scholarly journals Death by Robots? Automation and Working-Age Mortality in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rourke OBrien ◽  
Atheendar Venkataramani ◽  
Elizabeth Bair
Keyword(s):  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrial Robots ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Labor Market Policies ◽  
Structural Force ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Deaths Of Despair ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Overdose Deaths

The decline of manufacturing employment is frequently invoked as a key cause of worsening U.S. population health trends, including rising mortality due to ‘deaths of despair’. Increasing automation—the use of industrial robots to perform tasks previously done by human workers—is one major structural force driving the decline of manufacturing jobs and wages. In this study we examine the impact of automation on age-sex specific mortality. Using exogenous variation in automation to support causal inference, we find that increases in automation over the period 1993–2007 led to substantive increases in all-cause mortality for both men and women aged 45-54. Disaggregating by cause, we find evidence automation is associated with increases in drug overdose deaths, suicide, homicide and cardiovascular mortality although patterns differ across age-sex groups. We go on to examine heterogeneity in effects by safety net program generosity, labor market policies, and the supply of prescription opioids.

scholarly journals Long-Term Employment Outcomes among Female Cancer Survivors

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 2751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine C. Ekenga ◽  
Eunsun Kwon ◽  
BoRin Kim ◽  
Sojung Park
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Employment Status ◽  
The United States ◽  
Employment Outcomes ◽  
Hours Worked ◽  
Professional Workers ◽  
Working Age ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Female Cancer Survivors

Advances in early detection and treatment have led to a growing population of female cancer survivors, many of whom are of working age. We examined the relationship between cancer and long-term (>5 years) employment outcomes in a nationally representative sample of working-age women in the United States. Data from nine waves of the Health and Retirement Study were used to examine employment status and weekly hours worked among cancer survivors (n = 483) and women without cancer (n = 6605). We used random slope regression models to estimate the impact of cancer and occupation type on employment outcomes. There was no difference in employment status between cancer survivors and women without cancer at baseline; however, during follow-up, cancer survivors were more likely to be employed than women without cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 1.33, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–1.58). Among 6–10-year survivors, professional workers were less likely (OR = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.21–0.74) to be employed than manual workers. Among >10-year survivors, professional workers averaged fewer weekly hours worked (−2.4 h, 95% CI: −4.4–−0.47) than manual workers. The impact of cancer on long-term employment outcomes may differ by occupation type. Identifying the occupation-specific mechanisms associated with the return to work will be critical to developing targeted strategies to promote employment in the growing female cancer survivor population.

scholarly journals The Great Recession and Mental Health in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 900-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam K. Forbes ◽  
Robert F. Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Panic Attacks ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Impact

The full scope of the impact of the Great Recession on individuals’ mental health has not been quantified to date. In this study we aimed to determine whether financial, job-related, and housing impacts experienced by individuals during the recession predicted changes in the occurrence of symptoms of depression, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, and problematic alcohol use or other substance use. Longitudinal survey data ( n = 2,530 to n = 3,293) from the national Midlife in the United States study that were collected before (2003–2004) and after (2012–2013) the Great Recession were analyzed. The population-level trend was toward improvements in mental health over time. However, for individuals, each recession impact experienced was associated with long-lasting and transdiagnostic declines in mental health. These relationships were stronger for some sociodemographic groups, which suggests the need for additional support for people who suffer marked losses during recessions and for those without a strong safety net.

scholarly journals COVID-19: US federal accountability for entry, spread, and inequities—lessons for the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 995-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
William P. Hanage ◽  
Christian Testa ◽  
Jarvis T. Chen ◽  
Letitia Davis ◽  
Elise Pechter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Worldwide Population ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Us ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Community Transmission ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe United States (US) has been among those nations most severely affected by the first—and subsequent—phases of the pandemic of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. With only 4% of the worldwide population, the US has seen about 22% of COVID-19 deaths. Despite formidable advantages in resources and expertise, presently the per capita mortality rate is over 585/million, respectively 2.4 and 5 times higher compared to Canada and Germany. As we enter Fall 2020, the US is enduring ongoing outbreaks across large regions of the country. Moreover, within the US, an early and persistent feature of the pandemic has been the disproportionate impact on populations already made vulnerable by racism and dangerous jobs, inadequate wages, and unaffordable housing, and this is true for both the headline public health threat and the additional disastrous economic impacts. In this article we assess the impact of missteps by the Federal Government in three specific areas: the introduction of the virus to the US and the establishment of community transmission; the lack of national COVID-19 workplace standards and enforcement, and lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for workplaces as represented by complaints to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which we find are correlated with deaths 16 days later (ρ = 0.83); and the total excess deaths in 2020 to date already total more than 230,000, while COVID-19 mortality rates exhibit severe—and rising—inequities in race/ethnicity, including among working age adults.

