Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of May 26, 2025

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of May 26, 2025–May 30, 2025.

The Washington Post (5/26, McMahan) reports a systemic review found that “engagement with digital technology was associated with a 58% reduced risk of cognitive impairment in people middle-aged and older.” The researchers reviewed 57 studies involving more than 411,000 adults with an average age of 69 to determine “whether exposure to technology has helped or harmed cognition among the first generation of adults with prolonged exposure to digital devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers.” They observed that “technology could play a role in preserving brain function, not worsening.” Researchers concluded, “There was no credible evidence from the longitudinal studies, or the meta-analysis as a whole, for widespread digital ‘brain drain’ or ‘digital dementia’ as a result of general, natural uses of digital technology.” The review was published in Nature Human Behavior. 

MedPage Today (5/27, Robertson) reports a study suggests that “self-reported maternal mental health declined in recent years, as did maternal physical health, though less drastically.” Researchers found that “after adjustments for secular changes in sociodemographic groups, ‘excellent’ physical health decreased by 4.2 percentage points, ‘excellent’ mental health decreased by 12.4 percentage points, and ‘fair/poor’ mental health increased by 3.5 percentage points from 2016 to 2023.” They noted that “mothers with lower education levels and publicly insured or uninsured kids, as well as single mothers, had higher odds of self-reporting worse physical and mental health.” Overall, investigators concluded that the “decline in mental health was even greater than what” they “were expecting to find. Recent research has focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, but this study indicated that the downward population-level trends were happening before 2020.” The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

CNN (5/28, LaMotte) reports a small study published in JAMA Cardiology found that “healthy people who regularly smoked marijuana or consumed THC-laced edibles showed signs of early cardiovascular disease similar to tobacco smokers.” In the study, 55 participants were “divided into three groups: people who smoked (not vaped) marijuana three or more times a week for at least a year, people who consumed THC edibles at least three times a week for at least a year, and nonusers.” Researchers noted that “damage to the endothelial cells that regulate dilation was related to the dose,” and that “study participants who used more marijuana had a greater risk of damage to blood vessels that carry oxygen to the body’s organs.” They concluded, “Higher cannabis use—whether smoked or ingested—is associated with poorer vascular function, highlighting the cardiovascular risks that increase with higher potency and frequency of use.”

You may also be interested in: Cannabis use and health: What physicians should know.

The AP (5/28, Johnson) reports the World Health Organization said Wednesday that COVID-19 cases are rising again as a new variant, NB.1.8.1, “begins to circulate in some parts of the world,” primarily the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and western Pacific regions. The new variant “had by mid-May reached nearly 11% of sequenced samples reported.” U.S. airport screening has so far “detected the new variant in travelers arriving from those regions to destinations in California, Washington state, Virginia and New York.” 

HealthDay (5/29, Thompson) reports a study found that “heart disease, strokes and diabetes contribute to many dementia cases in the United States, but the risk is not equal everywhere.” Researchers observed that “more than a third (37%) of U.S. dementia cases are linked to eight conditions: diabetes, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.” Results show that “dementia cases were most strongly associated with stroke, with a 2.2-times higher risk, followed by heart failure (2.1 times increased risk) and high blood pressure (78% increased risk),” while the link between high cholesterol and dementia was the weakest, “with a 27% increased risk.” Researchers also noted that “people in the South were at greater risk for dementia caused in part by heart problems, stroke or diabetes.” The study was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

You may also be interested in: 5 health tips your cardiologist wants you to know.

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