Research on the drivers of health across the life course would ideally be based in diverse longitudinal cohorts that repeatedly collect detailed assessments of risk factors over the full life span. However, few extant data sources in the US possess these ideal features. A "longitudinal synthetic cohort"-a dataset created by stacking or linking multiple individual cohorts spanning different but overlapping periods of the life course-can overcome some of these challenges, leveraging the strengths of each component study. This type of synthetic cohort is especially useful for aging research; it enables description of the long-term natural history of disease and novel investigations of earlier-life factors and mechanisms shaping health outcomes that typically manifest in older age, such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD).

Research questions on exposure change and health outcomes are both relevant to clinical and policy decision making for public health. Causal inference methods can help investigators answer questions about exposure change when the first or incident exposure is unobserved or not well defined. This review aims to help researchers conceive of helpful causal research questions about exposure change and understand various statistical methods for answering these questions to promote wider adoption of causal inference methods in research on exposure change outside the field of pharmacoepidemiology.

Gut microbiota contribute to several physiological processes in the host. The composition of the gut microbiome is associated with different neurological and neurodevelopmental diseases. In psychiatric disease, stress may be a major factor leading to gut microbiota alterations. Depressive disorders are the most prevalent mental health issues worldwide and patients often report gastrointestinal symptoms. Accordingly, evidence of gut microbial alterations in depressive disorders has been growing. Here we review current literature revealing links between the gut microbiome and brain function in the context of depression.

Our review critically examines research on trends in mental health among US adults following the COVID-19 pandemic's onset and makes recommendations for research on the topic.

This scoping review aims to identify quantitative research studies in the USA examining the association between societal factors and teen dating violence (TDV) victimization and/or perpetration.

To summarize recent literature on selection bias in disparities research addressing either descriptive or causal questions, with examples from dementia research.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the complexities of identifying prenatal care visits in insurance claims databases, review existing methods to identify prenatal care encounters, and explore how different study goals should inform the definition of prenatal care employed by investigators.

Environmental conditions impact the well-being of populations worldwide, including the academic proficiency of youth. The current review summarizes the role of environmental influences (i.e., air pollution, greenspace, noise, and disasters) on academic proficiency.

Segregation has traditionally been measured at the metropolitan area or county level, but a growing number of population health studies have measured segregation at the neighborhood or local level. In this review we highlight the ways local racial and ethnic residential segregation has been measured in recently published population health studies (June 1, 2019-June 30, 2022).

This narrative review summarizes environmental, sociocultural, behavioral, and biological factors associated with cognitive decline and dementia in Black Americans.

When competing events occur, there are two main options for handling them analytically that invoke different assumptions: 1) censor person-time after a competing event (which is akin to assuming they could be prevented) to calculate a conditional risk; or 2) do not censor them (allow them to occur) to calculate an unconditional risk. The choice of estimand has implications when weighing the relative frequency of a beneficial outcome and an adverse outcome in a risk-benefit analysis.

a)The modifiable and non-modifiable determinants and the currently available methods of assessment of menstrual blood flow will be discussed, with the goal of helping healthcare providers, researchers, and those interested in public health.

Preparing for pandemics requires a degree of interdisciplinary work that is challenging under the current paradigm. This review summarizes the challenges faced by the field of pandemic science and proposes how to address them.

This scoping review synthesizes current evidence on glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) use after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), highlighting their potential as adjunctive therapy.

A growing body of research has now identified the criminal legal system as a major social determinant of population health and health disparities in the United States. The current review provides a description of the U.S. criminal legal landscape, briefly summarizes recent research findings, and identifies new and needed directions for research.

The goal of this narrative review is to introduce and apply , a structured ethical framework created to evaluate the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in public health. The review addresses key questions: How can AI be ethically assessed across global healthcare contexts and what principles are needed to ensure contextually appropriate AI use in population health.

This review summarizes recent developments in causal decomposition analysis (CDA), a modeling framework for reducing disparities. Rather than the current or past drivers of a disparity, CDA estimates the effect of an to change the distribution of a variable or set of variables that are distributed differently or have different effects between groups. Furthermore, CDA clarifies how, through covariate adjustment, ethics and justice are implicit in any definition of disparity and may be incorporated into an intervention.

Despite cervical cancer (CC) being a cancer that can be eliminated, CC disparities persist such that minoritized populations shoulder a disproportionate mortality burden. This may reflect upstream, fundamental drivers of health that impede equitable access to prevention, screening, early detection, and treatment among some groups. This systematic review summarizes evidence on the relationships between structural racism and CC care across the continuum.

Despite the growth of research on social policies and health in recent years, few studies have systematically summarized the methodological approaches used in this growing literature. This review characterizes the range of and trends in analytic methods used in studies of the health effects of US social policies published in leading health journals during January 2014-July 2024.

To discuss the potential biological mechanisms between vitamin D and toxic metals and summarize epidemiological studies examining this association in pregnant women.