EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 7-Oct-2025 19:11 ET (7-Oct-2025 23:11 GMT/UTC)

New survey reveals top reasons why kids avoid going to school

Nationwide Children's Hospital
Reports and Proceedings

A new national survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, founded by Nationwide Children’s Hospital, reveals nearly a third of parents (30%) whose child missed school due to fear or anxiety last year report their child missed more than a week of school.

AI could soon detect early voice box cancer from the sound of your voice

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have shown that patients with benign vocal fold lesions and laryngeal cancer can be distinguished through acoustic features of the voice, especially the harmonic-to-noise ratio and its variation within speech. Now that the proof-of-principle has been established, this task can be fed into machine learning algorithms, to build AI applications that triage patients at risk for laryngeal cancer based on their voice.

Journal: Frontiers in Digital Health
Funder: NIH Common Fund

University of Hawaiʻi researchers discover link between maternal obesity and autism-like behaviors in offspring

University of Hawaii at Manoa
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine have uncovered a connection between a mother's weight before pregnancy and autism-like behaviors in her offspring. The study marks a significant advance in understanding how early life factors influence brain development.

Led by Professors Alika K. Maunakea and Monika Ward from JABSOM's Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry & Physiology and the Yanagimachi Institute for Biogenesis Research, the research shows that maternal obesity triggers metabolic shifts that cause lasting epigenetic changes in a mother’s eggs. These changes are passed on to the developing embryo and affect genes involved in brain development, including Homer1, a protein important for regulating synaptic signaling, learning, memory and response to neural activity.</p>

Journal: Cells

New study uncovers how genetics and lifestyle drive the heart disease dilated cardiomyopathy

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international team, led by scientists from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute has studied around 3000 people affected by the heart disease dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) – a driver of heart failure and sudden cardiac arrest.

They discovered those who had a mutation in a particular gene called TTN were 21 times more likely to develop DCM than family members who did not carry a mutation.

For the first time, the team found a person's general health and lifestyle factors contributed to an earlier DCM diagnosis.

Journal: European Heart Journal

Transformational $3 million gift to advance women’s heart health

American Heart Association
Grant and Award Announcement

American Heart Association National chairperson Lee Shapiro and wife Valerie extend matching gift campaign, advance Go Red for Women® Venture Fund.

Oklahoma scholar heads to Korea on Fulbright for cancer research

University of Oklahoma
Grant and Award Announcement

Motolani Adedipe, associate professor of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant under the U.S.–Korea Presidential STEM Initiative to conduct research at Seoul National University Hospital. Her project, “Enhancing Prostate Cancer Survivorship in South Korea: A Mixed Methods, Community‑Engaged Approach,” aims to elevate the quality of life for prostate cancer survivors through community-focused strategies and digital health innovation.

City of Hope study shows childhood cancer survivors face new health problems later in life

City of Hope
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at City of Hope published a new study which found that some survivors of childhood cancer are more at risk for serious health issues as they grow older, including new cancers and chronic conditions like heart disease.

Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology