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Full-Text Articles in COVID-19
Living In Liberal Areas Reduced Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Conservatives, Brittany L. Kmush, Rachel E. Dinero
Living In Liberal Areas Reduced Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Conservatives, Brittany L. Kmush, Rachel E. Dinero
Population Health Research Brief Series
Political divisions shaped public health responses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with conservatives expressing higher vaccine hesitancy than liberals. But does where conservatives live matter? This brief summarizes findings from a study using survey data from 683 U.S. adults (ages 18-94) collected March-April 2023, combined with 2020 presidential election results by zip code. The authors found that liberals consistently had low vaccine hesitancy and high uptake regardless of where they lived, but conservatives living in lower Trump vote share communities reported lower vaccine hesitancy and higher vaccination and booster uptake than conservatives in high Trump vote share communities. This pattern was …
Pandemic Mask Mandates And Closures Were Linked To Increased Gun Violence, Douglas A. Wolf, Emily W. Wiemers, Iliya Gutin, Jennifer Karas Montez, Shannon M. Monnat
Pandemic Mask Mandates And Closures Were Linked To Increased Gun Violence, Douglas A. Wolf, Emily W. Wiemers, Iliya Gutin, Jennifer Karas Montez, Shannon M. Monnat
Population Health Research Brief Series
Gun violence worsened substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief summarizes findings from a study using weekly gun violence casualty data from 2016-2021 for 304 U.S. counties from the Gun Violence Archive and COVID-19 policy data from county-level measures of activity restrictions and masking requirements. The authors find that policies requiring masking and activity restrictions were associated with significant increases in gun violence. Indoor masking requirements were linked to a 28% increase in gun violence, while activity restrictions were associated with a 4.2% increase.
Older Women In The U.S. Were Lonelier Than Men During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Qiyu Deng
Older Women In The U.S. Were Lonelier Than Men During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Qiyu Deng
Population Health Research Brief Series
Loneliness damages health and quality of life. The COVID-19 pandemic increased social isolation and loneliness among some groups in the U.S. This data slice uses data from the 2020 Health and Retirement Study to examine gender and age differences in loneliness among older adults (50+) in the U.S. during the first year of the pandemic. The author finds that loneliness was more prevalent among women than among men, with the highest rate among women ages 80 and older.
What Factors Influenced Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy? Evidence From Social Media, Huseyin Zeyd Koytak
What Factors Influenced Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy? Evidence From Social Media, Huseyin Zeyd Koytak
Population Health Research Brief Series
Vaccine hesitancy is one of the most significant threats to global public health efforts. Despite the rapid development and deployment of effective vaccines, resistance to vaccination has persisted in many communities, undermining collective immunity and prolonging health crises, including most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief summarizes findings from a study that used data from over 50 million tweets (later rebranded as X) from 2020 to 2022 to investigate the patterns, justifications, and socioeconomic roots of vaccine hesitancy in the United States. The authors find that Twitter users in states with lower levels of education, higher poverty and unemployment rates, …
Political Polarization Harms Public Health, Shana Kushner Gadarian, Jay Van Bavel, Kai Ruggeri, Eric Knowles
Political Polarization Harms Public Health, Shana Kushner Gadarian, Jay Van Bavel, Kai Ruggeri, Eric Knowles
Population Health Research Brief Series
Political polarization poses considerable risks to well-being. Both ideological polarization (“extremification” of policy positions and ideological orientations) and affective polarization (out-party hate) have increased over the past several decades with detrimental effects on public health. This brief summarizes the impacts of political polarization on public health in the U.S., highlighting the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study on the health risks of polarization. The authors show that, in the United States, one of the strongest predictors of COVID-19 prevention behaviors, such as social distancing and vaccination, was political partisanship. Gaps in these behaviors between Republicans and Democrats increased over the …
America Is Unprepared To Meet The Needs Of Its Growing Older Adult Population, Sierra Kaplan
America Is Unprepared To Meet The Needs Of Its Growing Older Adult Population, Sierra Kaplan
Population Health Research Brief Series
In 2030, nearly 73 million Americans will be aged 65 years or older. As Americans continue to have fewer children than in the past, the number of older adults will outnumber children. Thus, fewer young adults will be around to support and care for the older adult population. Coupled with COVID-19 pandemic-driven disruptions to the healthcare industry, America’s health and aging care system is unprepared to support its large and growing older adult population. Over time, we will see increased health care scarcity and inequality in the distribution of elder care services, especially with continued healthcare worker shortages and drastic …
Which Types Of People Were Least Likely To Get The Covid-19 Vaccine?, Xue Zhang, Shannon M. Monnat
Which Types Of People Were Least Likely To Get The Covid-19 Vaccine?, Xue Zhang, Shannon M. Monnat
Population Health Research Brief Series
Vaccine hesitancy is a long-standing challenge that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the reasons behind different types of vaccine hesitancy is crucial for developing effective vaccine messaging strategies that can increase confidence in and uptake of future vaccines. This brief summarizes the findings from a study that used data from the 2022 National Wellbeing Survey on 7,612 U.S. adults aged 18-64 to identify characteristics of adults who were least likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine and the characteristics associated with different types of vaccine hesitancy. The authors considered three non-mutually exclusive types of vaccine hesitancy: 1) watchful (concerned about …
How Did Cognitive Status Impact Health Care Use Among Older Adults During The Covid-19 Pandemic?, Katarina Sako, Janet Wilmoth
How Did Cognitive Status Impact Health Care Use Among Older Adults During The Covid-19 Pandemic?, Katarina Sako, Janet Wilmoth
Population Health Research Brief Series
Physical distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the lives of older adults. Older adults experiencing dementia and other forms of cognitive decline have impaired executive functioning that made it even more difficult to contend with these disruptions. This brief presents findings from research that used data from the 2021 Health and Retirement Study to examine differences in health care delays and health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic among a nationally representative sample of U.S. older adults (ages 50+) with versus without cognitive decline. Results show that most older adults did not delay getting health care and did not experience …