In the United States, Black-white disparities in maternal mortality—deaths related to pregnancy or childbirth—may be larger than previously reported, new research shows. Closing the gap involves addressing structural racism—that is, those aspects of social, political, economic, and health care systems that reinforce inequity, researchers say. Because pregnancy is riskier to women’s health than abortion, state…

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Births to U.S. teenagers have been declining for a dozen years and reached another record low in 2020. But birth rates are far higher among U.S. teenagers ages 15 to 19 (15.3 per 1,000 females) than their peers in Canada (eight per 1,000 females), Sweden (five per 1,000 females), and many other high-income countries. New…

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Environmental forces like wildfire, extreme heat, and pollution can have profound effects on our health, jobs, and decisions on where to live.

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Where we live, work, and play impacts our health. Air pollution and traffic noise from nearby roads and highways can increase residents’ risk of chronic health conditions, but living in areas with more local infrastructure means residents have easier access to health care, healthy food, and recreational facilities. New transportation options such as light rail…

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U.S. state and city leaders issued mask-wearing and social distancing directives in 2020 to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Residents applied the directives differently in their daily lives—reflecting how unevenly these public health messages are understood and followed, new research shows. These findings are among results from new research supported by the Eunice Kennedy…

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Racism-related stress may help explain why Black women in the United States are over 50% more likely to deliver a premature baby than white women. Just over 14% of Black women have premature births compared with 9% of white women.1 These stark racial disparities have been documented for more than a century, reports Catherine Cubbin…

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