Medical Bulletin 11/ January/ 2025
Here are the top medical news for the day:
More Job Strain Can Lead to More Sleep Disturbances: Researchers
In a recent study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, middle aged workers in the U.S. who reported high job strain at the start of the study experienced significantly more sleep disturbances over an average follow-up of nine years.
The study analyzed data from 1,721 workers, with an average age of 51 years, who participated in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. Sleep disturbances were assessed with an established scale, based on four sleep-related symptoms: trouble falling asleep, waking up during the night and having difficulty going back to sleep, waking up too early in the morning and being unable to get back to sleep, and feeling unrested during the day no matter how many hours of sleep.
The team used six different formulations to quantify job strain based on Karasek's Job‐Demand‐Control model, which defines job strain as a combination of high job demand and low job control. All formulations showed significant associations between higher job strain at baseline and increased sleep disturbances over time.
“Our findings also suggest that the continuous formulations of job strain demonstrate better model performance with consistent and robust results, offering empirical evidence for future psychosocial occupational health research in the United States,” said the first author Yijia Sun, an MS candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Reference: Sun, Y., Guardiano, M., Saiki, M. and Li, J. (2025), Alternative Formulations of Job Strain and Sleep Disturbances: A Longitudinal Study in the United States. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23686
Can AI Improve the Success of IVF Treatment?
A new study found that during IVF, delivering the hormone injection when a greater proportion of follicles were sized between 13-18mm was linked to higher rates of mature eggs being retrieved and improved rates of babies being born. The findings are published in nature communications.
Researchers used ‘Explainable AI’ techniques - a type of AI that allows humans to understand how it works - to analyse retrospective data. They explored which follicle sizes were associated with improved rates of retrieving mature eggs to result in babies being born.
Their findings suggest that maximising the proportion of intermediately sized follicles could optimise the process.
In the retrospective study, the team used AI techniques on data from 19,082 patients aged between 18-49 years of age who had treatment in one of 11 clinics between 2005-2023. They examined individual follicle sizes on the days prior to and on the day of trigger administration.
Dr Ali Abbara, NIHR Clinician Scientist at Imperial College London and Consultant in Reproductive Endocrinology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and co-senior author of the study said:
“IVF provides help and hope for many patients who are unable to conceive but it’s an invasive, expensive, and time-consuming treatment. It can be heartbreaking when it fails, so it’s important to ensure that this treatment is as effective as possible.
“AI can offer a new paradigm in how we deliver IVF treatment and could lead to better outcomes for patients.
“IVF produces so much rich data that it can be challenging for doctors to fully make use of all of it when making treatment decisions for their patients. Our study has shown that AI methods are well suited to analysing complex IVF data. In future, AI could be used to provide accurate recommendations to improve decision-making and aid in personalisation of treatment, so that we can give each couple the very best possible chance of having a baby.”
Reference: Hanassab, S., Nelson, S.M., Akbarov, A. et al. Explainable artificial intelligence to identify follicles that optimize clinical outcomes during assisted conception. Nat Commun 16, 296 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55301-y
Climate Change Worsens HIV Prevention and Care: Study Finds
Researchers find that climate change and extreme weather events impact HIV prevention and care through numerous pathways, including increased HIV exposure, reduced testing, and worse health outcomes for people living with HIV, according to a review published in Current Opinions in Infectious Disease.
Researchers analyzed 22 recent studies exploring HIV-related outcomes in the context of climate change and identified several links between extreme weather events and HIV prevention and care.
Climate change-related extreme weather events, such as drought and flooding, were associated with poorer HIV prevention outcomes. Extreme weather events were also linked to increased practices that elevate HIV risk, such as transactional sex and condomless sex, as well as increases in new HIV infection.
The study also uncovered important implications for HIV care among those already living with HIV, such as reduced viral suppression, poorer treatment adherence, and worse physical and mental wellbeing.
The authors highlighted several important gaps in the existing literature, including the lack of research on specific extreme weather events (e.g., extreme heat, wildfires, hurricanes) and in geographic areas with high climate change vulnerability and increasing HIV rates.
They also described a persisting lack of knowledge on extreme weather events and HIV among key marginalized populations, including sex workers, people who use drugs, and gender diverse persons, as well as how extreme weather events interact with intersecting forms of stigma.
Reference: Logie, Carmen H.a,b,c; MacNeil, Andiea. Climate change and extreme weather events and linkages with HIV outcomes: recent advances and ways forward. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases 38(1):p 26-36, February 2025. | DOI: 10.1097/QCO.0000000000001081
Research Reveals Intermittent Fasting Improves Heart Health and Promotes Weight Loss in Obesity
A team of scientists has shown that intermittent fasting is an effective method for losing weight and improves cardiovascular health in people with obesity problems. Their work, published in the journal Nature Medicine, reveals that eating the last meal before 5pm and then not eating dinner at night is a safe and effective strategy for reducing subcutaneous abdominal fat, i.e. the fat just under the skin.
Researchers have investigated the effects of a 12-week intervention with three different fasting strategies: early fasting (intake sale: approximately 9:00-17:00), late fasting (approximately 14:00-22:00), and self-selected fasting, where people could select the time slot in which they wanted to eat, and did so on average between 12am and 8pm.
In this randomised, controlled, multicentre trial, a total of 197 people (50% women) aged 30-60 years participated. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups.
The results reveal that intermittent fasting showed no additional benefits over a nutrition education programme in reducing visceral fat. However, the fasting groups, regardless of the timing of intake, achieved greater weight loss, on average 3-4 kg, compared to the usual treatment group who continued with their intake window of at least 12 hours. Notably, the early fasting group reduced abdominal subcutaneous fat, i.e. the fat just under the skin, to a greater extent.
The study also assessed fasting and 24-hour glucose levels using a continuous glucose monitor worn by participants for 14 days before and at the end of the intervention. The results show that the early fasting group significantly improved fasting glucose levels and overnight glucose compared to the other groups.
These findings suggest that early fasting may be especially beneficial in optimising glucose regulation, which may help prevent diabetes and improve metabolic health. By not eating at night allows the body more time to digest and process nutrients, better regulation of blood glucose is facilitated, thus reducing the risk of developing sugar problems and other metabolic disorders, says Dr Labayen, principal investigator of the study in Pamplona and member of CIBEROBN.
Reference: Dote-Montero, M., Clavero-Jimeno, A., Merchán-Ramírez, E. et al. Effects of early, late and self-selected time-restricted eating on visceral adipose tissue and cardiometabolic health in participants with overweight or obesity: a randomized controlled trial. Nat Med (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03375-y
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