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Social and physical isolation, along with financial hardship, are linked to lower uptake of recommended preventive health services, investigators at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School report this week in the Annals of Family Medicine. The team mined data from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System phone survey to assess the association between self-reported social and physical isolation (using transportation barriers as a proxy for the latter), material deprivation (financial strain, inadequate health care access), and uptake of COVID-19, influenza, and pneumococcal vaccinations and cervical, colorectal, and breast cancer screening among US adults. (Van Beusekom, 3/24)

Bacteriophage therapy for chronic bacterial respiratory infections appears to be safe and well-tolerated in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, according to a study published yesterday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Because of the thick, sticky mucus that builds up in their lungs, CF patients are predisposed to chronic respiratory infections and colonization by intrinsically multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This requires repeated exposure to antibiotics, which accelerates the emergence of MDR strains and further limits treatment options. (Dall, 3/24)

Dementia risk rose after older adults had severe infection and the risk was not attributable to other comorbidities, a Finnish registry study suggested. Of all hospital-treated diseases recorded 20 years before a dementia diagnosis, 29 were robustly associated with increased dementia risk, said Pyry Sipilä, MD, PhD, of the University of Helsinki, and colleagues. Two diseases were classified as infections: cystitis (urinary tract infection) and bacterial infection of an unspecified site. (George, 3/24)

Patients with adrenal insufficiency had significant improvements in bone and metabolic markers on a once-daily, low-dose steroid regimen compared with conventional treatment, a randomized trial found. (Monaco, 3/24)

Yesterday’s robotic surgery systems are finding new life in today’s ambulatory surgical centers. Some health systems upgrading to the latest Intuitive Surgical da Vinci surgical robot are deploying the earlier generation to their outpatient surgery centers. Others are trading in the older model, allowing the company to recondition and resell them at a lower cost. (Dubinsky, 3/24)

A majority of radiologists could not distinguish artificial x-rays -- deepfakes -- from real ones when they evaluated a mix of real and fake images, according to a study published today. (Bankhead, 3/24)