The Lancet Public Health

🌱 From pills to people: the rise of social prescribing.

Who’s being referred to walking groups, arts classes and community activities, and who’s missing out?

Two major 2025 studies explore referral trends and inequalities.

🧵 THREAD
#SocialPrescribing #PrimaryCare #HealthInequalities #MentalHealth

Promotional card for The Lancet's Highlights photography competition.

📸 We want your photos!

If you've taken an image that brings a health story to life, enter it in our #LancetHighlights photography competition.

Submit by Nov 12—on any health-related topic and from any country or setting. More info: tinyurl.com/28pmu4m2

A blue square with the words, "Clinical Resources" and a take on the Rod of Asclepius; a traditional symbol of medicine.

Introducing the Clinical Resources hub 🩺

A new, easy-to-navigate platform from The Lancet Group, packed with the latest research and clinical reviews. Perfect for healthcare professionals looking to stay current and improve patient care.

Explore now: 🔗 hubs.li/Q03HKpBt0

Quote from a correspondence published in The Lancet entitled 'Improving survival and reducing suffering for children with NCDs.' Quote reads: [The Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly6 on the prevention and control of NCDs] is an opportunity to galvanise a global movement for children with chronic and catastrophic diseases, especially cancers and sickle cell disease, and ensure they are no longer left behind.

NCDs affect more than 2 billion children and adolescents each year.

In a new letter, authors call for a shift from generalised #NCD strategies to specific, child-centred commitments backed by:
➡️ Global frameworks
➡️ Measurable targets
➡️ Long-term investment

🔗 tinyurl.com/3ryn7w74

Figure: Global age-specific cancer (A) incidence and (B) mortality in 2023 for all sexes combined. Results are presented by 5-year age group. Left panels present age-specific incidence and mortality rates. Right panels present age-specific new case and death proportions. Copyright: 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved.

Cancer deaths expected to rise to over 18 million in 2050—an increase of nearly 75% from 2024, study forecasts.

Explore the data ▶️ tinyurl.com/5n7dfnws @ihmeuw.bsky.social #NCDs

Cover of The Lancet's Sept 27, 2025 issue. Quote on cover reads: "[...]a substantial body of biological, clinical, public health, and pharmacoeconomics data now allows communities to address the Alzheimer's conundrum [...]. The honest and lively debate among experts will continue."

🧠 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) care is entering a new era.

In our latest issue, a new Lancet Series highlights crucial next steps in diagnosis, treatment, & prevention of AD globally.

Read this & more: tinyurl.com/259664bs

Promotional card for The Lancet Public Health Series "A public health approach to suicide prevention".

“Experts call for public health approach to suicide prevention, with social factors addressed in addition to clinical treatment services”.

On #WorldSuicidePreventionDay, explore a 6-paper Series in @thelancetph.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/ycy9yue6 #WSPD

Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis Although 10 000 steps per day can still be a viable target for those who are more active, 7000 steps per day is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in health outcomes and might be a mor...

How many steps a day do we need for good health?
Clue: maybe less than you think :-)
Excited to share our new work in @thelancetph.bsky.social
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
@sydney.edu.au @ucl.ac.uk @deakinuniversity.bsky.social

Supporting medical science in the USA The pursuit of rigorous medical science is not compatible with capitulation to government demands aimed at weaponising and eroding science. On April 14, Edwin R Martin Jr, the Trump-appointed interim ...

Editorial of The Lancet today: "The pursuit of rigorous medical science is not compatible with capitulation to government demands aimed at weaponising and eroding science"

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Our new study on outcomes among people accessing #SaferOpioidSupply is out in @thelancetph.bsky.social. This study builds on work published previously across the country reinforcing the real-world benefits of #SOS and highlighting important comparisons with methadone. 🧵

Trends in alcohol-specific deaths in England, 2001–22: an observational study Alcohol-specific deaths in England remain high and increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. Policies should aim to reduce rates of alcohol consumption at the population level. Substantial investment is ...

We've got a new paper out today in @thelancetph.bsky.social, led by @melissaoldham.bsky.social, looking at the sharp increase in alcohol-specific deaths in England since the start of the pandemic and digging into which groups in the population have been worst affected
🧵

Public health in Germany: structures, dynamics, and ways forward Despite Germany's robust economy, comprehensive social welfare system, and the country ranking third among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in terms of per-capita healt...

In our April issue,

you can read a summary of the state of public health in Germany from Pr Zeeb and colleagues

📖 Public health in Germany: structures, dynamics, and ways forward
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Public health under Trump 2.0: the first 50 days Jan 20, 2025, US President Donald Trump took charge of the Oval Office and began by signing an array of executive orders spanning from withdrawal from WHO and the Paris Climate Agreement to freezing t...

NEW editorial on what public health means under Trump 2.0

At The Lancet Public Health, it still means to stand for the communities we serve, to report, document, support researchers and practitioners, and advocate for better health for ALL.

Read #openaccess www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Adverse childhood experiences in firstborns and mental health risk and health-care use in siblings: a population-based birth cohort study of half a million children in England ACEs in firstborns during the first 1000 days were associated with increased mental health problems and health-care needs in multiple children in the same family. The findings highlight the importance...

