Reducing overuse of care: Professor Jason Doctor and colleagues examined whether notifying clinicians about the harms of overtesting and overtreatment of older adults had a persistent positive effect a year after the behavioral intervention was removed, finding varying results by clinical area. Read in Annals of Internal Medicine
Do trial benefits predict real-world gains?: Associate Professor Alice Chen, Professor Darius Lakdawalla and colleagues estimated how randomized clinical trial benefits predict the association between treatments and real-world gains for certain prostate cancer drugs. They found trial estimates serve as useful, or even conservative, predictors of real-world gains. Read in JNCI Cancer Spectrum
Dementia diagnoses increase: A study co-authored by Postdoctoral Research Fellow Sidra Haye and Professor Julie Zissimopoulos found that annual rates of new dementia diagnoses in Medicare Advantage increased by 11.5 percent relative to traditional Medicare after CMS reintroduced Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias to its risk-adjustment payment model, which is used to estimate the cost to treat a patient in a given year. Read in Health Affairs
Weapons of mass destruction: Professor Detlof von Winterfeldt and a colleague evaluated compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540. It requires countries to develop and enforce legal and regulatory measures against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. Read in Risk Analysis
Emigration and aging: Associate Professor Emma Aguila and colleagues examined the impact of migration experiences on the cognitive aging of Mexican return migrants. They found that undocumented return migrants who later work in Mexico’s informal sector have significantly worse cognitive outcomes than both non-migrants – those who never left Mexico – and undocumented return migrants working in the formal sector. Read in Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences
Income and well-being: University Professor Dana Goldman, Professor Julie Zissimopoulos and colleagues examined 20-year time trends in physical well-being, mental well-being, and functional well-being by levels of household income, finding dramatic and consistent differences in trends in well-being by income category. Read in Health Affairs Scholar
The collapse of the Civil Rights coalition: Provost Professor Jeffery A. Jenkins and a colleague provide a legislative history detailing the nearly two-decade long congressional battle over busing, the primary means to end school segregation. The paper sheds light on the collapse of the pro-civil rights coalition responsible for the landmark achievements of the early 1960s. Read in Law and History Review
Estimating location value: Associate Professor Christian Redfearn co-authored a paper developing a novel method for measuring the value of location within a metropolitan area. Read in Real Estate Economics
Job growth in the Heartland: Doctoral student Marley Randazzo and Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett examined sector employment data by metropolitan and rural geographies to assess economic development in the nation's Heartland. They found surprising job growth rates in knowledge industries more typically associated with cities and urban areas. Read in Economic Development Quarterly
Colleges’ carbon footprint: Professor Detlof von Winterfeldt and colleagues provided a literature review about student commuting, a significant contributing factor to the carbon footprint of universities. The paper includes findings from focus groups of USC graduate students aimed to encourage alternative forms of transportation. Read in Environment Systems and Decisions
The green decision maker: Provost Professor Wändi Bruine de Bruin and colleagues examined whether exposure to potentially restorative natural or built environments would improve decision-making. They found that fatigued participants who viewed nature scenes performed better on decision-making tasks, while those exposed to nonrestorative built environments, such as industrial settings, saw their performance decline. Read in Journal of Environmental Psychology
Dementia severity and healthcare costs: Professor Julie Zissimopoulos and colleagues found that health care use and costs increased in the three months before patients were diagnosed with dementia and increased most significantly during the quarter of diagnosis. Read in Innovation in Aging
Quality of life during COVID-19: Associate Professor John Romley and colleagues researched how people in different parts of the U.S. felt about their health and quality-of-life during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discovered that people living in the East South Central region (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee) had more problems than those in other parts of the country. Read in Applied Research in Quality of Life
