Jennifer Karas Montez
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How Does County Industry Mix Matter for Working-Age Mortality? Open
The types of industries that dominate employment in a county shape the health of the entire community, even for people who don't work in those sectors. This brief summarizes findings of a study that examined how five major employment secto…
Changes in the association between county industrial composition and working-age mortality from 2000 to 2022 Open
Rising working-age mortality in recent decades was partly due to declines in the manufacturing industry. Less is known about how working-age mortality was associated with concurrent changes in other industries and whether those association…
States’ COVID-19 policy contexts and suicide rates among US working-age adults Open
Despite expectations that suicide rates would surge during the pandemic, the national suicide rate declined in the United States in 2020 before returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Explanations of the decline in suicides at the nation…
Stability and Volatility in the Contextual Predictors of Working-Age Mortality in the United States Open
The contextual predictors of mortality in the United States are well documented, but the COVID-19 pandemic may have upended those associations. Informed by the social history of disease framework (SHDF), this study examined how the importa…
State COVID-19 Policies and Drug Overdose Mortality Among Working-Age Adults in the United States, 2020 Open
Objectives. To identify relationships between US states’ COVID-19 in-person activity limitation and economic support policies and drug overdose deaths among working-age adults in 2020. Methods. We used county-level data on 140 435 drug ove…
Widening Educational Disparities in Health and Longevity Open
Educational attainment level has long been a strong predictor of adult health and longevity in the United States. Interestingly, the association between education and these outcomes has strengthened in recent decades. Since the 1980s, high…
Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions and maternal morbidity Open
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…
Electoral Democracy and Working‐Age Mortality Open
Policy Points The erosion of electoral democracy in the United States in recent decades may have contributed to the high and rising working‐age mortality rates, which predate the COVID‐19 pandemic. Eroding electoral democracy in a US state…
US State Policy Contexts and Population Health Open
Policy Points This Perspective connects the dots between the polarization in US states’ policy contexts and the divergence in population health across states. Key interlocking forces that fueled this polarization are the political investme…
ACA Medicaid Expansions and Maternal Morbidity Open
In this paper, we test whether the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions are associated with in-hospital maternal morbidity.The ACA expansions may have affected maternal morbidity by increasing pre-conception access to health care, and b…
U.S. state policy contexts and mortality of working-age adults Open
The rise in working-age mortality rates in the United States in recent decades largely reflects stalled declines in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality alongside rising mortality from alcohol-induced causes, suicide, and drug poisoning;…
U.S. State Preemption Laws and Working-Age Mortality Open
State legislatures' preemption of local authority to enact health-promoting legislation may be contributing to the worrisome trends in external causes of death.
Educational disparities in adult health across U.S. states: Larger disparities reflect economic factors Open
Introduction Education level is positively associated with adult health in the United States. However, new research shows that the association is stronger in some U.S. states than others, and that states with stronger associations also ten…
U.S. State Policy Contexts and Physical Health among Midlife Adults Open
The authors examine how state policy contexts may have contributed to unfavorable adult health in recent decades, using merged individual-level data from the 1993–2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System ( n = 2,166,835) and 15 stat…
Trends in U.S. Population Health: The Central Role of Policies, Politics, and Profits Open
Recent trends in U.S. health have been mixed, with improvements among some groups and geographic areas alongside declines among others. Medical sociologists have contributed to the understanding of those disparate trends, although importan…
US State Disparities in Life Expectancy, Disability-Free Life Expectancy, and Disabled Life Expectancy Among Adults Aged 25 to 89 Years Open
Objectives. To estimate total life expectancy (TLE), disability-free life expectancy (DFLE), and disabled life expectancy (DLE) by US state for women and men aged 25 to 89 years and examine the cross-state patterns. Methods. We used data f…
Allowing Cities to Raise the Minimum Wage Could Prevent Hundreds of Infant Deaths Annually Open
This research brief discusses findings that show each additional dollar of minimum wage reduces infant deaths by up to 1.8% annually in large U.S. cities. Over 1,400 infants could be saved annually if localities were allowed to raise the m…
Aging Policy From a Multilayered Geographic and Life Course Perspective Open
Contemporary challenges to healthy aging in communities across the United States are shaped by the complex, multilayered nature of the federal, state, and local contexts in which aging occurs. We introduce a framework for thinking in this …
US State Polarization, Policymaking Power, and Population Health Open
Policy Points Explanations for the troubling trend in US life expectancy since the 1980s should be grounded in the dynamic changes in policies and political landscapes. Efforts to reverse this trend and put US life expectancy on par with o…
US State Policies, Politics, and Life Expectancy Open
Policy Points Changes in US state policies since the 1970s, particularly after 2010, have played an important role in the stagnation and recent decline in US life expectancy. Some US state policies appear to be key levers for improving lif…
Alcohol's Collateral Damage: Childhood Exposure to Problem Drinkers and Subsequent Adult Mortality Risk Open
The importance of childhood circumstances, broadly defined, for shaping adult health and longevity is well-established. But the significance of one of the most prevalent childhood adversities—exposure to problem drinkers—has been understud…
Equity First: Conceptualizing a Normative Framework to Assess the Role of Preemption in Public Health Open
Policy Points Preemption is a legal doctrine whereby a higher level of government may limit or even eliminate the power of a lower level of government to regulate a certain issue. Some state legislatures are using preemption with increasin…
Why Does the Importance of Education for Health Differ across the United States? Open
The positive association between educational attainment and adult health (“the gradient”) is stronger in some areas of the United States than in others. Explanations for the geographic pattern have not been rigorously investigated. Grounde…
Liberal State Policies Improve Life Expectancy Open
Life expectancy of people in the United States ranks last among 22 high-income countries. National averages obscure large differences within the states, which in 2017 ranged from a high of 81.6 years Hawaii to a low of 74.6 years in West V…
POLICY POLARIZATION AND DEATH IN THE UNITED STATES. Open
The United States currently ranks last among high-income countries for life expectancy. Since 2014, U.S. life expectancy has declined. By now, these alarming trends are well known to researchers, the public, and policymakers. Nevertheless,…