News by Subject Social & Behavior

When COVID-19 hit, affluent Columbus residents responded by taking significantly fewer trips to large grocery and big-box stores, apparently ordering more online and stocking up when they did go out to shop. With fewer options available to them, low-income people had to double down on what they had always done: regular trips to the local dollar stores and small groceries to get their family's food.

University of Minnesota School of Public Health researchers recently completed a study to determine how food-insecure young (emerging) adults (18-29 years of age) adapted their eating and child feeding behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers also sought to identify barriers to food access and opportunities to improve local access to resources for emerging adults. Their study results are published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

What The Study Did: These results suggest that substantial proportions of Latinx immigrants have immigration concerns about engaging in COVID-19-related testing, treatment and contact tracing.

The COVID-19 pandemic knocked many women off schedule for important health appointments, a new study finds, and many didn't get back on schedule even after clinics reopened. The effect may have been greatest in areas where such care is already likely falling behind. The study looks at screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infections (STI), as well as two types of birth control care.

Although some people may yearn for sports to be free of political or racial divisiveness, a new study shows how impossible that dream may be. Researchers found that Americans' views on two hot-button issues in sports were sharply divided by racial, ethnic and political identities. In addition, their opinions on topics unrelated to sports, like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, also were linked to their beliefs about the two sports issues.

A new study identified groups that are more likely to be placed in extended solitary management (ESM). The study found that individuals sent to ESM differed considerably from the rest of the prison population in terms of mental health, education, language, race/ethnicity, and age.

What The Study Did: Among the few New York state public school districts providing full-time in-person elementary school instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, most districts served predominately white students, rural/suburban students and children who were not disadvantaged (children who were not from a low-income family, were not English language learners, did not have homelessness, and did not have a disability).

New research from the University of Georgia finds that older Mexican Americans who live in low English-speaking neighborhoods are at greater risk for poor health and even an early death.