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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The National Longitudinal Survey Of Public Health Systems: Selected Findings And Applications, Glen P. Mays Dec 2013

The National Longitudinal Survey Of Public Health Systems: Selected Findings And Applications, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This presentation reviews the National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems and its applicability for monitoring the effects of the Affordable Care Act on public health delivery within the U.S.


The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program And Food Insecurity, Christian Gregory, Matthew P. Rabbitt, David C. Ribar Dec 2013

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program And Food Insecurity, Christian Gregory, Matthew P. Rabbitt, David C. Ribar

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This chapter reviews recent theory and empirical evidence regarding the effect of SNAP on food insecurity and replicates the modelling strategies used in the empirical literature. The authors find that recent evidence suggesting an ameliorative effect of SNAP on food insecurity may not be robust to specification choice or data. Most specifications mirror the existing literature in finding a positive association of food insecurity with SNAP participation. Two-stage least squares and control function methods do show that SNAP reduces food insecurity, but effects are not consistent across sub-populations and are not always statistically significant.


Estimating The Costs Of Public Health Services, Glen P. Mays Nov 2013

Estimating The Costs Of Public Health Services, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine recommended in 2012 that the federal government undertake work to identify the components and costs of a "minimum package" of public health programs, services, and capabilities that should be available in every American community. This presentation summarizes work that is currently underway through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-supported Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRN) Program to estimate the costs of public health delivery.


Snap And The School Meal Programs, Judith Bartfeld Nov 2013

Snap And The School Meal Programs, Judith Bartfeld

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The Great Recession and its immediate aftermath have brought increasing attention both to food insecurity among children and to the associated food safety net. After a decade of largely stable food insecurity rates, the share of children living in food insecure households jumped by one-third between 2007 and 2008, and has remained stubbornly high since then. As of 2012, 21.6% of all children lived in food insecure households (Coleman-Jensen et al. 2013). The scope and reach of the food safety net for children has likewise grown – a response to rising need, efforts to reduce administrative and logistical barriers to …


New Health Delivery Networks: Merging Public Health And Health Care Systems, Glen P. Mays Nov 2013

New Health Delivery Networks: Merging Public Health And Health Care Systems, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Incomplete coordination between medical care and public health delivery systems can result in significant missed opportunities for improving population health and constraining overall resource use. This lecture uses insight from the field of public health services and systems research (PHSSR) to examine: (1) why medical care and public health systems often fail to connect; (2) what are the potential health and economic consequences of these failures; and (3) what are the opportunities for connecting medical care and public health delivery to improve population health.


Who Benefits From Public Health Spending And How Long Does It Take: Estimating Community-Specific Spending Effects, Glen P. Mays Nov 2013

Who Benefits From Public Health Spending And How Long Does It Take: Estimating Community-Specific Spending Effects, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Objectives: Spending on public health and prevention strategies varies widely across states and communities. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) authorized the largest expansion in federal public health spending in decades, with the goals of improving population health and helping to moderate growth in medical care spending. To produce evidence needed to inform these investments, this study (1) estimates the effects of public health spending patterns within communities on preventable mortality and subsequent medical care spending; and (2) uses the methods of local instrumental variables developed by Heckman and Vytlacil and Basu to estimate how the …


Recessions, Risks And Reforms: Changes In Inter-Organizational Activities To Improve Public Health, Glen P. Mays Nov 2013

Recessions, Risks And Reforms: Changes In Inter-Organizational Activities To Improve Public Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Research Objective: The Affordable Care Act created new incentives for hospitals, insurers, employers, public health agencies, and others to contribute to activities designed to promote health and prevent disease an injury. At the same time, the economic recession has constrained government and private sector spending on health and health care, necessitating changes in the scope and scale of public health delivery. This study uses data from the 1998-2012 National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems to examine: (1) the extent and nature of change in inter-organizational contributions to public health activities, with a focus on hospitals, insurers, employers, and primary …


Update On Public Health Financing & Economic Studies From The Phssr And Pbrn Programs, Glen P. Mays Nov 2013

Update On Public Health Financing & Economic Studies From The Phssr And Pbrn Programs, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

As part of the Public Health Financing Roundtable at APHA, this session provides an update on public health financing and economics studies underway through the Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR) Program and the Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRN) Program, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.


Public Health Services & Systems Research: Building The Science Of Public Health Delivery, Glen P. Mays Oct 2013

Public Health Services & Systems Research: Building The Science Of Public Health Delivery, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The extreme heterogeneity in how public health activities are organized, financed, and implemented across U.S. states and communities provides compelling opportunities for research on the comparative effectiveness and efficiency of public health delivery. This talk highlights some of the most compelling and policy-relevant opportunities for research on public health organization and financing issues, and examines some of the ongoing studies in the field.


