The U.S. Military Does Not Adequately Prepare Members for Transition from Service
Emily Graham
This issue brief highlights the shortcomings of veteran transition programs, like TAP, and provides recommendations for improving transition outcomes through more holistic programs.
April 23, 2024
How Does Educational Attainment Influence the Perceived Need for Future Assistance with ADLs?
Julia M. Finan
This brief summarizes the results of a recent study that used data from the 2011-2014 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to examine educational differences in perceived need for future ADL assistance among 54,946 adults aged 40 to 65 years in the United States.
April 16, 2024
Adopting the Standard Medical Deduction Increased State SNAP Enrollment and Benefits
Yuwei Zhang, Jun Li, Dongmei Zuo, and Colleen M. Heflin
This brief summarizes findings from a study that examined the associations between state SMD adoption and SNAP participation and benefits from 2004 to 2019.
April 9, 2024
Spending Time Socializing in Bars Increases the Risk of Heavy Drinking
Danielle Rhubart, Jennifer Kowalkowski, and Yiping Li
This brief uses data from the 2022 Rural Health and Engagement Survey to examine relationships between time spent in bars and heavy drinking.
April 2, 2024
Older Adults are at Greater Risk of OUD in Communities with High Social Vulnerability
Tse-Chuan Yang, Seulki Kim, Stephen A. Matthews, and Carla Shoff
This brief summarizes findings from a study that used data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to examine how county characteristics contributed to the prevalence of OUD among Medicare beneficiaries age 65+ in U.S. counties in 2021.
March 26, 2024
The Impact of Industrial Animal Agriculture on the Physical Health of Communities of Color
Mariana Zepeda
This brief summarizes the health risks for communities located near CAFOs. Additionally, it calls for government regulations that improve transparency, management, and consumer empowerment.
March 19, 2024
Waiving SNAP Interviews during the COVID19 Pandemic Increased SNAP Caseloads
Colleen Heflin, William Clay Fannin, Leonard Lopoo, and Siobhan O’Keefe
This brief summarizes findings from a recent study that used data from SNAP offices across 10 states to examine the impact of SNAP interview waivers on SNAP caseloads from January 5th to April 30th of 2021.
March 12, 2024
Cognitive Functioning is Higher among Older Adults in Walkable Neighborhoods
Tse-Chuan Yang, Seulki Kim, Seung-won Emily Choi, Shannon Halloway, Uchechi A. Mitchell, and Benjamin A. Shaw
This brief summarizes findings from a study that aims to understand how U.S. older adults’ (age 65+) exposures to residential neighborhood environments – specifically walkability and concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage – are associated with their cognitive functioning between 2010 and 2018.
March 5, 2024
Infant Mortality Rates Vary Substantially across Regions of the United States
Marissa Merrifield
This data slice uses data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to compare infant mortality rates by geographic region in the U.S. between 2017-2021.
February 27, 2024
What Factors Increase Risk of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia?
Elizabeth Vásquez and Kai Zhang
This data slice uses nationwide data from 3,155 counties in the U.S. to identify the factors that best predict county-level rates of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRDs) in 2018.
February 20, 2024
Black Women Have the Highest Maternal Mortality Rate in the United States
Tori-Ann Haywood
This data slice uses data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics to describe U.S. maternity mortality rates for women ages 15-45 across different ethnoracial groups between 2018-2022.
February 13, 2024
Are We Accurately Counting the Disabled Population in the United States?
Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich, Scott D. Landes, and Bonnielin K. Swenor
This brief summarizes findings from a recent study that used the 2011-2012 NHIS data to compare the prevalence of the disabled population estimated in the NHIS by using two sets of questions on disability – those from the American Community Survey vs. those from the Washington Group Short Set (WG-SS). Results show that the WG-SS undercounted more than half of adult respondents aged 18 and over who reported being disabled in the ACS questions.
February 6, 2024
Pain Limits Family Caregivers’ Daily Activities
Shelbie G. Turner, Karl A. Pillemer, Jamie R.M. Robinson, and M. Cary Reid
This brief summarizes findings from a recent study that estimated the prevalence of arthritis and activity-limiting pain among family caregivers to older adults. Over half of all caregivers reported bothersome pain in the previous month, 24% of whom had pain that limited their activities on most or every day.
January 30, 2024
Why is Food Insecurity High among U.S. Grandparents who are Caring for Grandchildren?
Madonna Harrington Meyer and Anna Delapaz
This brief draws on interviews with U.S. adults ages 60 and older who are caring for their grandchildren to summarize the factors contributing to food insecurity among grandparents.
January 23, 2024
Asian Americans Experienced Large Increases in Anxiety between 2020 and 2022
Tianqi Zhou
This data slice shows that while Asian adults in the United States have lower average anxiety levels than other ethnoracial groups, they experienced the largest increase in average anxiety between 2020 and 2022.
January 16, 2024
Cognitive Functioning among U.S. Older Adults Differs by Gender and Urbanicity
Elizabeth Lawrence, Samantha John, and Tirth Bhatta
This data slice uses data from the Health Retirement Study to describe how cognitive functioning among adults ages 50+ differed by gender and across urban, suburban, and ex-urban areas in the U.S. from 1999-2016.
January 9, 2024
The Government Must Revise Public Housing Policies to Protect Vulnerable Populations from Evictions
Caroline Grabowski
This brief describes how the Anit-Drug Abuse Act negatively affects housing outcomes among people who use drugs and their families and advocates for an approach that prioritizes the long-term health and wellbeing among public housing tenants.
December 19, 2023
Bridging the Gap: Reducing Disparities in Reproductive Healthcare for Black and White Women
Emma Weiden
This brief summarizes disparities in reproductive healthcare outcomes for Black women compared to White women in the U.S., advocates for policy changes, and provides recommendations for addressing racial disparities to create more equitable reproductive healthcare.
December 12, 2023
Stronger Regulations on Air Pollution Could Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Rates
Yue Sun
Cutting air pollution to match the World Health Organization’s proposed standards could have prevented over 300,000 cardiovascular disease deaths in 2016-18.
December 5, 2023
Behavioral Science Interventions Could Increase SNAP Comprehension Among Military Families
Colleen Heflin, Hannah Patnaik, Leonard Lopoo, and Siobhan O’Keefe
Making small behavioral science informed changes to SNAP informational flyers increased military & veteran families’ knowledge about benefits & may help to increase SNAP uptake in this population.
November 28, 2023