Women smokers puff fewer cigarettes than men but have more trouble quitting, French researchers report. “Our findings highlight the need to provide smoking cessation interventions tailored to the needs of women,” said Ingrid Allagbe, a doctoral student at the University of Burgundy, who led the research. The study included nearly 38,000 smokers (about 43% women)…  read on >  read on >

Unvaccinated U.S. troops must immediately start getting COVID-19 vaccines, says a memo issued Tuesday by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, which recently received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will be added to the list of required shots for U.S. troops. They’ll be able to get their shots at…  read on >  read on >

When COVID-19 patients are discharged from the hospital, most are far from being well — even if their hospital stay was fairly short. That’s among the initial findings of a study that followed Americans hospitalized for COVID-19 during the pandemic’s “third wave” — the fall of 2020 through early 2021. Researchers found that of 253…  read on >  read on >

Football and other contact sports get a lot of attention for their injury hazards. But for most adults, bike riding is the biggest back-breaker, a new study suggests. Of more than 12,000 sports-related spinal injuries among U.S. adults, researchers found that a full 81% were due to bicycling mishaps. The injuries mostly included vertebral fractures,…  read on >  read on >

COVID-19 infection significantly increases the risk of dangerous blood clots after surgery, a new study finds. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a potential complication of surgery in which blood clots form in the veins. It is a leading preventable cause of death in hospital patients. This study found that VTEs were 50% more likely after surgery…  read on >  read on >

All births are not created equal, new U.S. research reveals: Differences in the quality of hospital care contribute to a higher chance of complications among Black and Hispanic newborns compared to white and Asian infants. The analysis of more than 480,000 live births at term (at least 37 weeks’ gestation) in New York City from…  read on >  read on >

Major pandemics aren’t all that rare and they’re likely to occur more often in the future, a new study claims. “The most important takeaway is that large pandemics like COVID-19 and the Spanish flu are relatively likely,” study co-author William Pan said in a news release from Duke University, where he is an associate professor…  read on >  read on >