Real-World Experiences of Parkinson's Disease OFF Time and Role of Demographics.

Purpose: OFF periods are episodes when Parkinson's disease (PD) medications work suboptimally, with symptoms returning and impacting quality of life. We aimed to characterize OFF periods using patient-reported frequency, severity, and duration, as well as determine these characteristics' associations with demographics.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study using Fox Insight Data Exploration Network (Fox DEN) database was conducted.

Throwing caution to the wind: How hurricanes affect COVID-19 spread.

This study exploits the pathway of Hurricane Laura to assess its impact on the spread of COVID-19. Using US hospital data on confirmed and suspected adult COVID-19 cases, we find average daily cases per week rose by more than 12% primarily in tropical storm-affected counties in subsequent weeks. We suspect the key mechanisms involve constraints on social distancing for two reasons.

Demographics matter: the potentially disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on hospital ratings.

Objective: To identify how features of the community in which a hospital serves differentially relate to its patients' experiences based on the quality of that hospital.

Design: A Finite Mixture Model (FMM) is used to uncover a mix of two latent groups of hospitals that differ in quality. In the FMM, a multinomial logistic equation relates hospital-level factors to the odds of being in either group.

The value of early physical maturity to young adult labor market outcomes.

Puberty is the most important developmental milestone closely preceding a young adult's labor market decisions. Thus, we examine the variation in the timing of physical maturity during adolescence to isolate its association with employment and hourly wages for US young adults. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data, we find an early maturity premium of about 6% for females and 8% for males, but no employment advantage, in excess of gains from height and physical attractiveness.

If looks could heal: Child health and paternal investment.

Data from the first two waves of the Fragile Family and Child Wellbeing study indicate that infants who look like their father at birth are healthier one year later. The reason is such father-child resemblance induces a father to spend more time engaged in positive parenting. An extra day (per month) of time-investment by a typical visiting father enhances child health by just over 10% of a standard deviation.