research studies 2022

ROLAND GRAD, MD, MSc, AND MARK H. EBELL, MD, MS

Am Fam Physician. 2023;107(4):406-414

Author disclosure: Dr. Ebell is cofounder and editor-in-chief of Essential Evidence Plus; see Editor's Note . Dr. Grad has no relevant financial relationships.

This article summarizes the top 20 research studies of 2022 identified as POEMs (patient-oriented evidence that matters), excluding COVID-19. Statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease produce only a small absolute reduction in a person's likelihood of dying (0.6%), having a myocardial infarction (0.7%), or having a stroke (0.3%) over three to six years. Supplemental vitamin D does not reduce the risk of a fragility fracture, even in people with low baseline vitamin D levels or a previous fracture. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are preferred medical therapy for panic disorder, and patients who discontinue antidepressants are more likely to relapse (number needed to harm = 6) compared with those who continue. Combination therapy using a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, or tricyclic antidepressant with mirtazapine or trazodone is more effective than monotherapy for first-line treatment of acute severe depression and when monotherapy fails. Using hypnotic agents for insomnia in adults comes with a significant trade-off between effectiveness and tolerability. In patients with moderate to severe asthma, using a combination of albuterol and glucocorticoid inhalers as rescue therapy reduces exacerbations and need for systemic steroids. Observational research shows an increased risk of gastric cancer in patients taking proton pump inhibitors (number needed to harm = 1,191 over 10 years). The American College of Gastroenterology updated its guideline for gastroesophageal reflux disease, and a new guideline provides sound advice for the evaluation and management of irritable bowel syndrome. Adults older than 60 years with prediabetes are more likely to become normoglycemic than to develop diabetes mellitus or die. Treatment of prediabetes via intensive lifestyle intervention or metformin has no impact on long-term cardiovascular outcomes. Persons with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy have similar degrees of improvement with monotherapy using amitriptyline, duloxetine, or pregabalin and greater improvement with combination therapy. When communicating with patients about disease risk, most patients prefer numbers over words because people overestimate word-based probabilities. In terms of drug therapy, the duration of an initial varenicline prescription should be 12 weeks. Many drugs can interact with cannabidiol. No important difference was found among ibuprofen, ketorolac, and diclofenac for treatment of acute nonradicular low back pain in adults.

• Immediate, unlimited access to all AFP content
• More than 130 CME credits/year
• AAFP app access
• Print delivery available

Issue Access

• Immediate, unlimited access to this issue's content
• CME credits

Article Only

• Immediate, unlimited access to just this article

Shaughnessy AF, Slawson DC, Bennett JH. Becoming an information master: a guidebook to the medical information jungle. J Fam Pract. 1994;39(5):489-499.

Ebell MH, Barry HC, Slawson DC, et al. Finding POEMs in the medical literature. J Fam Pract. 1999;48(5):350-355.

Badran H, Pluye P, Grad R. When educational material is delivered: a mixed methods content validation study of the Information Assessment Method. JMIR Med Educ. 2017;3(1):e4.

CMA Joule medical librarians. Linking POEMs with overuse alerts from Choosing Wisely Canada. Canadian Medical Association. January 11, 2023. Accessed January 26, 2023. https://www.cma.ca/clinical-blog/linking-poems-overuse-alerts-choosing-wisely-canada

Byrne P, Demasi M, Jones M, et al. Evaluating the association between low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction and relative and absolute effects of statin treatment: a systematic review and meta-analysis [published correction appears in JAMA Intern Med . 2022; 182(5): 579]. JAMA Intern Med. 2022;182(5):474-481.

LeBoff MS, Chou SH, Ratliff KA, et al. Supplemental vitamin D and incident fractures in midlife and older adults. N Engl J Med. 2022;387(4):299-309.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Final recommendation statement. Vitamin D deficiency in adults: screening. April 13, 2021. Accessed January 28, 2023. https://uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/vitamin-d-deficiency-screening

Lewis G, Marston L, Duffy L, et al. Maintenance or discontinuation of antidepressants in primary care. N Engl J Med. 2021;385(14):1257-1267.

Henssler J, Alexander D, Schwarzer G, et al. Combining antidepressants vs antidepressant monotherapy for treatment of patients with acute depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022;79(4):300-312.

Chawla N, Anothaisintawee T, Charoenrungrueangchai K, et al. Drug treatment for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ. 2022;376:e066084.

De Crescenzo F, D'Alò GL, Ostinelli EG, et al. Comparative effects of pharmacological interventions for the acute and long-term management of insomnia disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Lancet. 2022;400(10347):170-184.

Mysliwiec V, Martin JL, Ulmer CS, et al. The management of chronic insomnia disorder and obstructive sleep apnea: synopsis of the 2019 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense clinical practice guidelines [published correction appears in Ann Intern Med . 2021; 174(4): 584]. Ann Intern Med. 2020;172(5):325-336.

Qaseem A, Kansagara D, Forciea MA, et al. Management of chronic insomnia disorder in adults: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med. 2016;165(2):125-133.

Hoge EA, Bui E, Mete M, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction vs escitalopram for the treatment of adults with anxiety disorders: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2023;80(1):13-21.

Imai H, Tajika A, Chen P, et al. Psychological therapies versus pharmacological interventions for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016(10):CD011170.

Papi A, Chipps BE, Beasley R, et al. Albuterol-budesonide fixed-dose combination rescue inhaler for asthma. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(22):2071-2083.

Israel E, Cardet JC, Carroll JK, et al. Reliever-triggered inhaled glucocorticoid in Black and Latinx adults with asthma. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(16):1505-1518.

Bryant-Stephens T. Breaking the skin color barriers for asthma medications. It's not black, brown, or white. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(16):1574-1575.

Abrahami D, McDonald EG, Schnitzer ME, et al. Proton pump inhibitors and risk of gastric cancer: population-based cohort study. Gut. 2022;71(1):16-24.

Seo SI, Park CH, You SC, et al. Association between proton pump inhibitor use and gastric cancer: a population-based cohort study using two different types of nationwide databases in Korea. Gut. 2021;70(11):2066-2075.

Katz PO, Dunbar KB, Schnoll-Sussman FH, et al. ACG clinical guideline for the diagnosis and management of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Am J Gastroenterol. 2022;117(1):27-56.

Vasant DH, Paine PA, Black CJ, et al. British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines on the management of irritable bowel syndrome. Gut. 2021;70(7):1214-1240.

Veronese N, Noale M, Sinclair A, et al. Risk of progression to diabetes and mortality in older people with prediabetes: The English longitudinal study on ageing. Age Ageing. 2022;51(2):afab222.

Goldberg RB, Orchard TJ, Crandall JP, et al. Effects of long-term metformin and lifestyle interventions on cardiovascular events in the Diabetes Prevention Program and its outcome study. Circulation. 2022;145(22):1632-1641.

Bouillet B, Tscherter P, Vaillard L, et al. Frequent and severe hypoglycaemia detected with continuous glucose monitoring in older institutionalised patients with diabetes. Age Ageing. 2021;50(6):2088-2093.

Tesfaye S, Sloan G, Petrie J, et al. Comparison of amitriptyline supplemented with pregabalin, pregabalin supplemented with amitriptyline, and duloxetine supplemented with pregabalin for the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (OPTION-DM): a multicentre, double-blind, randomised crossover trial [published correction appears in Lancet . 2022; 400(10355): 810]. Lancet. 2022;400(10353):680-690.

Andreadis K, Chan E, Park M, et al. Imprecision and preferences in interpretation of verbal probabilities in health: a systematic review. J Gen Intern Med. 2021;36(12):3820-3829.

Baker TB, Piper ME, Smith SS, et al. Effects of combined varenicline with nicotine patch and of extended treatment duration on smoking cessation: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2021;326(15):1485-1493.

Balachandran P, Elsohly M, Hill KP. Cannabidiol interactions with medications, illicit substances, and alcohol: a comprehensive review. J Gen Intern Med. 2021;36(7):2074-2084.

Irizarry E, Restivo A, Salama M, et al. A randomized controlled trial of ibuprofen versus ketorolac versus diclofenac for acute, nonradicular low back pain. Acad Emerg Med. 2021;28(11):1228-1235.

Stuart B, Maund E, Wilcox C, et al. Topical preparations for the treatment of mild-to-moderate acne vulgaris: systematic review and network meta-analysis. Br J Dermatol. 2021;185(3):512-525.

Leone FT, Zhang Y, Evers-Casey S, et al. Initiating pharmacologic treatment in tobacco-dependent adults. An official American Thoracic Society clinical practice guideline. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020;202(2):e5-e31.

Arbel R, Hammerman A, Sergienko R, et al. BNT162b2 vaccine booster and mortality due to Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2021;385(26):2413-2420.

Magen O, Waxman JG, Makov-Assif M, et al. Fourth dose of BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine in a nationwide setting. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(17):1603-1614.

Talic S, Shah S, Wild H, et al. Effectiveness of public health measures in reducing the incidence of covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and covid-19 mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis [published correction appears in BMJ . 2021; 375: n2997]. BMJ. 2021;375:e068302.

Altarawneh HN, Chemaitelly H, Ayoub HH, et al. Effects of previous infection and vaccination on symptomatic omicron infections. N Engl J Med. 2022;387(1):21-34.

Goldberg Y, Mandel M, Bar-On YM, et al. Protection and waning of natural and hybrid immunity to SARS-CoV-2. N Engl J Med. 2022;386(23):2201-2212.

Husby A, Hansen JV, Fosbøl E, et al. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and myocarditis or myopericarditis: population based cohort study. BMJ. 2021;375:e068665.

Davidson KW, Barry MJ, Mangione CM, et al. Aspirin use to prevent cardiovascular disease: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation statement. JAMA. 2022;327(16):1577-1584.

Moran GM, Bakhai C, Song SH, et al. Type 2 diabetes: summary of updated NICE guidance. BMJ. 2022;377:o775.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Depression in adults. June 29, 2022. Accessed January 28, 2023. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng222

Continue Reading

More in AFP

More in pubmed.

Copyright © 2023 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

This content is owned by the AAFP. A person viewing it online may make one printout of the material and may use that printout only for his or her personal, non-commercial reference. This material may not otherwise be downloaded, copied, printed, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any medium, whether now known or later invented, except as authorized in writing by the AAFP.  See permissions  for copyright questions and/or permission requests.

Copyright © 2024 American Academy of Family Physicians. All Rights Reserved.

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock Locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Published Clinical Research Conducted at the Clinical Center in 2022

Here is a sample of abstracts from the clinical research conducted at the NIH Clinical Center and published in a peer-reviewed medical journal in 2022. Links to the full text and video formats are provided if available.

Maintaining Momentum in Clinical Trials for Respiratory Viruses

Published in: Critical Care Medicine (December 2022)

COVID-19 has taught doctors about preparedness as it relates to emerging infections and clinical trials. Researchers must take the progress made in clinical trial design and infrastructure and build on it, so we are ready to answer research and efficacy questions regarding novel therapeutics for future emerging infections.