scholarly journals Analysis of COVID-19 Concerns Raised by the Construction Workforce and Development of Mitigation Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makram Bou Hatoum ◽  
Ali Faisal ◽  
Hala Nassereddine ◽  
Hadi Sarvari
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Impact

The coronavirus outbreak has created a global health crisis that has disrupted all industries, including the construction industry. Following the onset of the pandemic, construction workers faced and continue to face unprecedented safety and health challenges. Therefore, construction employers established new safety precautions to protect the health and safety of the workforce and minimize the spread of the virus. The new precautions followed the advice and guidelines offered by different health and safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). With construction projects resuming operations, it becomes important to analyze the coronavirus-related health and safety concerns of construction workforce and understand how the new safety procedures can assist on jobsites. Existing studies mostly focused on interviews and surveys with construction companies to understand the impact on project performance and supply chains. However, no study has yet to analyze the United States construction workforce. This paper fills the gap by providing a qualitative descriptive analysis of the COVID-19 complaints data gathered by OSHA from construction jobsites. Information gathered by OSHA includes the jobsite location, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) of the construction company, the type of the complaint (i.e., formal or non-formal), and a thorough description of the complaint. N-grams were employed to analyze the complaints, detect trends, and compile a list of the most frequent concerns reported by the workforce. The analysis of the complaints data identifies safety practices that were most violated, highlights major safety and health concerns for construction workers, and pinpoints geographical areas that have seen a surge in complaints. The study also synthesized the existing research corpus and compiled a list of 100 best practices that construction employers can adopt to mitigate the concerns of the workforce. The findings of this study provide insights into the safety and health trends on construction sites, lay the foundation for future work of academicians and practitioners to address the concerns faced by construction workers, and serve as lessons learned for the industry in the case of any future pandemic.

scholarly journals Exploring the impact of the opioid epidemic in Black and Hispanic communities in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 205032452094042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine Drake ◽  
Creaque Charles ◽  
Jennifer W Bourgeois ◽  
Elycia S Daniel ◽  
Melissa Kwende
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
Cause Of Death ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Urban Minority ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Overdose Deaths ◽  
The U.S

Context: In recent years, due to an alarming increase in the number of opioid-related overdose fatalities for White, Non-Hispanics in rural and suburban communities across the United States, they have been considered as the face of this epidemic. However, there has also been a staggering rise in the number of opioid overdoses in urban, minority communities, which have not been thoroughly addressed by the literature. Methods We reviewed deaths where opioid-related substances were reported as the leading cause of death to the Centers of Disease Control Multiple Cause of Death database from 1999 to 2017. Deaths were analyzed by year, State, drug type, and race and ethnicity. Results There were 399,230 total opioid-related deaths from 1999 to 2017 amongst all ethnic groups in the U.S. During this timeframe, approximately 323,939 total deaths were attributed to White, Non-Hispanics, while 75,291 were attributed to all other ethnicities. Examination of opioid-related overdose death data by ethnicity reveals that while White, Non-Hispanics have experienced the largest numbers of opioid-related overdose deaths in the U.S with up to 37,113 deaths occurring during 2017, there has also been a sharp rise in the number of opioid-related overdose deaths for minorities. opioid-related overdose deaths for Black, Non-Hispanics climbed from 1130 deaths in 1999 to 5513 deaths in 2017, while opioid-related overdose deaths for Hispanics climbed from 1058 in 1999 to 3932 in 2017. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over the past 19 years, age-adjusted opioid-related deaths for Hispanics have climbed from 3.5 overdoses per 100,000 in 1999 to 6.8 overdoses per 100,000 in 2017. However, greater increases have been reported for Blacks during the same 19-year timeframe with age-adjusted rates of 3.5 overdoses per population of 100,000 in 1999 to 12.9 overdoses per population of 100,000 in 2017. Conclusion While Opioid-related overdoses have overwhelmingly plagued rural and suburban White, Non-Hispanic communities, there has been a surge in the number of deaths in Black and Hispanic Minority communities in recent years. Although there have been significant increases in the number of opioid-related overdose deaths in Black and Hispanic communities, the media narrative for this epidemic is often portrayed as a White, Non-Hispanic rural and suburban crisis. As a result, intervention strategies and policies have failed, both, to assess the severity of the problem in minority communities and to offer culturally sensitive preventative and treatment solutions. In this paper, the impact of the opioid epidemic on Black and Hispanic minority communities will be presented. Racial disparities in the U.S. Government’s current approach to an epidemic, which plagues rural and suburban White America, will be compared to its past criminal justice response to drug pandemics in urban minority communities. Culturally sensitive policy considerations and recommendations that can be used to, both, mitigate and offer treatment options for the opioid epidemic in these minority communities will also be addressed.

