Health Economics Commons^™

Deep Community Partnerships: The Future Of Community-Based Senior Care In A Value-Driven Era, Diana Wilcox

DSW Capstone Projects

This capstone reviews three scholarly products that examine how chronically ill older adults interact with healthcare systems and senior service delivery systems in the United States. The systematic literature review examines how community-based senior programs that are funded by the Older Americans Act (OAA) positively impact health outcomes and promote health and wellness among the older adult population. The conceptual paper examines how Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) interact with the patient and with one another using the lens of Systems Theory. The practice application paper examines best practices regarding care coordination …

Food As A Vector For Change: Lessons From The Third Sector On Improving Livelihoods With Nutritional Knowledge In Medellín And Bogotá, Solomon Treister

Honors Theses

In this thesis I argue that improving diet in communities depends on building nutritional knowledge. In examining the role of community level organizations, I look specifically at how knowledge is conveyed through agriculture and gastronomy. This project analyzes how civil society organizations work to reintegrate individuals into food systems, compelling consumers to take agency over their diets and pursue better livelihoods. The industrialization of food systems has fundamentally changed the way humans connect with food and diet. In Colombia, internal displacements and urban migration have accelerated a loss of connection with the land and food processes. At the same time, …

Assessing The Health Effects Of Burn Ban Policy Implementation: Evidence From Texas Counties, Jatin Suri

CMC Senior Theses

I exploit county-level variation in burn ban policies to estimate the effect of burn bans on respiratory disease mortality rates in Texas counties from 2008 to 2020. Using a fixed effects regression model that controls for year and county fixed effects, as well as drought index, firefighting resources, and aging population, I find that burn bans decrease respiratory disease mortality rates by 7 people per 100,000 in the year when the policy is implemented and reduced mortality rates, due to burn ban implementation, persist over a 3-year period. This result is statistically significant (p-value <.05) and provides a novel contribution to an area largely overlooked in previous literature. While previous studies have mainly focused on the economic and environmental effects of burn bans, this research specifically investigates the health outcomes associated with county-level burn bans. Additionally, this study provides evidence of the persistence of the benefits of county-level burn bans over a 3-year period. This contribution to the literature sheds light on the sustained benefits of implementing and enforcing burn bans, which has not been previously explored in prior research.

Three Essays On Health, Food, And Agricultural Economics, Saber Feizy

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation comprises three distinct but interrelated projects that explore the intersection of agriculture, nutrition, and economics. The first project investigates the impact of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) food programs on the health outcomes of its participants. Using fixed effects models and a matching algorithm, the study finds that while conventional fixed effects models indicate a significant effect of CSA participation on diet-related medical expenditures, our modified time-heterogenous fixed effects model did not find a meaningful effect. The results of the matching method are consistent with those of our modified model.

The second project examines racial disparities in the prevalence …

An Analysis On How Housing Status Influences The Gut-Brain-Axis For Populations In And Around The Skid Row Area Of Los Angeles, California, Mauricio Guzman

Pitzer Senior Theses

Over recent years, the “microbiota-gut-brain axis” (MGBA) has garnered significant attention in the scientific community. Specifically, perturbations of the MGBA via stress and dietary intake have been linked to a wide-range of diseases including gastrointestinal diseases, metabolic diseases, mood disorders, and cognitive diseases. However, most studies have been solely conducted on mice models and have yet to consider the more complex, intricate systems that impact the human body. In addition, researchers have yet to consider the populations who may be most susceptible to chronic stress and negative dietary outcomes. Drawing from the fields of medical sociology, non-invasive human biology, and …

Association Of Diabetes Prevalence With Labor Force Participation Rates In Kentucky Counties, Ryan Montgomery

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Compared to other states in the USA, Kentucky has one of the highest rates of diagnosed diabetes and one of the lowest levels of labor force participation. This project employs a multivariable linear regression model to estimate the correlation between county-level diabetes prevalence and county-level labor force participation rates in Kentucky counties from 2015-2019, using publicly available data from the Centers for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Labor force participation rates serve as the dependent variable and diabetes prevalence rates serve as the primary independent variable, alongside nine …

Redlining And Opioid Overdose Outcomes: Do Historical Housing Policies Still Impact Health Today?, Sahana Paravantavida

Honors Theses

This study examines the relationship between historical housing policies and current health outcomes, specifically the impact of redlining on opioid overdose rates. Using data collected from the state of New Jersey, neighborhoods with a history of redlining have higher rates of opioid overdose deaths. My findings suggest that historical housing policies, which systematically excluded certain populations from accessing affordable housing and resources, continue to impact health outcomes today.

