Cigarette smoking remains a major health problem in the U.S. and worldwide. The observed overall decline in smoking prevalence in the U.S. during 2005-2010 is not mirrored by a similar decline in teen smoking. The goal of this project is to develop and implement a theoretical network formation model that will enable a better characterization of the environment in which teens make decisions concerning risky activities.

Given the centrality of Hispanic fertility to U.S. population projections and assessments of immigrant assimilation, it is essential to ensure the accuracy of available estimates. The main argument that I investigate in the proposal is that the failure to separate immigrant from native women significantly distorts period estimates of overall Hispanic fertility.

There are a lot of variations in the child bearing policies for remarried couples across different provinces in China. Such policies can have profound effects on a large number of important family related issues (described below) but they are not studied in the existing literature. This project aims to first document at the province X urban/rural cell level, the following statistics: (1). Ages at first marriage for men and women; (2). Age gaps between husbands and wives in first marriages; (3). Age for giving first birth; (4).

Food insecurity is usually defined as limited or uncertain access to enough food due to financial resource constraints, or as inadequate food intake.  According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s State of Food Insecurity in the World (1999), 800 million people were food insecure worldwide, and 164 million people in China suffered food insecurity in 1999.  The implications of food insecurity for children’s functioning are not yet well established, particularly in less-developed countries where the problem is likely to be most pronounced.  Food insecurity is related to

An increasing amount of research indicates that society is more rigid than was understood in intra- and inter-generational mobility (Bowles, Durlauf, & Hoff 2006; Bowles, Gintis, & Osborne 2005; Mazumder 2005).

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors allev iate depression with fewer side-effects than previolls antidepressants. The results have been a tremendous increase in the will ingness of patients to seek, and doctors to prescribe, antidepressants for episod ic bouts of depression. SSRl's were first introduced in 1984 in West Germany and spl-ead throughout the world, with countries differing both in their year of approval and the diffus ion of the drug subsequent to its approval.

Two common means of controlling infectious diseases are screening and contact tracing. Contact tracing (CT), also know as “partner notification by provider referral” has been highly effective in controlling diseases like syphilis. While both screening and CT are broadly used to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US by health departments, governments and funding agencies have favored screening in sub-Saharan countries.

According to Bumpass and Lu (2000), the proportion of children born to cohabiting parents increased from 6% in the early 1980s to over 16% at the end of the twientieth century. However, very little is known about the cognitive and noncognitive development of children raised in cohabiting families. The main problem is that cohabitation tends to occur in selected households. In particular, couples with lower socio‐economic status are more likely to cohabit.

This study is designed to investigate the effects of nutrition and disease on child growth and adult health. Among the principal outcome variables to be investigated are insulin resistance and diabetes. The main input variables are birth weight, breastfeeding, and childhood nutrition and disease. We will use multilevel, multivariate models to investigate these relations. The rich longitudinal data available from the INCAP project in El Progreso, Guatemala will enable us to estimate directly the impact of childhood disease and nutrition on adult outcomes.

A growing body of research is interested in the roles of health literacy in affecting health outcomes. Improving health literacy among Americans is one of the health goals specified in Health People 2010 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. However, there are some important gaps in the existing literature. Most research has primarily focused on very specific groups of people within specific health care settings using measures of health literacy that are designed only for medical setting.