RAND Health's special features synthesize research on the most critical health policy issues into a quick, easy-to-read format, conveying the most important and interesting findings in a simple, streamlined fashion.
Understanding social and environmental factors, such as public parks, that influence physical activity is essential to designing interventions to improving public health. But what role does socioeconomic status play?
In shared decision making, providers help patients understand medical evidence about the decisions they face, while patients help providers understand their preferences and values. In theory, this leads to personalized decisions rather than “one-size-fits-all” health care.
Whether at home, at school, or in the community, exposure to violence raises concerns about not just the potential for physical harm, but also the longer-term developmental and mental health risks for children.
Nothing can reverse the disaster at Sandy Hook Elementary School and return the victims to their families. But research can guide the community toward recovery—and may help prevent future tragedies.
Evidence is mounting that something happens when youth start working that compels them to smoke. With this trend in mind, it's worth exploring potential strategies to prevent smoking among youth who enter the workforce.
In its second term, the Obama Administration can restrain further health care spending growth—without compromising quality—by employing four broad strategies: fostering efficient and accountable providers, engaging and empowering consumers, promoting population health, and facilitating high-value innovation.
The 24/7 Sobriety Project requires those arrested for or convicted of alcohol-related offenses to take twice-a-day breathalyzer tests or wear a continuous alcohol monitoring bracelet. Those who fail or skip their tests are immediately subject to swift, certain but modest sanctions—typically a day or two in jail.
Impulse marketing—like candy at a supermarket checkout line—influences our food choices in a way that is largely automatic and out of our conscious control, which affects our risk of diet-related chronic diseases.
Retail health care clinics provide treatment for acute conditions like bronchitis as well as vaccinations and other preventive care. With the role of retail clinics expanding and U.S. health care entering a dynamic period of change, it is important to consider what we know about this emerging health care setting.
Research has uncovered links between the motives movie characters convey for smoking on the silver screen and real-world smoking risk among middle school students.
Today's adolescents live in an unprecedented, media-rich environment. Technology has greatly increased the volume of available content, much of which can now fit in a pocket. RAND Health explores the growing role of media in determining adolescent health.
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, what lies ahead for health care in America? RAND experts sound off in the wake of this momentous decision.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on large sugary drinks shows that policymakers—as well as health experts—are concerned about the effects of food portions on obesity in America. Consumers' dietary behaviors are often irrational, particularly when it comes to portion size, making many such regulations viable.
“Consumer-directed” health plans (CDHPs), with high deductibles and low monthly premiums, are thought to limit health care spending by tying costs to patients' care. Consumers switching to a CDHP appear to make significant reductions in their spending, but may also be skipping high-value preventive care.
For most of the 20 million endoscopies and colonoscopies performed each year, the type of clinician who administers the sedation may have more of an impact on the procedure’s cost than on clinical care outcomes. Allowing GI procedure teams to administer anesthesia could save $1.1 billion in health spending each year.
Youth obesity has become a major concern for local and national policymakers, and many of their efforts have looked at the food environment as an area for intervention. Two new studies by RAND Health researchers indicate that the relationship between obesity and the food environment may not be so straightforward.
The individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) requires that most Americans either obtain health coverage or pay an annual fine. How much will overturning the individual mandate affect costs and coverage?
In the fight against HIV/AIDS, the countries with the highest burden of disease rely heavily on donor funding for their HIV programs. Funding from donors have flattened or even declined while demand for HIV/AIDS care continues to rise. A RAND study examined options to better leverage existing resources.
California, the state with the nation's largest prison population, is releasing increased numbers of inmates under its 2011 Public Safety Realignment Plan. RAND was asked to study the public health implications of returning prisoners for the communities they return to and has found both challenges and opportunities.
Americans who served in the military receive care for mental health and substance use disorders from the VA hospital system. The VA has made improving mental health care for veterans an institutional priority and asked RAND to evaluate the quality of services for these conditions.
How do soaring health care costs affect the finances of the average American family? A new RAND Health study shows that the doubling of health costs between 1999 and 2009 largely wiped out an average family's real income gains.
RAND Health has worked on multiple studies identifying the predictors and consequences of adolescent sexual intercourse. The most recent work, by Dr. Anita Chandra, is the first study to demonstrate a link between exposure to sexual content on television and the experience of a pregnancy before the age of 20.
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