CSDE Senior Research Scientist Dr. Deven Hamilton led research with CSDE Affiliates Dr. Samuel Jenness (Epidemiology, Public Health, Emory University), Dr. Steven Goodreau (Anthropology, UW), and co-authors, which was recently published in Plos One. Their article is titled “Potential contribution of PrEP uptake by adolescents 15–17 years old to achieving the “Ending the HIV Epidemic” incidence reduction goals in the US South“. The “Ending the HIV Epidemic” (EHE) initiative seeks to reduce new HIV infections in the U.S. by prioritizing federal resources towards highly impacted populations. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are essential for reaching EHE goals. Adolescents are often at increased risk for HIV because they may lack agency in negotiating their sexual partnerships and may not have the same access to treatment and prevention as adults. This study estimates the potential contribution of expanded PrEP coverage among adolescents ages 15–17 to achieving the EHE goals in the South.

An HIV-transmission model was built to simulate the HIV epidemic in the South. Increased ART and PrEP uptake were systematically varied with and without PrEP eligibility including individuals age<18. Prioritizing PrEP for adolescents had a negligible impact on incidence. At 50% uptake among eligible adolescents and 90% ART coverage, including adolescents only improved the percentage of infections averted from 80.1% to 80.3%. In 10 of 15 scenarios explored, there was no reduction in new infections when PrEP eligibility was expanded to include adolescents age<18. At 95% ART coverage at the population-level incidence among adolescents declined by over 80%, but PrEP uptake among adolescents did not contribute to additional declines in incidence among adolescents. Prioritizing PrEP for adolescents did not significantly contribute to reaching EHE incidence reductions goal. Focusing resources to specific adolescent populations at risk, such sexual minority males in high incidence settings, will remain an important public health goal outside the context of EHE.

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Kam Wing Chan (Geography) and former CSDE trainee Dr. Xiaxia Yang (postdoc at King’s College, London) have co-authored a new publication in Eurasian Geography and Economics titled “Forever young: China’s migration regime and age patterns.” The paper argues that the Chinese institutional arrangements, particularly the household registration (hukou) system, hinder the long-term settlement of internal migrants by restricting their access to urban social benefits. The article introduces a new method that primarily utilizes census age data to evaluate the success of migrant settlement by establishing connections between migrant “flow” and “stock.” The authors argue that migrants’ challenges in settling primarily stem from two sources: difficulties in maintaining family togetherness among migrants and impediments to the long-term residence of the migrants themselves.

To compare China’s internal migration with that of other countries, the authors developed age-related indices for both internal and international migration. The results reveal a distinct “China difference” in migration age patterns. Child and elderly dependents of China’s migrant workers are discouraged from migrating, and aging migrants tend to return to their places of origin rather than settling in the destinations. Consequently, the age profiles of China’s internal migrant flow and stock closely resemble each other, differing significantly from the more typical age profiles observed in other countries such as India (see graphs).

The analysis underscores the many barriers faced by most internal migrants in China in achieving family togetherness and establishing long-term residence in their destinations, most of which are big cities. China’s unique migrant labor regime involves continuously “recycling” temporary young migrant workers, ensuring that destination workforces remain “forever young,” which helps to reduce the labor costs of Chinese goods in global markets. The age-based “mobile-to-settled” transition framework and the settlement rate index of migrants, as developed in the paper, also hold general relevance for examining settlement chances in internal and international migrations beyond China.

 

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Patricia Louie (Sociology) co-authored new research in Social Currents, titled “Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Long COVID“. This study assessed the relationship between race and long COVID and the role that socioeconomic plays in this relationship. Authors analyzed data from the Household Pulse Survey (HPS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau from September 14 to September 26, 2022. Of the 18,061 individuals in the sample, 4,927 (weighted 28.6 percent) reported long COVID. They used multiple logistic regressions to examine the association between race, socioeconomic status, and long COVID.

They found that Black and Hispanic individuals shared similar odds of long COVID with White individuals. Only Asian individuals reported a significantly lower odds of long COVID as compared to White individuals. The relationship between race and long COVID was buffered by socioeconomic status (p-value <.001), but the effect size was 3 times greater among White individuals than among Black, Hispanic, and Asian individuals. These findings suggest that support for groups with long COVID should especially be concentrated among individuals with low socioeconomic status. It is also important to address the barriers that limit the translation of high socioeconomic status into a protective health resource for racial and ethnic minorities.

Dr. Raymond Ruiz, CSDE Affiliate Dr. India Ornelas, and co-authors published their work in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, titled “Associations of Sexual Orientation-Related Minority and Military Stressors with Past-Year Cigarette Use among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) Veterans“. The study was part of Health Systems and Population Health doctoral student, Raymond Ruiz’ dissertation research. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals and Veterans are more likely to report current smoking than the general adult population in the United States. The Minority Stress Model may explain the high prevalence of cigarette smoking among LGB individuals, who experience unique interpersonal (e.g., discrimination) and intrapersonal (e.g., identity concealment) stressors related to their minoritized sexual orientation. This study assessed whether three types of stressors (interpersonal, intrapersonal, and LGB-specific military) were associated with past-year smoking among LGB Veterans.

CSDE Trainee Elizabeth Pelletier (Evans School of Public Policy & Governance) presented work at the Census Bureau’s Workshop on Advancing Research on Race, Ethnicity, and Inequality last Tuesday Nov 14th. This research is co-authored with CSDE Affiliates Dr. Jennifer Romich (Social Work), CSDE Trainee Tess Abrahamson-Richards (Social Work), CSDE research scientist, Dr. Sofia G. Ayala, and Santino G. Camacho (Social Work). Administrative data arises from citizens’ interactions with government agencies, creating records that contain large observation counts over long periods of time and can yield accurate reports on earnings, transfer income, voting, residential addresses, and other factors relevant to studies of human populations. Furthermore, data derived from administrative records has the powerful potential to address one weakness of national survey data: that probability sampling does not yield sufficient sample sizes of smaller racial and ethnic populations. This paper focuses on using administrative records to capture the experiences of several populations with relatively small sizes within the US: American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian-Americans, including ethnic subgroups, the largest of which are Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.

Authors draw on their experience developing a new integrated data resource for Washington State to present techniques for developing full population data that includes useful information on small subgroups as well as ethnoracial data for the majority of working-age adults. First, they show how integrating records across different administrative sources can create a strong approximation of a state’s population. Second, they demonstrate the capacity and limitations of current methods in creating full-population ethnoracial information, particularly the implications of standard imputation methods for developing evidence about labor market inequality. They show how applying the Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) imputation method yields under- and over-estimates of populations, earnings, and employment rates for different ethnoracial groups. Finally, they address the future of integrated data in Washington as their team works on a state-supported effort to build WashPop, which will draw information from state agency records to create and continually update a longitudinal, full-population data resource. They outline a framework for improving full-population ethnoracial data while practicing community-led research methods and aligning to ethics of Tribal data sovereignty and community data interests.