What happens to miscarriage care when abortion is banned? A new study from Texas shows blood transfusions during pregnancy loss rose 15% above expected levels after the state's total abortion ban took effect. PRB breaks down the findings 🔗

Fall prevention for people with dementia could also protect caregivers. New research finds that caregiver burden from falls varies significantly depending on whether they live with their loved one—pointing to the need for tailored interventions. 👉️ buff.ly/yM4L2jd

Medicaid cuts could push ~1 million vulnerable older adults out of their homes and into nursing homes — which cost nearly twice as much as home-based care. New research, summarized by @PRB.org, breaks down who's most at risk. Read more 👉 buff.ly/imxR3vx

🍼 A new baby changes everything — including the pressure on a family's resources. New research on families with newborns finds that weak social support and residing in a less cohesive neighborhood are each linked to higher odds of food insecurity, independent of income. 🔗

Your zip code should not determine your birth control options. But new data show it does. Medicaid expansion boosted access to more effective contraception in the most disadvantaged communities — yet many are in states that still haven't expanded Medicaid. Read more 👉 tinyurl.com/bdfkvecw

New data challenge a common assumption: that LARC use among young, low-income women delays or replaces childbearing. Among Delaware Medicaid enrollees, 6 in 10 births after LARC removal were planned—even among the youngest women. 👉️

New research finds racial and ethnic gaps in who gets obesity-management medications in the US. Asian, Black and Hispanic adults are less likely than White adults to receive these treatments—even after accounting for health and socioeconomic factors. Via @ccpratucla.bsky.social 📖

We often link racial differences in elder care to cultural values. New research says the bigger story is structural. Black and Hispanic older adults rely more on family caregivers not due to stronger family values but lower marriage rates, lower incomes, and less access to paid care.

More than 1 in 3 divorces in the US involve adults 50+. New research finds that older adults who divorce are less likely to find a new partner when they have strong ties to their adult children—whether through living together, staying close, frequent contact, or financial support. 🔗

Some pregnant patients seeking permanent contraception were told to think about it more. Others learned about a required 30-day waiting period only during delivery, too late to have the procedure as planned. A new study finds 1 in 5 did not feel supported by their clinical team. 📑

Misinformation about contraception and abortion was widespread among pregnant people in Ohio—whether or not they visited a crisis pregnancy center. Researchers suggest the broader information environment may be contributing to the problem and call for proactive counseling. 🔗

Thanks @um-psc.bsky.social for highlighting our paper in JPE Micro... Establishing common humanity improves relations between migrant workers and employers in Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. w/ @tomanbarsbai.com @andreassteinmayr.net @vojtabartos.bsky.social, E. Tiongson, V. Licuanan

“What if the apportionment of variation among racial groups is not, in the first instance, a meaningful exercise? A good first step toward developing an antiracist science of human variation is to stop taking the racists’ categories for granted”

🎡 PSC alum @luciekalousova.bsky.social et al use Health and Retirement Study data that show advanced care planning provides meaningful psychological benefits for surviving spouses. #PAA2026

🎡 Inequality scholar and PSC trainee Catalina Anampa Castro compares various measures of wealth, including childhood net worth and components or net worth-- as predictors of racial disparities in educational outcomes. Don't miss this talk Friday at #PAA2026! Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics#PAA2026

New research shows that, in the mid-20th century, China was able to achieve remarkably rapid declines in child mortality in the absence of economic growth, by investing in healthcare. bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/4/2/...

#PAA2026- check out this webinar on supporting family caregivers from our friends at IHPI, and find caregiving presentations at PAA from @spattersearch.bsky.social, Esther Friedman, @nhats-nsoc.bsky.social and more

Want to live longer and better? Try volunteering... @seoyounkimphd.bsky.social presents findings from HRS data today at #PAA2026. @nacda-icpsr.bsky.social Read more on this research from @theconversation.com: theconversation.com/want-to-stay...

THIS FRIDAY, MAY 8th at #PAA2026 PSC Researchers will present their research @caiqixin.bsky.social @pgonalon.bsky.social @hjkatelyn.bsky.social @alison-buttenheim.bsky.social @leticiamarteleto.bsky.social#PAA2026... Full Schedule: https://www.pop.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/2026-05-06PennAtPAA2026.pdf

⏰ #PAA2026 Wake up for this one tomorrow!

Women with moderate-to-severe menopause symptoms had low rates of hormone therapy initiation overall—and rates were lower still among current tobacco users and those with a history of other drug use. A new study points to potential gaps in menopause care for underserved populations.🔗

⏰Working long hours and eating poorly are each linked to higher obesity and cardiovascular risk—and a new study suggests the combination may be worse than either alone. 🥗 A healthy diet may help offset some of the cardiometabolic risks of long working hours. 👉️

🧠 Does losing a spouse affect cognitive health—and does timing matter? For women, it depends on age. A new study finds women widowed in midlife show lower cognitive function—but women widowed in older adulthood show the opposite. Timing, caregiving and supports help explain why.