Read the article .

Pain Research and Children with Severe Intellectual Disability: Ethical Challenges and Imperatives

Published in: The Lancet (December 2022)

Children with severe intellectual disabilities encounter inequities in pain-related care, yet little pain research includes them. Since they are unable to verbally communicate their pain, it creates challenges for their participation in pain research. However, improving the ethical guidelines for pain research and applying a framework for assessing clinical research is possible.

Longitudinal multi-omics analyses of the gut–liver axis reveals metabolic dysregulation in hepatitis C infection and cirrhosis

Published in: Nature Microbiology (December 2022)

Scientists used a multi-disciplinary analysis of blood, faeces, and liver tissue to characterize the gut-liver axis of patients with Hepatitis C virus (HCV). This study gives insight into the gut–liver axis in HCV and non-HCV liver diseases, and provides a foundation for future therapies.

Evaluation of Multi-layer Perceptron Neural Networks in Predicting Ankle Dorsiflexion in Healthy Adults using Movement-related Cortical Potentials for BCI-Neurofeedback Applications

Published in: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (November 2022)

Neural Networks show great potential for minimizing preprocessing steps in Brain-Computer Interface systems. Scientists tested novel methods to rapidly detect brain signals prior to moving the ankle, for use in neurofeedback training for motor rehabilitation.

Universal lymph node detection in T2 MRI using neural networks

Published in: The International Journal for Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (November 2022)

Scientists succeeded in using Artificial Intelligence technology to assist in lymph node detection. This detection can be critical in assessing lymphadenopathy (swelling of lymph nodes) and may lead to a better control of infection and cancer spread (metastases).

Outcomes of Patients With Primary Cardiac Diagnoses Admitted to Cardiac vs Noncardiac Intensive Care Units

Published in: JACC: Advances (October 2022)

Researchers compared outcomes for patients with primary cardiac diagnoses admitted to either noncardiac or cardiac intensive care units (ICUs). Initial analysis showed better outcomes in cardiac ICUs, while noncardiac ICUs favored after including concurrent noncardiac critical illnesses. Highlights importance of Critical Care Medicine training for cardiologists managing critical illnesses in cardiac ICUs.

External walking environment differentially affects muscle synergies in children with cerebral palsy and typical development

Published in: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (September 2022)

Researchers compared the difference in how muscles work together in children with cerebral palsy and children with typical development using three different walking conditions on a treadmill. The former group were more affected by the changes in walking conditions.

Sleep, time, and space—fatigue and performance deficits in pilots, commercial truck drivers, and astronauts

Published in: SLEEP Advances (September 2022)

Researchers reviewed 28 laboratory and field-based studies that had either objective or subjective measurements of sleep or fatigue. Shorter sleep durations, short off-duty time, and early-morning start times were associated with slower reaction times, more lapses in attention, and premature responses on psychomotor vigilance tests.

Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy to Treat Psychiatric and Existential Distress in Life-Threatening Medical Illnesses and Palliative Care

Published in: Neuropharmacology (September 2022)

Studies suggest preliminary evidence that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy may provide robust and sustained quality-of-life improvements for patients in life-threatening or palliative situations. These patients experienced less anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and existential distress. More rigorous research is recommended to further assess effectiveness of these psychedelic therapies.

Misclassification Bias in Estimating Clinical Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Published in: The Lancet Journal (September 2022)

Reliance on SARS-CoV-2 test positivity alone to identify cases of COVID-19 hospitalizations could have introduced misclassification bias in a study assessing the severity of SARS-CoV-2 omicron and delta variants.

Plasma Cell-Free DNA Predicts Survival and Maps Specific Sources of Injury in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Published in: Circulation (August 2022)

Risk prediction in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) remains a major challenge. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a noninvasive marker of cellular injury and its significance in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is unknown. In two PAH cohorts, plasma cfDNA was measured and found elevated in patients with PAH compared with healthy controls and increases with disease severity.

An Exploratory Study of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder: MCP-1 and IL-8 Associated with Alcohol Consumption, Sleep Quality, Anxiety, Depression, and Liver Biomarkers

Published in: Frontiers in Psychiatry (August 2022)

Chronic sleep disturbances from heavy alcohol use may contribute to a sustained inflammatory state. Researchers examined pro-inflammatory cytokines in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and found associations with inflammation and alcohol consumption, sleep quality, anxiety and depression. Further research on inflammation in individuals with AUD is needed.

Improvement of Liver Metabolic Activity in People with Advanced HIV After Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy

Published in: AIDS (July 2022)

Using advanced imaging (PET/CT), we found low glucose metabolism in the liver of untreated people living with HIV had improved, but did not resolve completely after long-term antiretroviral therapy. Residual liver metabolic changes in people with HIV after treatment should be further evaluated.

Examining the Relationships Between Sleep Physiology and the Gut Microbiome in Preclinical and Translational Research: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Published in: JMIR Publications (June 2022)

Researchers developed a protocol outlining methods to review research studying sleep and the gut microbiome. This research has been undertaken to determine the methodologies used to quantify sleep and the microbiome and synthesize microbiome responses associated with healthy/unhealthy sleep.

Low-Dose Methylprednisolone Treatment in Critically Ill Patients with Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Published in: Intensive Care Medicine (May 2022)

Severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requiring Intensive Care Unit admission causes significant morbidity and mortality. Treatments directed at reducing inflammation in severe CAP have potential benefit. In a randomized multi-center trial of 586 patients with severe CAP, corticosteroid treatment did not significantly reduce 60-day mortality.

Early Intervention for Very Young Children with or at High Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Overview of Reviews

Published in: Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (May 2022)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with early childhood symptoms. As a result, there is growing movement toward identifying ASD during early, more rapid periods of brain development to initiate interventions sooner. However, while two different approaches show positive effects on outcomes, the added benefits of earlier interventions still lack strong evidence.

Navigating Pandemic Moral Distress at Home and at Work: Frontline Workers' Experiences

Published in: AJOB Empirical Bioethics (April 2022)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline workers faced a series of challenges balancing family and work responsibilities. This article focuses on frontline workers’ perspectives on making work-life-community decisions in light of their increased COVID-19 exposure.

Fully Automated Abdominal CT Biomarkers for Type 2 Diabetes Using Deep Learning

Published in: Radiology (April 2022)

Researchers investigate computed tomography (CT) biomarkers that may be associated with the presence of type 2 diabetes using fully automated deep learning. The researchers found changes in the pancreases of patients as early as 7 years before the patients were diagnosed with diabetes.

Cone-Beam Computed Tomography-Based Spatial Prediction of Drug Dose After Transarterial Chemoembolization Using Radiopaque Drug-Eluting Beads in Woodchuck Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Published in: Investigative Radiology (March 2022)

CT imaging was used to predict the distribution of chemotherapy following intra-arterial delivery of drug-releasing microspheres to a woodchuck liver tumor. This “drug mapping” concept could improve drug targeting and coverage of tumors, reducing side effects and improving treatment outcomes for patients with liver cancer.

Assessment of Aortoiliac Atherosclerotic Plaque on CT in Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Treatment

Published in: PubMed (March 2022)

Researchers compared atherosclerotic plaque in major arteries of the abdomen and pelvis of men with and without prostate cancer. The atherosclerotic plaque in prostate cancer patients did not differ from the normal control group, but were closely associated with age and heart disease.

Increased Serum Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide in Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Donors Stimulated with G-CSF

Published in: Journal of Clinical Apheresis (March 2022)

In a case series of 18 healthy stem cell donors who received a common stimulation regimen, a protein that is commonly associated with heart failure increased transiently in their blood. The long-term impact on donor's health is pending evaluation.

IDSA Guidance and ESCMID Guidelines: Complementary Approaches Toward a Care Standard for MDR Gram-Negative Infections

Published in: Clinical Microbiology and Infection (February 2022)

As antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread globally, there is an increasing need for experts to provide recommendations on how to treat these infections. In this editorial, the strengths and weaknesses of the recommendations by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases are highlighted.

Breast Cancers Are Immunogenic: Immunologic Analyses and a Phase II Pilot Clinical Trial Using Mutation-Reactive Autologous Lymphocytes

Published in: PubMed (February 2022)

In a pilot clinical trial, 28 of 42 patients with metastatic breast cancer naturally raised immune lymphocytes targeting the expressed products of their cancer mutations. Three of six patients treated with these lymphocytes exhibited cancer regression. This experimental treatment may be an option for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist Treatment of Established Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Improves Interventricular Dependence in the SU5416-Hypoxia Rat Model

Published in: American Journal of Physiology | Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology (January 2022)

High-resolution cardiac MRI demonstrated that mineralocorticoid receptor blockade improved ventricular interdependence in a rat model of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This supports the use of advanced cardiac imaging in an ongoing clinical trial of spironolactone in PAH patients at the NIH Clinical Center.

Cross Cultural Adaptation and Cognitive Testing of a Psycho-Social-Spiritual Healing Measure, the NIH Healing Experiences in All Life Stressors-NIH-HEALS

Published in: Global Advances in Health and Medicine (January 2022)

The face and content validity of the NIH Healing Experiences in All Life Stressors (NIH-HEALS) was assessed in a population of cancer patients in Uganda. Some minor changes are recommended to culturally adapt this survey for the local context.

Adolescents, Parents, and Covid-19 Vaccination - Who Should Decide?

Published in: The New England Journal of Medicine (January 2022)

Researchers review various perspectives, barriers, and approaches regarding the age for informed consent and medical decision-making for COVID-19 vaccination among adolescents aged 12-17. Allowing adolescents to independently consent to the vaccination could increase vaccine uptake in this population.

Read more articles about research in the NIH Clinical Center in 2022.

Suggestions or feedback?

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Machine learning
• Sustainability
• Black holes
• Classes and programs

Departments

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Architecture
• Political Science
• Mechanical Engineering

Centers, Labs, & Programs

• Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
• Lincoln Laboratory
• School of Architecture + Planning
• School of Engineering
• School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
• Sloan School of Management
• School of Science
• MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

MIT’s top research stories of 2022

Press contact :, media download, *terms of use:.

Images for download on the MIT News office website are made available to non-commercial entities, press and the general public under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license . You may not alter the images provided, other than to crop them to size. A credit line must be used when reproducing images; if one is not provided below, credit the images to "MIT."

Previous image Next image

The dizzying pace of research and innovation at MIT can make it hard to keep up. To mark the end of the year, MIT News is looking back at 10 of the research stories that generated the most excitement in 2022.

We’ve also rounded up the year’s  top MIT community-related stories .

