Whitney Wells

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

PRAMS is an invaluable source of data for improving maternal and infant health. There are a few days left to comment on the proposal for continued state collection of PRAMS data, here:
www.regulations.gov/document/CDC...

RFK Jr: "We at HHS are encouraging mothers to breastfeed as long as possible."

But the US lacks federal policy to support breastfeeding. Our research shows #paidfamilyleave extends how long babies are breastfed.

progressive.org/op-eds/paid-...

More research showing #PaidLeave is good for U.S. families and benefits both parents and children's health.

"More than 62 percent of SNAP participants are in families with children.
This is not a partisan issue. We urge USDA to make the right choice: Act immediately to ensure no child in this country has to go hungry."

The Far-Reaching Impact of SNAP Cuts The ongoing government shutdown and the major cuts to SNAP are devastating, but community groups and state politicians are stepping up to fill some of the gaps.

The ongoing government shutdown and the major cuts to SNAP are devastating, but community groups and state politicians are stepping up to fill some of the gaps.
@eleanorjbader1.bsky.social 1
#SNAP #EBT #Hunger
progressive.org/latest/the-f...

Effects of US state paid family leave policies on perinatal and postpartum health: a quasi-experimental analysis Abstract. The United States is the only high-income country without a national paid family leave (PFL) policy, although several states have implemented pol

#PaidLeaveForAll is a mental health solution. New research links access to state paid family leave with critical outcomes: less postpartum depression and more weeks of breastfeeding. Investing in paid leave is investing in the health of whole families. academic.oup.com/aje/advance-...

Thanks to @scholars.org for help editing and pitching my very first op-ed!

Paid Family Leave Can Be a Lifeline I study how paid family leave impacts the health of parents. When I gave birth, I became one of my own statistics.

I study paid family leave - our research shows it reduces postpartum depression & supports breastfeeding. But looking at data hadn’t really prepared me for the fact that having a baby is TOUGH. When I gave birth I suddenly became one of my own statistics. Read my op-ed here.

Monitoring is more important than ever amid cuts to SNAP. Research, including our own, shows changes to SNAP impact food insufficiency in the US.

Monitoring impacts lives. The op-ed points out these stats are "used by the major charitable food organizations to improve targeting of services."

Our research shows Paid Family Leave improves the health of families in the U.S. The ability to take time off after giving birth shouldn't depend on what state you live in.

The Potential of Local Child Tax Credits to Reduce Child Poverty Local governments have a critical role to play in reducing child poverty. Local Child Tax Credits could provide large tax cuts to families at the bottom of the income scale, lessening the overall regr...

Feel hopeless bc Congress and the President don’t care about families in your community? Send this report to your mayor and city council members!

Returning from parental leave is the perfect time to present on the relationships between parenthood and health. tl;dr: parents rate worse on several cardiovascular risk factors and seem to face structural challenges maintaining cardiovascular health. @societyforepi.bsky.social

Our new study examines the long-term impact of exposure to different types of welfare programming in childhood on health in adulthood, based on welfare reform in the 1990s in the US: tinyurl.com/4ayt6vw3 with @ritahamad.bsky.social, Kelli Komro, & @douglivingston.bsky.social

Millions of Low-Income Households Would Lose Food Aid Under Proposed House Republican SNAP Cuts | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Substantial cuts to SNAP would mean households with low incomes in every state would lose support they need to put food on the table, worsening food insecurity and hardship.

#SNAP cuts in the House budget resolution would take food assistance away from millions of low-income people from every state to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Here’s the state-by-state impact: www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

Cutting SNAP is bad for American's health. Our recent paper showed how expiration of pandemic-era SNAP expansions increased food insufficiency and material hardship: www.healthaffairs.org/doi/suppl/10... @centeronbudget.bsky.social @epi.org @urbaninstitute.bsky.social @brookings.edu

Thanks to @anne-mcmunn.bsky.social @rebeccalacey.bsky.social @baowenxue.bsky.social for your mentorship and teaching me how to do social epi!

Differences by ethnicity in the association between unpaid caring and health trajectories over 10 years in the UK Household Longitudinal Study Background Unpaid carers deliver critical social care. We aimed to examine differences by ethnicity in (1) profiles of unpaid caring and (2) associations between caring and physical and mental health ...

My MSc dissertation on differences by ethnicity in the health of unpaid carers in the UK is published! 🎉 @ucliehc.bsky.social

This was my first project in #SocialEpidemiology. I learned a lot about studying health disparities - both what to do and what not to do.

jech.bmj.com/content/79/2...

Covid and young carers – a double whammy? For some time there has been concern about the mental and physical health effects of being a young carer. Research has shown  these young people are more likely to come from lower income households…

"As the landscape of young caring evolves in response to global health crises like COVID-19, it becomes imperative for policymakers and support systems to adapt and provide robust assistance to this vulnerable group." New paper/blog from ICLS colleagues bit.ly/3OzGhWM @ukri.org

Differences by ethnicity in the association between unpaid caring and health trajectories over 10 years in the UK Household Longitudinal Study Background Unpaid carers deliver critical social care. We aimed to examine differences by ethnicity in (1) profiles of unpaid caring and (2) associations between caring and physical and mental health ...

Delighted to share this publications from Whitney Well's MSc dissertation showing ethnic differences in the health of unpaid carers in the UK with @baowenxue.bsky.social and @rebeccalacey.bsky.social jech.bmj.com/content/79/2...

The Benefits and Costs of Paid Family Leave Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

“Using the most conservative estimates or the mean estimates from this literature, we estimate that every $1,000 investment in paid parental leave would generate, respectively, $7,275 or $29,406 in present discounted net social benefits.”

Our new paper systematically reviews studies that examined effects of social policies in the health literature. Many still use non-quasi-experimental methods that are not optimal for policy evaluation. rdcu.be/d4UWh

@mariaglymour.bsky.social @societyforepi.bsky.social @iaphs.bsky.social 1/