Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions and maternal morbidity.

In this paper, we test whether the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions are associated with maternal morbidity. The ACA expansions may have affected maternal morbidity by increasing pre-conception access to health care, and by improving the quality of delivery care, through enhancing hospitals' financial positions. We use difference-in-difference models in conjunction with event studies.

Toward a Uniform Classification of Nurse Practitioner Scope of Practice Laws.

Many states' scope of practice laws limits the ability of nurse practitioners to deliver care by requiring physician supervision of their practices and prescribing activities. A robust literature has evolved around examining the role of these scope of practice laws in various contexts, including labor market outcomes, health care access, health care prices, and the delivery of care for specific diseases. Unfortunately, these studies use different, and sometimes conflicting, measures of scope of practice laws, limiting their comparability and overall usefulness to policymakers and future researchers.

Adaptation of Threat Responses Within the Negative Valence Framework.

External threats are a major source of our experience of negatively valanced emotion. As a threat becomes closer and more real, our specific behavior patterns and our experiences of negative affect change in response to the perceived imminence of threat. Recognizing this, the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Negative Valence system is largely based around different levels of threat imminence.

Anti-poverty policy and health: Attributes and diffusion of state earned income tax credits across U.S. states from 1980 to 2020.

Purpose: The U.S. federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is often considered the most effective antipoverty program for families in the U.

Exposure Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Factors of Limited Success and Possible Alternative Treatment.

Recent research indicates that there is mixed success in using exposure therapies on patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our study argues that there are two major reasons for this: The first is that there are nonassociative aspects of PTSD, such as hyperactive amygdala activity, that cannot be attenuated using the exposure therapy; The second is that exposure therapy is conceptualized from the theoretical framework of Pavlovian fear extinction, which we know is heavily context dependent. Thus, reducing fear response in a therapist's office does not guarantee reduced response in other situations.

Cognitive dissonance-based eating disorder prevention: pilot study of a cultural adaptation for the Orthodox Jewish community.

The Body Project (BP) is a cognitive dissonance-based eating disorders (ED) prevention program that targets thin-ideal internalization and reduces ED risk factors and onset for higher-risk adolescent/young adult females. Although the more insular Orthodox Jewish communities reduce exposure to mainstream secular media, they are not immune to thin-ideal internalization and EDs. The present uncontrolled study evaluated the preliminary effects of a cultural adaptation of the BP for Orthodox Jewish girls.

The effects of employment on influenza rates.

The seasonal influenza virus afflicts millions of people in the U.S. population each year, imposing significant costs on those who fall ill, their families, employers, and the health care system.

Effects of State-Level Earned Income Tax Credit Laws on Birth Outcomes by Race and Ethnicity.

Health disparities persist in birth outcomes by mother's income, education, and race in the United States. Disadvantaged mothers may experience benefit from supplements to family income, such as the earned income tax credit (EITC). We examined the effects of state-level EITCs on birth outcomes among women with a high school education or less, stratified by race and ethnicity.

Effects of changes in earned income tax credit: Time-series analyses of Washington DC.

Poverty has numerous deleterious effects on health, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the major policy tool used to alleviate poverty in the U.S. We evaluate effects of four distinct changes in earned income tax credit law in Washington, DC on maternal behaviors and infant outcomes.

Effects of state-level Earned Income Tax Credit laws in the U.S. on maternal health behaviors and infant health outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of state-level Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) laws in the U.S. on maternal health behaviors and infant health outcomes.

Competitive effects of scope of practice restrictions: Public health or public harm?

The demand for healthcare professionals is predicted to grow significantly over the next decade. Securing an adequate workforce is of primary importance to ensure the health and wellbeing of the population in an efficient manner. Occupational licensing laws and related restrictions on scope of practice (SOP) are features of the market for healthcare professionals and are also controversial.

The Effect of an Increased Minimum Wage on Infant Mortality and Birth Weight.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of state minimum wage laws on low birth weight and infant mortality in the United States.

Methods: We estimated the effects of state-level minimum wage laws using a difference-in-differences approach on rates of low birth weight (< 2500 g) and postneonatal mortality (28-364 days) by state and month from 1980 through 2011. All models included state and year fixed effects as well as state-specific covariates.

Job mobility among parents of children with chronic health conditions: Early effects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

We examine the effects of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (ACA) prohibition of preexisting conditions exclusions for children on job mobility among parents. We use a difference-in-difference approach, comparing pre-post policy changes in job mobility among privately-insured parents of children with chronic health conditions vs. privately-insured parents of healthy children.