• Designing a heat engine with no moving parts . In April, engineers at MIT and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) designed a heat engine that might someday enable a fully decarbonized power grid. In demonstrations, the engine was able to convert heat to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency — a performance better than that of traditional steam turbines.
• Creating a lightweight material stronger than steel . In February, MIT chemical engineers used a new polymerization process to form a material that that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities. The material could be used as a coating for car parts or as a building material for bridges and other structures.
• Enabling portable desalination at the push of a button . MIT researchers developed a suitcase-sized device that can remove particles and salts to generate drinking water. Unlike other desalination units that rely on filters, this device uses electrical power to purify the water. It requires less power to operate than a cell phone charger and can be driven by a small solar panel. Just push start.
• Linking human genes to function . A team of researchers created the first map tying every gene expressed in human cells to its job in the cell. The map, which is available for other scientists to use, makes it easier to study a range of biological questions. The map was created using a CRISPR-based single-cell sequencing method known as Perturb-seq.
• Improving supercomputing with a new programming language . A team of researchers based mainly at MIT invented a faster and more reliable programming language for high-performance computing. The language, which was tested on a number of small programs, could one day help computers with a number of deep learning tasks like image processing.
• Lifting people out of extreme poverty . A study co-authored by an MIT economist showed that a one-time capital boost (in this case, a cow) helped poor people in rural Bangladesh improve their lives in the long run. The study suggests the very poor are in a poverty trap, in which an initial lack of resources prevents them from improving their circumstances, and implies that large asset transfers are an effective way to reduce global poverty.
• Helping robots fly . Inspired by fireflies, MIT researchers created tiny actuators that emit light to allow insect-scale robots to communicate. Weighing barely more than a paper clip, the robots are too small to make use of traditional means of sensing and communication. Instead, the actuators that control the robots’ wings light up in different colors and patterns, which could enable them to do things like share their location and call for help.
• Detecting a radio signal in a far-off galaxy . In July, astronomers at MIT and elsewhere were surprised to find a periodic fast radio burst (FRB) originating billions of light-years from Earth. It is the longest lasting FRB pattern detected to date and is made up of intensely strong radio waves that repeat every 0.2 seconds, similar to a heartbeat. Astronomers suspect the signal is coming from a neutron star.
• Proposal for a new, low-cost battery design . Researchers at MIT developed a battery made from abundant, inexpensive materials to complement the rise of lithium-ion batteries. The new battery uses aluminum and sulfur as its two electrode materials and a molten salt electrolyte in between. It could be ideal for powering single homes or small to medium sized businesses, producing a few tens of kilowatt-hours of storage capacity.
• Immigrants as job creators . A study co-authored by an MIT economist found that compared to native-born citizens, immigrants are about 80 percent more likely to found a firm. The study, which looked at registered businesses of all types across the country, suggests that immigrants act more as "job creators" than "job takers" and play outsized roles in high-growth entrepreneurship in the U.S.

Share this news article on:

Related topics.

• MIT Sloan School of Management
• School of Architecture and Planning
• School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences

Related Articles

MIT community in 2022: A year in review

MIT’s top research stories of 2021

MIT community in 2021: A year in review

Previous item Next item

More MIT News

Improving biology education here, there, and everywhere

Read full story →

Liftoff: The Climate Project at MIT takes flight

Bridging the heavens and Earth

MIT OpenCourseWare sparks the joy of deep understanding

A wobble from Mars could be sign of dark matter, MIT study finds

Enhancing LLM collaboration for smarter, more efficient solutions

• More news on MIT News homepage →

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA

• Map (opens in new window)
• Events (opens in new window)
• People (opens in new window)
• Careers (opens in new window)
• Accessibility
• Social Media Hub
• MIT on Facebook
• MIT on YouTube
• MIT on Instagram

Benefits of statins may have been overstated – new study

Researcher, Medicine and Health, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

Disclosure statement

Paula Byrne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

View all partners

Cholesterol-lowering statins are one of the world’s most commonly used medicines. They were first approved for people with a high risk of cardiovascular disease in 1987. By 2020, global sales were estimated to have approached US$1 trillion (£764 billion).

However, there has been an ongoing debate about whether or not statins are over-prescribed. Does everyone who takes them really benefit from them? To find out, my colleagues and I found 21 relevant clinical trials and analysed the combined data (over 140,000 participants) in what is known as a meta-analysis.

We asked two questions: is it best to lower LDL cholesterol (sometimes known as “bad” cholesterol) as much as possible to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or premature death? And, how do the benefits of statins compare when it comes to reducing the risk of these events?

In answer to the first question, we found a surprisingly weak and inconsistent relationship between the degree of reduction in LDL cholesterol from taking statins and a person’s chance of having a heart attack or stroke, or dying during the trial period. In some trials, reductions in LDL cholesterol were associated with significant reductions in the risk of dying, but in others, reductions in LDL cholesterol did not reduce this risk.

This is an important finding because clinical guidelines have expanded the proportion of people eligible for statins as “ideal” LDL cholesterol levels were incrementally lowered. For example, one study estimated a 600% increase in eligibility for statins between 1987 and 2016.

The proportion of people in Europe eligible for statins

Regarding the second question, we looked at two types of risk reduction: relative risk reduction and absolute risk reduction. Imagine your chance of dying from a certain condition prematurely is 0.2%, and there’s a drug that reduces your chance of dying to 0.1%. In relative terms (relative risk reduction), your chance of dying has been halved, or reduced by 50%. But in absolute terms (absolute risk reduction), your chance of dying has only gone down by 0.1%.

Although there is a 50% relative risk reduction, is it a meaningful difference? Would it be worthwhile changing to this drug, particularly if there are side-effects associated with it? Absolute risk reduction presents a clearer picture and makes it easier for people to make informed decisions.

In our study, published in Jama Internal Medicine , we found that the absolute risk reduction from taking statins was modest compared with the relative risk reduction. The relative risk reduction for those taking statins compared with those who did not was 9% for deaths, 29% for heart attacks and 14% for strokes. Yet the absolute risk reduction of dying, having a heart attack or stroke was 0.8%, 1.3% and 0.4% respectively.

Absolute risk reduction compared with relative risk reduction

Individual differences

A further consideration is that trials report average outcomes across all included participants rather than for an individual. Clearly, people’s individual risk of disease varies depending on lifestyle and other factors. The baseline risk of cardiovascular disease can be estimated using an online calculator, such as QRisk , which takes a range of factors into account, such as weight, smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol and age.

The likelihood of a person developing cardiovascular disease in the next ten years is expressed as a percentage. For example, consider an overweight 65-year-old man who smokes, has high blood pressure and total cholesterol. He may be at high risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with a 45-year-old, non-smoking woman with slightly raised cholesterol and blood pressure and no other risk factors. If a doctor were to assess their risk of dying in the next ten years, the estimated risk for the man might be 38%, for example, whereas the woman’s risk might be only 1.4%.

Now consider the impact of taking statins for both. According to the study, statins would reduce the relative risk of dying by 9%. In absolute terms, the man would reduce his risk from 38% to 34.6%, and the woman from 1.4% to 1.3%.

Patients and their doctors need to consider whether they think these risk reductions are worthwhile in a trade-off between potential benefits and harms, including the inconvenience of taking a daily medicine, possibly for life. This is particularly salient for low-risk people for whom the benefits are marginal. However, people perceive risk differently based on their own experience and preferences, and what might look like a “good deal” to some may be seen as of little value to others.

Our study highlights that patients and doctors need to be supported to make decisions about treatments using evidence from all available studies and presented in a format that helps them understand potential benefits. Both patients and their doctors need to understand the true impact of medicines in order to make informed decisions. Relying on relative risk, which is numerically more impressive, instead of absolute, may lead both doctors and patients to overestimate the benefits of interventions.

For example, one study found that doctors rated a treatment as more effective and were more likely to prescribe it when the benefits were presented as relative rather than as absolute risk reductions. Another survey found that most respondents would agree to be screened for cancer if presented with relative risk reductions, whereas just over half would if presented with absolute risk reductions.

If you have been prescribed statins, don’t stop taking your medication without first consulting your doctor. Your risk profile might mean that they could benefit you. But if you’d like to reassess taking this drug, ask your doctor to explain your absolute risk reduction and then make a collaborative decision.

• Cardiovascular disease
• medical risk

Research Fellow Community & Consumer Engaged Health Professions Education

Professor of Indigenous Cultural and Creative Industries (Identified)

Communications Director

University Relations Manager

2024 Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellowships

HBR’s Most-Read Research Articles of 2022

by Dagny Dukach

Summary .   

The new year is a great time to set ambitious goals. But alongside our plans for the future, it’s also helpful to acknowledge all the challenges we’ve faced — and the progress we’ve made — in the last 12 months. In this end-of-year roundup, we share key insights and trends from HBR’s most-read research articles of 2022, exploring topics from embracing a new identity to fostering equity in the workplace and beyond.

For many of us, the arrival of a new year can be equal parts inspiring and daunting. While the promise of a fresh start is often welcome, it’s also a reminder of all the challenges we faced in the last 12 months — and all those still awaiting us, that we have yet to overcome.

Partner Center

Featured Topics

Featured series.

A series of random questions answered by Harvard experts.

Explore the Gazette

Read the latest.

To assess a smoker’s lung cancer risk, think years — not packs

Eat this. Take that. Get skinny. Trust us.

High doses of Adderall may increase psychosis risk

Dramatic rise in cancer in people under 50

Kira Sampson

Brigham and Women’s Hospital Communications

Altered microbiome, sleep deprivation, increase in alcohol consumption among possible culprits in 30-year global trend

A study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital reveals that the incidence of early onset cancers — including breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver, and pancreas — has dramatically increased around the world, with the rise beginning around 1990. In an effort to understand why many more people under 50 are being diagnosed with cancer, scientists conducted extensive analyses of available data, including information on early life exposures that might have contributed to the trend. Results are published in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.

“From our data, we observed something called the birth cohort effect. This effect shows that each successive group of people born at a later time — e.g., a decade later — have a higher risk of developing cancer later in life, likely due to risk factors they were exposed to at a young age,” said Shuji Ogino , a professor at Harvard Chan School and Harvard Medical School and a physician-scientist in the Department of Pathology at the Brigham. “We found that this risk is increasing with each generation. For instance, people born in 1960 experienced higher cancer risk before they turn 50 than people born in 1950, and we predict that this risk level will continue to climb in successive generations.”

Ogino worked with lead author Tomotaka Ugai and colleagues from 2000 to 2012 to analyze global data on 14 cancer types that showed increased incidence in adults before age 50. Then the team searched for available studies that examined trends of possible risk factors, including early life exposures in the general populations. Finally, the researchers examined the literature describing clinical and biological tumor characteristics of early onset cancers compared with cancers diagnosed after age 50.

“We found that this risk is increasing with each generation.” Shuji Ogino, professor, physician-scientist

In an extensive review, the team found that the early life “exposome,” which encompasses an individual’s diet, lifestyle, weight, environmental exposures, and microbiome, has changed substantially in the last several decades. They hypothesize that factors like the Western diet and lifestyle may be contributing to the rise in early onset cancer. The team acknowledged that this increased incidence of certain cancer types is, in part, due to early detection through cancer screening programs. They couldn’t precisely measure what proportion of this growing prevalence could solely be attributed to screening and early detection. However, they noted that increased incidence of many of the 14 cancer types is unlikely due to enhanced screening alone.