Cost Estimation Methods And Foundational Public Health Capabilities, Glen P. Mays Sep 2013

Cost Estimation Methods And Foundational Public Health Capabilities, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medine recently recommended that the federal government identify the components and costs of a "minimum package of public health services" and "foundational public health capabilities" that should be universally available across the U.S. This presentation reviews costing methods that can be used for identifying the costs required to establish "foundational public health capabilities" at state and local levels within the U.S. public health system.


The Effect Of Snap On Poverty, Laura Tiehen, Dean Jolliffe, Timothy Smeeding Sep 2013

The Effect Of Snap On Poverty, Laura Tiehen, Dean Jolliffe, Timothy Smeeding

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

On signing the Food Stamp Act of 1964, President Johnson noted that “as a permanent program, the food stamp plan will be one of our most valuable weapons for the war on poverty” (Johnson, 1964). From a humble beginning of 2.9 million recipients per month and $228 million in benefits in 1969 (earliest national figures), the program has grown to serve 47 million persons with benefits of over $74.6 Billion in 2012 (USDA, 2013a). In the late 60’s and early 70’s, when the average monthly benefit was under $20 per month per month, we did not record the effects of …


Public Health Services & Systems Research: Concepts, Methods, And Emerging Findings, Glen P. Mays Sep 2013

Public Health Services & Systems Research: Concepts, Methods, And Emerging Findings, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The field of public health services & systems research (PHSSR) increasingly is addressing the question of how to assess the value of investments in public health programs, infrastructure, and delivery systems. Progress in quasi-experimental research designs, measurement, estimation techniques, and data sources are yielding important insight.


Why Are So Many Americans On Food Stamps? The Role Of The Economy, Policy, And Demographics, James P. Ziliak Sep 2013

Why Are So Many Americans On Food Stamps? The Role Of The Economy, Policy, And Demographics, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

1 in 7 Americans received assistance from SNAP in FY2012, which is a rate 141 percent higher than in FY2000, but only 59 percent higher than in FY1980. In this chapter I describe the socioeconomic and policy climate in recent decades that had bearing on SNAP participation, along with a formal empirical analysis of those determinants and detailed simulations of the relative contributions of the economy, policy, and demographics to changes in SNAP participation over time. The results suggest that SNAP is operating effectively as an automatic fiscal stabilizer—nearly 50 percent of the increase in participation from 2007-2011 is due …


The Internet In Kentucky: Life In The Slow Lane, Michael T. Childress Sep 2013

The Internet In Kentucky: Life In The Slow Lane, Michael T. Childress

Issue Brief on Topics Affecting Kentucky’s Economy

No abstract provided.


The Influence Of Parental Aspirations, Attitudes, And Engagement On Children's Very Low Food Security, Elizabeth T. Powers Aug 2013

The Influence Of Parental Aspirations, Attitudes, And Engagement On Children's Very Low Food Security, Elizabeth T. Powers

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Survey of Income and Program Participation data are used to investigate the relationship between parenting and children’s very low food security. Parenting is characterized along five domains (emotional outlook, support, education desires, activities with the child excluding meals, and television viewing rules). Food security definitions are obtained from questions in a special SIPP module that are based on the USDA’s core food security module. Graphical evidence indicates that parenting patterns differ distinctly for households experiencing various levels of food insecurity. Descriptive regression evidence suggests that some of the parenting attributes are significantly associated with children’s food insecurity, even controlling for …


Food Insecurity During Childhood: Understanding Persistence And Change Using Linked Current Population Survey Data, Sheela Kennedy, Catherine A. Fitch, John Robert Warren, Julia A. Rivera Drew Aug 2013

Food Insecurity During Childhood: Understanding Persistence And Change Using Linked Current Population Survey Data, Sheela Kennedy, Catherine A. Fitch, John Robert Warren, Julia A. Rivera Drew

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Our paper examines the prevalence and determinants of children’s transitions into and out of food insecurity since 2001. We use longitudinally linked data from the Food Security Supplements to the Current Population Surveys to estimate one-year transition probabilities of entry and exit from food insecurity. Our results indicate that child hunger is typically short-lived, but children experiencing very low food security frequently experience multiple consecutive years of food insecurity. We demonstrate large demographic and socioeconomic differences in rates of entry into very low food security and persistence in children's food insecurity. Income and employment shocks are important predictors of child …


