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Health Behaviors

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988 Mental Health Hotline: Connecting People to Care
RAND researchers Stephanie Brooks Holliday and Ryan K. McBain describe findings from their recent work that examined how prepared states and counties are for the launch of 988, the new mental health emergency hotline.
Jul 15, 2022
Journal Article
Methodological Considerations for Estimating Policy Effects in the Context of Co-Occurring Policies
Researchers conducted simulations to assess how concurrently implemented policies affected the evaluation of hypothetical state-level policies.
Jul 15, 2022
Journal Article
Improving Diet Quality in U.S. Adults: A 30-Year Health and Economic Impact Microsimulation
Microsimulation (Future Adult Model) predicted 30-year improved diet quality impacts across 12 demographic groups. Diet improvement reduced prevalence of heart disease by 7.6% to 13.8% across groups and reduced healthcare costs by $10B in year 30.
Jul 12, 2022
Journal Article
Diet Quality Improvement and 30-Year Population Health and Economic Outcomes: A Microsimulation Study
Microsimulation (Future Adult Model) predicted 30-year US population changes from improved diet quality. Diet improvement reduced prevalence of diabetes, heart disease and stroke by 11%, 7%, and 10%, and reduced healthcare costs by $144B in year 30.
Jul 12, 2022
Report
Personal Firearm Storage in the United States: Recent Estimates, Patterns, and Effectiveness of Interventions
This report describes what is meant by safe firearm storage, provides estimates of U.S. gun owners' storage practices from representative surveys, and presents research on the effectiveness of interventions to change such practices.
Jul 11, 2022
Journal Article
Diet Quality in the United States Improved During the Great Recession and Deteriorated During Economic Recovery
During the Great Recession, American diets became more consistent with Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations, possibly because of a shift toward food prepared at home instead of prepared food bought away from home.
Jul 7, 2022
Commercial Book
Assessing the Harms of Crime: A New Framework for Criminal Policy
Assessing the Harms of Crime provides a firm analytical foundation for making normative decisions about criminal and related policy, taking harm—and its reduction—as a conceptual starting point and supplying the means for systematic, empirical analysis in a harm assessment framework.
Jun 29, 2022
Blog
Synthetic Opioids, Ukrainian Grain, the Metaverse: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on countering the illegal flow of synthetic opioids, freeing up Ukrainian grain to prevent famine, the importance of defining the metaverse, and more.
Jun 24, 2022
Testimony
Giving Drug Policy Decisionmakers the Data They Need
Better data and analysis can help improve federal drug policy responses. With the appropriate funding, the United States could enhance its drug data infrastructure and ensure that drug policy is based on high-quality information.
Jun 24, 2022
Journal Article
Volunteer Recovery Support for Adolescents: Using Propensity Score Based Methods to Understand Dosage Effects Within a Randomized Controlled Trial
The study used statistical methods designed to approximate RCTs when comparing more than two nonequivalent groups that include an assessment of the potential impact of omitted variables in order to address potential dosage effects for a commonly used evidence based substance use treatment program for adolescents.
Jun 24, 2022
Journal Article
Sleep Disturbances, Changes in Sleep, and Cognitive Function in Low-Income African Americans
In a predominantly African-American sample of older adults, worsening of sleep efficiency was associated with poorer cognitive function. Improving sleep health may support Alzheimer's prevention and reduce health disparities.
Jun 23, 2022
Journal Article
Clinical Pathway for Suicide Risk Screening in Adult Primary Care Settings: Special Recommendations
This paper describes a clinical suicide risk screening pathway for adult primary care practices. We also provide guidance to aid primary care practices in their decisions about how to implement the clinical pathway.
Jun 22, 2022
Journal Article
Advancing Research in Child Suicide: A Call to Action
This paper highlights the problem of child suicide, summarizes what is known and not known about the problem in the empirical literature, and provides recommendations with ethical considerations for future research and practice.
Jun 22, 2022
Journal Article
Comparative Effectiveness of Individual Versus Family-Based Substance Use Treatment on Adolescent Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors
We compared the effectiveness of individual- and family-based substance use treatments in reducing youth self-injurious thoughts and behaviors.
Jun 21, 2022
Journal Article
Military Service Branch Differences in Alcohol Use, Tobacco Use, Prescription Drug Misuse, and Mental Health Conditions
Using data from the 2015 Department of Defense Health Related Behaviors Survey, we estimated service branch-specific prevalences of substance use and mental health outcomes.
Jun 21, 2022
Journal Article
Co-occurring Alcohol and Mental Health Problems in the Military: Prevalence, Disparities, and Service Utilization
This study examined the prevalence of co-occurring alcohol and mental health (MH) problems, perceived MH service need, and MH service utilization among active duty service members.
Jun 21, 2022
Commentary
Will the New 988 Hotline Be a Game Changer for Mental Health or a Missed Opportunity?
Someone dies from suicide in the United States every 11 minutes, a rate that has increased almost 30 percent since 2000. The 988 mental health hotline will launch on July 16, but states need to clear significant hurdles: funding the expanded crisis response system and making sure people know it's available.
Jun 20, 2022
News Release
Poor Sleep and Nighttime Wakefulness Associated with Diminished Cognitive Function Among African Americans
More fragmented sleep and longer periods of wakefulness after bedtime among a group of low-income African American adults were associated with lower cognitive function such as poor attention and visuospatial ability. Improving sleep may support prevention of Alzheimer's and related dementias.
Jun 15, 2022
Commentary
What Chesa Boudin's Replacement Can Do About Open-Air Drug Dealing
Successfully addressing open-air drug dealing in San Francisco will likely require transparency about consequences that drug dealers face; a rethinking of how such crimes are sanctioned; and collaboration between prosecutors, police, and the community.
Jun 10, 2022
Article
Synthetic Opioids Are an Everything Problem
Illegally manufactured synthetic opioids have accelerated the opioid crisis. These drugs have created new challenges across a wide range of policy areas. That's why this crisis warrants new strategies and a comprehensive response.
Jun 9, 2022

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RAND Topic:
Health Behaviors

Topic Synonyms:
Health Behaviour

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Katherine E. Watkins

Senior Physician Policy Researcher

Katherine Watkins (she/her) is a senior physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a board-certified practicing psychiatrist. She uniquely combines a research background in substance abuse and mental health treatment services with a clinical background in treatment for substance use…
Giulia Maistrello

Analyst

Giulia Maistrello (she/her) is an analyst at the RAND Corporation. Working primarily in RAND Europe, she focuses on the area of safety, health and wellbeing. She has worked on projects relating to occupational safety and health, healthcare improvement, and health services evaluation.

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