Possible risk factors for early onset cancer included alcohol consumption, sleep deprivation, smoking, obesity, and eating highly processed foods. Surprisingly, researchers found that while adult sleep duration hasn’t drastically changed over the several decades, children are getting far less sleep today than they were decades ago. Risk factors such as highly processed foods, sugary beverages, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol consumption have all significantly increased since the 1950s.

“Among the 14 cancer types on the rise that we studied, eight were related to the digestive system. The food we eat feeds the microorganisms in our gut,” said Ugai. “Diet directly affects microbiome composition and eventually these changes can influence disease risk and outcomes.”

One limitation of this study is that researchers did not have an adequate amount of data from low- and middle-income countries to identify trends in cancer incidence over the decades. Going forward, Ogino and Ugai hope to continue this research by collecting more data and collaborating with international research institutes to better monitor global trends. They also explained the importance of conducting longitudinal cohort studies with parental consent to include young children who may be followed up for several decades.

“Without such studies, it’s difficult to identify what someone having cancer now did decades ago or when one was a child,” said Ugai. “Because of this challenge, we aim to run more longitudinal cohort studies in the future where we follow the same cohort of participants over the course of their lives, collecting health data, potentially from electronic health records, and biospecimens at set time points. This is not only more cost effective considering the many cancer types needed to be studied, but I believe it will yield us more accurate insights into cancer risk for generations to come.”

Ogino’s work is supported in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health grants and the Cancer Research UK’s Cancer Grand Challenge Award. Ugai’s work is supported by grants from the Prevent Cancer Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation.

Share this article

You might like.

Far more cases get caught when screening guidelines consider duration of habit regardless of intensity, study finds — especially among Black patients

Popularity of newest diet drugs fuel ‘dumpster fire’ of risky knock-offs, questionable supplements, food products, experts warn

Among those who take prescription amphetamines, 81% of cases of psychosis or mania could have been eliminated if they were not on the high dose, findings suggest

Harvard releases race data for Class of 2028

Cohort is first to be impacted by Supreme Court’s admissions ruling

Parkinson’s may take a ‘gut-first’ path

Damage to upper GI lining linked to future risk of Parkinson’s disease, says new study

Study record managers: refer to the Data Element Definitions if submitting registration or results information.

Search for terms

The top 10 journal articles of 2022

APA’s 89 journals published more than 5,500 articles in 2022. Here are the top 10 most read

Vol. 54 No. 1 Print version: page 26

1. Like this meta-analysis: Screen media and mental health

Ferguson, C. J., et al.

This meta-analysis in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (Vol. 53, No. 2) suggests that exposure to screen time, including smartphones and social media, is not linked to mental health issues in adults or children. Researchers analyzed 37 data sets from 33 separate studies published between 2015 and 2019. They found no evidence that screen media contributes to suicidal ideation or other negative mental health outcomes. This result was also true when specifically investigating the use of smartphones or social media, and it was not affected by participants’ age or ethnicity. DOI: 10.1037/pro0000426

2. Conceptual and design thinking for thematic analysis

Braun, V., & Clarke, V.

Thematic analysis (TA) is a method used in qualitative research to examine themes or patterns of meaning within a data set, with the goal of answering a specific research question. This paper in Qualitative Psychology (Vol. 9, No. 1) aims to bolster researchers’ conceptual and design thinking when using TA to produce more methodologically sound results. Useful guidance includes best practices on research questions, data collection, participant/data item selection strategy and criteria, ethics, and quality standards and practices. The authors also outline the three primary approaches to TA: coding reliability, codebook, and reflexive. The first two approaches involve sorting data into pre-identified themes, while in the third, coding precedes theme development, and themes are built from coded data. The article ends with guidance on reporting standards for reflexive TA. DOI: 10.1037/qup0000196

3. Doomscrolling during Covid -19: The negative association between daily social and traditional media consumption and mental health symptoms during the Covid -19 pandemic

Price, M., et al.

The Covid -19 pandemic triggered a remarkable rise in doomscrolling, the consumption of an excessive amount of negative news resulting in significant negative affect. This article in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy (Vol. 14, No. 8) indicates that doomscrolling was associated with increased symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers assessed the psychopathology of 61 participants in the United States and asked them to track depression and PTSD symptoms and pandemic-related media consumption over 30 days in spring 2020. They found that an increase in social media use (but not traditional media use) was associated with more depression and PTSD symptoms, particularly in participants with a history of childhood maltreatment. Additionally, participants with more severe baseline psychopathology consumed more social media during this period. DOI: 10.1037/tra0001202

4. A comparison of emotion-focused therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: Results of a feasibility randomized controlled trial

Timulak, L., et al.

This study in Psychotherapy (Vol. 59, No. 1) indicates that emotion-focused therapy (EFT) may be as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Researchers randomly assigned 58 participants in Ireland with a GAD diagnosis to 16 to 20 sessions of either EFT or CBT, which were run by eight therapists trained in both therapies. The researchers assessed participants at baseline, week 16, the end of therapy, and 6 months after the end of therapy. Dropout from treatments was 10% for EFT and 27% for CBT. The two therapies showed large pre-to-post changes and similar outcomes across all measures, with the benefits of both lasting through the 6-month follow-up. Overall, the findings suggest that EFT is a potentially promising treatment for GAD, broadening the range of treatment choices available for this condition. DOI: 10.1037/pst0000427

5. Looking through a filtered lens: Negative social comparison on social media and suicidal ideation among young adults

Spitzer, E. G., et al.

This study in Psychology of Popular Media (online first publication) suggests that young adults who feel bad about themselves after comparing themselves with others on social networking sites such as Instagram and Facebook are more likely to contemplate suicide. Researchers surveyed 456 undergraduate students in the United States about their social media use as well as incidents of negative social comparison, suicidal ideation, and thwarted belongingness. They found an association between negative social comparison on social networking sites and suicidal ideation. Furthermore, on Instagram, the relationship between thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation was stronger among those with high levels of negative social comparison. DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000380

6. Associations between young adults’ social media addiction, relationship quality with parents, and internalizing problems: A path analysis model

White-Gosselin, C.-É., & Poulin, F.

Young adults with social media addiction symptoms are more likely to be anxious and depressed and have worse relationships with their parents, indicates this study in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science (online first publication). Researchers asked 435 young adults in Canada with a median age of 19 to report their symptoms of anxiety, depression, and the quality of their relationships with their mothers and fathers (along the dimensions of conflict, satisfaction, and equality). The researchers found that the level of participants’ social media addiction was associated with high conflict, low satisfaction, and low equality with their fathers, and high conflict and low equality with their mothers. Furthermore, social media addiction was linked to symptoms of anxiety and depression. Finally, anxiety and depression exacerbated the negative impacts of social media addiction on conflict, satisfaction, and equality with participants’ mothers, as well as conflict and satisfaction with their fathers. DOI: 10.1037/cbs0000326

7. On the outside looking in: Social media intensity, social connection, and user well-being: The moderating role of passive social media use

Roberts, J. A., & David, M. E.

This study in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science (online first publication) suggests that intense social media use is sometimes linked with a weaker sense of social connection and well-being. In the first of three studies with 146 participants in the United States, researchers found that passive engagement (viewing social media but not regularly posting or interacting through the platform) was associated with less social connection and lower well-being. The second study with 80 participants revealed that the interaction between heavy social media use (across 11 social media platforms) and consistently passive use of these platforms was linked with lower perceived social connection and, subsequently, higher stress. In the third study, with 160 participants, the researchers manipulated the amount of social media use (heavy versus light) and type of social media use (passive versus active) and found that heavy social media use had a negative impact on social connection when used passively but a positive effect when used actively. DOI: 10.1037/cbs0000323

8. Effects of a statewide pre-kindergarten program on children’s achievement and behavior through sixth grade

Durkin, K., et al.

According to this study in Developmental Psychology (Vol. 58, No. 3) , children who attended a state-funded pre-K program were doing worse by the end of sixth grade than peers who did not attend a pre-K program. Researchers randomly assigned 2,990 children from low-income families who applied to pre-K program sites across Tennessee in 2009 and 2010 to an offer of admission or a waiting list control. State education records showed that at the end of their first year, the children who went to pre-K scored higher on school readiness. However, by third grade, the pre-K children had lower math and science test scores than the control group. Moreover, at the end of sixth grade, the pre-K children were doing even worse, with lower math, science, and reading scores. They also were more likely to be in special education and were more likely to be suspended for behavioral issues. DOI: 10.1037/dev0001301

9. The role of childhood traumas, interpersonal problems, and contrast avoidance model in development of the generalized anxiety disorder: A structural equation modeling

Shafiei, M., et al.

The contrast avoidance model supposes that people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) unconsciously worry as a way to sustain a negative emotional state to avoid the discomfort that comes with shifting from positive or neutral states into a negative state. In this study in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy (Vol. 14, No. 3) , researchers surveyed 457 participants in Iran with GAD and found that childhood trauma, interpersonal problems, and contrast avoidance of worry were all related to symptoms of GAD. Interpersonal problems and contrast avoidance of worry were able to directly predict symptoms of GAD. In addition, childhood trauma had an indirect effect on GAD by negatively influencing the relationship between interpersonal problems and contrast avoidance of worry. DOI: 10.1037/tra0001117

10. The continuing unfairness of death qualification: Changing death penalty attitudes and capital jury selection

Haney, C., et al.

To serve on a death penalty jury, potential jurors must declare under oath that they are willing to impose the death penalty. This study in Psychology, Public Policy, and Law (Vol. 28, No. 1) found numerous biases among such “death qualified” jurors. Researchers conducted in-depth surveys with a total of 1,792 representative individuals eligible for jury service in California, New Hampshire, and Florida. Despite differences in location, demographic makeup, and political ideology, the researchers observed very similar patterns of death-qualification bias. Specifically, they found that individuals whose death penalty attitudes qualified them to serve on a capital jury were more punitive overall, less well-informed about the processes involved in death sentencing, more willing to use aggravating factors to impose the death penalty, less willing to use mitigating factors to impose life in prison without the possibility of parole, and less racially diverse than people who would be unwilling to impose the death penalty. DOI: 10.1037/law0000335

PsycArticles is available by subscription to institutions throughout the world. These are the articles published this year that were downloaded most often between January and September 2022. More online .

Contact APA

You may also like.

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2022

In our annual ritual, we pored over hundreds of educational studies and pulled out the most impactful—from a new study on the sneaky power of sketchnotes to research that linked relationships and rigor.

Your content has been saved!

This past year didn’t feel normal, exactly, but compared with the last few trips around the sun, well—it sufficed. In 2021, when we sat down to write our annual edition of the research highlights, we were in the throes of postpandemic recovery and wrote about the impact of a grueling year in which burnout and issues of mental and physical health affected educators everywhere.

This year, we crossed our fingers and turned to best practices once again, reviewing hundreds of studies to identify the most impactful and insightful educational strategies we could find.

What turned up?

