Research Briefs
Below is a list of summaries of important RAND Health studies in the following areas:
Aging and Health
Modeling the Health and Medical Care Spending of the Future Elderly — 2008
Improving the Quality of Health Care for Older Adults — 2008
A Look inside the "Doughnut Hole": How Drug-Benefit Limits Affect Retiree Prescription Use — 2007
Health Coverage Options for Military Retirees— 2007
Reviewing the returns of research: Capturing payback from funding by the Arthritis Research Campaign — 2007
Vaccinating Residents and Staff Can Reduce Influenza Outbreaks in Nursing Homes — 2006
Redefining and Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life — 2006
Developing Quality of Care Indicators for the Vulnerable Elderly: The ACOVE Project — 2004
Future Health and Medical Care Spending of the Elderly — 2004
The Quality of Health Care Received by Older Adults — 2004
Costs of a Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit: A Comparison of Alternatives — 2002
Improving Access to Drugs for Medicare Beneficiaries: Can State Laws Help? — 2002
Extending Health Care Insurance to Specific Populations: Profile of RAND Work — 2000
Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren What Do We Know? — 2000
Prescription Drugs and the Elderly: Policy Implications of Medicare Coverage — 1999
Three Aspects of Health, Well-Being, and the Effective Functioning of the Elderly — 1998
Trends in Functional Limitations: Are Older Americans Living Longer and Better? — 1998
Government Policy and the Cost and Quality of Nursing Homes — 1996
Top
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Ephedra—Is it Worth the Risk? — 2003
Changing Views of Chiropractic...and a National Reappraisal of Nontraditional Health Care — 2001
Diversity and Health
Immigrants and Health Care: A Complex Picture — 2008
The Public Spends Little to Provide Health Care for Undocumented Immigrants — 2006
Disparities in Care for HIV Patients: Results of the HCSUS Study — 2006
Improving Access to Needed Health Care Improves Low-Income Children's Quality of Life— 2006
Redefining and Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life — 2006
Triple Jeopardy for Vulnerable Children: Greater Health Needs, Less Access, Poorer Primary Care — 2006
Do Cardiologists Perceive Racial or Ethnic Disparities in the Treatment of Heart Patients? — 2005
Does Neighborhood Deterioration Lead to Poor Health? — 2005
HIV Testing Among Indigent Women: Who Gets Tested? — 2005
Access to HIV Care: Initial Results from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study — 2000
Are People with Mental Illness Getting the Help they Need? — 2000
Extending Health Care Insurance to Specific Populations: Profile of RAND Work — 2000
Health Care Coverage for the Nation's Uninsured: Can We Get to Universal Coverage? — 2000
Preventing Very Low Birthweight Births: A Bundle of Savings — 1998
End-of-Life Care
Health Coverage Options for Military Retirees— 2007
Redefining and Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life — 2006
End-of-Life Care and Outcomes — 2004
Research brief (available at www.ahrq.gov)
Global Health
Health System Reconstruction and Nation-Building — 2007
Measuring the benefits from research — 2007
Reviewing the returns of research: Capturing payback from funding by the Arthritis Research Campaign — 2007
Global Technology Revolution 2020: Technology Trends and Cross-Country Variation — 2006
The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State — 2005
Building a Successful Palestinian State — 2005
Policy and Health in Asia: Financing and Allocating Public Expenditures — 2003
Policy and Health in Asia: Demographic and Epidemiologic Transitions — 2000
Health Economics
Modeling the Health and Medical Care Spending of the Future Elderly — 2008
State Insurance Mandates and Consumer Directed Health Plans— 2008
A Look inside the "Doughnut Hole": How Drug-Benefit Limits Affect Retiree Prescription Use — 2007
Do Policies That Target Physicians Who Make Medical Malpractice Payments Reduce Negligent Injuries? — 2007
A Systematic Review of the Adverse Effects of Prescription Drug Cost Sharing — 2007
Health Coverage Options for Military Retirees— 2007
Behavioral Health Parity: Consequences for Federal Employee Health Plans — 2007
Obesity and Disability: The Shape of Things to Come — 2007
Health System Reconstruction and Nation-Building — 2007
Consumer-Directed Health Care: Early Evidence Shows Lower Costs, Mixed Effects on Quality of Care — 2007
Measuring the benefits from research— 2007
Reviewing the returns of research: Capturing payback from funding by the Arthritis Research Campaign — 2007
The Health Insurance Experiment: A Classic RAND Study Speaks to the Current Health Care Reform Debate — 2006
The Public Spends Little to Provide Health Care for Undocumented Immigrants — 2006
Improving Access to Needed Health Care Improves Low-Income Children's Quality of Life — 2006
Triple Jeopardy for Vulnerable Children — 2006
Are Small Businesses Riskier Than Larger Ones? — 2006
Consumer Decisionmaking in the Insurance Market — 2006
Cutting Drug Co-Payments for Sicker Patients on Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Could Save a Billion Dollars Every Year — 2006
Effects of Medicare's Prospective Payment System on the Quality of Hospital Care — 2006
