Importance: Social isolation is associated with adverse health outcomes, yet its implications for hospitalization and nursing home entry are not well understood.
Objective: To evaluate whether higher levels of social isolation are associated with overnight hospitalization, skilled nursing facility stays, and nursing home placement among a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults after adjusting for key health and social characteristics, including loneliness and depressive symptoms.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This observational cohort study included 7 waves of longitudinal panel data from the Health and Retirement Study, with community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older interviewed between March 1, 2006, and June 30, 2018 (11 517 respondents; 21 294 person-years).
Introduction: Paid sick leave laws have received more attention in recent years as a way to improve public health. This study estimates the impact of paid sick leave laws on the use of preventive services using a quasi-experimental design created by the implementation of Connecticut's paid sick leave law in 2012, the first statewide mandate in the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Electronic cigarette (ECIG) use has increased dramatically in recent years. Negative ECIG-related acute health effects have included explosion/burn injuries from battery failure and child ingestion/poisoning of liquid nicotine. However, there is an urgent need for continued surveillance of ECIG health effects to determine whether these outcomes change as ECIG devices and liquids rapidly evolve.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: On September 22, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's national ban on flavored cigarette products went into effect, barring the sale of flavored cigarettes with the exception of menthol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrior research has shown a relationship between falls, hospitalizations, and depression among older adults in nursing home settings, but few studies have explored these relationships for younger and older adults in residential care facilities. This study examined risk factors for hospitalizations among assisted living residents. Using the 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities, the study found that 24% of residents had a hospital stay in the past year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Serv Res
February 2010
Objectives: This paper examines whether malpractice claims have any impact on obstetrical practice patterns (C-section rates) and physician delivery volume.
Data Sources: Secondary data from the 1992-2000 Florida Hospital Inpatient Discharge File, the Florida Medical Professional Liability Insurance Claims File, and the American Medical Association's Master File on physician characteristics.
Study Design: The effects of malpractice claims on C-section rates and physician delivery volume were estimated using panel data and a fixed-effects multivariate model.