Black women are nearly twice as likely as White women to have obesity—but the gap isn't mainly about diet or exercise. A new study finds disadvantaged neighborhoods and single-parent households in adolescence, plus lower adult income, explain most of the disparity. 🔗

A long-standing puzzle in perinatal research: Black infants born extremely early are more likely to survive than white infants born at the same stage. New research suggests stillbirth—driven by racial inequity—may be part of the reason why. 🔗 buff.ly/ULRApdv

How your parents talked to you shapes how you feel about yourself as an adult — and that self-confidence matters for your own kids' wellbeing. A new longitudinal study traces the chain across three generations. Supporting parent-child communication could have ripple effects.🔗

New research: giving low-income mothers $333/month didn't reduce their reported stress, food insecurity, or relationship conflict—even as it measurably increased household income. What it *did* do: moms read, played, and engaged more with their kids. 📖

Can food assistance reduce gun violence? New research links greater SNAP access to lower firearm homicide rates among Black youth ages 10–18 and lower suicide rates among young adults ages 19–25. Economic support programs may be a factor in firearm violence prevention. 👉️

Who uses urgent care and retail clinics as their regular doctor? New research finds younger, employed, and uninsured adults are most likely to use convenience clinics for usual care—with transparent pricing a draw for the uninsured. Questions remain about continuity of care.👉️

Neighborhoods rich in social resources—libraries, senior centers, civic orgs—are linked to better memory in older adults. But the benefits were largely concentrated among white participants, while Black and Latino older adults are less likely to live in such neighborhoods. 🔗

You don't have to witness gun violence for it to affect your health. Teens near a firearm homicide—even if they didn't see it—had 56% higher odds of marijuana use. Multiple nearby incidents nearly doubled the odds, with the greatest impact for Black and low-income youth.🔗

Heart disease doesn't develop from one risk factor. A new study tracking 10,000+ US adults finds Black and Hispanic adults were more likely to develop clusters of risk factors—like high blood pressure AND diabetes—as they aged. Income and education gaps explained much of why.👉️

New research finds trans adults face two barriers to healthcare: stigma from providers, and costs that insurance doesn’t always cover. When both barriers occur together, the health consequences are steepest—higher odds of depression, anxiety, and intimate partner violence.🔗

Did you know? Job discrimination at work may raise your risk of high blood pressure. A new study of 16,770 U.S. women found that those who faced hiring, promotion, or firing discrimination had a 14% higher hypertension risk—even after accounting for other health factors. 📖

Pregnant people on Medicaid are far less likely to be vaccinated than those with private insurance. New research finds COVID-19 vaccination rates of 11.8% vs. 43%—with similar gaps for flu and pertussis—pointing to structural barriers that go beyond vaccine availability.🔗

Some women, especially those with less education, may never feel economically stable enough to have children, CPC Director Karen Guzzo says. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/u...

Read this NEW paper in Population & Development Review ➡️ "Population Changes and Emerging Challenges to Global Primary Education Provision" By Emily Hannum (PSC Research Associate), Jeonghyeok Kim, & Fan Wang (PSC Research Affiliate) https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.70059

How parents behave—and how they're doing mentally—shapes young children's self-control and attention. New research links harsh parenting and maternal depression to lower attention and inhibitory control—suggesting both are key targets for early childhood interventions.🔗

Wanting kids and planning to have them aren't the same. New research finds a growing share of Americans who want children don't intend to have them—a gap that grows with age, is larger for women, and may help explain why fertility keeps declining despite stable desires.🔗

194 rural hospitals have closed since 2005. What does that mean for nearby nursing home residents ? New research finds they were hospitalized less after closure—raising concern that longer travel distances may mean some aren't getting care when they need it.🔗

Who does America's care work—and has that changed? New research tracking 50 years finds: ➡️ The gender gap in care work nearly halved ➡️ More care is going to older adults ➡️ The paid care boom hasn't replaced family care ➡️ Non-White women remain overrepresented in paid care jobs 🔗

New study co-authored by CPC Fellow Caroline Thompson explores the relationship between survival and how quickly patients are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. "Diagnostic delays may actually matter," Thompson says. www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Julie Maslowsky et al: Medication abortion pills would meet the safety and efficacy criteria for the FDA to make them available over the counter. @jama.com www.npr.org/2026/04/06/n...

Nearly 1 in 2 rural working-age adults screened positive for loneliness. New research finds the type of gathering place matters—and so does what you do there. Coffee shops, barbershops, and houses of worship were linked to lower loneliness, but only when people talked.📖

Where do adolescents with maltreatment histories spend their time? New research links child welfare records with GPS data to find out—and finds they're significantly more likely to pass through places with visible signs of neglect, public drug activity, and physical decay.🔗

Nearly 1 in 5 women were uncertain when they wanted a child—and that uncertainty was associated with lower odds of using any contraceptive method. New data find that birth-timing intentions, not just whether a woman wants a child, are a predictor of method choice.🔗

Coresiding with adult children — not just young kids — is linked to shorter sleep for midlife mothers. So is living with grandchildren. New data from 3,300 women find the sleep costs of intergenerational coresidence extend well beyond the infant years. 👉️

Housing insecurity in young adulthood doesn't just hurt in the moment. A new study tracking adults over 15 years finds lasting increases in depressive symptoms—and, for women, measurable physiological wear and tear. 📖

Some pregnant patients seeking permanent contraception were told to think about it more. Others learned about a required 30-day waiting period only during delivery, too late to have the procedure as planned. A new study finds 1 in 5 did not feel supported by their clinical team.📖

A new study points to an underexplored culprit in congenital hearing loss: metals in air pollution. Maternal exposure during pregnancy was associated with higher rates of newborn hearing screening failure—suggesting air quality as a potential target for prevention.🔗