De-unionization and Drug Death Rates

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert DeFina ◽  
Lance Hannon
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Union Density ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Drug Deaths ◽  
Drug Death ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Institutional Decline

Drug death rates in the United States have risen dramatically in recent years, sparking urgent discussions about causes. Most of these discussions have centered on supply-side issues, such as doctors overprescribing pain killers. However, there is increasing recognition of the need to go beyond proximate causes and to consider larger social forces that bear on the demand for pain-relieving drugs. Informed by sociological research linking labor unions to community health, we empirically examined the relationship between union density and drug death rates for the years 1999 to 2016. We found that states experiencing greater declines in unionization also tended to experience greater increases in drug deaths. Estimates from our fixed-effects models suggested that a one standard deviation decrease in union density was associated with a 42 percent increase in drug death rates over the period. Although the incorporation of a variety of statistical controls reduced this association, it remained negative and significant. Beyond variation in the availability of substances to misuse, our findings underscore the importance of considering institutional decline and broader social conditions as deeply relevant for contemporary drug death trends.

scholarly journals 694 Insufficient sleep linked with higher COVID-19 infection cases and deaths in the United States

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A271-A271
Author(s):  
Azizi Seixas ◽  
Nicholas Pantaleo ◽  
Samrachana Adhikari ◽  
Michael Grandner ◽  
Giardin Jean-Louis
Keyword(s):  
Regression Models ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poor Sleep ◽  
County Level ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Insufficient Sleep ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Rural Counties ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Introduction Causes of COVID-19 burden in urban, suburban, and rural counties are unclear, as early studies provide mixed results implicating high prevalence of pre-existing health risks and chronic diseases. However, poor sleep health that has been linked to infection-based pandemics may provide additional insight for place-based burden. To address this gap, we investigated the relationship between habitual insufficient sleep (sleep <7 hrs./24 hr. period) and COVID-19 cases and deaths across urban, suburban, and rural counties in the US. Methods County-level variables were obtained from the 2014–2018 American community survey five-year estimates and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These included percent with insufficient sleep, percent uninsured, percent obese, and social vulnerability index. County level COVID-19 infection and death data through September 12, 2020 were obtained from USA Facts. Cumulative COVID-19 infections and deaths for urban (n=68), suburban (n=740), and rural (n=2331) counties were modeled using separate negative binomial mixed effects regression models with logarithmic link and random state-level intercepts. Zero-inflated models were considered for deaths among suburban and rural counties to account for excess zeros. Results Multivariate regression models indicated positive associations between cumulative COVID-19 infection rates and insufficient sleep in urban, suburban and rural counties. The incidence rate ratio (IRR) for urban counties was 1.03 (95% CI: 1.01 – 1.05), 1.04 (95% CI: 1.02 – 1.05) for suburban, and 1.02 (95% CI: 1.00 – 1.03) rural counties.. Similar positive associations were observed with county-level COVID-19 death rates, IRR = 1.11 (95% CI: 1.07 – 1.16) for urban counties, IRR = 1.04 (95% CI: 1.01 – 1.06) for suburban counties, and IRR = 1.03 (95% CI: 1.01 – 1.05) for rural counties. Level of urbanicity moderated the association between insufficient sleep and COVID deaths, but not for the association between insufficient sleep and COVID infection rates. Conclusion Insufficient sleep was associated with COVID-19 infection cases and mortality rates in urban, suburban and rural counties. Level of urbanicity only moderated the relationship between insufficient sleep and COVID death rates. Future studies should investigate individual-level analysis to understand the role of sleep mitigating COVID-19 infection and death rates. Support (if any) NIH (K07AG052685, R01MD007716, R01HL142066, K01HL135452, R01HL152453

American Parishes

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Congregational Studies ◽  
American Catholicism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Relationship Of

Parishes are the missing middle in studies of American Catholicism. Between individual Catholics and a global institution, the thousands of local parishes are where Catholicism gets remade. American Parishes showcases what social forces shape parishes, what parishes do, how they do it, and what this says about the future of Catholicism in the United States. Expounding an embedded field approach, this book displays the forces currently reshaping American parishes. It draws from sociology of religion, culture, organizations, and race to illuminate basic parish processes—like leadership and education—and ongoing parish struggles—like conflict and multiculturalism. American Parishes brings together contemporary data, methods, and questions to establish a sociological reengagement with Catholic parishes and a Catholic reengagement with sociological analysis. This book highlights how community, geography, and authority intersect within parishes. It illuminates and analyzes how growing racial diversity, an aging religious population, and neighborhood change influence the inner workings of parishes. Five parts explore thematic topics: (1) seeing parishes with a sociological lens; (2) parish trends; (3) race, class, and diversity in parish life; (4) young Catholics in (and out) of parishes; and (5) the practice and future of a sociology of Catholic parishes. Contributors explore the history of sociological studies on parishes; consider parish research vis-à-vis the larger field of congregational studies; empirically examine parishes using multiple methods; highlight parish diversity and particularity; explore cultural and identity production within parishes; consider the tenuous relationship of younger Catholics to parishes; and provide direction for future sociological research on parishes.