Feb 2025: Our study in @thelancetph.bsky.social funded by @nihr.bsky.social finds children are nearly three-quarters more likely to develop mental health problems by the age of 18 if the firstborn child in their family experienced adversity in their first 1000 days www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Global, regional, and national burden of epilepsy, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 Although the global trends in idiopathic epilepsy deaths and DALY rates have improved in the preceding decades, in 2021 there were almost 52 million people with active epilepsy (24 million from idiopa...

Globally, between 1990 and 2021, there was a substantial increase not only in prevalent cases of all types of epilepsy, but also an increase in the age-standardised prevalence of secondary and combined epilepsy.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

@thelancet.bsky.social

📢Our March issue is out!

Read our editorial on #obesity environments, interesting global burden disease studies of #epilepsy #suicide
and more... all #Openaccess

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Valery Feigin on the global burden of epilepsy - The Lancet Public Health in conversation with Valery Feigin speaks to Pierre Nauleau about the Global Burden of Disease study on epilepsy.Read the full article, Global, regional, and national burden of epilepsy, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis f...

New podcast episode 🎧

Pr Valery Feigin talks about the global, regional, and national burden of #epilepsy, from 1990 to 2021.

Listen here:
www.buzzsprout.com/1793453/epis...

Read the article #openaccess
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

The Lancet Voice Medicine Podcast · 6 Seasons · Every two weeks

New episode of The Lancet Voice podcast where I talk about the rapid expansion of the global gambling industry and its profound public health implications, drawing on our Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling

podcasts.apple.com/gr/podcast/t...

@thelancetph.bsky.social @uofgsocsci.bsky.social

Changing life expectancy in European countries 1990–2021: a subanalysis of causes and risk factors from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 The countries that best maintained improvements in life expectancy after 2011 (Norway, Iceland, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden) did so through better maintenance of reductions in mortality from cardiova...

Proud to have contributed to this paper in @thelancetph.bsky.social , which reports that of 16 European countries, England had the largest decline in life expectancy improvement (a fall in average annual improvement from 0.25 from 1990-2011 to 0.07 from 2011-2019

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Labels warning about alcohol-attributable cancer risks should be mandated urgently In January, 2025, the US Surgeon General released an Advisory on alcohol consumption and cancer risk.1 He briefly summarised the evidence on alcohol and cancer, including underlying biological mechani...

"alcohol has been shown to be a leading cause of cancer with no lower threshold"

"alcohol producers have strongly opposed the introduction of mandatory cancer warning labels"

Important @thelancetph.bsky.social Comment by WHO Europe scientists

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Prevalence of severe mental illness among people in prison across 43 countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis Our study indicates that the prevalence of severe mental illness in people who are incarcerated worldwide is considerable. Meeting the treatment needs of people in prison who have mental ill health re...

In our Feb issue

Pr Fazel @ox.ac.uk conducted a SRMA of prevalence of #severementalillness among people in prison across 43 countries.

➡️Prevalence is considerable
➡️Meeting the treatment needs of these people remains a challenge
➡️More research-friendly prison services are needed

bit.ly/4hvrpWh

Revealed: gambling firms secretly sharing users’ data with Facebook without permission Betting companies secretly track visitors to their sites before sending data to parent company Meta

We documented the various commercial practices that determine gambling in our Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling.

Investigative reporting providing further evidence: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

@thelancetph.bsky.social @uofgsps.bsky.social

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS research reveals gains in life expectancy for females with HIV lags gains for males with HIV /CNW/ - A new research study from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) shows that people with HIV (PWH) in British Columbia, Canada are now living...

New #COASTstudy research led by Dr. Katherine Kooij published in the @thelancetph.bsky.social finds gains in life expectancy for females living with HIV in BC is lagging behind males living with HIV.

newswire.ca/news-release...

#HIVresearch #HIV #AgingWithHIV

Acceptability and perceptions of personalised risk-based cancer screening among health-care professionals and the general public: a systematic review and meta-analysis The general public and health-care professionals both viewed personalised risk assessments as providing valuable information and PRBS as a logical next step to increase the quality of patient care and...

In our Feb issue

@naomiqptan.bsky.social &col reviewed the acceptability &perceptions of personalised riskbased #cancerscreening among healthcare professionals & general public

➡️a logical step to improve care quality & cancer mortality but implementation barriers must be addressed.

bit.ly/4hEsTNw

"The medical and scientific communities must come together and stand up for [its vision of public health]"

Life expectancy by county and educational attainment in the USA, 2000–19: an observational analysis Educational disparities in life expectancy are large, widespread, and increasing, both nationally and in most counties throughout the USA. Further research is needed to determine how both more equitab...

Featured in our Feb issue

"Educational disparities in life expectancy are large, widespread and increasing, both nationally and in most counties throughout the USA." by @ihmeuw.bsky.social & coll

Read:
bit.ly/4hoSYAe

#publichealth #USA

Our February issue is now online:
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Feel free to explore all our #openaccess content about personalized #cancerscreening, #lifeexpectancy, #mentalillness, #physicalactivity. We will highlight some content later this week. Stay tuned!

#publichealth #publichealthsky