce dementia.

A machine learning model that analyzes patient demographics, electronic health record data, and routine blood test results predicted a patient’s risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer, with high accuracy.

A previously unknown gut–brain signalling pathway governing how parasitic infections lead to nausea, appetite loss and other sickness symptoms is now understood by science.

A new Edith Cowan University (ECU) study has highlighted the need for a national approach to school nursing, with research suggesting Australian students receive varying levels of support depending on their school and location.

By the age of 40, approximately 95% of people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of death for this population. Yet individuals with Down syndrome historically have been excluded from participating in clinical trials into treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Now, that access will expand in the U.S. and globally, thanks to a game-changing gift from the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation to the Keck School of Medicine of USC and its Epstein Family Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (Epstein ATRI). The Mussallem Foundation gift will add more domestic sites to the ACTC-DS clinical trial network, currently 20 sites strong. The funding will also maintain four international clinical trial sites that would have paused research due to a loss of government funding, at Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability, Dublin; University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Institut Jérôme Lejeune, Paris; and, Sant Pau Medical Research Institute, Barcelona. The Mussallem’s generous gift includes a matching component that will effectively double the impact of their support, accelerating the enhancement and expansion of the ACTC-DS network.

A new Cochrane review finds that chlorhexidine likely cuts umbilical cord infection rates by about 29% in low- and middle-income countries, and may reduce newborn deaths.