Medical use and combination drug therapy among US adult users of central nervous system stimulants: a cross-sectional analysis.

Objective: Examine patterns of adult medical use of amphetamine and methylphenidate stimulant drugs, classified in the USA as Schedule II controlled substances with a high potential for psychological or physical dependence.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting And Participants: Prescription drug claims for US adults, age 19-64 years, included in a commercial insurance claims database with 9.

Income Trajectories in Later Life: Longitudinal Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study.

We track low-income respondents in the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study for 23 years, to observe how their financial situations unfolded as they aged. We document that (a) real incomes remained relatively stable as individuals entered retirement and progressed through their later years; and (b) labor force participation declined and thus earnings became less important with age, while Social Security and retirement savings rose as a proportion of annual income. Low-income people near retirement also tended to fare poorly during retirement.

Changes in medical use of central nervous system stimulants among US adults, 2013 and 2018: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: To assess the 5-year changes in the adult medical use of central nervous system (CNS) stimulants with higher risk of dependence and evaluate the population characteristics of users and their medical and/or neurological conditions.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Annual US Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a stratified random sample of approximately 30 000 persons designed to produce national population estimates.

Financial Fraud Among Older Americans: Evidence and Implications.

Objectives: The consequences of poor financial capability at older ages are serious and include making mistakes with credit, spending retirement assets too quickly, and being defrauded by financial predators. Because older persons are at or past the peak of their wealth accumulation, they are often the targets of fraud.

Methods: Our project analyzes a module we developed and fielded on people aged 50 an older years in the 2016 Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

Risk Model of Bacterial Coinfection in Children with Severe Viral Bronchiolitis.

 Among children with respiratory failure from viral lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), up to 39% will develop pulmonary bacterial coinfection, yet nearly all will receive antibiotics. We sought to identify patients with viral LRTI requiring mechanical ventilation at low risk of bacterial coinfection through the use of a risk prediction model.  We performed a retrospective cohort study identifying all patients admitted to the intensive care unit with laboratory-confirmed viral LRTI requiring invasive mechanical ventilation over a 2-year period and partitioned data in experimental and validation datasets.

Do Smartphone Power Users Protect Mobile Privacy Better than Nonpower Users? Exploring Power Usage as a Factor in Mobile Privacy Protection and Disclosure.

This study examines how consumers' competence at using smartphone technology (i.e., power usage) affects their privacy protection behaviors.

Financial literacy: Do people know the ABCs of finance?

Increasingly, individuals are in charge of their own financial security and are confronted with ever more complex financial instruments. However, there is evidence that many individuals are not well-equipped to make sound saving decisions. This article looks at financial literacy, which is defined as the ability to process economic information and make informed decisions about financial planning, wealth accumulation, debt, and pensions.

The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence.

This paper undertakes an assessment of a rapidly growing body of economic research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for welfare as well as policies intended to enhance levels of financial knowledge in the larger population.