We found evidence that sheds new light on the misunderstood power of brain breaks, took a close look at research that finds a surprising—even counterintuitive—rationale for teachers to focus on relationships, and located both the humor and the merit in asking kids to slither like a snake as they learn about the “sss” sound of the letter S .

All that, and a lot more too, in our once-a-year roundup that follows.

1. There’s No Conflict Between Relationships and Rigor

Observers sometimes assume that teachers who radiate empathy, kindness, and openness are “soft” and can be taken advantage of by students. But new research shows that when you signal that you care about kids, they’re willing to go the extra mile, giving you the flexibility to assign more challenging school work.

That’s the main takeaway from a 2022 study that examined teaching practices in 285 districts, comparing relationship-building strategies with the flexibility that teachers had in assigning challenging and complex work. The researchers found that the most effective teachers build their classrooms by getting to know their students, being approachable, and showing that they enjoy the work—and then deftly translate emotional capital into academic capital.

“When students feel teachers care about them, they work harder, engage in more challenging academic activities, behave more appropriately for the school environment, are genuinely happy to see their teacher, and meet or exceed their teacher’s expectations,” the researchers conclude.

2. Highlighting Isn’t Very Effective Until Teachers Step In

Students often highlight the wrong information and may rely on their deficient highlighting skills as a primary study strategy, leading to poor learning outcomes, a new analysis of 36 studies suggests. As little as two hours of tutoring, however, can dramatically improve their capabilities.

The researchers determined that “learner-generated highlighting” tended to improve retention of material, but not comprehension. When students were taught proper highlighting techniques by teachers, however—for example, how to distinguish main ideas from supporting ideas—they dramatically improved their academic performance. Crucially, “when highlighting is used in conjunction with another learning strategy” like “graphic organizers or post-questions,” its effectiveness soars, the researchers said.

The need for explicit teaching may be linked to changing reading habits as students graduate from stories and fables to expository texts, which require them to navigate unfamiliar text formats, the researchers note. To bring kids up to speed, show them “examples of appropriate and inappropriate highlighting,” teach them to “highlight content relatively sparingly,” and provide examples of follow-on tactics like summarizing their insights to drive deeper comprehension.

3. A Landmark Study Strikes a Resounding Note for Inclusion

When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act called for greater inclusion—mandating that students with disabilities receive support in the “least restrictive environment”—one goal was to ensure that educational accommodations didn’t interfere with the students’ social and emotional development in classrooms full of their peers. The law also confronted age-old prejudices and established a binding legal obligation in favor of inclusion.

But thus far, rigorous evidence of the academic benefits has been thin.

Now a new large-scale study appears to put the matter beyond dispute. When researchers tracked nearly 24,000 adolescents who qualified for special education, they discovered that spending a majority of the day—at least 80 percent—in general education classes improved reading scores by a whopping 24 points and math scores by 18 points, compared with scores of their more isolated peers with similar disabilities.

“Treat the general education classroom as the default classroom,” the researchers firmly state, and push for separate accommodations only when all other options have been exhausted.

4. Sketchnotes and Concept Maps Work—Even Better Than You Might Think

Simple concept maps, sketchnotes, and other annotated jottings—akin to doodling with a purpose—can facilitate deeper comprehension of materials than more polished drawings, a new study finds.

Representational drawings, such as a simple diagram of a cell, may help students remember factual information, the researchers explain, but they “lack features to make generalizations or inferences based on that information.” Organizational drawings that link concepts with arrows, annotations, and other relational markings give students a clearer sense of the big picture, allow them to visualize how ideas are connected, and provide a method for spotting obvious gaps in their understanding. On tests of higher-order thinking, fifth graders who made organizational drawings outperformed their peers who tried representational drawings by 300 percent.

To reap the benefits in class, have students start with simple diagrams to help remember the material, and then move them up to sketchnotes and concept maps as they tease out connections to prior knowledge.

5. Brain Breaks Are Misunderstood (and Underutilized)

Conventional wisdom holds that the development of a skill comes from active, repeated practice: It’s the act of dribbling a basketball that ultimately teaches the basketball star.

But recent studies reveal that the intervals between practice sessions are at least as crucial. In 2021, researchers used brain scans to observe neural networks as young adults learned how to type. During breaks, the brains of the participants appeared to head back to the keyboards, unconsciously replaying the typing sequences over and over again at high rates of speed as they flipped the material between processing and memory centers dozens of times in the span of 10 seconds. The researchers concluded that brain breaks play “just as important a role as practice in learning a new skill.”

In 2022, we learned that the kinds of breaks make a difference, too. One study compared in-classroom breaks like drawing or building puzzles with outdoor breaks like running or playing in sandboxes. In a nod to the power of movement—and free time—it was the kids playing outside who returned to class ready to learn, probably because indoor games, like indoor voices, required children to engage in more self-regulation, the researchers speculated. Meanwhile, an analysis examining “green breaks” —brief strolls in a park or visits to a school garden—concluded that students who partook in the activities performed better on tests of attention and working memory.

Depriving kids of regular breaks, it turns out, is a threat to the whole proposition of learning. To commit lessons to memory, the brain demands its own time—which it sets aside to clean up and consolidate new material.

6. On Classroom Design, an Argument for Caution—and Common Sense

When it comes time to decorate their classrooms, teachers often find themselves on the horns of a dilemma: Should they aim for Pinterest-worthy interior design or opt for blank walls on the strength of research that emphasizes the risks of distracting students?

A study published in February this year argues for minimalism. Researchers tracked the on-task behavior of K–2 students and concluded that visually ”streamlined” classrooms produced more focused students than “decorated” ones. During short read-alouds about topics like rainbows and plate tectonics, for example, young kids in classrooms free of “charts, posters, and manipulatives” were paying attention at significantly higher rates.

But it might not be a simple question of more or less. A 2014 study confirmed that posters of women scientists or diverse historical figures, for example, can improve students’ sense of belonging. And a recent study that observed 3,766 children in 153 schools concluded that classrooms that occupied a visual middle ground—neither too cluttered nor too austere—produced the best academic outcomes. A 2022 study reached similar conclusions.

Classroom decoration can alter academic trajectories, the research suggests, but the task shouldn’t stress teachers out. The rules appear to be relatively straightforward: Hang academically relevant, supportive work on the walls, and avoid the extremes—working within the broad constraints suggested by common sense and moderation.

7. For Young Children, the Power of Play-Based Learning

Children aren’t miniature adults, but a bias toward adult perspectives of childhood, with its attendant schedules and routines, has gradually exerted a stranglehold on our educational system nonetheless, suggests the author and early childhood educator Erika Christakis.

How can we let little kids be little while meeting the academic expectations of typical schools? A new analysis of 39 studies spanning several decades plots a middle path for educators, highlighting the way that play gently guided by adults, often called play-based learning, can satisfy both objectives.

Teachers of young students can have a “learning goal” in mind, but true play-based learning should incorporate wonder and exploration, be child-led when possible, and give students “freedom and choice over their actions and play behavior,” the researchers assert. Interrupt the flow of learning only when necessary: gently nudge students who might find activities too hard or too easy, for example. The playful approach improved early math and task-switching skills, compared with more traditional tactics that emphasize the explicit acquisition of skills, researchers concluded.

To get the pedagogy right, focus on relationships and ask questions that prompt wonder. “Rich, open-ended conversation is critical,” Christakis told Edutopia in a 2019 interview —children need time "to converse with each other playfully, to tell a rambling story to an adult, to listen to high-quality literature and ask meaningful questions.”

8. A Better Way to Learn Your ABCs

Getting young kids to match a letter to its corresponding sound is a first-order reading skill. To help students grasp that the letter c makes the plosive “cuh” sound in car , teachers often use pictures as scaffolds or have children write the letter repeatedly while making its sound.

A new study suggests that sound-letter pairs are learned much more effectively when whole-body movements are integrated into lessons. Five- and 6-year-olds in the study spent eight weeks practicing movements for each letter of the alphabet, slithering like a snake as they hissed the sibilant “sss” sound, for example. The researchers found that whole-body movement improved students’ ability to recall letter-sound pairings and doubled their ability to recognize hard-to-learn sounds—such as the difference between the sounds that c makes in cat and sauce —when compared with students who simply wrote and spoke letter-sound pairings at their desks.

The approach can make a big difference in the acquisition of a life-changing skill. Educators should “incorporate movement-based teaching” into their curricula, giving special consideration to “whole-body movement,” the researchers conclude.

9. Why Learners Push the Pause Button

Some of the benefits of videotaped lessons are so self-evident that they hide in plain sight.

When teaching students foundational concepts, a video lesson equipped with a simple pause button, for example, may allow students to reset cognitively as they reach their attentional limits, a 2022 study concluded. Pause buttons, like rewind buttons, are also crucial for learners who encounter “complex learning materials,” have “low prior knowledge,” or exhibit “low working memory capacities.”

Increasingly, the intrinsic value of targeted video lessons is borne out in research. In a feature on Edutopia , we looked at research suggesting that video learning supported self-pacing and flexible, 24/7 access to lessons; that questions embedded in videos improved academic performance, increased note-taking, and reduced stress (see these 2015 and 2020 studies); and that video versions of lectures tended to “make content more coherent ” to students.

To modernize their classrooms, teachers might record their most important lessons and make them available to students as study aids so they can pause, rewind, and review to their hearts’ content.

10. An Authoritative Study of Two High-Impact Learning Strategies

Spacing and retrieval practices are two of the most effective ways to drive long-term retention, confirms an authoritative 2022 review spanning hundreds of studies on the topic—and students should know how and why the strategies are effective.

In the review, researchers explain that students who prefer techniques like reading and rereading material in intense cram sessions are bound to fail. Instead, students should think of learning as a kind of “fitness routine” during which they practice recalling the material from memory and space out their learning sessions over time. Teaching kids to self-quiz or summarize from memory—and then try it again—is the crucial first step in disabusing students of their “false beliefs about learning.”

