Author: TheConversation

By Jonathan Wynn, Department Chair and Professor of Sociology, UMass Amherst; Daniel Skinner, Associate Professor of Health Policy, Ohio University Have you ever asked if living near a hospital make you more likely to get the health care you need? Even though the federal government requires nonprofit hospitals to regularly assess the health needs of their surrounding communities and publicly post a plan to address those concerns, many people living nearby struggle to get basic health care. We are a political scientist and an urban sociologist who study how hospitals interact with and shape the communities in which they...

By Leah Koenig, PhD Candidate in Public Health, University of California, San Francisco; Ushma Upadhyay, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science, University of California, San Francisco Access to telehealth abortion care can determine whether a person can obtain an abortion in the United States. For young people and those living on low incomes, telehealth makes a critical difference in getting timely abortion care. These are the key findings from our recent studies published in the American Journal of Public Health and the Journal of Medical Internet Research. We surveyed 1,600 people across the country who accessed telehealth abortion...

By Lucas Henneman, Assistant Professor of Engineering, George Mason University Air pollution particles from coal-fired power plants are more harmful to human health than many experts realized, and it is more than twice as likely to contribute to premature deaths as air pollution particles from other sources, new research demonstrates. In the study, published in the journal Science, colleagues and I mapped how U.S. coal power plant emissions traveled through the atmosphere, then linked each power plant’s emissions with death records of Americans over 65 years old on Medicare. Our results suggest that air pollutants released from coal power...

By Trevor Thompson, Associate Professor of Clinical Research, University of Greenwich; and Sofia Stathi, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Greenwich White people who visit hospital emergency departments with pain are 26% more likely than Black people to be given opioid pain medications such as morphine. This was a key finding from our recent study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. We also found that Black patients were 25% more likely than White patients to be given only non-opioid painkillers such as ibuprofen, which are typically available over the counter. We examined more than 200,000 visit records...

By Ramya Vijaya, Professor of Economics, Stockton University Although Congress is failing to pass laws to restrict the number of migrants arriving in the U.S., a majority of Americans, about 6 in 10, believe there is an immigration crisis along the Mexico-U.S. border. Politicians who want fewer people to move here often cast those arriving without prior authorization as a burden on the economy. As an economist who has researched immigration and employment, I am confident that economic trends and research findings contradict those arguments. The U.S. is experiencing a labor market shortage that is likely to last well...

By Timothy D. Lytton, Regents’ Professor & Professor of Law, Georgia State University The government of Mexico is suing U.S. gun-makers for their role in facilitating cross-border gun trafficking that has supercharged violent crime in Mexico. The lawsuit seeks US$10 billion in damages and a court order to force the companies named in the lawsuit – including Smith & Wesson, Colt, Glock, Beretta and Ruger – to change the way they do business. In January, a federal appeals court in Boston decided that the industry’s immunity shield, which so far has protected gun-makers from civil liability, does not apply...