scholarly journals Trends in health inequalities in 27 European countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (25) ◽  
pp. 6440-6445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan P. Mackenbach ◽  
José Rubio Valverde ◽  
Barbara Artnik ◽  
Matthias Bopp ◽  
Henrik Brønnum-Hansen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Self Assessed Health ◽  
The Impact

Unfavorable health trends among the lowly educated have recently been reported from the United States. We analyzed health trends by education in European countries, paying particular attention to the possibility of recent trend interruptions, including interruptions related to the impact of the 2008 financial crisis. We collected and harmonized data on mortality from ca. 1980 to ca. 2014 for 17 countries covering 9.8 million deaths and data on self-reported morbidity from ca. 2002 to ca. 2014 for 27 countries covering 350,000 survey respondents. We used interrupted time-series analyses to study changes over time and country-fixed effects analyses to study the impact of crisis-related economic conditions on health outcomes. Recent trends were more favorable than in previous decades, particularly in Eastern Europe, where mortality started to decline among lowly educated men and where the decline in less-than-good self-assessed health accelerated, resulting in some narrowing of health inequalities. In Western Europe, mortality has continued to decline among the lowly and highly educated, and although the decline of less-than-good self-assessed health slowed in countries severely hit by the financial crisis, this affected lowly and highly educated equally. Crisis-related economic conditions were not associated with widening health inequalities. Our results show that the unfavorable trends observed in the United States are not found in Europe. There has also been no discernible short-term impact of the crisis on health inequalities at the population level. Both findings suggest that European countries have been successful in avoiding an aggravation of health inequalities.

Anxiety due to COVID-19 and impact on patients receiving chemotherapy in an inner-city minority population.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (29_suppl) ◽  
pp. 108-108
Author(s):  
Muhammad Junaid Tariq ◽  
Muhammad Usman Almani ◽  
Syed Ali Amir Sherazi ◽  
Muhammad Usman ◽  
Abdul Wahab Arif ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cook County ◽  
General Level ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Treatment Interruptions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Severe Anxiety

108 Background: Cook County Health (CCH) is one of the largest public safety net hospitals in the United States. COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected patient care. Although hospitals took measures to keep patients safe, there is a general level of anxiety in patients about coming to the hospital. This study was undertaken to see the impact of COVID-19 and anxiety in patients actively receiving infusional therapy at our institution. Methods: All patients coming to our Infusion Center were offered an anonymous written questionnaire. The survey was given for 10 calendar days in June 2020 after Chicago moved into Phase-3 of re-opening that indicated significant control of COVID-19. The survey was offered in English, Spanish and Polish. It also included the GAD scale for anxiety assessment. Statistics were done using the t-test and z-test. Results: A total of 107 patients completed the survey. About 55% were women with 67% patients over 50 years old. Of the 90 people that specified their race, 44% were black and 42% were Hispanic, 9% whites, and 5% others. Overall 68% had high school or less level of education with Hispanics having significantly lower education than blacks. About 30% had testing for COVID-19 with 81% being negative. Treatment interruption occurred in 39% patients. Despite 75% finding our infusion center extremely or very safe for treatments 28% still felt moderately or severely anxious on the GAD scale. Blacks had similar levels of anxiety compared to Hispanics in March 2020 but no significant change over the months compared to Hispanics who had a significant reduction in anxiety over time. Blacks also had significantly higher rates of moderate to severe anxiety on the GAD scale (33%), while no Hispanic had severe anxiety and 18% had moderate anxiety. Despite a higher level of anxiety, blacks were less likely to have treatment interruptions compared to Hispanics (Table). Conclusions: Despite low levels of anxiety, Hispanics were more likely to have treatment interruptions during the COVID pandemic compared to blacks who had a higher level of anxiety but lower levels of treatment interruptions. The cause of this may be the level of education and awareness between the groups. However, overall there is still a significant amount of anxiety in the inner-city minority population regarding COVID-19. [Table: see text]