The effect sizes are hard to ignore. In a 2015 study , for example, third-grade students who studied a lesson about the sun and then reread the same material scored 53 percent on a follow-up test, the equivalent of a failing grade, while their peers who studied it once and then answered practice questions breezed by with an 87 percent score. And in a 2021 study , middle school students who solved a dozen math problems spread out across three weeks scored 21 percentage points higher on a follow-up math test than students who solved all 12 problems on the same day.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts

Articles in 2022

Potential biomechanical risk factors on developing lead knee osteoarthritis in the golf swing

• Sung Eun Kim
• Nicole Segovia Pham
• Jangyun Lee

Situation assessment in air combat considering incomplete frame of discernment in the generalized evidence theory

• Yongchuan Tang
• Xiaozhe Zhao

Comparison of changes in lipid profiles of premenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer treated with different endocrine therapies

• Kaiyue Wang
• Suzhan Zhang

Reverse engineering for reconstructing baseline features of dry age-related macular degeneration in optical coherence tomography

• Shuxian Wang
• Ziyuan Wang
• Zhihong Jewel Hu

Deep learning-derived cardiovascular age shares a genetic basis with other cardiac phenotypes

• Julian Libiseller-Egger
• Jody E. Phelan
• Taane G. Clark

The ground beetle Pseudoophonus rufipes gut microbiome is influenced by the farm management system

• Serena Magagnoli
• Daniele Alberoni
• Giovanni Burgio

On the role of tail in stability and energetic cost of bird flapping flight

• Gianmarco Ducci
• Gennaro Vitucci
• Renaud Ronsse

Prediction and risk assessment of sepsis-associated encephalopathy in ICU based on interpretable machine learning

• Hongyu Kang

Effects of paraprobiotic as replacements for antibiotic on performance, immunity, gut health and carcass characteristics in broiler chickens

• Nampalle Mukesh Tukaram
• Avishek Biswas
• Ashok Kumar Tiwari

Significance of thermal radiation and bioconvection for Williamson nanofluid transportation owing to cone rotation

• Sohaib Abdal
• Imran Siddique
• Sajjad Hussain

Variation in heat shock protein 40 kDa relates to divergence in thermotolerance among cryptic rotifer species

• R. Tiedemann

Development of a high-performance open-source 3D bioprinter

• Joshua W. Tashman
• Daniel J. Shiwarski
• Adam W. Feinberg

Machine learning can aid in prediction of IDH mutation from H&E-stained histology slides in infiltrating gliomas

• Benjamin Liechty
• David J. Pisapia

An ancestral hard-shelled sea turtle with a mosaic of soft skin and scutes

• Randolph Glenn De La Garza
• Henrik Madsen
• Johan Lindgren

Identification and analysis of odorant receptors expressed in the two main olfactory organs, antennae and palps, of Schistocerca americana

• Alejandra Boronat-Garcia
• Mark Stopfer

The prognosis predictive score around primary debulking surgery (PPSP) improves diagnostic efficacy in predicting the prognosis of ovarian cancer

• Naoki Kawahara
• Ryuji Kawaguchi
• Fuminori Kimura

Higher-order interactions shape microbial interactions as microbial community complexity increases

• Manon A. Morin
• Anneliese J. Morrison
• Rachel J. Dutton

Outcome of multi-staged induced membrane technique based on post-debridement cultures for the management of critical-sized bone defect following fracture-related infection

• Jae-Woo Cho
• William T. Kent
• Jong-Keon Oh

Smartphones dependency risk analysis using machine-learning predictive models

• Claudia Fernanda Giraldo-Jiménez
• Javier Gaviria-Chavarro
• André Luiz Felix Rodacki

The severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on bullying victimization, mental health indicators and quality of life

• June T. Forsberg
• Steinar Thorvaldsen

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

• Virtual Tour
• Staff Directory
• En Español

You are here

News releases.

News Release

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

NIH-funded studies show damaging effects of vaping, smoking on blood vessels

Combining e-cigarettes with regular cigarettes may increase health risks.

Long-term use of electronic cigarettes, or vaping products, can significantly impair the function of the body’s blood vessels, increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. Additionally, the use of both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes may cause an even greater risk than the use of either of these products alone. These findings come from two new studies supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  

The findings, which appear today in the journal  Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology , add to growing evidence that long-term use of e-cigarettes can harm a person’s health. Researchers have known for years that tobacco smoking can cause damage to blood vessels. However, the effects of e-cigarettes on cardiovascular health have been poorly understood. The two new studies – one on humans, the other on rats – aimed to change that.

“In our human study, we found that chronic e-cigarettes users had impaired blood vessel function, which may put them at increased risk for heart disease,” said Matthew L. Springer, Ph.D., a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of California in San Francisco, and leader of both studies. “It indicates that chronic users of e-cigarettes may experience a risk of vascular disease similar to that of chronic smokers.” 

In this first study, Springer and his colleagues collected blood samples from a group of 120 volunteers that included those with long-term e-cigarette use, long-term cigarette smoking, and those who didn't use. The researchers defined long-term e-cigarette use as more than five times/week for more than three months and defined long-term cigarette use as smoking more than five cigarettes per day.

They then exposed each of the blood samples to cultured human blood vessel (endothelial) cells in the laboratory and measured the release of nitric oxide, a chemical marker used to evaluate proper functioning of endothelial cells. They also tested cell permeability, the ability of molecules to pass through a layer of cells to the other side. Too much permeability makes vessels leaky, which impairs function and increases the risk for cardiovascular disease.

The researchers found that blood from participants who used e-cigarettes and those who smoked caused a significantly greater decrease in nitric oxide production by the blood vessel cells than the blood of nonusers. Notably, the researchers found that blood from those who used e-cigarettes also caused more permeability in the blood vessel cells than the blood from both those who smoked cigarettes and nonusers. Blood from those that used e-cigarettes also caused a greater release of hydrogen peroxide by the blood vessel cells than the blood of the nonusers. Each of these three factors can contribute to impairment of blood vessel function in people who use e-cigarettes, the researchers said.

In addition, Springer and his team discovered that e-cigarettes had harmful cardiovascular effects in ways that were different from those caused by tobacco smoke. Specifically, they found that blood from people who smoked cigarettes had higher levels of certain circulating biomarkers of cardiovascular risks, and the blood people who used e-cigarettes had elevated levels of other circulating biomarkers of cardiovascular risks.

“These findings suggest that using the two products together, as many people do, could increase their health risks compared to using them individually,” Springer said.  “We had not expected to see that.”

In the second study, the researchers tried to find out if there were specific components of cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor that were responsible for blood vessel damage. In studies using rats, they exposed the animals to various substances found in tobacco smoke or e-cigarettes. These included nicotine, menthol (a cigarette additive), the gases acrolein and acetaldehyde (two chemicals found in both tobacco smoke and e-cigarette vapors), and inert carbon nanoparticles to represent the particle-like nature of smoke and e-cigarette vapor.

Using special arterial flow measurements, the researchers demonstrated that blood vessel damage does not appear to be caused by a specific component of cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor. Instead, they said, it appears to be caused by airway irritation that triggers biological signals in the vagus nerve that somehow leads to blood vessel damage, possibly through an inflammatory process. The vagus is a long nerve extending from the brain that connects the airway to the rest of the nervous system and plays a key role in heart rate, breathing, and other functions. The researchers showed that detaching the nerve in rats prevented blood vessel damage caused by tobacco smoke, demonstrating its key role in this process. 

“We were surprised to find that there was not a single component that you could remove to stop the damaging effect of smoke or vapors on the blood vessels,” Springer said. “As long as there’s an irritant in the airway, blood vessel function may be impaired.”   

The finding has implications for efforts to regulate tobacco products and e-cigarettes, as it underscores how difficult it is to pinpoint any one ingredient in them that is responsible for blood vessel damage. “What I like to tell people is this: Just breathe clean air and avoid using these products,” Springer said.

Lisa Postow, Ph.D., an NHLBI program officer in NHLBI’s Division of Lung Diseases, agreed that the study results “provide further evidence that exposure to e-cigarettes could lead to harmful cardiovascular health effects.” She added that more data is needed to fully understand the health effects of e-cigarettes. The NIH and others are continuing to explore this area.

Research reported in the e-cigarette study was funded by NHLBI grants U54HL147127, P50HL120163, and R01HL120062 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products (FDA CTP); and grant P50CA180890 from the National Cancer Institute at the NIH and FDA CTP. Research reported in the cigarette smoke/-vagal nerve study was supported by NHLBI grants R01HL120062 and U54HL147127 and FDA CTP and grant P50CA180890 from the National Cancer Institute at the NIH and FDA CTP. For additional funding details, please see the full journal articles.

About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): NHLBI is the global leader in conducting and supporting research in heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders that advances scientific knowledge, improves public health, and saves lives. For more information, visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov .   

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov .

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health ®

Chronic e-cigarette use impairs endothelial function on the physiological and cellular levels. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. DOI: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.121.317749

Impairment of Endothelial Function by Cigarette Smoke is not Caused by a Specific Smoke Constituent, but by Vagal Input from the Airway. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. DOI: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.122.318051

Connect with Us

• More Social Media from NIH

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

• Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022

TikTok has established itself as one of the top online platforms for U.S. teens, while the share of teens who use Facebook has fallen sharply

Table of contents.

• Acknowledgments
• Methodology

Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand teens’ use of digital devices, social media and other online platforms. For this analysis, we surveyed 1,316 U.S. teens. The survey was conducted online by Ipsos from April 14 to May 4, 2022.

This research was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, which is an independent committee of experts that specializes in helping to protect the rights of research participants.

Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents who were a part of its KnowledgePanel , a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey is weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with parents by age, gender, race, ethnicity, household income and other categories.

The trend data in this report comes from a Center survey on the same topic conducted from Sept. 25, 2014, to Oct. 9, 2014, and from Feb. 10, 2015, to March 16, 2015. The survey was fielded by the GfK Group on its KnowledgePanel, which was later acquired by Ipsos .

Here are the  questions used for this report , along with responses, and its  methodology .

For the latest survey data on social media and tech use among teens, see “ Teens, Social Media, and Technology 2023 .” 

The landscape of social media is ever-changing, especially among teens who often are on the leading edge of this space. A new Pew Research Center survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds TikTok has rocketed in popularity since its North American debut several years ago and now is a top social media platform for teens among the platforms covered in this survey. Some 67% of teens say they ever use TikTok, with 16% of all teens saying they use it almost constantly. Meanwhile, the share of teens who say they use Facebook, a dominant social media platform among teens in the Center’s 2014-15 survey , has plummeted from 71% then to 32% today.

YouTube tops the 2022 teen online landscape among the platforms covered in the Center’s new survey, as it is used by 95% of teens. TikTok is next on the list of platforms that were asked about in this survey (67%), followed by Instagram and Snapchat, which are both used by about six-in-ten teens. After those platforms come Facebook with 32% and smaller shares who use Twitter, Twitch, WhatsApp, Reddit and Tumblr. 1

Changes in the social media landscape since 2014-15 extend beyond TikTok’s rise and Facebook’s fall. Growing shares of teens say they are using Instagram and Snapchat since then. Conversely, Twitter and Tumblr saw declining shares of teens who report using their platforms. And two of the platforms the Center tracked in the earlier survey – Vine and Google+ – no longer exist.

There are some notable demographic differences in teens’ social media choices. For example, teen boys are more likely than teen girls to say they use YouTube, Twitch and Reddit, whereas teen girls are more likely than teen boys to use TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. In addition, higher shares of Black and Hispanic teens report using TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp compared with White teens. 2

This study also explores the frequency with which teens are on each of the top five online platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. Fully 35% of teens say they are using at least one of them “almost constantly.” Teen TikTok and Snapchat users are particularly engaged with these platforms, followed by teen YouTube users in close pursuit. A quarter of teens who use Snapchat or TikTok say they use these apps almost constantly, and a fifth of teen YouTube users say the same. When looking at teens overall, 19% say they use YouTube almost constantly, 16% say this about TikTok, and 15% about Snapchat.