The effects of mandated health insurance benefits for autism on out-of-pocket costs and access to treatment.

As of 2014, 37 states have passed mandates requiring many private health insurance policies to cover diagnostic and treatment services for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We explore whether ASD mandates are associated with out-of-pocket costs, financial burden, and cost or insurance-related problems with access to treatment among privately insured children with special health care needs (CSHCNs). We use difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference approaches, comparing pre--post mandate changes in outcomes among CSHCN who have ASD versus CSHCN other than ASD.

Alcohol Control and Foster Care.

Parental alcohol consumption is often associated with an increased likelihood of child abuse. As consumption is related to price, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the propensity for increases in the full price of alcohol to influence entry rates and the length of time spent in foster care. Using alcoholic beverage prices and a measure of availability in combination with data on foster care cases, we find that higher alcohol prices are not effective in reducing foster care entry rates; however, once in foster care, the duration of stay may be shortened by higher prices and reduced availability.

Tobacco Control Policies and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Developed Nations.

This paper estimates the effects of higher cigarette prices and smoke-free policies on the prevalence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Using a panel of developed countries over a 20 year period, we find that higher cigarette prices are associated with reductions in the prevalence of SIDS. However, we find no evidence that smoke-free policies are associated with declines in SIDS.

Effects of bicycle helmet laws on children's injuries.

In recent years, many states and localities in the USA have enacted bicycle helmet laws. We estimate the effects of these laws on injuries requiring emergency department treatment. Using hospital-level panel data and triple difference models, we find helmet laws are associated with reductions in bicycle-related head injuries among children.

Where there's smoking, there's fire: the effects of smoking policies on the incidence of fires in the USA.

Fires and burns are among the leading causes of unintentional death in the USA. Most of these deaths occur in residences, and cigarettes are a primary cause. In this paper, I explore the relationship between smoking, cigarette policies, and fires.

Effects of early maternal employment on maternal health and well-being.

This study uses data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study on Early Child Care to examine the effects of maternal employment on maternal mental and overall health, self-reported parenting stress, and parenting quality. These outcomes are measured when children are 6 months old. Among mothers of 6-month-old infants, maternal work hours are positively associated with depressive symptoms and parenting stress and negatively associated with self-rated overall health.

Expansion of Medicaid covered smoking cessation services: maternal smoking and birth outcomes.

Objective: To assess whether Medicaid coverage of smoking cessation services reduces maternal smoking and improves birth outcomes.

Methods: Pooled, cross-sectional data for 178,937 women with live births from 1996 to 2008, who were insured by Medicaid in 34 states plus New York City, were used to analyze self-reported smoking before pregnancy (3 months), smoking during the last 3 months of pregnancy, smoking after delivery (3-4 months), infant birth weight, and gestational age at delivery. Maternal socio-demographic and behavior variables from survey data and birth outcomes from vital records were merged with annual state data on Medicaid coverage for nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), medications and cessation counseling.

Estimating the Relationship between Alcohol Policies and Criminal Violence and Victimization.

Violence is one of the leading social problems in the United States. The development of appropriate public policies to curtail violence is confounded by the relationship between alcohol and violence. In this paper, we estimate the propensity of alcohol control policies to reduce the perpetration and victimization of criminal violence.

Family leave after childbirth and the mental health of new mothers.

Background: Recent studies indicate that short maternity leave, and, more generally, full-time maternal employment during the first year of life, detract from children's health, cognitive development, and behavioral outcomes. Much less is known, however, about how early parental employment affects the mental and physical health of the mothers themselves.

Aims Of The Study: The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between short family leave length (less than 12 weeks of total leave after childbirth, less than 8 weeks of paid leave) and mental and physical health outcomes among new mothers.

Reducing prenatal smoking: the role of state policies.

Background: Maternal smoking causes adverse health outcomes for both mothers and infants and leads to excess healthcare costs at delivery and beyond. Even with substantial declines over the past decade, around 23% of women enter pregnancy as a smoker and though almost half quit during pregnancy, half or more quitters resume smoking soon after delivery.

Purpose: To examine the independent effects of higher cigarette taxes and prices, smokefree policies, and tobacco control spending on maternal smoking prior to, during, and after a pregnancy during a period in which states have made changes in such policies.

Is youth smoking responsive to cigarette prices? Evidence from low- and middle-income countries.

Objective: To estimate the price elasticity of cigarette demand among youth in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).

Data: The Global Youth Tobacco Survey was used to obtain data on the smoking behaviour of 315,353 adolescents from 17 LMIC.

Design: Two-part model of cigarette demand with country fixed effects.