Using complementary methods to test whether marriage limits men's antisocial behavior

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara R. Jaffee ◽  
Caitlin McPherran Lombardi ◽  
Rebekah Levine Coley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
The United States ◽  
Complementary Methods ◽  
Married Men ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractMarried men engage in significantly less antisocial behavior than unmarried men, but it is not clear whether this reflects a causal relationship. Instead, the relationship could reflect selection into marriage whereby the men who are most likely to marry (men in steady employment with high levels of education) are the least likely to engage in antisocial behavior. The relationship could also be the result of reverse causation, whereby high levels of antisocial behavior are a deterrent to marriage rather than the reverse. Both of these alternative processes are consistent with the possibility that some men have a genetically based proclivity to become married, known as an active genotype–environment correlation. Using four complementary methods, we tested the hypothesis that marriage limits men's antisocial behavior. These approaches have different strengths and weaknesses and collectively help to rule out alternative explanations, including active genotype–environment correlations, for a causal association between marriage and men's antisocial behavior. Data were drawn from the in-home interview sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a large, longitudinal survey study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States. Lagged negative binomial and logistic regression and propensity score matching models (n = 2,250), fixed-effects models of within-individual change (n = 3,061), and random-effects models of sibling differences (n = 618) all showed that married men engaged in significantly less antisocial behavior than unmarried men. Our findings replicate results from other quasiexperimental studies of marriage and men's antisocial behavior and extend the results to a nationally representative sample of young adults in the United States.

Inequality in the Working Class: The Unanticipated Consequences of Union Organization and Strikes

ILR Review ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Union Density ◽  
The United States ◽  
Labor Movements ◽  
Time Series Regression ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Earned Income ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper explores one possible explanation for the uniquely apolitical character of the U.S. labor movement compared to the labor movements of other Western capitalist democracies. Employing a neo-Marxist class perspective, the author examines the relationship of union density (union members as a percentage of the nonagricultural work force) and of strike frequency to the distribution of earned income in the United States from 1949 to 1976. Time-series regression analysis of the quintile distribution of earned income and the Gini index of the inequality of earned income shows that union density has had mixed effects on inequality, with higher union density tending to redistribute income from middle-income workers to both the least prosperous and most prosperous workers, whereas higher strike frequency has tended to reduce income inequality generally. The author suggests that union organization may be a source of divisiveness within the working class in the postwar era.

scholarly journals Population Change and Income Inequality in Rural America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaclyn L.W. Butler ◽  
Grace Wildermuth ◽  
Brian C. Thiede ◽  
David L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Population Change ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
The United States ◽  
County Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Relationship

This paper examines the effects of population growth and decline on county-level income inequality in the United States from 1980 to 2016. Findings from previous research have shown that income inequality is positively associated with population change, but these studies have not explicitly tested for differences between the impacts of population growth and decline. Understanding the implications of population dynamics is particularly important given that many rural areas are characterized by population decline. We analyze county-level data (n=15,375 county-decades) from the Decennial Census and American Community Survey (ACS), applying fixed effects models to estimate the respective effects of population growth and decline on income inequality, to identify the processes that mediate the links between population change and inequality, and to assess whether these effects are moderated by county-level economic and demographic characteristics. We find evidence that population decline is associated with increased levels of income inequality relative to counties experiencing stable and high rates of population growth. This relationship remains robust across a variety of model specifications, including models that account for changes in counties’ employment, sociodemographic, and ethnoracial composition. We also find that the relationship between income inequality and population change varies by metropolitan status, baseline level of inequality, and region.

Economic policy uncertainty, R&D expenditures and innovation outputs

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Tajaddini ◽  
Hassan F. Gholipour
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Economic Policy Uncertainty ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the news-based economic policy uncertainty (EPU), research and development (R&D) expenditures per capita and innovation outputs.Design/methodology/approachData from 1996 to 2015 for 19 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States) are used. The authors apply country and year fixed-effects models for the estimations.FindingsThe study findings show that higher levels of EPU are positively associated with higher R&D expenditures per capita as well as innovation outputs (patent applications, patent grants and trademark applications).Practical implicationsThis study deepens our understanding on the policy uncertainty–economic activities nexus and expands the literature on uncertainty, which is still at an initial phase of development, leading to generate a variety of open research questions for further investigation and study (Bloom, 2014).Originality/valueThere has not been an empirical investigation on the links between EPU and R&D expenditures and innovation outputs across several countries. The authors address this gap in the literature.

