Center in the News

These statistics were among those presented at "Addressing Gun Violence as a Public Health Epidemic," a symposium held Feb. 13 by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The half-day virtual symposium featured emerging research on various aspects of gun violence and discussions with leaders from national and local organizations advocating for policy change and public safety.

The California Health Interview Survey has revealed an elevated prevalence of diabetes at 11.5% in the country, above the 10% in the state. Physical inactivity, a contributor of diabetes, is a health issue for almost a third of residents.

“This is a stupid lie that apparently, like a zombie, refuses to die,” Gerald Kominski, a senior fellow and former director at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, wrote in an email. “The most common lie about this fact is that every COVID hospitalization (i.e., including on-Medicare) meant more payment (FALSE) and hospitals only got paid more if the patient died (FALSE)."

Nadereh Pourat, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles' Fielding School of Public Health, noted that insurance companies use financial incentives or penalties to promote important preventive care. Examples she has seen included promoting chlamydia screening or checking for cavities in young children, she said in an email. "The hope is to get providers used to routinely providing evidence-based care," but not to continue providing the incentive forever," Pourat said.

Ninez Ponce and colleagues at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research received $161,000 for a study to address the gap in data for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities through the construction of a new measure to better indicate the needs of the state's NHPI population.

Our study has shed light on the fact that Black men experience a higher death rate after elective surgery than other subgroups of race and sex. Further research is needed to understand better the factors contributing to this observation, and to inform efforts to develop interventions that could effectively eliminate such disparity," Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, the senior author of the study and associate professor of medicine at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, said in an email.

The study, which was conducted by researchers from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, AAPI Data and researchers at UC Riverside, aimed to dig deeper into the needs and experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islander populations.

These grants build on AAPI Data's initial work to expand the data and research capacity on Asian American and NHPI needs and our collaboration with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Health Interview Survey.

Eliminating the premiums is likely to create more stable coverage for families over time, regardless of whether their income inches up or down," said Nadereh Pourat, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

A new study UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that Newsom's stay-at-home orders, affecting businesses, child care centers and school, created financial hardships that led to psychological distress and a sharp increase in turmoil and conflict, including domestic violence.