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Catching up on shuteye over the weekend could provide the bonus of improved cardiovascular health, according to a new study published in the journal Sleep Health. Researchers from Nanjing Medical University in China analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which compiled information from 3,400 U.S. adults ages 20 years and older between 2017 and 2018. ...The people who slept for at least one hour longer on weekends than weekdays were shown to have lower rates of cardiovascular disease. (Rudy, 12/20)

When physicians use artificial intelligence tools with baked-in systemic bias to help figure out what's wrong with patients, it's perhaps little surprise they're apt to make less accurate diagnoses. But a common safeguard against potential bias — transparency about how the AI came to form its predictions — doesn't help mitigate that problem, a new JAMA study finds. (Reed, 12/20)

Fans of “The Great British Bake Off” will be delighted to learn that a good many of the show’s famous holiday desserts have ingredients that are good for you, according to new research the authors admit was done for fun. (LaMotte, 12/20)

There's a treatment that works like a morning-after pill for sexually transmitted infections – an antibiotic taken in the hours after unprotected sex. And it can significantly lower the chance of developing common STIs like chlamydia and syphilis. In fact, the approach has proven effective enough that federal guidelines are now being finalized so that more doctors and public health departments can offer it to those who're at high risk of STIs. Except so far, "doxy-PEP" is only recommended for men who have sex with men and transgender women. (Stone, 12/20)

Ear infections, a general practitioner (GP) as a prescriber, and rural settings were identified as primary drivers of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in children treated in ambulatory care in high-income countries, according to a study published yesterday in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. (Dall, 12/20)

Nearly 80% of COVID-19 patients in 28 countries received early empiric antibiotics during the first year and a half of the pandemic, US and Turkish researchers reported yesterday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 12/20)

According to a small case-control study today in Scientific Reports, long COVID can affect heart rate variability (HRV) at rest and during deep breathing, adding to the evidence that persistent symptoms of the virus can be associated with cardiac and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (dysautonomia). This system regulates involuntary functions like heartbeat, blood pressure, and sweating. (Soucheray, 12/20)

An analysis of 7 million contacts of COVID-19 patients in the United Kingdom estimates that most transmissions resulted from exposures lasting 1 hour to several days and that households accounted for 40% of spread from spring 2021 to early 2022. A team led by University of Oxford researchers evaluated data from the National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 contact-tracing smartphone app in England and Wales to estimate how well app measurements correlated with real-life transmissions. (Van Beusekom, 12/20)