Legalization and retail availability of recreational marijuana and adolescent use in schools.

Legalization of use and retail sales of recreational marijuana in U.S. states and the associated potential increase in access to marijuana and normalization of its use by adults could lead to increased use by adolescents.

The cost-effectiveness of an English language curriculum for middle school English learners.

Best practice suggests that curricular decisions be made on the evidence base of the content and the contextual fit of the curriculum to the school setting, and with coaching to help teachers effectively use curricula. Messages from the federal government encourage school administrators and researchers to consider the costs of a program. The Middle School English Learner Project, an evaluation of the curriculum, provides the opportunity to document and analyze the cost-effectiveness (CE) of a high-quality implementation of one English language program.

Costs and benefits of cooperative learning as a universal school-based approach to adolescent substance use prevention.

Substance use during early adolescence implies a greater likelihood of abuse and dependence in later adolescence or adulthood. In turn, substance abuse and dependence are linked to a variety of maladaptive long-term health-related outcomes that imply significant individual and societal costs. In this paper, we evaluated an approach to substance use prevention that relies on the vital role of peers, who comprise a key risk factor for adolescent substance use.

Extreme temperatures during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes: Evidence from 2009 to 2018 U.S. national birth data.

We provide the first estimates of the impacts of prenatal exposure to extreme temperatures on infant health at birth using the latest national birth data from 2009 to 2018 from all U.S. states.

Frailty Risks of Prescription Analgesics and Sedatives across Frailty Models: the Health and Retirement Study.

Introduction: Limited evidence for incident frailty risks associated with prescription analgesics and sedatives in older (≥ 65 years) community-living adults prompted a more comprehensive investigation.

Methods: We used data from older Health and Retirement Study respondents and three frailty models (frailty index, functional domain, frailty phenotype with 8803, 10,470, and 6850 non-frail individuals, respectively) and estimated sub-hazard ratios of regular prescription drug use (co-use, analgesic use, and sedative use), by frailty model. We addressed confounding with covariate adjustment and propensity score matching approaches.

Self-Reported Prescription Drug Use for Pain and for Sleep and Incident Frailty.

Objectives: We aimed to estimate incident frailty risks of prescription drugs for pain and for sleep in older US adults.

Design: Longitudinal cohort.

Setting: Health and Retirement Study.

Effects of posted point-of-sale warnings on alcohol consumption during pregnancy and on birth outcomes.

In 23 states and Washington D.C., alcohol retailers are required by law to post alcohol warning signs (AWS) that warn against the risks of drinking during pregnancy.

Potential Climate Change Health Risks from Increases in Heat Waves: Abnormal Birth Outcomes and Adverse Maternal Health Conditions.

We investigate the risks presented by heat waves for adverse health conditions for babies and expectant mothers when these mothers have been exposed to heat waves during gestation or during the period just prior to conception. Rather than just birth weight and gestational age, we focus on less common metrics such as abnormal conditions in the newborn (fetal distress, reliance on a ventilator, and meconium aspiration) and adverse health conditions in the mother (pregnancy-related hypertension, uterine bleeding during pregnancy, eclampsia, and incompetent cervix). We use monthly panel data for over 3,000 U.