Rita Hamad

Trends in Poverty and Birth Outcomes in the US This cross-sectional study uses data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System to examine the relationship between poverty status and birth outcomes in the US.

CDC staff in charge of data we used (PRAMS) were put on leave last year. PRAMS is only national survey dedicated to perinatal health, and it is no longer available to researchers. This study shows how important these data are to understand national trends. @dataindex.us @datarescueproject.org 3/3

Trends in Poverty and Birth Outcomes in the US This cross-sectional study uses data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System to examine the relationship between poverty status and birth outcomes in the US.

These disparities highlight need for support during pregnancy & birth for low-income families.
Antipoverty policies provide resources to promote maternal & child health, but generosity of programs vary by state. And these programs have been undermined in past year. www.doi.org/10.1001/jama... 2/

Latest paper @jamapediatrics.com led by SPHERE postdoc @emilydore.bsky.social finds longstanding disparities in infant health by poverty status using national data, e.g., for preterm birth and low birthweight. www.doi.org/10.1001/jama... @ameracadpeds.bsky.social @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social 1/

Thank you ❤️! @iaphs.bsky.social has been such a formative part of my professional career, so thanks for all you do.

(And I encourage folks to check out IAPHS and the amazing conference they put on every year! iaphs.org/conference)

@harvardpopcenter.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu

Annual Workshop on Formal Demography - Population Sciences The 12th Annual Workshop on Formal Demography will be held in person at UC Berkeley from June 1 – 5, 2026, with funding from Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Develop...

For anyone interested in demography methods, applications are now open for the @berkeleypopcenter.bsky.social workshop. populationsciences.berkeley.edu/population-c...

I attended as a student once upon a time. It is a fabulous experience!

@harvardpopcenter.bsky.social @popassocamerica.bsky.social

The Day Federal Data Went Dark: A Year of Monitoring and Action January 31, 2025, is infamous as the day thousands of federal datasets and webpages went dark. While many of these resources have since been restored–often after being scrubbed of references to gender, DEI, and climate–they continue to face significant risks. In the webinar, we mark the one-year anniversary of this takedown to discuss the current state of federal data and recognize the immense amount of work that has been done to defend these public resources. Leaders from the data community will share insights on monitoring tools they have developed and the actions being taken to safeguard essential federal data. This webinar is cohosted by dataindex.us and the Association of Public Data Users. 0:00 Introduction 2:53 EssentialData.US x Federation of American Scientists 6:51 American Statistical Association 10:31 CDC Data Project 14:17 Friends of BLS 17:50 Public Environmental Data Partners 21:24 The Leadership Conference Education Fund 26:26 Movement Advancement Project 30:37 Population Association of America 35:05 Democracy 2025 40:42 Data Rescue Project 44:16 Population Reference Bureau 47:14 Association of Public Data Users 50:10 dataindex.us 55:19 Conclusion

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our webinar, The Day Federal Data Went Dark: A Year of Monitoring and Action. We are grateful to be in a community with so many amazing organizations.

You can watch the recording to learn about more than a dozen efforts to monitor and safeguard federal data.

Honored to be new director @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social, following in Lisa Berkman's footsteps. I'm excited to inherit a brilliant & dedicated staff + network of research & community affiliates. Looking forward to advancing our mission of improving wellbeing of global populations! @hsph.harvard.edu

How many STEM Ph.D.s were lost from the U.S. federal government last year?

My colleagues @mghersher.bsky.social and @policyhound.bsky.social dug into a recent data release to find the answer. A @science.org exclusive.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Paid family leave improves the health of US families. Read our new research brief on #PaidLeave: hsph.harvard.edu/wp-content/u...
@ritahamad.bsky.social
The US remains one of only six countries in the world without national PFL - we can do better. @paidleaveforall.bsky.social

🚨Postdoc alert!

@harvardpopcenter.bsky.social is now accepting applications for 2026-2028 Bell Fellowship! Apply by March 3: popcenter.harvard.edu/postdoctoral...

@popassocamerica.bsky.social @iaphs.bsky.social @societyforepi.bsky.social @ashecon.bsky.social @asanews.bsky.social

Some important points from new study: if you describe specific safety net programs (eg SNAP, unemployment insurance) instead of generic "welfare programs," people are more likely to tolerate slightly higher fraud to ensure access. There is always this trade-off; framing matters. @donmoyn.bsky.social

The authors describe a crosswalk framework to estimate life expectancies at school district level. Hopefully others will find this resource helpful in their own work. doi.org/10.1016/j.ss... @popassocamerica.bsky.social @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social 2/2

Cool new paper by colleagues @hsph.harvard.edu on school districts as proxies for neighborhood. District boundaries are underutilized in #pophealth research, limiting our ability to understand health impacts of school exposures. doi.org/10.1016/j.ss... @iaphs.bsky.social @capolicylab.bsky.social 1/

@christinajcross.bsky.social's fabulous book painstakingly details how family structure is - and isn't - related to children's academic achievements, including insights into why pushing marriage won't alleviate race and ethnic differences in achievement.

