scholarly journals Time for Better Access to High-Quality Abortion Data in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 189 (7) ◽  
pp. 640-647
Author(s):  
Katherine A Ahrens ◽  
Jennifer A Hutcheon

Abstract Despite considerable lay attention on the regulation and legislation of abortion in the United States, important gaps remain in our understanding of its incidence and health and social consequences since its legalization in 1973. Many of these gaps in knowledge can be attributed to a lack of access to high-quality, individual-level abortion data over the past 46 years. Herein, we review the strengths and limitations of different, currently available methods for enumerating abortions in the United States and discuss how lack of access to high-quality data limits our surveillance and research activities of not only abortion but other important reproductive and perinatal health outcomes. We conclude by discussing some potential opportunities for improved access to high-quality abortion data in the United States.

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Shannon Lange ◽  
Courtney Bagge ◽  
Charlotte Probst ◽  
Jürgen Rehm

Abstract. Background: In recent years, the rate of death by suicide has been increasing disproportionately among females and young adults in the United States. Presumably this trend has been mirrored by the proportion of individuals with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. Aim: We aimed to investigate whether the proportion of individuals in the United States with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide differed by age and/or sex, and whether this proportion has increased over time. Method: Individual-level data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2008–2017, were used to estimate the year-, age category-, and sex-specific proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. We then determined whether this proportion differed by age category, sex, and across years using random-effects meta-regression. Overall, age category- and sex-specific proportions across survey years were estimated using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Although the proportion was found to be significantly higher among females and those aged 18–25 years, it had not significantly increased over the past 10 years. Limitations: Data were self-reported and restricted to past-year suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Conclusion: The increase in the death by suicide rate in the United States over the past 10 years was not mirrored by the proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide during this period.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-910
Author(s):  
Robert E. Goodin ◽  
James Mahmud Rice

Judging from Gallup Polls in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, opinion often changes during an election campaign. Come election day itself, however, opinion often reverts back nearer to where it was before the campaign began. That that happens even in Australia, where voting is compulsory and turnout is near-universal, suggests that differential turnout among those who have and have not been influenced by the campaign is not the whole story. Inspection of individual-level panel data from 1987 and 2005 British General Elections confirms that between 3 and 5 percent of voters switch voting intentions during the campaign, only to switch back toward their original intentions on election day. One explanation, we suggest, is that people become more responsible when stepping into the poll booth: when voting they reflect back on the government's whole time in office, rather than just responding (as when talking to pollsters) to the noise of the past few days' campaigning. Inspection of Gallup Polls for UK snap elections suggests that this effect is even stronger in elections that were in that sense unanticipated.


Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Parolin

Abstract Routine-biased technological change has emerged as the dominant explanation for the differential earnings growth of occupations at greater risk of automation, such as machine operators or office clerks, relative to less routine occupations. In contrast, this paper finds that the declining earnings returns to an occupation’s routine task intensity (RTI) can largely be attributed to the decline of organized labor. Using individual-level data on 3.3 million employed adults across the United States from 1983 to 2017, this paper finds that organized labor has two countervailing effects on occupations at greater risk of automation. First, higher union coverage within a state and industry inhibits the decline in earnings returns to an occupation’s RTI. Second, higher union coverage hastens the decline in employment shares of occupations with higher RTI. The result is that occupations at greater risk of automation experience more favorable earnings growth where unions are more resilient, but at the cost of accelerated declines in their employment shares. Counterfactual analyses demonstrate that if union coverage in the United States had remained stable at 1983 levels, the earnings returns to an occupation’s RTI might not have declined from 1983 to 2017, and the observed pattern of occupational earnings polarization in the 1990s might not have occurred. However, the mean RTI of occupations might have declined by an additional 21 percent from 1983 to 2017 relative to the observed decline. The findings suggest that the social consequences of automation are conditional on the strength of organized labor.


2020 ◽  
pp. 109980042096888
Author(s):  
Rosa M. Gonzalez-Guarda ◽  
Allison M. Stafford ◽  
Gabriela A. Nagy ◽  
Deanna R. Befus ◽  
Jamie L. Conklin

The health of Latinx immigrants decays over time and across generations. Acculturation stress influences decays in behavioral and mental health in this population, but the effect on physical health outcomes is less understood. This systematic review synthesizes findings from 22 studies that examined the influence of acculturation stress on physical health outcomes among Latinx populations in the United States. The Society-to-Cell Resilience Framework was used to synthesize findings according to individual, physiological, and cellular levels. There is mounting evidence identifying acculturation stress as an important social contributor to negative physical health outcomes, especially at the individual level. More research is needed to identify the physiological and cellular mechanisms involved. Interventions are also needed to address the damaging effects of acculturation stress on a variety of physical health conditions in this population.


