See more of the story

Breast cancer death rates declined almost 40 percent between 1989 and 2015, averting 322,600 deaths, the American Cancer Society reported. Breast cancer death rates increased by 0.4 percent per year from 1975 to 1989, according to the study. After that, mortality rates decreased rapidly, for a 39 percent drop overall through 2015. The report, the latest to document a reduction in breast cancer mortality, attributed the declines to improvements in treatments and to early detection.

Study sheds light on siblings and autism

Parents who have a child on the autism spectrum are more likely than other parents to see a future child diagnosed with autism, too. A new study shows the likelihood is much higher when that older child is a girl. The study found that if a girl had autism, among her younger siblings a brother had a 17 in 100 chance of being diagnosed with autism. A younger sister had an 8 in 100 chance. With a boy on the spectrum, the study found 4 percent of younger sisters and 13 percent of brothers were diagnosed.

Positive mood may be a vaccine booster

Don't worry, be happy — it might make your flu shot more effective. A new study suggests that older people who are in a good mood when they get the shot have a better immune response. British researchers followed and tested 138 people ages 65-85 before and after they got the 2014-15 vaccine. Greater levels of positive mood were associated with higher blood levels of antibodies to H1N1, a potentially dangerous flu strain, at both four and 16 weeks post-vaccination.

Blood pressure factor in childhood obesity

High blood pressure during pregnancy poses serious risks to mothers and babies. It may also increase the risk for childhood obesity, a new study reports. Chinese researchers studied 88,406 mother-child pairs. In the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, each 10-unit increase in systolic (the top number) or diastolic (the bottom number) blood pressure was associated with a 5 to 8 percent increase in the risk for childhood obesity, even among women who were not hypertensive.

Brothers, sisters put infants at risk for flu

Having older brothers and sisters puts infants at higher risk for being hospitalized with the flu. Researchers studied 1,115 hospital admissions of children younger than 2 born in Scotland from 2007-2015. Compared with a firstborn child, a second-born child younger than 6 months old was more than 2½ times as likely to be hospitalized. With two older siblings, an infant under 6 months was three times as likely to be hospitalized as one with none.

News services