An international study published across 34 countries shows that the biological age of the brain can be accelerated or delayed by environmental risk (air pollution, public housing conditions) and protective factors (socioeconomic equality, access to healthcare). The stronger effects arise from interactions among environmental, social, and political conditions. The paper is published today [Friday, 3^rd April 2026] in the journal Nature Medicine.

Language barriers may be particularly harmful in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), where families encounter challenging, often life-changing medical decisions. In many hospitals, a member of the healthcare team, and not the family, decides when to use interpretation services. In the first study to investigate the impact of providing families with direct access to interpreter technology, researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that communication time with the medical team doubled among families who speak a language other than English. Results were published in the journal Hospital Pediatrics.