386 papers
Public and global health examines how we protect communities from disease, manage outbreaks, and improve well-being across the world. This vital field connects diverse research on everything from infectious disease control and vaccination strategies to the social factors that shape our collective health. Because these studies often impact policy and daily life, understanding them quickly is more important than ever.
At Gist.Science, we track every new preprint published in this category on medRxiv to ensure you never miss a breakthrough. We process each submission to provide both plain-language explanations for general readers and detailed technical summaries for experts, making complex findings accessible to everyone.
Below are the latest papers in public and global health, freshly summarized from the most recent medRxiv releases.
This study demonstrates that combining multiple epigenetic clocks into a holistic biological age acceleration factor reveals significant positive associations between adiposity measures (BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio) and accelerated biological aging in a young Filipino adult cohort.
This retrospective analysis of 572 self-pay patients on a US telehealth platform reveals that while long-term GLP-1 RA treatment yields substantial weight loss comparable to clinical trials, significant gender disparities exist where females achieve higher rates of major weight loss but males demonstrate greater platform engagement, suggesting that current "one-size-fits-all" telehealth models may require tailored strategies to address biological and behavioral differences.
A simulation study projects that increasing physical activity across Australia would significantly improve population health, reduce premature deaths, and boost economic output, although the net health and economic benefits are maximized by helping the least active individuals meet guidelines rather than pushing the entire population to maximum activity levels due to diminishing returns and injury risks at extreme exertion.
This study in Kilifi County, Kenya, reveals a substantial prevalence of urogenital schistosomiasis among women of reproductive age and identifies haematuria as the strongest independent predictor of infection, underscoring the need to integrate screening into reproductive health services.
A cross-sectional study in peri-urban Malawi reveals that animal husbandry practices, specifically the lack of nighttime animal enclosure, and soil moisture are significantly associated with higher abundances of cefotaxime-resistant *E. coli* in household yard soil, whereas factors like sanitation and antibiotic use were not.
This nationwide cohort analysis of 2022 U.S. hospitalizations reveals that significant racial and ethnic disparities in acute kidney injury incidence, dialysis utilization, and mortality persist even after adjusting for clinical and socioeconomic factors, underscoring the critical role of structural inequities in kidney health outcomes.
This paper presents the multi-phase development and validation of the Reproductive Ageing in Women (RAW) Questionnaire, a new tool designed to improve the consistency and inclusivity of menopausal stage classification by integrating menstrual characteristics, age, and symptoms, which demonstrated strong validity, reliability, and concordance with biological markers like FSH.
This study of a nationally representative cohort of older English adults reveals significant social, economic, and environmental disparities in device-measured 24-hour movement behaviors, showing that older, unmarried, and lower-wealth individuals tend to be less active and more sedentary, while rural residents are more active than urban dwellers.
This 2024–2025 study of nearly 9,200 Ethiopian households reveals that while LLIN ownership is substantial at 71.5%, actual utilization remains below the critical 80% threshold due to barriers such as lack of hanging skills and seasonal misconceptions, necessitating a strategic shift toward skill-based interventions and targeted education.
This study of US adults reveals that while higher household income is associated with greater tooth retention across all racial groups, the magnitude of these income-related gains is significantly larger for White adults than for Black and Mexican American adults, particularly in problem-focused dental care settings, suggesting that expanding access alone may be insufficient to eliminate racial oral health inequities.