Health of Populations and Health Equity

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 policymakers have consulted epidemiologists and economists to determine the best course of action.

Emilia Simeonova in Journal of Labor Economics

Emilia Simeonova in Journal of Labor Economics

Alene Kennedy-Hendricks in Environmental Health Insights

Get to know Catherine Ettman, Ph.D., a member of HBHI’s core faculty and assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her work explores the social and economic forces that shape population mental health and policies that can reduce mental health disparities.

Several members of HBHI's core faculty have received new or continued funding in this round of awards.

Do local acute care hospitals admit representative proportions of Black Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries based on their market areas?

The United States is experiencing a decline in life expectancy despite high health care spending due to a multitude of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, opioid epidemic, high burden of chronic disease, and systemic and structural inequities.

Treatment gaps continue to grow for US individuals with mental health conditions.

HBHI invited a panel of three guests to discuss this issue: Katey Bey, Global Head, Total Rewards, Sedgwick; Gregory Daniel, PhD, MPH, Vice President & Head of Global Public Policy, Eli Lilly and Company; and Shantanu Nundy, MD, EVP Care Delivery and Chief Health Officer, Accolade.

Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) measures in population-based surveys offer potential for dementia surveillance, yet their validation against established dementia measures is lacking

Academic medical practices serve a valuable role in caring for patients with complex needs and training future internists in the many biopsychosocial components of patient care.

Despite the growing need for surrogate decision-making for older adults, little is known about how surrogates make decisions and whether advance directives would change decision-making.

How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect entries into and exits out of the health care workforce?

Were there differences in the changes in depression and anxiety symptoms after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade among residents of states with trigger abortion bans compared with residents of states without such bans?

To model the potential impact of mobile methadone unit implementation in Louisiana on net medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment rates.

Patients with cancer face a crisis due to an ongoing shortage of essential chemotherapeutic drugs.

Hearing loss has been identified as an independent risk factor for negative health outcomes and mortality. However, whether rehabilitation with hearing aid use is associated with lower mortality is currently unknown. This study aimed to examine the associations of hearing loss, hearing aid use, and mortality in the USA.

The application of psychedelic therapy for a range of mental and physical health issues is emerging as a transformative treatment method but federal policy has not kept pace with the industry’s rapid development. To understand the burgeoning business landscape surrounding this innovative therapy, the Hopkins Business of Health Initiative, in partnership with the Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy, recently convened a panel of national experts to discuss the cutting-edge convergence of psychedelics, business, and policy.  

HBHI is pleased to announce our five pilot grant awardees for our 2024 cohort.

85% of C-suite leadership is white, compared with only 68% of the patient population. 3 healthcare leaders write their prescription for the cure.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) applications in healthcare could have algorithmic biases that perpetuate health disparities.

We use data from a long-running experiment in which American Indian households received income transfers from a casino while other households did not

Classification systems to segment such patients into subgroups for purposes of care management and population analytics should balance administrative simplicity with clinical meaning and measurement precision.

Abstract Objective: This study aimed to determine the influence of structural racism, vis-à-vis neighborhood socioeconomic trajectory, on colorectal and breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Health Equity & Business: 9 Expert Takeaways The Hopkins Business of Health Initiative convened two experts in this work, Dr. Lisa Cooper and Ebony Thomas of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, in a recent conversation to discuss best practices for health equity in business and where they see opportunities for growth. 

There is increased acceptance that social and behavioral determinants of health (SBDH) impact health outcomes, but electronic health records (EHRs) are not always set up to capture the full range of SBDH variables in a systematic manner. The purpose of this study was to explore rates and trends of social history (SH) data collection—1 element of SBDH—in a structured portion of an EHR within a large academic integrated delivery system.

Significant racial disparities were observed in discussions, prescribing, and use of diabetes technology.

Understanding cognitive health, its decline, and the investments that shape its age profile in later life are important in an aging society, and yet, estimating the cognitive health production function is complicated by non-random mortality and sample attrition. The author studies this dynamic selection problem in the context of education, race, and cigarette smoking, characteristics thought to affect the level, but not slope, of cognitive decline. The author develops a general framework that involves estimation of a system of dynamic equations consistent with the Grossman (1972) model.

Health-maximizing and welfare-maximizing behaviors can be at odds, especially among disadvantaged groups, generating health disparities. We estimate a lifecycle model of medication and labor supply decisions using data on HIV-positive men.

Care partners have an active role during medical visits of older adults with hearing loss (HL) and dementia. Efforts to support care partner engagement and teach advocacy skills may close gaps in care quality for the subgroup of older adults who are living with HL and dementia.

The United States faces an ongoing drug crisis, worsened by the undertreatment of substance use disorders (SUDs). Family enrollment in high deductible health plans (HDHPs) and the resulting increased cost exposure could exacerbate the undertreatment of SUD. This study characterized the distribution of health care spending within families where a member has a SUD and estimated the association between HDHPs and family health care spending.

The main asset of a business is its people, without whom organizations could not function. As such, employers are naturally motivated to invest in their workers. But how should they go about improving the health of employees while also improving the company’s bottom line?

As the health of Americans gets worse, with chronic disease and physical and mental illnesses on the rise, do corporations have a role to play in addressing the health crisis?

Although nearly half of all family and unpaid caregivers to older adults work, little is known about short-term work impacts of caregiving using measures encompassing both missed work time and reduced productivity while physically at work. We quantify the prevalence, costs, and correlates of caregiving-related work productivity loss.

The proposal for a national PrEP program applies some of the lessons of the national COVID vaccine campaign to HIV prevention.

Medicaid managed care insurers play a crucial role in facilitating access to buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder. Using a novel set of provider directory and prescription claims data, we examined variation in access to in-network buprenorphine-prescribing primary care providers among Medicaid managed care enrollees.

Realizing the promise of equity in the organ transplantation system

A study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University found that stay-at-home orders in one county can inspire residents of neighboring counties to travel less.

Ge Bai, PhD, led a new study in Medical Care Research and Review recommending that policy makers should consider improving transparency of the commission made by insurance agents and brokers to help facilitate employers making efficient broker contracting and plan purchasing decisions.

How people have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic provides insight into the ways that people make decisions, alter their behavior, and respond to other major threats.