Public Health

A shorter course of treatment for hepatitis C works just as well as a longer one for black patients.

Loss of obstetric services at hospitals in rural counties puts mothers at a higher risk of preterm birth and birth outside of a hospital or in a hospital without an obstetric unit.

Lead exposure in childhood is linked to antisocial behavior in adolescence, suggests a new study published in Criminology.

The harms of lead exposure are well established: It can cause renal disease, permanent neurological damage and even death.

Efforts at improving health equity in Oregon have reduced disparities in primary care visits among African American and Native American people.

Death after surgery is more than twice as likely for black children than white children. New models indicate which risk factors are most commonly associated with this outcome for both groups.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh have expressed skepticism over supervised injection sites as an effort to address the state’s ongoing opioid epidemic. Baker suggested that the research on safe injection sites as a “path to treatment” was inconclusive.

Genetically engineered corn has a higher yield than similar non-GE varieties and lower levels of commonly occurring toxins.

The issue: Some spurn genetically engineered crops as Frankenfoods while others see them as a natural progression from the kind of selective breeding practiced by farmers for thousands of years and brought into the academic mainstream in the mid-19^th century by Gregor Mendel.

An unhealthy economy might portend bad news for physical and mental health.

The issue: When the global economy slumped during the Great Recession of 2007-2009, Americans grappled with effects on their personal finances and employment status. At its peak, unemployment during the Great Recession topped out at 10 percent.