scholarly journals The Racial Gap in Employment and Layoffs during COVID-19 in the United States: A Visualization

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312098839
Author(s):  
Felipe A. Dias
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
White Male ◽  
Large Body ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Outbreak Period ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Fixed Effects Regression

A large body of sociological research has shown that racial minorities and women experience significant disadvantages in the labor market. In this visualization, the author presents evidence from the Current Population Survey examining the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 crisis on racial and gender inequalities in employment in the United States among prime-age workers. The author shows that the white-nonwhite gap in employment increased significantly during the post-outbreak period. Results from individual fixed-effects regression models show a strong white male advantage in the likelihood of being laid off for post-outbreak months compared with women, black men, Hispanic men, and Asian men.

IPV and Health Consequences Among CPS-Involved Caregivers: A Fixed Effects Analysis Stratified by Race and Ethnicity

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122110227
Author(s):  
Mirvat Termos ◽  
Vithya Murugan ◽  
Jesse J. Helton
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minority Women ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health dilemma that disproportionately affects minority women in the United States. The present study utilized data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II) to examine the longitudinal course of IPV outcomes reported by minority women involved with Child Protective Services (CPS). Our findings highlight the heterogeneity of the relationship between IPV and mental or physical health based on race/ethnicity. Nonetheless, additional research is necessary to investigate the impact of IPV severity on physical and mental health outcomes to ultimately facilitate race-specific interventions for women involved with CPS.

scholarly journals Racial/ethnic and educational inequities in restrictive abortion policy variation and adverse birth outcomes in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara K. Redd ◽  
Whitney S. Rice ◽  
Monica S. Aswani ◽  
Sarah Blake ◽  
Zoë Julian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Birth Outcomes ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adverse Birth Outcomes ◽  
Linear Probability ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Additional Exposure

Abstract Background To examine racial/ethnic and educational inequities in the relationship between state-level restrictive abortion policies and adverse birth outcomes from 2005 to 2015 in the United States. Methods Using a state-level abortion restrictiveness index comprised of 18 restrictive abortion policies, we conducted a retrospective longitudinal analysis examining whether race/ethnicity and education level moderated the relationship between the restrictiveness index and individual-level probabilities of preterm birth (PTB) and low birthweight (LBW). Data were obtained from the 2005–2015 National Center for Health Statistics Period Linked Live Birth-Infant Death Files and analyzed with linear probability models adjusted for individual- and state-level characteristics and state and year fixed-effects. Results Among 2,250,000 live births, 269,253 (12.0%) were PTBs and 182,960 (8.1%) were LBW. On average, states had approximately seven restrictive abortion policies enacted from 2005 to 2015. Black individuals experienced increased probability of PTB with additional exposure to restrictive abortion policies compared to non-Black individuals. Similarly, those with less than a college degree experienced increased probability of LBW with additional exposure to restrictive abortion policies compared to college graduates. For all analyses, inequities worsened as state environments grew increasingly restrictive. Conclusion Findings demonstrate that Black individuals at all educational levels and those with fewer years of education disproportionately experienced adverse birth outcomes associated with restrictive abortion policies. Restrictive abortion policies may compound existing racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and intersecting racial/ethnic and socioeconomic perinatal and infant health inequities.

scholarly journals Geographical Aspects of Recent Trends in Drug-Related Deaths, with a Focus on Intra-National Contextual Variation

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (21) ◽  
pp. 8081
Author(s):  
Peter Congdon
Keyword(s):  
Small Area ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Mortality Data ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Drug Deaths ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The Us ◽  
Drug Death ◽  
The Impact

Background. Recent worldwide estimates are of 53 million users of opioids annually, and of 585,000 drug-related deaths, of which two thirds are due to opioids. There are considerable international differences in levels of drug death rates and substance abuse. However, there are also considerable variations within countries in drug misuse, overdose rates, and in drug death rates particularly. Wide intra-national variations characterize countries where drug deaths have risen fastest in recent years, such as the US and UK. Drug deaths are an outcome of drug misuse, which can ideally be studied at a relatively low spatial scale (e.g., US counties). The research literature suggests that small area variations in drug deaths to a considerable degree reflect contextual (place-related) factors as well as individual risk factors. Methods. We consider the role of area social status, social cohesion, segregation, urbanicity, and drug supply in an ecological regression analysis of county differences in drug deaths in the US during 2015–2017. Results. The analysis of US small area data highlights a range of factors which are statistically significant in explaining differences in drug deaths, but with no risk factor having a predominant role. Comparisons with other countries where small area drug mortality data have been analyzed show differences between countries in the impact of different contextual factors, but some common themes. Conclusions. Intra-national differences in drug-related deaths are considerable, but there are significant research gaps in the evidence base for small area analysis of such deaths.

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