Heart Attacks are on the Rise among Young and Middle-Aged Adults in the United States
Vicente Cuevas
Heart attacks are on the rise among young and middle-aged adults in the United States. This brief describes these increases, summarizes the role of behavioral, lifestyle, and societal factors, and provides recommendations for organizations, healthcare providers, and policymakers to combat the increase in early-onset heart disease.
April 22, 2025
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Breast Cancer Diagnoses are Increasing among Racial and Ethnic Minority Women in the U.S.
Esther Oshaji
This data slice examines trends in breast cancer incidence rates among women by race and ethnicity in the U.S. from 2000 to 2021. The author finds that, while incidence rates remain highest among non-Hispanic White women, the largest increases in diagnoses have been among American Indian/Alaska Native Asian/Pacific Islander women.
March 25, 2025
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Older Women in the U.S. Were Lonelier Than Men During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Qiyu Deng
This data slice uses data from the 2020 Health and Retirement Study to examine gender and age differences in loneliness among older adults (50+) in the U.S. during the first year of the pandemic.
March 18, 2025
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How Does the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Impact Time Spent Assisting Adults?
Anna Wiersma Strauss
This brief summarizes findings from a study that examines the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on unpaid caregiving for adults. The author finds that in response to more generous EITC benefits, younger recipients increase their time spent on paid work and maintain their time spent assisting adults, while older recipients maintain their time spent on paid work and increase their time spent assisting their parents.
March 11, 2025
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Grandparents in the U.S. are Providing More Support to Their Grandchildren Now Than in the Past
Hyeonji Cho
This data slice examines the changes between 2002 and 2022 in grandparent support to grandchildren in the U.S. The author finds that while grandparents across all age groups are providing more support to their grandchildren now than in the past, the increase has been especially pronounced among grandparents ages 75-84.
March 4, 2025
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Disability Measures Used in U.S. Federal Surveys Significantly Underreport Disability Status
Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich, Scott D. Landes, Jean P. Hall, and Bonnielin K. Swenor
U.S. federal surveys commonly use two question sets to measure disability: the American Community Survey (ACS-6) and the Washington Group Short Set (WG-SS). This data slice examines the percentage of disabled people captured by these two different survey sets.
February 25, 2025
How Do Gender and Marital Status Impact High-Risk Polysubstance Use
Kira England and Alexander Chapman
This brief summarizes findings from a study that examined gender and marital status differences in high-risk polysubstance use among U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The authors find that polysubstance use is higher among men and marriage was more protective against polysubstance use for men than women.
February 18, 2025
Increased Suicidality Risk among Adolescents with an Active-Duty Sibling or Parent in the U.S.
Andrew S. London and Kevin M. Antshel
This brief summarizes findings from a study that examined whether having a sibling and/or a parent on active duty in the U.S. military is associated with suicidality (i.e., thinking about death a lot, believing oneself is better off dead, thinking about suicide, planning suicide, and attempting suicide) among 12- to 17-year-old adolescent girls and boys in the United States.
February 11, 2025
Behavioral Science-Based “Nudges” Could Increase Physical Activity among Adolescents with ADHD
Hannah Patnaik, Andrew S. London, and Kevin M. Antshel
This brief summarizes findings from a recently completed pilot study testing the efficacy of behavioral interventions aimed at encouraging daily physical activity (i.e., steps measured with an activity tracker) among adolescents with ADHD.
February 4, 2025
Hospital Travel Times are Too Long in Rural Puerto Rico
Catherine García
This data slice shows the stark geographic inequities in travel times to the nearest hospitals in Puerto Rico and calls for urgent policy action to address disparities in hospital accessibility.
January 28, 2025
Do Schools Have the Capacity to Provide Free Meals to Every Student?
Michah W. Rothbart, Jeehee Han, and Zac Reeves
This brief summarizes the findings from a study that analyzed the effectiveness of Universal Free Meals and Breakfast in the Classroom at increasing student school breakfast and lunch participation in capacity-constrained schools.
January 21, 2025
What Factors Influenced COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy? Evidence from Social Media
Huseyin Zeyd Koytak
This brief summarizes findings from a study that examined over 50 million tweets (later rebranded as X) from 2020 to 2022 to investigate the patterns, justifications, and socioeconomic roots of vaccine hesitancy in the United States.
January 14, 2025
More Police Spending is Linked to Higher Opioid Overdose Mortality Rates
Michah W. Rothbart, Zoe Lindenfeld, Diana Silver, and Amanda I. Mauri
This brief highlights findings from a study on how counties extractive policing practices (e.g., fines and forfeitures) as well as spending on public health are associated with opioid overdose deaths.
January 7, 2025
Seasonal Pollen Increases Traffic Fatalities in the United States
Monica Deza
This brief summarizes findings from a study that examines how seasonal pollen allergies affect traffic fatalities in the U.S. The authors find that traffic fatalities increase 5.8% on days when the local pollen count is particularly high.
December 17, 2024
What Factors Contribute to Racial Disparities in Asthma Prevalence in the United States?
Ali Jones and Marc A. Garcia
This brief highlights Black-White disparities in asthma prevalence and demonstrates how living in unhealthy conditions results in a higher burden of asthma in Black communities.
December 10, 2024
Political Polarization Harms Public Health
Shana Kushner Gadarian, Jay J. Van Bavel, Eric Knowles, and Kai Ruggeri
This brief summarizes the impacts of political polarization on public health in the U.S., highlighting the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study on the health risks of polarization.
November 19, 2024
To Lower Mental Illness Stigma for EMS Clinicians, Agencies Must Value Workers’ Psychological Safety
Bryce Hruska, Maria L. Pacella-LaBarbara, and Marley S. Barduhn
This data slice shows that EMS personnel at agencies with high-risk PSC levels report 38% more mental illness stigma in the workplace compared to workers at agencies with low-risk PSC levels.
November 12, 2024
It is Time to Stop Using the Washington Group Questions to Measure Disability in US Federal Surveys
Scott D. Landes, Bonnielin K. Swenor, and Jean P. Hall
This brief summarizes findings from a recent study that shows that, by using the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning (WGSS) questions in the National Health Interview Survey, our federal government is failing to accurately identify the severity of functional limitations specifically related to vision and hearing.
October 29, 2024
Differences in Happiness, Perceived Meaning in Life for Adults with and without Self-Care Disability
Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich, Scott D. Landes, and Shannon M. Monnat
This brief summarizes findings from a study that examined differences in happiness and perceived meaning in life between U.S. working-age adults (ages 18-64) with versus without a self-care disability (such as difficulty eating, using the toilet, or dressing without assistance) and the role social support plays in improving happiness and meaning in life.
September 10, 2024
How Can America Support the Health of its Diverse Aging Population?
Catherine García, Lauren L. Brown, and Marc A. Garcia
This brief provides an overview of the social determinants of healthy aging, provides recommendations for how policymakers can improve the socioeconomic, health care, and social, built, and physical environmental conditions that influence healthy aging, and proposes policies that can help the U.S. prepare to better meet the needs of its increasingly diverse older adult population.
July 16, 2024