Use of Oral and Emergency Contraceptives After the US Supreme Court's Dobbs Decision.

Importance: The US Supreme Court Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision allowed states to strengthen restrictions on abortion access, triggering the closure of family planning clinics and leading to confusion about the legality of emergency contraceptives (ECs).

Objectives: To evaluate the association between the Dobbs decision and fills for oral and emergency contraceptives in states that enacted the most restrictive abortion policies after Dobbs.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study used data on contraceptive fills for women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in the US from IQVIA's National Prescription Audit PayerTrak and data from the Guttmacher Institute were used to categorize changes in abortion restrictions in each state.

National Burden of Injury and Deaths From Shootings by Police in the United States, 2015‒2020.

To describe all-outcome injurious shootings by police and compare characteristics of fatal versus nonfatal injurious shootings nationally. From July 2021 to April 2023, we manually reviewed publicly available records on all 2015-2020 injurious shootings by US police, identified from Gun Violence Archive. We estimated injury frequency, case fatality rates, and relative odds of death by incident and victim characteristics.

Ensuring Rights while Protecting Health: The Importance of Using a Human Rights Approach in Implementing Public Health Responses to COVID-19.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have implemented public health policies that limit individual freedoms in order to control disease transmission. While such limitations on liberties are sometimes necessary for pandemic control, many of these policies have been overly broad or have neglected to consider the costs for populations already susceptible to human rights violations. Furthermore, the pandemic has exacerbated preexisting inequities based on health care access, poverty, racial injustice, refugee crises, and lack of education.

Pharmacist-Prescribed And Over-The-Counter Hormonal Contraception In Los Angeles County Retail Pharmacies.

Federal and state policies to increase access to birth control have included expanding access to preventive and emergency hormonal contraception at pharmacies for women and girls of all ages without a physician's prescription. We conducted a "mystery shopper" telephone survey to quantify the impact of these policies in Los Angeles County, California. That county consistently has among the highest number of unintended pregnancies and teen births in the US, especially in low-income and minority neighborhoods.

Public Comments on the Proposed Common Rule Mandate for Single-IRB Review of Multisite Research.

We reviewed the public comments submitted in response to the Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS's) original and revised proposal for mandated single-IRB review of federally funded multisite research to see who responded to the proposed mandate and to determine what they said and how the agency addressed the public comments in its revised proposal. Our analysis indicates that support for the single-IRB mandate was limited. The most common argument against the proposed mandate came from those concerned with the loss of site-specific institutional review board (IRB) review of the protocol for a multisite study to address issues relevant to local context.

Using Genetic Technologies To Reduce, Rather Than Widen, Health Disparities.

Evidence shows that both biological and nonbiological factors contribute to health disparities. Genetics, in particular, plays a part in how common diseases manifest themselves. Today, unprecedented advances in genetically based diagnoses and treatments provide opportunities for personalized medicine.

Baltimore City Stores Increased The Availability Of Healthy Food After WIC Policy Change.

As part of a 2009 revision to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, the Department of Agriculture required WIC-authorized stores to stock additional varieties of healthy food. The long-term effects of this policy on access to healthy food are unknown. Using surveys conducted in 118 Baltimore City, Maryland, food stores in 2006 and 2012, we examined associations of the change in healthy food availability with store type, neighborhood demographics, and the 2009 WIC policy change.

Comparing employer-sponsored and federal exchange plans: wide variations in cost sharing for prescription drugs.

Just under seven million Americans acquired private insurance through the new health insurance exchanges, or Marketplaces, in 2014. The exchange plans are required to cover essential health benefits, including prescription drugs. However, the generosity of prescription drug coverage in the plans has not been well described.

Disparities in diabetes: the nexus of race, poverty, and place.

Objectives: We sought to determine the role of neighborhood poverty and racial composition on race disparities in diabetes prevalence.

Methods: We used data from the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 2000 US Census to estimate the impact of individual race and poverty and neighborhood racial composition and poverty concentration on the odds of having diabetes.

Results: We found a race-poverty-place gradient for diabetes prevalence for Blacks and poor Whites.