Author(s):  
Paul Farquhar-Smith

The landmark paper discussed in this chapter is ‘Prevalence of pain in patients with cancer: A systematic review of the past 40 years’, published by van den Beuken et al. in 2007. It is not surprising that this definitive study on cancer pain prevalence is one of the most cited papers in cancer pain. Despite the extent of cancer pain literature, this paper’s 2007 publication is surprisingly recent for the first methodologically sound and major study of cancer pain prevalence. Many previous estimates lacked accuracy, and were prone to bias. What was known was that, despite apparent increasing interest in, research in, and recognition of pain in cancer patients, the prevalence of such pain was still high, even after treatment. This paper attempted to accurately quantify just how high by statistically pooling available high-quality data while avoiding the pitfalls of combining heterogeneous studies, as had plagued previous reports.


Author(s):  
M.H. Davies ◽  
H.F. Grundy ◽  
S. Page

The Piemontese breed is reputed to produce high quality carcasses, but its potential in U.K. beef production systems is unknown. Data from the United States on crossbred progeny (Cundiff et al., 1990) and from Italy on both pure breeds (La Carne Bovina, 1988) and crossbreds (Gigli et al., 1990) shown the Piemontese to be a light boned, low fat, high meat yield breed with a high dressing out proportion. Furthermore the meat quality data show that it produced the most tender meat of all breeds tested and this was achieved at a low marbling fat content. This trial compares the performance of Piemontese x Friesian and Charolais x Friesian steers and heifers when fed on an indoor silage beef system. The meat quality characteristics of the carcasses produced are reported elsewhere (Fisher et al., 1992).


The objects of the organizers of this discussion can perhaps be summarized as: (1) to bring the problems presented by the second coefficient of viscosity to the notice of applied mathematicians and physicists; (2) to clarify the problems; (3) to assess critically what has been already done; and (4) to learn from those active in the subject what is being done at the present time. The first object has clearly been successfully achieved. The discussion has attracted men of science from many countries—the United States, France, Germany, India and Italy—and from many of the universities and great industrial concerns of Britain. The number of contributions, all of high quality, attests the interest aroused. Some of those present may have come to learn what the second coefficient of viscosity might be, for many questions on the subject have been directed to me by eminent physicists in the past few weeks.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ton de Waal

Abstract National statistical institutes are responsible for publishing high quality statistical information on many different aspects of society. This task is complicated considerably by the fact that data collected by statistical offices often contain errors. The process of correcting errors is referred to as statistical data editing. For many years this has been a purely manual process, with people checking the collected data record by record and correcting them if necessary. For this reason the data editing process has been both expensive and time-consuming. This article sketches some of the important methodological developments aiming to improve the efficiency of the data editing process that have occurred during the past few decades. The article focuses on selective editing, which is based on an idea rather shocking for people working in the production of high-quality data: that it is not necessary to find and correct all errors. Instead of trying to correct all errors, it generally suffices to correct only those errors where data editing has substantial influence on publication figures. This overview article sketches the background of selective editing, describes the most usual form of selective editing up to now, and discusses the contributions to this special issue of the Journal of Official Statistics on selective editing. The article concludes with describing some possible directions for future research on selective editing and statistical data editing in general.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1533-1550
Author(s):  
Lindsey Morse ◽  
Mark Trompet ◽  
Alexander Barron ◽  
Richard Anderson ◽  
Daniel J. Graham

PurposeThis paper describes a benchmarking framework applied to medium-sized urban public bus agencies in the United States, which has overcome the challenges of data quality, comparability, and understanding.Design/methodology/approachThe benchmarking methodology described in this paper is based on lessons learned through seven years of development of a fixed-route key performance indicator (KPI) system for the American Bus Benchmarking Group (ABBG). Founded in 2011, the ABBG is a group of public medium-sized urban bus agencies that compare performance and share best practices with peers throughout the United States. The methodology is adapted from the process used within international benchmarking groups facilitated by Imperial College and consists of four main elements: peer selection, KPI system development, processes to achieve high-quality data, and processes to understand relative performance and change.FindingsThe four main elements of the ABBG benchmarking methodology consist of 18 subelements, which when applied overcome three main benchmarking challenges: comparability, data quality, and understanding. While serving as examples for the methodology elements, the paper provides specific insights into service characteristics and performance among ABBG agencies.Research limitations/implicationsThe benchmarking approach described in this paper requires time and commitment and thus is most suitably applied to a concise group of agencies.Practical implicationsThis methodology provides transit agencies, authorities, and benchmarking practitioners a framework for effective benchmarking. It will lead to high-quality comparable data and a strong understanding of the performance context to serve as a basis for organizational changes, whether for policy, planning, operations, stakeholder communication, or program development.Originality/valueThe methodology, while consistent with recommendations from literature, is unique in its scale, in-depth validation and analysis, and holistic and multidimensional approach.


1997 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
pp. 15-29
Author(s):  
Pere L. Pallé

The new results obtained from the observation of solar oscillations over the past decade, have a direct impact on our knowledge of the Sun's interior. As a consequence, a great interest in helioseismology has arisen and is reflected in the development of new observational projects as well as new analyse and inversion techniques. In this review we will describe the present ground-based observational programmes, which, unlike the space ones, are mostly designed to produce high quality data over very long time spans (up to solar cycle time scales). The characteristics of the various observational programmes, single-site and network, will be described together with their performances, the main results obtained up to now, and some other logistical aspects.


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