Women lacking adequate health insurance were significantly less likely to take recommended amounts of folic acid to help prevent serious birth defects, UC Irvine researchers found.

The nationwide study analyzed health data from more than 85,000 women and found that healthcare access and other structural barriers may play a larger role in folic acid use than birthplace alone.

Researchers say the findings can aid public health efforts focused on improving preventive care access, culturally responsive outreach and folic acid fortification initiatives.

Compuscript Publishing is pleased to announce that Zoonoses, an open-access journal dedicated to research on zoonotic diseases and One Health, has been accepted for coverage in the Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

Dr. Michael Golding, a professor in the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology, studies how alcohol exposure may alter biological signals in sperm in ways that affect offspring development and metabolism.  

Through a new $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and supported by Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Golding and his team will expand their research into how parental alcohol exposure may contribute to chronic disease, accelerated aging and developmental disorders in offspring.

Resistance to antimicrobial agents is rising among human infections with Escherichia coli bacteria that produce the Shiga toxin, responsible for the majority of severe illnesses linked to E. coli, according to a study analyzing data from nearly 2,000 infections in the United States between 2010 and 2021. The increase in resistance points to a need for antibiotic stewardship in the food production chain as well as in human health.