Use Of Alternative Financial Services And Childhood Food Insecurity, Katie Fitzpatrick Aug 2013

Use Of Alternative Financial Services And Childhood Food Insecurity, Katie Fitzpatrick

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Low- and moderate-income (LMI) households with children often face considerable difficulties in ensuring enough financial resources for an adequate diet. This project investigates the use of financial services and other financial decisions parents make that may affect the risk of very low food security and food insecurity of children. With households in both the December 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) Food Security Supplement and the January 2009 CPS Unbanked and Underbanked Supplement, the project studies the relationship between bank account ownership, use of alternative financial service (AFS) providers, the organization of household finances, and the food security of children. Both …


Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Prevalence Of Vlfs In Children Among Children Of Foreign-Born Mothers, John Cook Aug 2013

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Prevalence Of Vlfs In Children Among Children Of Foreign-Born Mothers, John Cook

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This research examined VLFS in children among households with foreign-born (FB) mothers compared to US-born mothers through three research questions: Is mother’s foreign-born status (FBS) associated with VLFS in children, and can association be explained by mothers’ socio-demographic characteristics? Are FB mothers more or less likely to receive nutrition or non-nutrition assistance benefits, or work for pay than US-born mothers? Do mothers’ FBS, or protective/risk factors associated with FBS, modify associations of negative economic shocks and hardships with VLFS in children? Data are on approximately 44,000 mother-child (ages<48 Mos.) dyads collected from household surveys administered under a "sentinel surveillance" system over 1998-2012 at teaching hospitals and clinics in seven US cities. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models tested study hypotheses. Mothers' FBS is strongly positively associated with VLFS in children after controlling for available risk and protective factors. FB mothers are less likely to receive SNAP and non-nutrition assistance (TANF, LIHEAP or housing subsidies), but more likely to receive WIC and to be employed than US-born mothers. FB mothers are no more likely to report negative reasons for not receiving SNAP or TANF, or losing jobs or decreasing work hours than US-born, and reported "immigration concerns" rarely. No need/chose not to participate are most frequently reported reasons for not receiving SNAP and TANF; pregnancy/maternity leave and "market conditions" for lost jobs and decreased work hours. Economic shocks and hardships are positively associated with VLFS in children, but Mothers' FBS does not interact with shocks and hardships to modify those associations.


The Effect Of Household Financial, Time And Environmental Constraints On Very Low Food Security Among Children, Helen H. Jensen, Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy Aug 2013

The Effect Of Household Financial, Time And Environmental Constraints On Very Low Food Security Among Children, Helen H. Jensen, Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Food insecurity is detrimental to children’s well-being. A better understanding of factors contributing to low and very low food security among children in the United States can guide the design of food assistance programs. We analyze the effects of household characteristics and local food environment attributes, including food prices and availability of food stores and eating places, on children’s food insecurity. We also investigate the effects of these characteristics and attributes on food preparation time. Using Becker’s household production approach, we propose an economic model that formalizes the use of constrained financial and time resources in the household. The model …


Health System Contributions To Public Health Activities Amid Policy And Economic Change: Estimating Complementarities, Substitutions, And Network Effects, Glen P. Mays Jun 2013

Health System Contributions To Public Health Activities Amid Policy And Economic Change: Estimating Complementarities, Substitutions, And Network Effects, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Research Objective: The Affordable Care Act created new incentives for hospitals, insurers, employers, public health agencies, and others to contribute to activities designed to promote health and prevent disease an injury, potentially changing the structure of public health delivery systems and expanding the delivery of strategies that improve population health. At the same time, the economic recession has constrained government and private sector spending on health and health care, necessitating changes in the scope and scale of public health delivery. This study uses data from the 1998-2012 National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems to examine: (1) the extent and …


Hospital Contributions To Public Health Activities Before And After Aca: Incentives, Constraints & Crowd-Out, Glen P. Mays Jun 2013

Hospital Contributions To Public Health Activities Before And After Aca: Incentives, Constraints & Crowd-Out, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Research Objective: The Affordable Care Act created enhanced IRS requirements for not-for-profit hospitals regarding the provision of community benefits, potentially stimulating new approaches to community health needs assessment, priority setting, and engagement with public health agencies and other community stakeholders. Yet the economic downturn has constrained hospital earnings and increased demand for uncompensated care, potentially crowding out hospital contributions to public health activities. This study uses data from 1998-2012 on a national cohort of communities to examine: (1) the extent and nature of change in hospital contributions to public health activities; and (2) the economic, institutional, and policy-related factors that …


Analyzing Return On Investment In Public Health: Implications And Future Directions, Glen P. Mays Jun 2013

Analyzing Return On Investment In Public Health: Implications And Future Directions, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Return on investment (ROI) analyses of public health programs, policies, and services are being undertaken with increasing frequency to provide assessments of the value of these activities. This presentation reviews current initiatives and future directions for improving the quality of ROI studies and their application to real-world public health policy and administrative decisions.


