Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of April 6, 2026–April 10, 2026.
DEHP exposure linked to nearly 2M premature births each year
HealthDay (4/2, Mundell) reported new research found that exposure to di-2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP), “a common chemical that makes plastics more pliable may come with a grim downside: Nearly 2 million premature births per year.” Researchers noted that “phthalates are ubiquitous in products ranging from cosmetics to detergents to bug repellents.” Their study “estimates that 1.97 million premature births recorded globally in 2018— about 8% of all preemie deliveries for that year—had links to maternal exposure to DEHP. About 74,000 of those newborns died, the researchers noted.” Furthermore, “certain areas—notably, the Middle East and Southeast Asia—have particularly intense plastics industries and exposures and may comprise more than half of the global toll of preemie births linked to DEHP.” The study was published in eClinicalMedicine.
Modest real-world weight loss linked to reduced cancer risk
Healio (4/6, Leiser) reports a study suggests that “modest real-world weight loss may significantly reduce a person’s risk for cancer.” The researchers “assessed the association between changes in BMI at three time intervals—3 years, 5 years and 10 years—and risk for cancer.” They observed that “each 1% reduction in BMI appeared associated with lower risk for obesity-related cancers at 3 years (OR = 0.99)—equating to a 4.9% risk reduction with 5% weight loss—and 5 years (OR = 0.989), equating to a 5.4% risk reduction with 5% weight loss.” Additionally, “weight loss also appeared significantly associated with risk for any malignancy, with each 1% reduction in BMI linked to lower risk at 3 years (OR = 0.992), 5 years (OR = 0.994) and 10 years (OR = 0.991). In this analysis, a 5% weight loss correlated with cancer risk reductions of 3.9% at 3 years, 3% at 5 years and 4.4% at 10 years.” The study was published in Obesity.
More pregnant women must travel long distances to receive maternity care they need
HealthDay (4/6, Thompson) reports a study found that “more pregnant women have to drive long distances to get the maternity care they need.” According to researchers, in U.S. counties that lost all hospital-based obstetric services, “the number of women of childbearing age who live within a half-hour drive of obstetric care fell from more than 90% in 2010 to about 60% in 2021.” They stated that “travel times stayed mostly stable in counties that kept obstetric services open, but access dropped sharply in places where the services closed,” and the “decline was strongest in rural counties.” Furthermore, “longer travel distances make it tougher for women to get prenatal care and respond to emergencies or high-risk deliveries, researchers noted.” The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
You may also be interested in: Funding extended to help address preterm births, maternal health.
People with long COVID face higher risk for serious heart problems
HealthDay (4/8, Neff) reports people “with long COVID face a higher risk for serious heart problems—even younger adults who were never sick enough to be hospitalized, new research suggests.” Among patients with long COVID, “researchers found an increased risk for cardiovascular events including heart attack, arrhythmias and heart failure.” Among women, over “18% experienced heart issues, compared to just 8% of those who never had long COVID.” For men, almost “21% had heart complications compared to 11% in the control group.” The findings were published in eClinicalMedicine.
U.S. fertility rate fell to record low in 2025
CNN (4/9, McPhillips, Wallace, Luhby) reports, “The fertility rate in the United States has been trending down for decades, and new federal data shows that another drop last year brought the rate down to the lowest on record.” Roughly “3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2025, according to provisional data (PDF) published Thursday by the” CDC, “about 53 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age.” According to CNN, “that rate is down about 1% from 2024 and nearly 20% lower than it was two decades ago.”
Reuters (4/9, Sunny) reports, “In the U.S., the general fertility rate has fallen nearly 23% since 2007, according to the agency’s data.” In 2025, “the fertility rate among women aged 25 to 29 fell about 4.4%, while the rate for women aged 30 to 34 rose about 2.7% from 2024, the data showed.” Fertility rates among teenagers “declined sharply, with the rate for those aged 18 to 19 falling 7% and the rate for younger teens aged 15 to 17 dropping 11%, both reaching record lows.”
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