NIDA Honors Lloyd Johnston
January 20, 2017
Lloyd Johnston was honored in December by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, for his years of contributions to public health. Dr. Johnston designed and implemented the annual Monitoring the Future survey in 1975, beginning with 16,000 high school seniors from 130...
Ken Langa on Stateside to discuss trends in dementia
January 12, 2017
Ken Langa was on Michigan Radio’s Stateside January 10, 2017 to discuss the declines in dementia rates: “Langa's research program has tracked 20,000 older adults since the early 1990s. Among adults over 65, dementia dropped from 11.6% to 8.8% between 2000 and 2012…Decreasing...
Medicaid expansion created jobs & economic activity in Michigan
January 5, 2017
A report by John Z. Ayanian, Gabriel M. Ehrlich, Donald R. Grimes, and Helen Levy in the New England Journal of Medicine, Economic Effects of Medicaid Expansion in Michigan, finds that Michigan’s expansion of Medicaid benefits under the Affordable Healthcare Act has resulted in insurance...
Life expectancy declines in U.S. for the first time since 1993
December 14, 2016
In a Washington Post article, David Weir says that a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows death rate increases for 'virtually every cause of death. It's all ages.'
Ecstasy use trending down among U.S. teens
December 14, 2016
Most drug use is trending downwards for U.S. teens, including use of Ecstasy. In the latest Monitoring the Future survey, 1% of 8th graders and 3% of 12th graders reported having tried the drug in the last year. “That’s still a lot of young people using these dangerous drugs without...
2016 Monitoring the Future Study Finds Drops in Teen Drug Use
December 13, 2016
The annual Monitoring the Future study finds teen drug use overall is continuing to decline. Smoking at the 12th, 10th, and 8th grades are at the lowest levels recorded in 42 years. The survey also found a drop in vaping. The reason is unclear, but according to Richard Meich, 'In 2016,...
Richard Curtin says consumer confidence surge due in large part to Trump victory
December 13, 2016
Consumer confidence increased 4.5% to 98 in December. Richard Curtin says Trump’s surprise victory is the cause: 'When asked what news they had heard of recent economic developments, more consumers spontaneously mentioned the expected positive impact of new economic policies than ever before...
Burgard on the persistence of job insecurity and psychological distress in later life
December 7, 2016
Sarah Burgard and Sarah Seelye used data from the Americans’ Changing Lives study to examine the link between the persistent threat of losing one’s job and psychological distress in later life: Our data give us the unique opportunity to examine to observe how the persistence of job...
Findings from the Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program survey shows slow progress with sustainability efforts
November 30, 2016
A joint program between the Graham Institute and the Institute for Social Research, the Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program was founded in 2012 to assess the sustainability knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes across U-M students, faculty, and staff over time. The 2015 report shows slow...
Study by Langa et al. finds increase in education may lead to improved population brain health
November 22, 2016
In a story on National Public Radio, Ken Langa says researchers don’t know why education protects against dementia, but there are some theories: “One is that education might actually change the brain itself,” Langa says. “We think that it actually creates more, and more...