Faculty & Research Published Research Research Education Economics Social Psychology Social Entrepreneurship Environmental Policy Ethics Leadership Racial Justice and Equity National Security Political Science Advocacy Domestic Policy & Politics International and Global Affairs Democracy Social Equity International Development Research and Commentary (-) Health Policy Facet Area of Focus - Research Christopher J. Ruhm Adam Leive Richard Bonnie Craig Volden John Pepper Sebastian Tello-Trillo William Shobe Facet People - Research Facet UVA Partner - Research Published Research Health Policy Social Psychology Estimated Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Clinically Significant Anxiety and Depression Among US Adults During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Ronald C. Kessler, Victor Puac-Polanco How much did clinically significant anxiety and depression increase among US adults during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this survey study of more than 1.4 million respondents in the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, responses to a screening question calibrated to a 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire score of 6 or greater suggested that aggregate prevalence of clinically significant anxiety and depression increased only modestly overall among US adults in 2020 compared with 2017 to 2019. Learn more Working Paper Health Policy The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review Of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Justine Mallatt, Kosali I. Simon This study reviews quasi-experimental studies that examine the relationship between opioids and health and healthcare, and crime outcomes in the U.S. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Economics Health Insurance Design Meets Saving Incentives: Consumer Responses to Complex Contracts Authors: Adam Leive To lower health care costs, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer tax incentives encouraging people to trade off current consumption against future consumption. This paper tests whether consumers use HSAs as self-insurance over the life cycle. Learn more Published Research Economics Health Policy Health Insurance for Whom? The ‘Spill-up’ Effects of Children’s Health Insurance on Mothers Authors: Sebastian Tello-Trillo, Daniel S. Grossman, Barton Willage New research shows that expansions in children’s Medicaid eligibility increases the likelihood a mother is married, decreases her labor market participation, and reduces her smoking and alcohol consumption. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Social Equity Has Mortality Risen Disproportionately for the Least Educated? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Adam Leive Two Batten professors examine whether the least educated population groups experienced the worst mortality trends at the beginning of the 21st century by measuring changes in mortality across education quartiles. Learn more Published Research Economics Health Policy A Cautionary Tale in Comparative Effectiveness Research: Perils and Pitfalls of Observational Data Analysis Authors: Adam Leive, Armando Franco, Dana Goldman, Daniel McFadden Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Geographic Variation in Opioid and Heroin Involved Drug Poisoning Mortality Rates Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm An important barrier to formulating effective policies to address the rapid rise in U.S. fatal overdoses is that the specific drugs involved are frequently not identified on death certificates. This analysis supplies improved estimates of state opioid and heroin involved drug fatality rates in 2014, and changes from 2008 to 2014. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Identifying the Effects of Food Stamps on the Nutritional Health of Children when Program participation is Misreported Authors: John Pepper, Craig Gundersen, Dean Jolliffe, Brent Kreider The literature assessing the efficacy of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, has long puzzled over positive associations between SNAP receipt and various undesirable health outcomes such as food insecurity. Assessing the causal impacts of SNAP, however, is hampered by two key identification problems: endogenous selection into participation and extensive systematic underreporting of participation status.Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we extend partial identification bounding methods to account for these two identification problems in a single unifying framework. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Doctor Knows Best: Physician Endorsements, Public Opinion, and the Politics of Comparative Effectiveness Research Authors: Eric M. Patashnik, Alan S. Gerber, David Doherty, Conor M. Dowling The Obama administration has made a major investment in comparative effectiveness research (CER) to learn what treatments work best for which patients. CER has the potential to reduce wasteful medical spending and improve patient outcomes, but the political sustainability of this initiative remains unclear due to concerns that it will threaten the doctor-patient relationship. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Fetal and Early Childhood Undernutrition, Mortality and Lifelong Health Authors: Chessa Lutter Learn more Published Research Health Policy Nurses’ Presenteeism and Its Effects on Self-Reported Quality of Care and Costs Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Susan A. Letvak, Sat N. Gupta Although research has been conducted on how nurse staffing levels affect outcomes, there has been little investigation into how the health-related productivity of nurses is related to quality of care. Two major causes of worker presenteeism (reduced on-the-job productivity as a result of health problems) are musculoskeletal pain and mental health issues, particularly depression. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Interventions Used by Virginia's Colleges to Respond to Student Mental Health Crises Authors: Richard Bonnie, John Monahan, Susan Davis, Christopher Flynn Objective: This study examined interventions by colleges in 2008–2009 to respond to students during mental health crises. Methods: Public (N=15) and private (N=25) four-year colleges and two-year community colleges (N=23) in Virginia were surveyed about academic policies governing responses to apparent mental health crises among students and how often they were invoked. Learn more Pagination Current page 1 Page 2 Next page Next ›
