Do natural disasters have long-term impacts on mortality in older adults?

Wiley

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Severe weather events have long-term health consequences for vulnerable older adults, according to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society based on data following Hurricane Harvey.

When they analyzed Medicare claims data for nearly 1.8 million fee-for-service beneficiaries aged ≥65 years in Texas and Louisiana, investigators found that older adults who lived through high rainfall during Hurricane Harvey had a 3% elevated risk of dying within 1 year of the hurricane. Mortality risk was highest among those with chronic health conditions requiring regular care, including chronic kidney disease and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The largest number of attributed deaths was among the Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias population: an estimated 1,245 deaths in the year following Hurricane Harvey.

Also, Black and Hispanic/Latino populations experienced 6% and 13% higher mortality risks, respectively, than other groups, highlighting disparities in vulnerability to disasters.

“These findings add to the evidence that disasters don’t just cause short-term disruptions. They expose and magnify the underlying fragilities in our health system,” said corresponding author Sue Anne Bell, PhD, of the University of Michigan. “For older adults who rely on consistent care, even a temporary breakdown can have lasting consequences.”

URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jgs.70237

 

 

Additional Information
NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.

About the Journal
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society is the go-to journal for clinical aging research. We provide a diverse, interprofessional community of healthcare professionals with the latest insights on geriatrics education, clinical practice, and public policy — all supporting the high-quality, person-centered care essential to our well-being as we age.

About Wiley      
Wiley is a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation, and learning. With more than 200 years at the center of the scholarly ecosystem, Wiley combines trusted publishing heritage with AI-powered platforms to transform how knowledge is discovered, accessed, and applied. From individual researchers and students to Fortune 500 R&D teams, Wiley enables the transformation of scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact. From knowledge to impact—Wiley is redefining what's possible in science and learning. Visit us at Wiley.com and Investors.Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Journal

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI

10.1111/jgs.70237 

Article Title

Variation in One-Year Mortality Following Severe Weather Exposure among Older Americans

Article Publication Date

17-Dec-2025

How does grandparental care affect children’s health?

Wiley

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Research published in Health Economics indicates that regular childcare provided by grandparents can ease the pressures on parents but may have some negative impacts on children’s health.

The study, which was based on data from more than 11,000 children and nearly 9,000 parents in Germany, used geographic distance between families and grandparents to identify the effects of regular grandparental care. Mothers reported higher satisfaction with both their leisure time and childcare situations—by 11% and 9%, respectively—when grandparental care was available. Fathers also had a 19% increase in satisfaction with childcare. 

Some children regularly cared for by grandparents tended to have poorer general health, at least in the health measures that were available for analysis. This was most evident among boys and elementary-school-aged children and may reflect differences in daily routines and activities between care provided by grandparents and that offered in formal daycare or after-school settings.

“The findings highlight the central role of grandparental care in families' caregiving arrangements and the meaningful benefits it provides to parents of young children,” said corresponding author Elena Ziege, a junior researcher at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BIB), in Wiesbaden, Germany.

URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hec.70054

 

 

Additional Information
NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.

About the Journal
Health Economics is an international health policy journal publishing articles on all aspects of global health economics. We welcome theoretical contributions, empirical studies, and analyses of health policy from the economic perspective. With a wide scope, Health Economics welcomes contributions on the valuation, determinants and definition of health, health care supply and demand, planning and market mechanisms, treatment micro-economics, and health care system performance.

About Wiley      
Wiley is a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation, and learning. With more than 200 years at the center of the scholarly ecosystem, Wiley combines trusted publishing heritage with AI-powered platforms to transform how knowledge is discovered, accessed, and applied. From individual researchers and students to Fortune 500 R&D teams, Wiley enables the transformation of scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact. From knowledge to impact—Wiley is redefining what's possible in science and learning. Visit us at Wiley.com and Investors.Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Journal

Health Economics

DOI

10.1002/hec.70054 

Article Title

The Generational Gift: The Effects of Grandparental Care on the Next Generations’ Health and Well-being

Article Publication Date

17-Dec-2025

 

Spot the males: New gene-editing method could transform mosquito control

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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image: 

A Striking Phenotype: The modified female is instantly recognizable by her yellow body, contrasting sharply with the dark exterior of the wild-type female.

 

view more 

Credit: Philippos Papathanos

Researchers have developed a new “color-coded” genetic method that makes it easy to distinguish male and female mosquitoes. This innovation can help solve a major bottleneck in mosquito control strategies that rely on releasing only sterile males. The approach uses gene editing to produce dark males and pale females, offering a practical and safer alternative to current sex-separation techniques.

A new study led by Doron Zaada and Prof. Philippos Papathanos from the Department of Entomology at Hebrew University, introduces a powerful genetic approach for separating male and female mosquitoes, an essential step for large-scale mosquito control programs aimed at reducing the spread of infectious diseases such as Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya.

Mosquito control strategies based on the mass release of males rely on the complete removal of females, which bite and transmit disease. Existing separation methods, largely based on size differences at the pupal stage, are labor-intensive, difficult to scale, and prone to letting biting females slip through. This new study presents a genetically engineered "Genetic Sexing Strain" (GSS) of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) that allows sexes to be sorted automatically based on visible pigmentation.

