"Doctors correctly diagnose illness ‘twice as often as online symptom checkers’," The Sun reports. A US study ran a head-to-head comparison between doctors and a symptom checker platform called Human Dx using what are known as clinical vignettes. Clinical vignettes have been used for many years to help hone trainee doctors’ diagnostic skills. They are
"Sunbathing mothers guard against hyperactive babies," The Daily Telegraph reports – a headline that achieves the dubious dual distinction of being both inaccurate and irresponsible. The study the news is based on never looked at sunbathing, which can actually be harmful during pregnancy. Danish researchers took umbilical cord blood samples from babies soon after birth,
"Working night shifts has ‘little or no effect’ on a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, new research suggests," BBC News reports. This was the finding of a new study looking at data from 10 different countries. The review pooled the evidence of three large UK-based studies, each of which found no significant link between
"Cervical cancer: gap between screenings ‘can be increased to 10 years’," The Guardian reports. A Dutch study suggests women who test negative for the human papilloma virus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer, can be safely screened once every 10 years. Countries including the UK are currently in the process of implementing HPV testing
"Baby boys born through a common type of IVF treatment … may not be [able to] have children naturally," The Daily Telegraph reports. A new study has looked at a small sample of men born using the intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) technique. ICSI is a form of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment introduced in the early 90s.
"Coffee really can help to prevent dementia: Just two cups a day ‘cuts the risk of developing it by 36 per cent’,” the Mail Online reports. But if you look closely at the research behind this report, the results are of borderline significance, meaning it is likely they were influenced by chance. Researchers in the US
"Long periods sleeping in car seats may be dangerous for young babies," the Daily Mail reports. The results of a small study suggest spending long periods of time in a car seat may lead to babies having breathing difficulties. But the researchers pointed out "we cannot be certain of the clinical significance or potential risks". This novel
"Prescribing holidays ‘could help fight infections’," BBC News reports, while the Mail Online claims holidays can "turbo-boost" the immune system. But the news isn’t quite as conclusive as it sounds. It comes from a study where two groups of mice were housed for two weeks in two different types of housing: standard housing consisting of
"Are you on the Pill? You’re more likely to be depressed: Women who use contraception are up to 70% more likely to be on antidepressants," reports the Mail Online. The news is based on a study by researchers in Denmark to see whether hormonal contraceptive methods were associated with depression. More than 1 million women
"Ibuprofen could raise the risk of heart failure by up to 83%," claims the Daily Mirror. But this headline massively overstates the danger of this painkiller. In fact, new research suggests that taking painkillers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – which includes ibuprofen – increases the risk of heart failure by less than 20% overall. NSAIDs are a
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