Published Research Health Policy Social Psychology Estimated Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Clinically Significant Anxiety and Depression Among US Adults During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Ronald C. Kessler, Victor Puac-Polanco How much did clinically significant anxiety and depression increase among US adults during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this survey study of more than 1.4 million respondents in the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, responses to a screening question calibrated to a 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire score of 6 or greater suggested that aggregate prevalence of clinically significant anxiety and depression increased only modestly overall among US adults in 2020 compared with 2017 to 2019. Learn more
Working Paper Health Policy The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review Of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Justine Mallatt, Kosali I. Simon This study reviews quasi-experimental studies that examine the relationship between opioids and health and healthcare, and crime outcomes in the U.S. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Economics Health Insurance Design Meets Saving Incentives: Consumer Responses to Complex Contracts Authors: Adam Leive To lower health care costs, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer tax incentives encouraging people to trade off current consumption against future consumption. This paper tests whether consumers use HSAs as self-insurance over the life cycle. Learn more
Published Research Economics Health Policy Health Insurance for Whom? The ‘Spill-up’ Effects of Children’s Health Insurance on Mothers Authors: Sebastian Tello-Trillo, Daniel S. Grossman, Barton Willage New research shows that expansions in children’s Medicaid eligibility increases the likelihood a mother is married, decreases her labor market participation, and reduces her smoking and alcohol consumption. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Social Equity Has Mortality Risen Disproportionately for the Least Educated? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Adam Leive Two Batten professors examine whether the least educated population groups experienced the worst mortality trends at the beginning of the 21st century by measuring changes in mortality across education quartiles. Learn more
Published Research Economics Health Policy A Cautionary Tale in Comparative Effectiveness Research: Perils and Pitfalls of Observational Data Analysis Authors: Adam Leive, Armando Franco, Dana Goldman, Daniel McFadden Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Geographic Variation in Opioid and Heroin Involved Drug Poisoning Mortality Rates Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm An important barrier to formulating effective policies to address the rapid rise in U.S. fatal overdoses is that the specific drugs involved are frequently not identified on death certificates. This analysis supplies improved estimates of state opioid and heroin involved drug fatality rates in 2014, and changes from 2008 to 2014. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Identifying the Effects of Food Stamps on the Nutritional Health of Children when Program participation is Misreported Authors: John Pepper, Craig Gundersen, Dean Jolliffe, Brent Kreider The literature assessing the efficacy of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, has long puzzled over positive associations between SNAP receipt and various undesirable health outcomes such as food insecurity. Assessing the causal impacts of SNAP, however, is hampered by two key identification problems: endogenous selection into participation and extensive systematic underreporting of participation status.Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we extend partial identification bounding methods to account for these two identification problems in a single unifying framework. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Doctor Knows Best: Physician Endorsements, Public Opinion, and the Politics of Comparative Effectiveness Research Authors: Eric M. Patashnik, Alan S. Gerber, David Doherty, Conor M. Dowling The Obama administration has made a major investment in comparative effectiveness research (CER) to learn what treatments work best for which patients. CER has the potential to reduce wasteful medical spending and improve patient outcomes, but the political sustainability of this initiative remains unclear due to concerns that it will threaten the doctor-patient relationship. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Fetal and Early Childhood Undernutrition, Mortality and Lifelong Health Authors: Chessa Lutter Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Nurses’ Presenteeism and Its Effects on Self-Reported Quality of Care and Costs Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Susan A. Letvak, Sat N. Gupta Although research has been conducted on how nurse staffing levels affect outcomes, there has been little investigation into how the health-related productivity of nurses is related to quality of care. Two major causes of worker presenteeism (reduced on-the-job productivity as a result of health problems) are musculoskeletal pain and mental health issues, particularly depression. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Interventions Used by Virginia's Colleges to Respond to Student Mental Health Crises Authors: Richard Bonnie, John Monahan, Susan Davis, Christopher Flynn Objective: This study examined interventions by colleges in 2008–2009 to respond to students during mental health crises. Methods: Public (N=15) and private (N=25) four-year colleges and two-year community colleges (N=23) in Virginia were surveyed about academic policies governing responses to apparent mental health crises among students and how often they were invoked. Learn more