Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2021
Associations of COVID-19 risk perception with vaccine hesitancy over time for Italian residents.
Many countries were and are still struggling with the COVID-19 emergency. Despite efforts to limit the viral transmission, the vaccine is the only solution to ending the pandemic. However, vaccine hesitancy could reduce coverage and hinder herd immunity. ⋯ The observation of vaccination intentions across the three main phases of the emergency allows important considerations regarding psychological, affect, and demographic determinants useful to tailor public health communication to improve public response to future epidemics.
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2021
Occupational differences in advance care planning: Are medical professionals more likely to plan?
Advance care planning (ACP) helps ensure that treatment preferences are met at the end of life. Medical professionals typically are responsible for facilitating patients' ACP, and may be especially effective in doing so if they have first-hand insights from their own planning. However, no large-scale U. ⋯ The on-the-job experiences and expertise of medical professionals may motivate them to discuss their own end-of-life preferences, which may render them more trustworthy sources of information for patients and clients. The Affordable Care Act provides reimbursement for medical professionals' end-of-life consultations with Medicare beneficiary patients, yet practitioners uncomfortable with such conversations may fail to initiate them. Programs to increase medical professionals' own ACP may have the secondary benefit of increasing ACP among their patients.
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2021
Can a COVID-19 vaccine live up to Americans' expectations? A conjoint analysis of how vaccine characteristics influence vaccination intentions.
A vaccine for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) could prove critical in establishing herd immunity. While past work has documented the prevalence and correlates of vaccine refusal, I assess how a less explored topic -- properties of vaccines themselves (e.g., national origin, efficacy, risk of side effects) -- might influence vaccination intentions. This information can help public health officials preempt differential intentions to vaccinate, and inform health communication campaigns that encourage vaccine uptake. ⋯ Americans' preferences for a novel coronavirus vaccine may be at odds with the vaccine that ultimately hits the market, posing both policy and health communication challenges for vaccination uptake.
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2021
Association between school racial/ethnic composition during adolescence and adult health.
School racial/ethnic segregation in U.S. schoolsDifferences in school racial/ethnic composition may increase health disparities by concentrating educational opportunities that confer long-term health benefits in schools serving predominantly wwhite students. For racial minority students, high concentrations of white students may increase exposure to racismis also associated with psychologicstress, which may ultimately reduceing the long-term health benefits from educational opportunities. Meanwhile associations of racial/ethnic academic tacking within schools and health have been mixed. We sought to test whether: 1) differences in racial/ethnic composition between schools and, 2) racial/ethnic distribution of students in academic tracks within schools are associated with long-term health benefits or risks for white, Black and Latinx students. ⋯ Among Bblack youth, attending a school with a higher percentage of white students is associated with worse behavioral health in adulthood. Understanding the potential impacts of school racial/ethnic composition on health is critical to designing policies that maximize access to opportunity and health.Education policies should comprehensively address school quality and racism to maximize adult health.
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2021
The health impacts of eviction: Evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent to adult health.
Eviction represents an urgent social and economic issue in the United States, with nearly two million evictions occurring annually in the U. S. Still, the population health impacts of evictions, as well as the pathways linking eviction to health, are not well documented or understood, particularly among young adults. ⋯ In the first difference models, young people who experienced eviction between survey waves experienced greater increases in depressive symptoms over time compared to those who were not evicted, net of changes in other indicators of socioeconomic status and residential instability. Taken together, our results suggest that the recent surges in evictions in the U. S. serve as a potent threat to population health during the emerging adult period, with especially devastating consequences for low-income individuals and communities of color.