Integrating smoking cessation support into NHS Talking Therapies significantly boosts the chances of patients quitting smoking, particularly those suffering from depression and anxiety.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged groups may still be underusing emergency departments for potentially serious illnesses in the wake of the COVID pandemic, despite an overall rebound in emergency department use by 2022. Most of the rebound had been driven primarily by patients covered by commercial insurance or Medicare fee-for-service. When stratified by insurance type, however, the rebound was found to be significantly lower among patients covered by Medicaid or dual Medicare/Medicaid, who tend to be socioeconomically disadvantaged.

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers helped conduct an important new global health study that found a vaccine that protects against five strains of meningitis prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa is safe and effective for use in young children beginning at 9 months of age. This study provided evidence that formed the basis for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision last year to recommend the pentavalent Men5CV meningitis vaccine for infants ages 9 months and older.

Prescriptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England have risen 18%  year on year since the pandemic. This is higher than previously reported, and masks wide regional variations in prescribing rates, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health.

Public health advice on the safe consumption of glycerol-containing slush ice drinks, also known as slushees, may need revising, conclude researchers after carrying out a detailed review of the medical notes of 21 children who became acutely unwell shortly after drinking one of these products.  

Their findings, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, show that in each case the child became acutely unwell with a cluster of symptoms soon after drinking a slush ice drink, which the researchers refer to as glycerol intoxication syndrome.

Water/aqua aerobics for 10 or more weeks at a time can trim waist size and aid weight loss, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Open