Harnessing The Power Of Public Health Systems For Injury Prevention & Control, Glen P. Mays Jun 2013

Harnessing The Power Of Public Health Systems For Injury Prevention & Control, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Efforts to improve population health hinge on a vast yet diffuse constellation of government agencies, health care providers, and community organizations that assume responsibilities in implementing prevention programs and policies across the U.S. Realizing the full health and economic benefits of injury prevention and control initiatives requires mobilizing and managing these complex and heterogeneous public health delivery systems. This session will explore the emerging science of public health delivery systems and what it tells us about improving injury prevention and control amid policy and economic change.


Public Health Delivery Systems And Population Health, Glen P. Mays Jun 2013

Public Health Delivery Systems And Population Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Despite high overall health expenditures, the U.S. continues to fall behind other high-income countries on many measures of population health. While health care delivery systems are now studied intensively for solutions to U.S. cost and quality problems, the nation's delivery systems for public health programs and policies are only now becoming the subject of rigorous empirical study. This presentation examines recent studies of public health delivery systems and important directions for future inquiry.


Estimating Return On Investment: Approaches And Methods, Glen P. Mays May 2013

Estimating Return On Investment: Approaches And Methods, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Continuing fiscal constraints in the public sector and large-scale policy changes associated with health reform implementation in the U.S. are giving heightened attention to questions about the health and economic value of public health programs, services, and policies -- strategies designed to protect health and prevent disease and injury on a population-wide basis. This session provides an overview of approaches for conducting return-on-investment (ROI) analyses and related economic evaluation studies in public health settings in order to inform policy and administrative decision-making. New opportunities and resources created through CDC's National Public Health Improvement Initiative (NPHII) and RWJF's Public Health Practice-based …


Optimizing The Value Of Public Health Services: Lessons From Research & Practice, Glen P. Mays May 2013

Optimizing The Value Of Public Health Services: Lessons From Research & Practice, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Expanding the delivery of efficacious public health programs and policies holds considerable potential for improving population health and constraining the growth in health care spending. Achieving such expansions efficiently, particularly in low-resource settings, requires careful attention to interorganizational and intergovernmental relationships in public health delivery.


Next Generation Public Health Delivery: Optimizing Health And Economic Impact, Glen P. Mays May 2013

Next Generation Public Health Delivery: Optimizing Health And Economic Impact, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Improving population health in the context of significant policy and economic change will require governmental public health agencies to rethink their roles within the U.S. health and social services systems, giving much greater attention to "catalytic" functions intended to mobilize, direct, and coordinate the actions of others. A growing body of evidence and experience suggests that such changes are likely to be feasible, effective, and efficient.


Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Report 2012-2013, Jeff Stringer, Billy Thomas, Bobby Ammerman, Alison Davis May 2013

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Report 2012-2013, Jeff Stringer, Billy Thomas, Bobby Ammerman, Alison Davis

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Reports

Kentucky plays a pivotal role in providing forest products to the U.S. and the forestry sector is a major economic force in the Commonwealth providing over 51,000 jobs and $9.9 billion to Kentucky’s economy in 2012. This economic input was generated from 708 facilities located in 109 of Kentucky’s 120 counties including a wide range of industries from logging and sawmills to cabinet manufacturers and paper and producers. In 2012 Kentucky was one of the largest producers of hardwood timber with over 590 million board feet of sawlogs and over 900,000 tons of pulpwood harvested from private family-owned forests. This …


The Value Of Public Health Financial Data, Glen P. Mays Apr 2013

The Value Of Public Health Financial Data, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Effective policy and administrative decision-making in public health requires reliable information on the amount of resources invested in governmental public health programs and how these resouces are allocated and used across the U.S. public health system. This session examines current and potential uses of public health financial data in the U.S., and considers expanded roles for research in informing policy and administrative decisions.


Vital Statistics: The State Of The Public Health Pbrn Program, Glen P. Mays Apr 2013

Vital Statistics: The State Of The Public Health Pbrn Program, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health PBRN Program has continued to expand during the 2013 program year with new networks, new research projects, and expanded translation and dissemination initiatives. The program plays an increasingly powerful role in helping to transform the U.S. public health enterprise into a rapid-learning system for health improvement.