Two articles by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health researchers have been recognized as among the "Top 10" in 2021 by the scientific journal Health Affairs.
“While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic rightfully occupied a large part of the public health conversation last year, I appreciate this opportunity to highlight several articles that did not receive the attention I feel that they deserved in 2021,” Alan Weil, the journal’s editor-in-chief, wrote in a column announcing the selections. “As with previous years, my top ten goes beyond our “most-read” articles and spotlights those that explore particularly interesting questions or use unique methods or data sources.”
The two UCLA Fielding School articles ranking in the journal’s Top 10 include:
- “The Effect Of The Affordable Care Act On Cancer Detection Among The Near-Elderly” with co-authors including Dr. Gerald Kominski, Fielding School professor emeritus of health policy and management, and Dr. Srikanth Kadiyala, a senior economist in the Fielding School’s UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
- “Trust In Governments And Health Workers Low Globally, Influencing Attitudes Toward Health Information, Vaccines” co-authored by Dr. Corrina Moucheraud, associate professor of Health Policy and Management and associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Dr. James Macinko, professor in the departments of Community Health Sciences and Health Policy and Management and associate dean for research, and Fielding School PhD student Huiying Guo.
The study about trust in government and healthcare workers found less than one-third of respondents expressed trust in health advice from their governments; less than half trusted doctors and nurses or felt positive about vaccines. In this analysis of survey data from 144 countries that predate the COVID-19 pandemic, trusting one’s government — although reported by only approximately one-quarter of respondents — was associated with having positive attitudes toward vaccines.
In the study about cancer and the Affordable Care Act, the researchers used a “difference in discontinuities” approach to show that the increase in insurance coverage among adults ages 60–64 due to the Affordable Care Act greatly increased rates of cancer detection for this population. Fifty-nine additional incidents of cancer were detected per 100,000 people, and 68 percent of these were early- and middle-stage cancers—and thus more likely treatable.