When reflecting on the amount of time they spend on social media generally, a majority of U.S. teens (55%) say they spend about the right amount of time on these apps and sites, while about a third of teens (36%) say they spend too much time on social media. Just 8% of teens think they spend too little time on these platforms.

Asked about the idea of giving up social media, 54% of teens say it would be at least somewhat hard to give it up, while 46% say it would be at least somewhat easy. Teen girls are more likely than teen boys to express it would be difficult to give up social media (58% vs. 49%). Conversely, a quarter of teen boys say giving up social media would be very easy, while 15% of teen girls say the same. Older teens also say they would have difficulty giving up social media. About six-in-ten teens ages 15 to 17 (58%) say giving up social media would be at least somewhat difficult to do. A smaller share of 13- to 14-year-olds (48%) think this would be difficult.

Beyond just online platforms, the new survey finds that the vast majority of teens have access to digital devices, such as smartphones (95%), desktop or laptop computers (90%) and gaming consoles (80%). And the study shows there has been an uptick in daily teen internet users, from 92% in 2014-15 to 97% today. In addition, the share of teens who say they are online almost constantly has roughly doubled since 2014-15 (46% now and 24% then).

These are some of the findings from an online survey of 1,316 teens conducted by the Pew Research Center from April 14 to May 4, 2022. More details about the findings on adoption and use of digital technologies by teens are covered below.

Smartphones, desktop and laptop computers, and gaming consoles remain widely accessible to teens

Since 2014-15, there has been a 22 percentage point rise in the share of teens who report having access to a smartphone (95% now and 73% then). While teens’ access to smartphones has increased over roughly the past eight years, their access to other digital technologies, such as desktop or laptop computers or gaming consoles, has remained statistically unchanged.

The survey shows there are differences in access to these digital devices for certain groups. For instance, teens ages 15 to 17 (98%) are more likely to have access to a smartphone than their 13- to 14-year-old counterparts (91%). In addition, teen boys are 21 points more likely to say they have access to gaming consoles than teen girls – a pattern that has been reported in prior Center research . 3

Access to computers and gaming consoles also differs by teens’ household income. U.S. teens living in households that make $75,000 or more annually are 12 points more likely to have access to gaming consoles and 15 points more likely to have access to a desktop or laptop computer than teens from households with incomes under $30,000. These gaps in teen computer and gaming console access are consistent with digital divides by household income the Center has observed in previous teen surveys.

While 72% of U.S. teens say they have access to a smartphone, a computer and a gaming console at home, more affluent teens are particularly likely to have access to all three devices. Fully 76% of teens that live in households that make at least $75,000 a year say they have or have access to a smartphone, a gaming console and a desktop or laptop computer, compared with smaller shares of teens from households that make less than $30,000 or teens from households making $30,000 to $74,999 a year who say they have access to all three (60% and 69% of teens, respectively).

Almost all U.S. teens report using the internet daily

The share of teens who say they use the internet about once a day or more has grown slightly since 2014-15. Today, 97% of teens say they use the internet daily, compared with 92% of teens in 2014-15 who said the same.

In addition, the share of teens who say they use the internet almost constantly has gone up: 46% of teens say they use the internet almost constantly, up from only about a quarter (24%) of teenagers who said the same in 2014-15.

Black and Hispanic teens stand out for being on the internet more frequently than White teens. Some 56% of Black teens and 55% of Hispanic teens say they are online almost constantly, compared with 37% of White teens. The difference between Hispanic and White teens on this measure is consistent with previous findings when it comes to frequent internet use .

In addition, older teens are more likely to be online almost constantly. Some 52% of 15- to 17-year-olds say they use the internet almost constantly, while 36% of 13- to 14-year-olds say the same. Another demographic pattern in “almost constant” internet use: 53% of urban teens report being online almost constantly, while somewhat smaller shares of suburban and rural teens say the same (44% and 43%, respectively).

Slight differences are seen among those who say they engage in “almost constant” internet use based on household income. A slightly larger share of teens from households making $30,000 to $74,999 annually report using the internet almost constantly, compared with teens from homes making at least $75,000 (51% and 43%, respectively). Teens who live in households making under $30,000 do not significantly differ from either group.

The social media landscape has shifted

This survey asked whether U.S. teens use 10 specific online platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, WhatsApp, Reddit and Tumblr.

YouTube stands out as the most common online platform teens use out of the platforms measured, with 95% saying they ever use this site or app. Majorities also say they use TikTok (67%), Instagram (62%) and Snapchat (59%). Instagram and Snapchat use has grown since asked about in 2014-15, when roughly half of teens said they used Instagram (52%) and about four-in-ten said they used Snapchat (41%).

The share of teens using Facebook has declined sharply in the past decade. Today, 32% of teens report ever using Facebook, down 39 points since 2014-15, when 71% said they ever used the platform. Although today’s teens do not use Facebook as extensively as teens in previous years, the platform still enjoys widespread usage among adults, as seen in other recent Center studies .

Other social media platforms have also seen decreases in usage among teens since 2014-15. Some 23% of teens now say they ever use Twitter, compared with 33% in 2014-15. Tumblr has seen a similar decline. While 14% of teens in 2014-15 reported using Tumblr, just 5% of teens today say they use this platform.

The online platforms teens flock to differ slightly based on gender. Teen girls are more likely than teen boys to say they ever use TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, while boys are more likely to use Twitch and Reddit. Boys also report using YouTube at higher rates than girls, although the vast majority of teens use this platform regardless of gender.

Teens’ use of certain online platforms also differs by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic teens are more likely than White teens to say they ever use TikTok, Instagram, Twitter or WhatsApp. Black teens also stand out for being more likely to use TikTok compared with Hispanic teens, while Hispanic teens are more likely than their peers to use WhatsApp.

Older teens are more likely than younger teens to say they use each of the online platforms asked about except for YouTube and WhatsApp. Instagram is an especially notable example, with a majority of teens ages 15 to 17 (73%) saying they ever use Instagram, compared with 45% of teens ages 13 to 14 who say the same (a 28-point gap).

Despite Facebook losing its dominance in the social media world with this new cohort of teens, higher shares of those living in lower- and middle-income households gravitate toward Facebook than their peers who live in more affluent households: 44% of teens living in households earning less than $30,000 a year and 39% of teens from households earning $30,000 to less than $75,000 a year say they ever use Facebook, while 27% of those from households earning $75,000 or more a year say the same. Differences in Facebook use by household income were found in previous Center surveys as well (however the differences by household income were more pronounced in the past).

When it comes to the frequency that teens use the top five platforms the survey looked at, YouTube and TikTok stand out as the platforms teens use most frequently. About three-quarters of teens visit YouTube at least daily, including 19% who report using the site or app almost constantly. A majority of teens (58%) visit TikTok daily, while about half say the same for Snapchat (51%) and Instagram (50%).

Looking within teens who use a given platform, TikTok and Snapchat stand out for having larger shares of teenage users who visit these platforms regularly. Fully 86% of teen TikTok or Snapchat users say they are on that platform daily and a quarter of teen users for both of these platforms say they are on the site or app almost constantly. Somewhat smaller shares of teen YouTube users (20%) and teen Instagram users (16%) say they are on those respective platforms almost constantly (about eight-in-ten teen users are on these platforms daily).

Not only is there a smaller share of teenage Facebook users than there was in 2014-15, teens who do use Facebook are also relatively less frequent users of the platform compared with the other platforms covered in this survey. Just 7% of teen Facebook users say they are on the site or app almost constantly (representing 2% of all teens). Still, about six-in-ten teen Facebook users (57%) visit the platform daily.

Across these five platforms, 35% of all U.S. teens say they are on at least one of them almost constantly. While this is not a comprehensive rundown of all teens who use any kind of online platform almost constantly, this 35% of teens represent a group of relatively heavy platform users and they clearly have different views about their use of social media compared with those who say they use at least one of these platforms, though less often than “almost constantly.” Those findings are covered in a later section.

Larger shares of Black and Hispanic teens say they are on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram almost constantly than White teens. For example, Black and Hispanic teens are roughly five times more likely than White teens to say they are on Instagram almost constantly.

Hispanic teens are more likely to be frequent users of Snapchat than White or Black teens: 23% of Hispanic teens say they use this social media platform almost constantly, while 12% of White teens and 11% of Black teens say the same. There are no racial and ethnic differences in teens’ frequency of Facebook usage.

Overall, Hispanic (47%) and Black teens (45%) are more likely than White teens (26%) to say they use at least one of these five online platforms almost constantly.

Slight majorities of teens see the amount of time they spend on social media as about right and say it would be hard to give up

As social media use has become a common part of many teens’ daily routine, the Center asked U.S. teens how they feel about the amount of time they are spending on social media. A slight majority (55%) say the amount of time they spend of social media is about right, and smaller shares say they spend too much time or too little time on these platforms.

While a majority of teen boys and half of teen girls say they spend about the right amount of time on social media, this sentiment is more common among boys. Teen girls are more likely than their male counterparts to say they spend too much time on social media. In addition, White teens are more likely to see their time using social media as about right compared with Hispanic teens. Black teens do not differ from either group.

This analysis also explored how teens who frequently use these platforms may feel about their time on them and how those feelings may differ from teens who use these sites and apps less frequently. To do this, two groups were constructed. The first group is the 35% of teens who say they use at least one of the five platforms this survey covered – YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook – almost constantly. The other group consists of teens who say they use these platforms but not as frequently – that is, they use at least one of these five platforms but use them less often than “almost constantly.”

When asked how they feel about the time they spend on social media, 53% of teens who almost constantly use at least one of the platforms say they are on social media too much, while about three-in-ten teens (28%) who use at least one of these platforms but less often say the same.

Teens who are almost constantly online – not just on social media – also stand out for saying they spend too much time on social media: 51% say they are on social media too much. By comparison, 26% of teens who are online several times a day say they are on social media too much.

When reflecting on what it would be like to try to quit social media, teens are somewhat divided whether this would be easy or difficult. Some 54% of U.S. teens say it would be very (18%) or somewhat hard (35%) for them to give up social media. Conversely, 46% of teens say it would be at least somewhat easy for them to give up social media, with a fifth saying it would be very easy.

Teenage girls are slightly more likely to say it would be hard to give up social media than teen boys (58% vs. 49%). A similar gap is seen between older and younger teens, with teens 15 to 17 years old being more likely than 13- and 14-year-olds to say it would be at least somewhat hard to give up social media.

A majority of teens who use at least one of the platforms asked about in the survey “almost constantly” say it would be hard to give up social media, with 32% saying it would be very hard. Smaller shares of teens who use at least one of these online platforms but use them less often say the same.

The teens who think they spend too much time on social media also report they would struggle to step back completely from it. Teens who say they spend too much time on social media are 36 percentage points more likely than teens who see their usage as about right to say giving up social media would be hard (78% vs. 42%). In fact, about three-in-ten teens who say they use social media too much (29%) say it would be very hard for them to give up social media. Conversely, a majority of teens who see their social media usage as about right (58%) say that it would be at least somewhat easy for them to give it up.

