354 papers
Epidemiology is the study of how diseases spread through populations and what factors influence their patterns. Rather than focusing on individual patients, this field examines broader trends to identify outbreaks, track transmission, and guide public health decisions. By analyzing data on infection rates and risk factors, researchers work to prevent future health crises and protect communities worldwide.
On Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category directly from medRxiv to make these critical findings instantly accessible. For each study, we provide both a plain-language explanation for general readers and a detailed technical summary for specialists. This dual approach ensures that vital insights into disease dynamics are understood clearly and quickly by everyone who needs them.
Explore the latest research below to see how scientists are currently mapping disease trends and developing strategies to safeguard global health.
This study uses mathematical modeling to demonstrate that Namibia can achieve malaria pre-elimination by 2034 only through a coordinated regional strategy combining cross-border travel management with enhanced vector control in neighboring Angola and Zambia, as isolated national efforts are insufficient to counter importation pressure.
This ecological study utilizes citizen science data and a front-door causal model to suggest that increased white-tailed deer abundance is associated with higher numbers of alpha-gal syndrome cases in the United States, though the authors caution that measurement errors and data limitations warrant careful interpretation of these estimates.
This systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 studies involving 3,512 Indian children and adolescents reveals a high overall prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (35.4%), with a disproportionately higher burden observed in overweight or obese high-risk groups (59.7%) compared to the general population (10.7%).
A study in western Uganda found that the Leptocheck-WB IgM rapid test has near-zero sensitivity (1.1–2.2%) for detecting acute leptospirosis caused by locally circulating serogroups, rendering it unsuitable for screening or surveillance in this setting despite its perfect specificity.
This study demonstrates that interpretable machine learning models, particularly XGBoost, utilizing early pregnancy and sociodemographic data from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey can accurately predict low birth weight risk to facilitate timely, targeted interventions in resource-limited settings.
This nationally representative study found that US adults using complementary and alternative medicine therapies had a higher prevalence of short sleep duration and insomnia symptoms compared to non-users, a relationship likely driven by reverse causation where individuals with sleep disturbances seek out these treatments.
This national study in Saudi Arabia demonstrates a significant dose-response relationship between the frequency of childhood peer victimization and adverse adult mental and behavioral health outcomes, revealing that frequent bullying—particularly religion-targeted verbal abuse—substantially increases risks for substance use, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, with these effects amplified by socioeconomic disadvantage and partially mitigated by parental supervision.
This six-year longitudinal study of working-age adults in Sri Lanka reveals that nearly a quarter experienced declining kidney function and identifies smokeless tobacco use, smoking, and weedkiller exposure as significant risk factors for transitioning from healthy to unhealthy kidney states.
This paper introduces Simple-Means MAIHDA (S-MAIHDA) as a distribution-free method that accurately describes health inequalities by using observed stratum data to avoid the distortion and attenuation of small-stratum effects caused by the shrinkage inherent in traditional Random-Effects MAIHDA.
This prospective study in Hoima, Uganda, reveals that rickettsiosis is the leading cause of acute undifferentiated fever, surpassing malaria and leptospirosis in prevalence, and underscores the need to update clinical guidelines to include empiric doxycycline treatment and improved diagnostics for malaria-negative patients with relevant environmental exposures.