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For educators such as Wendy Conrad, Shaila [Dominguez's] child development teacher at Rapid City Central High School, the appeal of the robot baby is straightforward: Once teenagers see how tough parenthood is, the last thing they’ll want to do is have unprotected sex. At $649 each, not counting software and accessories such as car seats and diaper bags, the simulators are no small purchase for schools. But purchase they do, despite a growing body of research raising doubt about their effectiveness. The latest study, the first randomized, controlled trial to test the intervention’s long-term effectiveness on pregnancy outcomes, was the most damning of all. Published in August by Australian researchers in the Lancet, a prominent British medical journal, it found that girls who cared for the electronic progeny got pregnant and gave birth at a higher rate than those who didn’t. (Deprez, 12/22)

Doctors have long known that black people are more likely than white people to suffer from diseases such as high blood pressure. A study suggests that racial discrimination may be playing a role in a surprising way. The study, which involved 150 African-Americans living in Tallahassee, Fla., found that knowing someone who had experienced racial discrimination was associated with genetic markers that may affect risk for high blood pressure. (Stein, 12/21)

When babies have an acute ear infection, they tug at their ears, get cranky and struggle to sleep through the night. Ear infections are the most common reason doctors prescribe antibiotics to children. Because of the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria, many physicians had hoped that a shorter course of antibiotics would be as effective as the standard 10 days of treatment for babies. (Saint Louis, 12/21)

Researchers looking into whether a shorter course of antibiotics would treat young children's ear infections as well as a longer course found that not only was the shorter treatment less effective but it didn't reduce antibiotic resistance or side effects. The study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, comes as physicians and researchers are looking for ways to curb the unnecessary use of antibiotics, including the possibility of using them for a shorter time against some common infections. (Hobson, 12/21)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is pushing for new limits on the amount of lead contained in lipstick and other cosmetic products. The FDA’s draft guidelines issued Wednesday recommend no more than 10 parts per million (ppm) of lead in lipstick, eye shadow, shampoo, shaving cream and lotion. ... The FDA noted that the majority of cosmetic companies do not use enough lead to pose a health risk, but the agency is concerned about the small number of lipsticks that contain more than 10 ppm of lead. The average lipstick contains slightly more than 1 ppm of lead, according to the FDA. (Devaney, 12/21)

For patients with serious brain injuries, there's a strong link between sleep patterns and recovery. A study of 30 patients hospitalized for moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries found that sleep quality and brain function improved in tandem, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Neurology. (Hamilton, 12/21)

Taking statins, the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, may make surgery safer. Researchers examined results in 96,486 surgeries in a Veterans Affairs database. It included a wide range of operations, though not heart surgery. The average age of the patients was 65, and almost all were men. About half were taking statins the day before and the day after their operations. (Bakalar, 12/21)

[James] Wagstaff-Duncan is a big man with a bad heart, and he has embarked on a medical experiment that is remarkable even by the outsize standards of the American obesity epidemic. The 30-year-old North Philadelphia man has struggled with his weight for years, and by last year it had reached 480 pounds — even as his heart grew dangerously enlarged and weak, unable to deliver enough oxygen to his 5-foot, 8-inch frame. Temple University Hospital physicians said he was near death and needed a heart transplant, but his immense weight made that too risky. Yet his best chance for losing weight — bariatric surgery — was out of the question because his heart was too weak. (Avril, 12/22)