The Expected Risks And Exacerbations Of Poverty, Mental Health Disorders, And Maternal Mortality From Abortion Bans: A Comparative Literature Analysis, Daniel J. Francisco

All Master's Theses

Background. Early termination of a pregnancy (hereinafter referred to as an “abortion”) has been debated in the United States (U.S.) for decades, without much regard to the negative outcomes that forced pregnancies have for those assigned female at birth regarding poverty, mental health and maternal mortality. In 1973, access to safe abortions was protected so long that the procedure was done within the legal gestational period and/or was necessary for the health and safety of the patient (Blackmun, 1972). Unfortunately, in 2022, the Supreme Court took that protection away and made it legal for states to determine the reproductive rights …

Analyzing The Accessibility Of Sports Facilities In Missoula, Montana, Quinn T. Peacock

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of this survey is to understand the qualitative value of the public field inventory that will be analyzed based on quantitative data. We want to understand not only the assumed factors from data that affect rec-participants behavior, but what the individuals have to say about it for themselves as well.

Assessment Of Spatio-Temporal Variations In Pm2.5 And Associated Long-Range Air Mass Transport And Mortality In South Asia, Md Sariful Islam, Shimul Roy, Tanmoy Roy Tusher, Mizanur Rahman, Ryley C. Harris

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) is associated with adverse impacts on ambient air quality and human mortality; the situation is especially dire in developing countries experiencing rapid industrialization and urban development. This study assessed the spatio-temporal variations of PM_2.5 and its health impacts in the South Asian region. Both satellite and station-based data were used to monitor the variations in PM_2.5 over time. Additionally, mortality data associated with ambient particulate matter were used to depict the overall impacts of air pollution in this region. We applied the Mann–Kendall and Sen’s slope trend analysis tool to investigate the …

Tuberkulosis Di Indonesia: Apakah Status Sosial-Ekonomi Dan Faktor Lingkungan Penting?, Amalia Kusumaningrum, Grace Wulandari, Achmad Kautsar

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

This study aims to find the social-economic status and environmental factors for tuberculosis in Indonesia by using Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) data in 2014. First, this study analyzes individual characteristics with regression logistic method. Second, this study estimating social-economic status by entering a correction from the first stage. Meanwhile at the third stage, adding factors home environmental conditions and entering a correction from the previous stage. This study find that household income is the affecting factors, especially for households with incomes of less than IDR 600.000. In additions, level education especially high school and college also has a significant …

Better Solutions To Increasing Covid-19 Vaccine Access: Giving Away Vaccines Rather Than Vaccine Formulas, Tristen Prouse

Honors Program Theses

The debate over giving away the COVID-19 vaccine formulas is a political hot topic. Mention of a Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver proposed in early 2021 suggested violating patent law to give away the vaccine formulas. While a tempting option, many problems exist with this solution. Violating patent law to give away the vaccine formulas disincentivizes innovation, undermines confidence in vaccine safety, and harms America’s geopolitical objectives. Patent law can be inefficient and is not the only way to incentivize innovation, but it is here to stay. Instead, the United States should give away vaccines rather than vaccine formulas …

Unraveling The Hispanic Health Paradox, Jose Fernandez, Monica Garcia-Perez, Sandra Orozco-Aleman

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In 2019, Hispanics in the US had a life expectancy advantage of 3.0 years and 7.1 years over non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks, respectively, despite having real-household income values 26 percentage points lower than Non-Hispanic White households. Hispanics appear to have equal or even better health outcomes relative to non-Hispanic Whites across various health measures. This is known as the Hispanic health paradox. This paper underscores the importance of disaggregating Hispanics by ancestry and age profile when discussing the paradox across key health outcomes. It also provides an overview of the leading explanations, such as the salmon bias and the …

Retail Pharmacies And Drug Diversion During The Opioid Epidemic, Aljoscha Janssen, Xuan Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This study investigates the role of retail pharmacy ownership in the opioid epidemic. Using data of prescription opioid orders, we show that compared with chain pharmacies, independent pharmacies dispense 39.1% more opioids and 60.5% more OxyContin. After an independent pharmacy becomes a chain pharmacy, opioid dispensing decreases. Using the OxyContin reformulation, which reduced non-medical demand but not the legitimate medical demand, we show that at least a third of the difference in the amount of OxyContin dispensed can be attributed to non-medical demand. We show that differences in competitive pressure and whether pharmacists own the pharmacy drive our estimates.

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Joshua C. Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The first chapter examines the role that same-sex marriage legalization had on the number of adoptions of children from foster care in the United States. We do so by employing a synthetic difference-in-differences estimator which leverages both the differential timing of these laws across states and the subsequent wave of state-level legal protections which give foster-care agencies the right to deny service to same-sex couples based on religiously-held beliefs. Using highly detailed, county-level data of nearly 20 million children in the foster care system from 1995-2020, our findings reveal that same-sex marriage legalization led to a 3.8%-5.9% increase in the …

Integrating Feminist Approaches In Counseling Work With Adult Women, Kristen M. Toole

Adultspan Journal

The scope of ‘women’s issues’ in counseling is an ever-evolving landscape. Recent events such as the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women serve as powerful reminders of the necessity of this focus while underscoring a deep-rooted history of oppressive patriarchal structures. Therefore, counselors must remain informed of the unique considerations surrounding adult women in counseling and acquire proficiency in versatile techniques to meet this population’s nuanced needs. This article examines the complexity of contemporary womanhood and explores the fundamentals of Feminist Counseling Theory (FCT), a holistic, multiculturally conscious, social justice theory in counseling. …