Health of Populations and Health Equity

Highlights

Publication

Trends and Patterns of Social History Data Collection Within an Electronic Health Record

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.
Publication

Cognitive Decline and Dynamic Selection

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.
Publication

High Deductible Health Plans and Spending among Families with a Substance Use Disorder

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.
News

Locking Down or Opening Up?

A Debate on the Best Path through the Pandemic, Discussing the John Snow Memorandum and the Great Barrington Declaration

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.