Life Expectancy Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2019-2021: Highly Racialized Deaths in Young and Middle Adulthood in the United States as Compared With Other High-Income Countries.

We estimated changes in life expectancy between 2019 and 2021 in the United States (in the total population and separately for 5 racial/ethnic groups) and 20 high-income peer countries. For each country's total population, we decomposed the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 changes in life expectancy by age. For US populations, we also decomposed the life expectancy changes by age and number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) deaths.

Differences in Determinants: Racialized Obstetric Care and Increases in U.S. State Labor Induction Rates.

Induction of labor (IOL) rates in the United States have nearly tripled since 1990. We examine official U.S.

Increases in Obstetric Interventions and Changes in Gestational Age Distributions of U.S. Births.

To examine how changes in induction of labor (IOL) and cesarean deliveries between 1990 and 2017 affected gestational age distributions of births in the United States. Singleton first births were drawn from the National Vital Statistics System Birth Data for years 1990-2017. Separate analytic samples were created (1) by maternal race/ethnicity (Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Asian, and non-Hispanic white), (2) by maternal age (15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-49), (3) by U.

Sources and severity of bias in estimates of the BMI-mortality association.

Estimates of mortality differences by body mass index (BMI) are likely biased by: (1) confounding bias from heterogeneity in body shape; (2) positive survival bias in high-BMI samples due to recent weight gain; and (3) negative survival bias in low-BMI samples due to recent weight loss. I investigate these sources of bias in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1988-94 and 1999-2006 linked to mortality up to 2015 (17,784 cases; 4,468 deaths). I use Cox survival models to estimate BMI differences in all-cause mortality risks among adults aged [45-85) in the United States.

Changes in Life Expectancy Between 2019 and 2020 in the US and 21 Peer Countries.

Importance: Prior studies reported that US life expectancy decreased considerably in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with estimates suggesting that the decreases were much larger among Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black populations than non-Hispanic White populations. Studies based on provisional data suggested that other high-income countries did not experience the large decrease in life expectancy observed in the US; this study sought to confirm these findings according to official death counts and to broaden the pool of comparison countries.

Objective: To calculate changes in US life expectancy between 2019 and 2020 by sex, race, and ethnicity and to compare those outcomes with changes in other high-income countries.

Age-Specific Mortality During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic and Life Expectancy Changes in the United States and Peer Countries, 1980-2020.

Objectives: Since the 1980s, life expectancy at birth (e0) in the United States has fallen steadily behind that of other high-income countries, widening the U.S. e0 disadvantage.

The National Death Index as a Source of Homicide Data: A Methodological Exposition of Promises and Pitfalls for Criminologists.

Criminologists largely rely on national de-identified data sources to study homicide in the United States. The National Death Index (NDI), a comprehensive and well-established database compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, is an untapped source of homicide data that offers identifiable linkages to other data sources while retaining national coverage. This study's five aims follow.

Effect of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 on life expectancy across populations in the USA and other high income countries: simulations of provisional mortality data.

Objective: To estimate changes in life expectancy in 2010-18 and during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 across population groups in the United States and to compare outcomes with peer nations.

Design: Simulations of provisional mortality data.

Setting: US and 16 other high income countries in 2010-18 and 2020, by sex, including an analysis of US outcomes by race and ethnicity.

Trends in "Deaths of Despair" Among Working-Aged White and Black Americans, 1990-2017.

Life expectancy for US White men and women declined between 2013 and 2017. Initial explanations for the decline focused on increases in "deaths of despair" (i.e.

Exceptional mortality risk among police-identified young black male gang members.

Gang membership is associated with many risky behaviors but is often overlooked as a source of mortality among young Americans. Gang Member-Linked Mortality Files (GM-LMFs) match St. Louis, Missouri gang members listed in a law enforcement gang database to mortality records in the National Death Index.

Worth the Weight? Recent Trends in Obstetric Practices, Gestational Age, and Birth Weight in the United States.

Birth weight in the United States declined substantially during the 1990s and 2000s. We suggest that the declines were likely due to shifts in gestational age resulting from changes in obstetric practices. Using restricted National Vital Statistics System data linked birth/infant death data for 1990-2013, we analyze trends in obstetric practices, gestational age distributions, and birth weights among first-birth singletons born to U.

Body size reference norms and subjective weight status: A gender and life course approach.

This paper uses data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to describe county-level variation in norms regarding physical weight among adolescents in the United States. We demonstrate that regardless of one's physical size, those residing in counties with a heavier weight norm are significantly less likely to see themselves as overweight than those residing in counties with a light weight norm. We further show that the local weight norm during adolescence (Wave 1) is associated with individuals' weight perceptions through adolescence and into young adulthood (Wave 4), though these associations attenuate in strength as respondents age.

The relationship between education and health among incarcerated men and women in the United States.

Background: This paper contributes to research on the education-health association by extending the scope of inquiry to adult inmates. Not only are inmates excluded from most nationally representative studies of health but they also represent a highly select group in terms of both education and health. As such, our study provides new information about the health of incarcerated populations and it extends the generalizability of the education-health association beyond the non-institutionalized population.

Fitting Age-Period-Cohort Models Using the Intrinsic Estimator: Assumptions and Misapplications.

We thank ’s editorial office for the opportunity to respond to te Grotenhuis et al.’s commentary regarding the methods used and the results presented in our earlier paper (Masters et al. 2014).

Clarifying hierarchical age-period-cohort models: A rejoinder to Bell and Jones.

Previously, Reither et al. (2015) demonstrated that hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) models perform well when basic assumptions are satisfied. To contest this finding, Bell and Jones (2015) invent a data generating process (DGP) that borrows age, period and cohort effects from different equations in Reither et al.

Should age-period-cohort studies return to the methodologies of the 1970s?

Social scientists have recognized the importance of age-period-cohort (APC) models for half a century, but have spent much of this time mired in debates about the feasibility of APC methods. Recently, a new class of APC methods based on modern statistical knowledge has emerged, offering potential solutions. In 2009, Reither, Hauser and Yang used one of these new methods - hierarchical APC (HAPC) modeling - to study how birth cohorts may have contributed to the U.

Trends in education gradients of 'preventable' mortality: a test of fundamental cause theory.

Fundamental cause theory explains persisting associations between socioeconomic status and mortality in terms of personal resources such as knowledge, money, power, prestige, and social connections, as well as disparate social contexts related to these resources. We review evidence concerning fundamental cause theory and test three central claims using the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files 1986-2004. We then examine cohort-based variation in the associations between a fundamental social cause of disease, educational attainment, and mortality rates from heart disease, other "preventable" causes of death, and less preventable causes of death.