Hijacking Sex Determination: The researchers used CRISPR gene editing to disrupt the mosquito’s yellow pigmentation gene, creating albino-like mosquitoes. They then restored normal dark pigmentation only in males by combining the yellow gene with nix, a “master switch” that converts females into fertile males. The result is a stable strain in which all males are dark and all females remain yellow, enabling fast and accurate sex separation without the need of complex equipment.

This produces an engineered sex-linked trait in mosquitoes that uses the insect's own genes," said Prof. Papathanos. “By understanding and controlling the sex determination pathway, we were able to create a system were males and females are visually different at the genetic level.”

Built-in Safety Mechanism: Beyond visual sorting, the study revealed additional advantages for field use. The researchers discovered that the yellow females lay eggs that are highly sensitive to desiccation (drying out). Unlike wild mosquito eggs, which can survive dry conditions for months, the eggs of this engineered strain die quickly if they dry out.

"This acts as a built-in genetic containment mechanism," says Doron Zaada, the study’s lead author. "Even if some females are accidentally released, their eggs won't survive in the wild, preventing any engineered strain containing our system from establishing itself in the environment."

The researchers also showed that genetically converted males closely resemble natural males in gene expression and reproductive behavior, suggesting that the technique does not compromise male fitness, an important requirement for control programs such as the Sterile Insect Technique.

"Our approach provides a versatile platform for mosquito sex separation," adds Prof. Papathanos. "By combining cutting-edge gene editing with classical genetics, we have created a scalable, safe, and efficient system. The next step is now to built on this platform and to make females different in more ways, for example in their ability to survive high temperatures or specific additives used in mosquito mass-rearing biofactories. This could finally overcome one of the biggest hurdles in genetic mosquito control."

Published in Nature Communications, the study establishes a foundation for developing next-generation mosquito control tools that are more precise, efficient, and adaptable to real-world public health needs.

Differences appear early in life: The unique yellow coloration allows researchers to readily identify the modified mosquitoes during early developmental stages, including the larval phase shown here. 

Credit

Doron Zaada

Pupal Stage. The mosquito pupal stage is typically when sexual dimorphism first becomes visible. However, the 'yellow' strain (left) can be immediately distinguished from its naturally dark counterpart (right) regardless of sex, simplifying identification. 

Credit

Philippos Papathanos

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-66940-0 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Mosquito sex separation using complementation of selectable traits and engineered neo-sex chromosomes

Article Publication Date

17-Dec-2025

NAU team releases 13 years of detailed U.S. CO2 emissions data

Northern Arizona University

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New research from Northern Arizona University shows detailed CO2 emissions for the United States from 2010 to 2022.  

In the first of a series of data releases, professor Kevin Gurney of NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS) authored a study, published today in Scientific Data, that includes a database of 13 years of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Future releases will include neighborhood- and city-specific emissions, road segment vehicular emissions and industrial facility emissions. 

“The U.S. taxpayers have a right to this data,” said Gurney, who specializes in atmospheric science, ecology and public policy and has spent the past two decades developing a standardized system quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. “In spite of the science funding cuts and threats to federal science data reporting, my team will continue to produce and share data critical to climate change and environmental quality. With the proposed rule to end the United States Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas reporting program, this data is more important than ever.” 

The goal of providing the CO2 emissions data is to give businesses, cities and communities greater insight into their emissions, driving well-informed environmental policy choices grounded in the best data.  

Gurney and his team have been developing the granular maps of CO2 emissions for two decades and the latest release is version four of the Vulcan system. Vulcan reflects every source of CO2 emissions from the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas in the United States, targeted to the time and location where fuel is burned. 

“The output constitutes many terabytes of data and requires a high-performance computing system to run,” said Pawlok Dass, a research associate in SICCS and co-investigator in the study. “It captures CO2 emissions at unprecedented resolution—down to every city block, road segment and individual factory or powerplant.” 

In The New York Times’ “Lost Science” series, Gurney acknowledged that funding cuts have had an impact on the ability to innovate and move quickly but is resolute in ensuring that the CO2 emissions data gets to the public.  

“We all remain committed to this research,” said Bilal Aslam, a Ph.D. student working on the emissions study. “Rather than ignoring or suppressing this type of climate data, policymakers should seize the opportunity to create trading markets and climate-friendly investments. We can both limit climate change and have economic growth.” 

Gurney’s Vulcan and Hestia projects, both funded by multiple federal agencies, quantify and visualize greenhouse gases emitted across the entire country down to individual power plants, neighborhoods and roadways, identifying problem areas and enabling better decisions about where to cut emissions most effectively. His estimates have shown excellent performance when compared to direct atmospheric monitoring. Gurney has authored more than 180 scientific publications, including a recent U.S. National Academy Report, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Decision making.” He has been involved with the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol for more than 25 years and is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

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Journal

Scientific Data

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Publication Date

17-Dec-2025