US State Policy Contexts and Population Health.

Policy Points This Perspective connects the dots between the polarization in US states' policy contexts and the divergence in population health across states. Key interlocking forces that fueled this polarization are the political investments of wealthy individuals and organizations and the nationalization of US political parties. Key policy priorities for the next decade include ensuring all Americans have opportunities for economic security, deterring behaviors that kill or injure hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, and protecting voting rights and democratic functioning.

U.S. State Policy Contexts and Physical Health among Midlife Adults.

This study examines how state policy contexts may have contributed to unfavorable adult health in recent decades. It merges individual-level data from the 1993-2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (n=2,166,835) with 15 state-level policy domains measured annually on a conservative to liberal continuum. We examined associations between policy domains and health among adults ages 45-64 years and assess how much of the associations is accounted by adults' socioeconomic, behavioral/lifestyle, and family factors.

All-mail voting in Colorado increases turnout and reduces turnout inequality.

The COVID-19 crisis has generated interest in all-mail voting (AMV) as a potential policy solution for avoiding in-person elections. However, the quality of AMV implementation has varied greatly across states, leading to mixed results in previous research. We exploit the understudied 2014 implementation of AMV in Colorado to estimate the effect on turnout for all registered voters, along with age, racial, education, income and wealth, and occupational subgroups.

Association of US state policy orientation with adverse birth outcomes: a longitudinal analysis.

Background: The current US context is marked by extreme right-left partisanship, which means that state policies tend to bundle together and are not experienced in isolation. While prior work has leveraged abrupt shifts in single policies to examine the effects of state policy on birth outcomes, we examined a holistic measure that captures political polarisation.

Methods: Data were drawn from national birth certificates for 2003-2017 (N=56 770 470).

US State Policies, Politics, and Life Expectancy.

Unlabelled: Policy Points Changes in US state policies since the 1970s, particularly after 2010, have played an important role in the stagnation and recent decline in US life expectancy. Some US state policies appear to be key levers for improving life expectancy, such as policies on tobacco, labor, immigration, civil rights, and the environment. US life expectancy is estimated to be 2.

Validation of a survey to examine drinking-water access, practices and policies in schools.

Objective: Ensuring ready access to free drinking-water in schools is an important strategy for prevention of obesity and dental caries, and for improving student learning. Yet to date, there are no validated instruments to examine water access in schools. The present study aimed to develop and validate a survey of school administrators to examine school access to beverages, including water and sports drinks, and school and district-level water-related policies and practices.

Tapping into water: key considerations for achieving excellence in school drinking water access.

Objectives: We examined free drinking water access in schools.

Methods: We conducted cross-sectional interviews with administrators from 240 California public schools from May to November 2011 to examine the proportion of schools that met excellent water access criteria (i.e.

Observations of drinking water access in school food service areas before implementation of federal and state school water policy, California, 2011.

Introduction: Recent legislation requires schools to provide free drinking water in food service areas (FSAs). Our objective was to describe access to water at baseline and student water intake in school FSAs and to examine barriers to and strategies for implementation of drinking water requirements.

Methods: We randomly sampled 24 California Bay Area public schools.