📄 Category

public and global health

434 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.

📄 public and global health

Owning the narrative: Exploring the impact of a creative storytelling intervention on Stigma and Empowerment among persons affected by Leprosy in Pakistan

This qualitative study in Karachi demonstrates that a participatory storytelling intervention significantly enhances individual empowerment and reduces self-stigma among persons affected by leprosy by fostering self-acceptance and peer solidarity, though its broader societal impact remains constrained by persistent community misconceptions, gender norms, and structural barriers.

Ibrahim, N., Fastenau, A., Salam, A., Schlumberger, F., Willis, M., McKane, L., Murtaza, A., Seekles, M., Dean, L., Hoto (…)2026-02-23
📄 public and global health

Randomized incentives to increase participation in COVID testing in rural Kenya

This study in rural Kenya demonstrates that while cash incentives and revisits significantly increase participation in door-to-door COVID-19 testing and help reduce nonresponse bias, offering a lower incentive of KSh 200 proved more cost-effective than higher amounts despite slightly lower detection rates among the hardest-to-reach individuals.

Chieng, B., Crider, Y., Aitken, C., Araka, S. B., Kihoro, R. W., Kanyi, H., Powers, J. E., Tan, B., Paulos, A. P., Gomes (…)2026-02-22
📄 public and global health

Interactive Physical Activity Apps: Do the ABACUS and the MARS Measure Up? A Descriptive Analysis of Behaviour Change Taxonomies

This descriptive analysis of 17 free physical activity apps reveals that while they are generally well-rated and frequently employ basic behavior change techniques like goal setting and feedback, they often lack comprehensive evidence-based strategies, suggesting a need for developers to incorporate more robust behavior change methods to better improve user health outcomes.

Ori, E. M., Baay, C., Ester, M., Toohey, A. M.2026-02-22
📄 public and global health

The Role of Biomarkers in Early Detection of Chronic Disease Risk and Smoking Cessation Efforts among Students, Indonesia

This cross-sectional study of 563 Indonesian high school students reveals that high cotinine levels, indicating significant nicotine exposure and chronic disease risk, are primarily driven by daily cigarette consumption, male gender, having smoking family members, and low physical activity, though these factors did not significantly correlate with a willingness to join smoking cessation programs.

Halid, M., Susilo, B. B. B., Pauzan, P.2026-02-22
📄 public and global health

Disengagement from care and disease severity among people self-testing positive for hepatitis C in Nigeria, Cameroon, and South Africa: a multi-country cohort analysis of implementation studies.

This multi-country cohort analysis in Nigeria, Cameroon, and South Africa demonstrates that while Hepatitis C self-testing effectively identifies infected individuals, including those with severe disease, treatment uptake and retention vary significantly across settings, with South Africa showing notably lower engagement rates driven by HIV status compared to higher success in Cameroon and Nigeria, highlighting the urgent need to strengthen decentralized care pathways to ensure treatment access.

Dunkley, Y., Kerschberger, B., Adepoju, V., Mboussam, H. P., Msolomba, V., Majam, M., Mabally, A. M., Oniyire, A., Choko (…)2026-02-22
📄 public and global health

(How) Do Health Shocks Reallocate Research Direction?

This paper analyzes a global panel of disease-specific publications and burdens from 1990 to 2021 to demonstrate that while research systems increasingly reallocate effort toward endemic health needs and respond rapidly to outbreak alerts, this responsiveness remains uneven across regions and is disproportionately driven by philanthropic and government funding in lower-income settings.

Zhou, H., Garg, P., Fetzer, T.2026-02-19
📄 public and global health

Advancing Legionella pneumophila genomic surveillance with a high-resolution cg/wgMLST schema for outbreak detection and investigation

The Legionella International Typing (LIT) workgroup developed and validated a high-resolution cg/wgMLST schema based on 9000 genomes to enhance the discriminatory power and harmonization of *Legionella pneumophila* genomic surveillance for outbreak detection and source identification.

Mixao, V., Ginevra, C., Jacqueline, C., Jarraud, S., Gabrielli, M., Gomes, J. P., Willby, M. J., Hamlin, J. A., Borges (…)2026-02-19
📄 public and global health

COVID-19 Symptom burden, chronic disease, mental health, and executive function: Multi-Country evidence from four African countries"

This multi-country study of over 3,000 adults in Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania reveals that higher COVID-19 symptom burdens and chronic disease loads are significantly associated with poorer executive function, with notable cross-country variations and education emerging as a consistent protective factor.

Malete, L., Ezeamama, A., Ricketts, C., Joachim, D., Naghibolhosseini, M., Zayernouri, M., Ocansey, R., Muomah, R. C., T (…)2026-02-18
📄 public and global health

Comparing Existing Algorithms for Retrieving Pregnancy-related Adverse Event Reports

This study compares three rule-based algorithms designed to retrieve pregnancy-related adverse event reports from pharmacovigilance databases, revealing that differences in their flagged reports stem primarily from varying scopes regarding age restrictions, normal pregnancies, and paternal exposure, thereby highlighting the need for professionals to select the most appropriate tool based on their specific research needs.

Hedfords Vidlin, S., Giunchi, V., K-Papai, L., Sandberg, L., Zaccaria, C., Sakai, T., Piccolo, L., Rocca, E., Fusaroli (…)2026-02-18