1984 Update on the World Economic Crisis and the Children: A United States Case Study

1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Arden Miller ◽  
Elizabeth J. Coulter ◽  
Amy Fine ◽  
Sharon Adams-Taylor ◽  
Lisbeth B. Schorr
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Access To Health Services ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Impact

A previously published report by these authors on the impact in the United States of recession on children's health emphasized four points: 1) available monitoring systems are not adequate for reporting on the health of children in a timely fashion; 2) the monitoring of maternal and child health must emphasize data on population subgroups, i.e., minorities, the poor and those hardest hit by recession; 3) the health of poor children is adversely affected and their numbers dramatically increased during the recession of 1981–82; and 4) comparisons between the recession of 1974–75 and that of 1981–82 suggest that expansion of health services and social support systems during the recession of 1974–75 had a cushioning effect that protected the health of children, while the curtailment of many of these programs during the 1981–82 recession is associated with adverse health trends, especially among the most vulnerable population subgroups. Data on these issues are appreciably better now than they were nine months ago, thus further validating the points made above. As with the previous report, officially released current data are abundant for economic indicators (even for early 1984), but are sparse for health status indicators. The previous report also observed that the health status of children is influenced by interdependent and interlocking factors that include economic well-being and access to health services and social supports. A new analysis attempts to unlock those relationships and measure the impact of lost welfare benefits, implemented as a result of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 (OBRA), and the separate impact of the serious recession of 1981–82. That analysis shows the poverty rate for children increased by 7.6 percentage points between 1981 and 1982. Approximately 60 percent of the increase is attributable to the recession and 40 percent to social policy changes effected after 1981.

scholarly journals Using Geographic Information System Analysis to Understand West Virginia’s Growing Opioid-Overdose Epidemic - What Are We Missing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s53-s53
Author(s):  
Sasha Rihter ◽  
Nathan Menke
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Geographic Information System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
The State ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Overdose Death ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Overdose Deaths

Introduction:The opioid epidemic is overwhelming communities across the United States. West Virginia (WV) has been devastated, heralding a 86% increase in deaths from 2012-2016, and over 1,000 deaths last year as per WV Health Statistics Center. Treatment centers and providers have emerged throughout the state to provide medication-assisted treatment (MAT). The impact of these clinics on the opioid abusing population is not yet fully understood.Aim:Utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS), a comparison of MAT provider locations versus regions of historical overdoses can indicate areas of deficiency. If no providers emerge in underserved counties, overdose deaths in those areas will continue to rise.Methods:Maps were created using current DEA-X licenses in WV registered through Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAHMSA). Overdose death rates were taken from WV Public Health Records from 2010-2017. Two maps and corresponding data were compared for overlap or lack thereof.Results:Of the 338 locations of DEA-X licenses registered, 17.5% are in Cabell County, which led the state in overdose deaths in 2017. Only 2.5% of the total providers are currently in Wayne County, which had the second highest overdose death rate. Berkeley County, which was 3rd highest, has a mere 6.5% of total providers. Comparatively, Kanawah County, home to the state’s capital, has over twice this number of providers despite consistently having at or below the state average of overdose rates. Resources are pulled towards population-dense areas or university centers, where the epidemic is present but misses counties with higher overdose rates.Discussion:Results show a lack of MAT providers in many of WV’s devastated counties. Treatment centers exist throughout the state but are concentrated in regions with large cities or academic centers. This distribution limits accessibility to a marginalized patient population, making improvements unlikely in WV’s future opioid-overdose death rates.

When One Size Does Not Fit All: Modernizing the Supplemental Security Income Program

2019 ◽  
Vol 686 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-249
Author(s):  
Mary C. Daly ◽  
Mark Duggan
Keyword(s):  
Life Experiences ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Supplemental Security Income ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Elderly Individuals ◽  
Heterogenous Population ◽  
Medical Examiners ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

The federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is an important part of the safety net in the United States, paying means-tested benefits to children with disabilities, nonelderly adults with disabilities, and elderly individuals. In this article, we describe the eligibility criteria for the program, how these have changed over time, and the impact of these changes on SSI enrollment. We also show that over time, SSI has grown to serve a heterogenous population, with an array of life experiences and needs. In this context, we discuss potential reforms intended to modernize the program and increase its ability to achieve its goals. These include a proposal to raise the generosity of benefits for elderly SSI recipients, increase the incentive to work among nonelderly adult SSI recipients, and harmonize disability decision-making across medical examiners and administrative law judges.

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