Thanks @dataindex.us for hosting webinar on Trump administration's cancellation of PRAMS, the only national long-term survey data on perinatal & infant health. Register to learn more, including action steps: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... @popassocamerica.bsky.social @societyforepi.bsky.social

US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’ Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies

I was interviewed for @theguardian.com by the wonderful @melodyschreiber.com, one of the finest health reporters in the world, about what I called a “neocolonialist” study planned by Danish researchers in Guinea-Bissau, funded by RFK Jr. So many red flags 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

"I strongly support extending PRAMS for another 3 years. My work [insert text]. PRAMS is the only national data source that examines women’s experiences before, during, and after pregnancy. PRAMS allow states, practitioners, and researchers to identify emerging risks and design programs to address maternal and child health. Without PRAMS, we lose a critical national tool for monitoring maternal and infant health and for guiding policies that improve outcomes for families. Continued investment in PRAMS is essential to protecting maternal and infant well-being."

Here's the link to leave an actual comment: www.regulations.gov/document/CDC...
See this screenshot (and it's alt-text) for sample language.

Hoping that key professional organizations will spread the word! We need to tell the feds that these data are critical. @popassocamerica.bsky.social @apha.org @societyforepi.bsky.social @ameracadpeds.bsky.social @defendpublichealth.bsky.social @ashecon.bsky.social @iaphs.bsky.social @acog.org 2/2

CDC PRAMS office is still non-operational, but there's an opportunity for public comment on proposal to support continued collection of state PRAMS data. Please leave even a few sentences, stating support for this critical maternal & child health resource: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20... 1/

Statistical Analyst/Programmer

🚨Job alert! We're hiring experienced programmer to analyze national Medicaid claims data, along w/ colleague Ari Ne'eman @hsph.harvard.edu. Details & application instructions: careers.harvard.edu/job/statisti...

@societyforepi.bsky.social @popassocamerica.bsky.social @ashecon.bsky.social @apha.org

Child behavioral health improved with expanded Child Tax Credit | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Pandemic-era expansions to the Child Tax Credit—one of the largest income transfer programs in the U.S.—was associated with improved child behavioral health, according to a new Harvard Chan School stu...

Study by faculty affiliate @ritahamad.bsky.social & colleagues finds an association between the expanded child tax credit, temporarily distributed monthly during the pandemic, and a reduction in child behavioral problems...
hsph.harvard.edu/news/child-b...

Payments to Physician Practices and Incentives to Serve Different Racial and Ethnic Groups This study measures disparities across patient racial and ethnic groups in per-visit payment to physician practices from health insurers and other sources, adjusted for visit content, geographic marke...

🚨New Paper🚨 US doctors are paid very different amounts for treating different patients—even when providing identical services.

How much less are physicians paid for treating non-White patients?

In @jamahealthforum.com, we offer the 1st national estimates. (1/7)

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

New National Archives data on WIC rollout shows access during pregnancy reduces low birth weight, specifically for Black infants—narrowing the racial gap by 3.6 percent, from Marianne Bitler, Danea Horn, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales-Rueda, and Arian Seifoddini www.nber.org/papers/w34521

What happens to self-reported race/ethnicity when you change the way you ask it?

There is some discordance.

And it is consequential for estimating quantities of interest, like disease risks by population group.

See our ppr: arxiv.org/pdf/2501.023...

#econsky #medsky

@johnmullahy.bsky.social

Paid Family Leave Can Be a Lifeline A week before I gave birth last February, the research team I work with published a study in a prominent scientific journal on how paid family leave affects maternal and child health. The study found ...

@whitneywells.bsky.social has also authored an op-ed with support of @scholars.org describing the importance of #paidleave for young families: scholars.org/contribution...

She was inspired by her own personal experiences & her research @amjepi.bsky.social on this topic: doi.org/10.1093/aje/... 2/2

New research brief by UCSF PhD student and SPHERE affiliate @whitneywells.bsky.social on #paidleave. The US is the only high-income country without such a policy, despite clear health benefits, summarize here: hsph.harvard.edu/wp-content/u... @paidleaveforall.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu 1/

Important new paper on policy implementation and how to reduce stigma and boost participation in safety net policies.

The 2021 Child Tax Credit and Children's Health and Well‐Being: Evidence From a National Longitudinal Study Policy Points Evidence suggests the 2021 temporary Child Tax Credit expansion reduced material hardship and improved parental mental health, but less is known about its effects on child well-bein...

Study has implications for design of tax policies, esp reviving CTC & making payments monthly. Conducted using valuable @umpsid.bsky.social data and rigorous quasi-experimental methods. @itep.org @mdrc-news.bsky.social @centeronbudget.bsky.social @epi.org onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 2/2

New paper led by G Wang @ucsf-ihps.bsky.social is among first to examine #childhealth impacts of 2021 #ctc, finding improved behavioral health. After policy expired, #childhealth worsened. This suggests policymakers should focus on more frequent payments. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 1/

In our latest study, we examined effect of pandemic-era school re-openings on kids' use of #mentalhealth services, finding reductions esp for older girls. This speaks to importance of schools for kids' mental health.
journals.lww.com/epidem/abstr... @hsph.harvard.edu @harvardeducation.bsky.social 1/