• A 2018 Center survey also asked U.S. teens about their technology adoption and usage. Direct comparisons cannot be made across the two surveys due to differences in the ways the surveys were conducted. ↩
• There were not enough Asian American respondents in the sample to be broken out into a separate analysis. As always, their responses are incorporated into the general population figures throughout the report. ↩
• A 2018 Center survey also asked U.S teens about their video gaming habits. Direct comparisons cannot be made across the two surveys due to differences in the ways the surveys were conducted. Still, there are common patterns between the two separate surveys; for example, teen boys were more likely to report access to a gaming console or that they play video games than teen girls. ↩

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Fresh data delivery Saturday mornings

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

• Social Media
• Teens & Tech
• Teens & Youth

More Americans – especially young adults – are regularly getting news on TikTok

Many israelis say social media content about the israel-hamas war should be censored, whatsapp and facebook dominate the social media landscape in middle-income nations, germans stand out for their comparatively light use of social media, majorities in most countries surveyed say social media is good for democracy, most popular, report materials.

901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It does not take policy positions. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data-driven research. Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts , its primary funder.

© 2024 Pew Research Center

• Top Stories of 2022

Top Research News of 2022

As 2022 comes to a close, we are looking back at some of the top research highlights in the School of Medicine—including discoveries that will lead to paradigm-shifting, practice and policy-changing impacts. 

Grace mccomsey and researchers lead a national site to study to unravel the mystery of long covid-19  .

Nearly three years after the COVID-19 virus was first discovered, there is still much to be learned about its long-term effects. Through a 40,000 person, $1.15 billion nationwide study, called Recover, the National Institutes of Health is seeking to find answers about symptoms that plague patients and confound physicians.

$15.75M NIH award to CWRU— led by Andrew Shoffstall and Duke co-investigator—focuses on mapping vagus nerve

The National Institutes of Health awarded a $15.75 million contract to researchers led by Case Western Reserve and Duke universities to accelerate development of therapeutic devices that improve chronic medical conditions.

Research published in the journal Cell by co-senior author David Kang identifies—Why women may be more susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease

Women are affected by Alzheimer’s disease approximately twice as frequently as men, and Case Western Reserve researchers identified a mechanism in brain tissue that may explain why.

Darcy Freedman leads a new study to learn how a community network can improve access to fresh, nutritious foods in Cleveland

The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research will support a study examining the success of the Nourishing Power Network, which seeks to provide a foundation for promoting freedom, hope and dignity in food traditions resulting in holistic health for Black, Latino/a/x, Asian and Indigenous communities.

Merck Foundation awards Case Comprehensive Cancer Center 5-year, $2M grant to support advancing equity in cancer care through PARTNERS led by Erika Trapl and Jennifer Cullen

Nearly 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Members of racial and ethnic minority groups, those living in rural areas, low-income individuals and the uninsured are disproportionately affected, yet often have limited access to cancer screenings, care and treatment. 

Case Western Reserve, MetroHealth receive $12.5M to develop devices to treat paralysis led by principal investigator Kevin Kilgore

Case Western Reserve and the MetroHealth System and are developing an open-source network that will allow researchers around the country access to groundbreaking technology developed in Cleveland that can help individuals regain bodily function after devastating injury or disease.

CWRU-based prion disease center to receive up to $20 million in CDC grant funding for continued research directed by Brian Appleby

Their goal: to better understand how and why prion diseases—degenerative brain conditions found in both humans and animals that have no known cure—develop and spread.

Kishore Guda and researchers find new link that connects cell signaling pathway to development of esophageal cancers, Barrett’s syndrome

Of the roughly 20,000 people in the U.S. diagnosed with esophageal cancer this year, just 4,000 are likely to still be alive in 2027. Such dire data has long driven researchers to try to understand the roots of the disease, but they have discovered little—until now.

Case Western Reserve University grants exclusive license to Ionis Pharmaceuticals to advance antisense therapy for Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease: Principal Investigator Paul Tesar

PMD is a rare childhood degenerative disorder of the central nervous system in which coordination, motor abilities and intellectual function progressively deteriorate. The prognosis for severe forms is poor, with progressive deterioration until death.

National Institutes of Health awards Case Western Reserve University $7.3M for eye research: Principal Investigator Michael Jenkins

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine a five-year, $7.3 million grant to identify new technology, methods and models to study the impact of inflammation and pain on eye health, specifically the surface.

Study author Pam Davis shows risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease increases by 50-80% in older adults who caught COVID-19

To help shed light on some of the long-term effects, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers explored an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in patients ages 65 and older in the year after a COVID-19 diagnosis.

Research led by Fabio Cominelli— links gut fungi to intestinal inflammation in Crohn’s disease patients

A study by School of Medicine researchers may help lead to new treatment options for Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel disease that has no cure. The research team uncovered the role the fungus Candida tropicalis has in causing inflammation in the gut’s microbiome.

CWRU researchers create Cleveland COVID-19 Dashboard to track cases by zip code

As fears of COVID-19 continued in early 2022, researchers created a database that allowed members of the community to see how the virus was spreading in their neighborhoods. The interactive database offered a look at the daily reported COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the past month, tracked by zip code.

Study author Rong Xu explains findings of fewer breakthrough COVID-19 infections, lower risk of hospitalization in those who received Moderna vaccine compared to Pfizer–BioNTech

School of Medicine researchers examined breakthrough rates for two major vaccines—those offered by Moderna and Pfizer–BioNTech. Ultimately, they found those who had the Moderna vaccine were less likely to get COVID-19 (or be hospitalized for it) than those who had the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine.

Researchers developing treatment for drug-resistant fungus led by principal investigator Mahmoud Ghannoum 

With a new $3 million-plus grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Case Western Reserve University researchers are examining the next level of treatment for Candida auris (C.auris), a multidrug-resistant yeast that causes serious infection and, in some cases, death.

Search form

Context study: vulnerability, secondary benefits and ethics of anticipatory action for cholera in the eastern dr congo, attachments.

Introduction

In 2022, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO and the National Program for the Elimination of Cholera and the Control of Other Diarrheal Diseases (PNECHOL-MD) developed an anticipatory action (AA) framework to get ahead of large cholera outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The framework is designed to anticipate flare-ups of the disease becoming large epidemics. This is the first AA framework for infectious diseases that OCHA has facilitated.

OCHA commissioned this study to better understand the context and vulnerability as well as elucidate the secondary benefits and limitations of delivering anticipatory assistance and earlier cholera control measures in the eastern part of the country, an especially complex and volatile environment. The study also intends to inform other research and impact evaluations that OCHA will commission to learn from this project.

This study’s findings stem from direct observations during an onsite visit about the operational environment and lived realities of people, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), in targeted locations in the DRC (i.e., qualitative, ethnographic study). The visit coincided with the first activation of the AA framework in December 2022.

The study contrasted the views and work of researchers, practitioners, and experts from UN agencies and partner organizations against the perspectives and testimonies of people in IDP camps in North Kivu (including Kibati, Kanyaruchinya, and Bushagara).

It is important for readers to remember that this evaluation was enacted shortly after AA funding was disbursed; therefore, we cannot definitively correlate all of the findings in this paper with the implementation of AA. However, the spirit of this paper was very much to explore the factors surrounding the application of cholera intervention and their significance to this population, as well as potential secondary benefits thereof.

Sign up for the Health News Florida newsletter

A study suggests the effectiveness of multivitamins is more myth than reality.

The findings of National Cancer Institute researchers might be unsettling for anyone with a big bottle of these doctor's helpers in the medicine cabinet.

Millions of Americans regularly take multivitamins, accepting as fact that the dietary supplement can help them stay healthy and live longer.

Consumers reliably scoop them up at the drugstore or supermarket. One estimate pegs the annual value of the multivitamin market at more than $21 billion.

A new study, however, questions their usefulness.

National Cancer Institute researchers recently conducted one of the largest and longest studies of multivitamin effectiveness. The scientists tracked the health of nearly 400,000 healthy Americans for two decades, comparing a control group that didn't take multivitamins with a group that did.

The findings might be unsettling for anyone with a big bottle of these doctor's helpers in the medicine cabinet.

Those who took the supplements daily experienced no lower risk of death from any case. Indeed, they appeared to have a slightly greater risk of mortality. It was just a tiny increase, but startling, nonetheless.

The researchers also saw no difference when controlling for a participant's sex, dietary quality and health behavior.

Some experts believe vitamins feed off human psychology. The lure of a pill that effortlessly boosts health is powerfully attractive. Got a bad diet? Take a pill.

Even before this study, however, some nutritionists were doubtful this supposed elixir could substitute for the complex mix of natural nutrients found in fruits, vegetables and other whole foods.

There are few shortcuts to good health. Scientists say they cannot preclude the possibility of a benefit for adults. So, eat your vegetables. They're nature's multivitamin.

Copyright 2024 WUFT 89.1

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings
• My Bibliography
• Collections
• Citation manager

Save citation to file

Email citation, add to collections.

• Create a new collection
• Add to an existing collection

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search, create a file for external citation management software, your rss feed.

• Search in PubMed
• Search in NLM Catalog
• Add to Search

Seasonal variations in haematological and biochemical parameters of healthy Gambian adults: Retrospective study 2018-2022

Affiliations.

• 1 Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Banjul, The Gambia.
• 2 Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, School of Biological Science, University of Ghana, Accra, Legon, Ghana.
• PMID: 39288124
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003715

The objectives of this study were to determine the presence and effect of seasonal variations and provide insights into trend from 2018 to 2022 in a comprehensive set of routine haematological indices and biochemical measurements in Gambian adults with no known underlying health condition. We retrieved five years of data from an electronic database and analysed 493 full blood counts and 643 biochemical data from different individuals. In this study, we focused on data from individuals with no known underlying health condition who visited the clinical diagnostic laboratory for routine medical examinations or assessments.Our study found a positive association between seasonality (wet season as the reference) and Hb (HB: 0.014(0.015), P<0.05), White blood cells (WBC) (WBC: 0.243(0.163), p = 0.0014), and neutrophils (neutrophils: 0.271(0.131), P<0.05) with exception to red blood cells (RBC) (RBC: - 0.184(0.061), P< 0.003) that showed negative association. Despite the association, the seasonal effects on our derived reference intervals for haematological indices and biochemical measurements from wet season to dry season were not statistically significant (P>0.05). In addition, we observed in our heatmap result that some laboratory parameters, including HB, RBC, haematocrit (HCT), urea, liver enzymes, and potassium, showed seasonal variation patterns throughout the year, with median levels being normal to slightly low during the dry season and normal to high during the wet season. We also found no significant difference (P>0.05) among the median values for all parameters from 2018 to 2022. Additionally, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) parameters showed a consistent declining trend from 2018 to 2022. Our study found no seasonal effects on the derived reference intervals of haematological indices and biochemical measurements. However, we observed changes in patterns for certain parameters particularly HB, RBC, liver enzymes, and potassium based on seasonality.

Copyright: © 2024 Dibbasey et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

• Citation Manager

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.