This Just In

A roundup of new and noteworthy insights from the week’s most talked-about studies:

1 MORE MEN ARE USING CONDOMS

New data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows 33.7% of men polled between 2011 and ’15 said they used a condom the last time they had sex, up from 29.5% of men who said the same in 2002.

2 AMERICANS, ESPECIALLY WOMEN, ARE DRINKING MORE ALCOHOL

A study in JAMA Psychiatry that compared data from 2001–2002 with data from 2012–2013 found that more Americans are drinking more alcohol. In that time, the prevalence of alcohol-use disorder increased nearly 84% for women, compared with an increase of 35% for men.

3 TAI CHI CAN HELP OLDER PEOPLE PREVENT FALLING

An investigation in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that tai chi reduced older people’s rate of falls by 43% within the first year of learning the practice, compared with other interventions such as physical therapy.

–J.Z.