Integrating Treatment for People with Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders in Public Systems of Care — 2006
Redefining and Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life — 2006
Analyzing—and Influencing—How the VA Allocates Its Health Care Dollars — 2005
Cost-Effective Allocation of Government Funds for Preventing HIV — 2005
Health Information Technology: Can HIT Lower Costs and Improve Quality? — 2005
How Cost Sharing Affects Use of Drugs by the Chronically Ill — 2005
The Managed Care Backlash: Did Consumers Vote with Their Feet? — 2005
State Efforts to Insure the Uninsured: An Unfinished Story — 2005
Will Smallpox Vaccinations Save Lives? — 2005
Changing the Medical Malpractive Dispute Process What Have We Learned From California's MICRA? — 2004
Future Health and Medical Care Spending of the Elderly — 2004
Inside the Black Box of Managed Care Decisions: Understanding Patient Disputes Over Coverage Denials — 2004
Prospects for Change in the Individual Health Insurance Market — 2004
Cost Sharing Cuts Employers' Drug Spending—But Employees Don't Get the Savings — 2002
Costs of a Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit: A Comparison of Alternatives — 2002
The Health Risks of Obesity: Worse than Smoking, Drinking, or Poverty — 2002
Improving Access to Drugs for Medicare Beneficiaries: Can State Laws Help? — 2002
Low Levels of Insurance Reimbursement Impede Access to Cochlear Implants — 2002
Health Maintenance Organizations and the Changing Physician Workforce — 2001
Access to HIV Care: Initial Results from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study — 2000
Are People with Mental Illness Getting the Help They Need? — 2000
Extending Health Care Insurance to Specific Populations — 2000
Health Care Coverage for the Nation's Uninsured: Can We Get to Universal Coverage? — 2000
Helping Adolescents Resist Drugs — 2000
Tracking Changes in Behavioral Health Services: How Has Managed Care Changed Care? — 2000
The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Prevention — 1999
Binding Arbitration Is Not Frequently Used to Resolve Health Care Disputes — 1999
Caring for HIV Patients: Good News and Bad News — 1999
Introducing Managed Care in the Military Health System — 1999
A Portrait of the HIV+ Population in America: Initial Results from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study — 1999
Prescription Drugs and the Elderly: Policy Implications of Medicare Coverage — 1999
Compensating Permanent Workplace Injuries — 1998
Effects of Access to Post-Retirement Health Insurance on Retirement Behavior and Insurance Coverage — 1998
Effects of Medicare's Prospective Payment System on the Quality of Hospital Care — 1998
How Does Managed Care Affect the Cost of Mental Health Services? — 1998
How Much Would Individual Insurance Premiums Cost Under Kassebaum-Kennedy? — 1998
Improving Block Grant Allocation Formulas — 1998
Preventing Very Low Birthweight Births: A Bundle of Savings — 1998
Government Policy and the Cost and Quality of Nursing Homes — 1996
Health Security
See research briefs at RAND's Center for Domestic and International Health Security website.
HIV, STDs and Sexual Behavior
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Issues Among People with HIV: Lessons from HCSUS — 2007
New Perspectives on Marijuana and Youth: Abstainers Are Not Maladjusted, but Lone Users Face Difficulties — 2007
Should ART be part of a population policy mix? Assessing the demographic impact of Assisted Reproductive Technologies — 2007
Disparities in Care for HIV Patients: Results of the HCSUS Study — 2006
Cost-Effective Allocation of Government Funds for Preventing HIV — 2005
Do People with HIV Get the Dental Care They Need? Results of the HCSUS Study — 2005
HIV Testing Among Indigent Women: Who Gets Tested? — 2005
Reducing Sexual Risk Among Injection Drug Users — 2005
Understanding the Sexual Behavior of Adolescents — 2002
Access to HIV Care: Initial Results from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study — 2000
Caring for HIV Patients: Good News and Bad News — 1999
A Portrait of the HIV+ Population in America: Initial Results from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study — 1999
Informatics and Technology
Measuring the Quality of Cancer Care: The National Initiative for Cancer Care Quality (NICCQ) — 2006
Global Technology Revolution 2020: Technology Trends and Cross-Country Variation — 2006
Electronic Prescribing Systems: Making it Safer to Take Your Medicine? — 2005
Future Health and Medical Care Spending of the Elderly — 2005
Health Information Technology: Can HIT Lower Costs and Improve Quality? — 2005
How Many Frozen Human Embryos are Available for Research? — 2003
Law and Health
State Insurance Mandates and Consumer Directed Health Plans— 2008
Behavioral Health Parity: Consequences for Federal Employee Health Plans — 2007
The Health Insurance Experiment: A Classic RAND Study Speaks to the Current Health Care Reform Debate — 2006
When It Comes to Terrorism, How Prepared Are Local and State Agencies?— 2006
Changing the Medical Malpractive Dispute Process What Have We Learned From California's MICRA? — 2004
Inside the Black Box of Managed Care Decisions: Understanding Patient Disputes Over Coverage Denials — 2004
How Many Frozen Human Embryos are Available for Research? — 2003
Does Involuntary Outpatient Treatment Work? — 2000
Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health
Teens Who Work Are More Likely to Smoke — 2008
How Schools Responded to Student Mental Health Needs Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — 2007
New Perspectives on Marijuana and Youth: Abstainers Are Not Maladjusted, but Lone Users Face Difficulties — 2007
Using Outcomes to Assess Teen Substance-Use Treatment Programs -- How Feasible? — 2007
Using the ''Getting to Outcomes'' Approach to Help Communities Prevent Underage Drinking — 2007
Should ART be part of a population policy mix? Assessing the demographic impact of Assisted Reproductive Technologies — 2007
How Schools Can Help Children Recover from Traumatic Experiences — 2006
Forging the Link Between Alcohol Advertising and Underage Drinking — 2006
Getting To Outcomes: Improving Community-Based Substance-Use Prevention — 2006
Improving Access to Needed Health Care Improves Low-Income Children's Quality of Life— 2006
Project ALERT Plus May Leverage the Effect of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign — 2006
Quality Primary Care Requires More Than Insurance — 2006
Triple Jeopardy for Vulnerable Children: Greater Health Needs, Less Access, Poorer Primary Care — 2006
Helping Children Cope with Violence: A School-Based Program That Works — 2005
Saturated in Beer — 2005
Stopping Violence Before it Starts: Identifying Early Predictors of Adolescent Violence — 2005
Classroom Drug Prevention Works — 2004
Does Watching Sex on Television Influence Teens' Sexual Activity? — 2004
Evaluating Substance Abuse Treatment Programs for Adolescent Probationers — 2004
Is Patient Volume a Useful Quality Measure for Very Low Birthweight Infants? — 2004
"Voltage Drops" in Children's Health Care: Barriers that Impede Children's Access to Quality Health Care — 2004
Domestic Violence in the Military: Implementing Collaborative MOUs — 2003
Does Early Smoking Signal Later Problems? — 2002
How to Improve Childhood Asthma: A Blueprint for Policy Action — 2002
Understanding the Sexual Behavior of Adolescents — 2002
What Are the True Benefits of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs? — 2002
After 9/11: Stress and Coping Across America — 2001
Guns in the Family: Firearm Storage Patterns in U.S. Homes with Children — 2001
Mental Health Care for Youth—Who Gets It? How Much Does it Cost? Who Pays? Where Does the Money Go? — 2001
Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren: What Do We Know? — 2000
The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Prevention — 1999
The Effect of Case Management on Immunization Rates and Well-Child Care — 1998
Helping Adolescents Resist Drugs: Project ALERT — 1998
Preventing Very Low Birthweight Births: A Bundle of Savings — 1998
Teenage Alcohol Misuse: A Big Problem and a Different Solution — 1998
Youth Violence: A Public-Health Problem with Disturbing Correlations — 1998
Mental Health
Invisible Wounds: Mental Health and Cognitive Care Needs of America's Returning Veterans — 2008
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Issues Among People with HIV: Lessons from HCSUS — 2007
How Schools Responded to Student Mental Health Needs Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — 2007
Behavioral Health Parity: Consequences for Federal Employee Health Plans — 2007
Discrete choice modeling: Methods for understanding why people make the choices that they do — 2007
Anxiety Disorders Can Have Broad, Negative Health Effects — 2006
Integrating Treatment for People with Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders in Public Systems of Care — 2006
Meeting the Health Care Needs of Adults with Severe Mental Illness — 2006
Three Steps for Improving the Quality of Mental Health Care in the United States — 2006
Helping Children Cope with Violence: A School-Based Program That Works — 2005
The Relationship Between Volume and Quality in Mental Health Care — 2005
The Societal Promise of Improving Care for Depression — 2004
After 9/11: Stress and Coping Across America — 2001
Mental Health Care for Youth—Who Gets It? How Much Does it Cost? Who Pays? Where Does the Money Go? — 2001
Are People with Mental Illness Getting the Help They Need? — 2000
Partners in Care: Hope for Those Who Struggle with Hope — 2000
Tracking Changes in Behavioral Health Services: How Has Managed Care Changed Care? — 2000
The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Prevention — 1999
How Does Managed Care Affect the Cost of Mental Health Services? — 1998
Improving the Quality and Cost-Effectiveness of Treatment for Depression — 1998
Teenage Alcohol Misuse: A Big Problem and a Different Solution — 1998
Military Health
Invisible Wounds: Mental Health and Cognitive Care Needs of America's Returning Veterans — 2008
Health Coverage Options for Military Retirees— 2007
Analyzing—and Influencing—How the VA Allocates Its Health Care Dollars — 2005
Examining Possible Causes of Gulf War Illness: RAND Policy Investigations and Reviews of the Scientific Literature — 2005
Improving Quality of Care: How the VA Outpaces Other Systems in Delivering Patient Care — 2005
Pharmacy Benefits for Military Retirees: Controlling Costs Without Compromising Health — 2005
Domestic Violence in the Military: Implementing Collaborative MOUs — 2003
The Military Health System: How Might it Be Reorganized? — 2002
Improving Health Care Options for the Nation's Over-65 Military Retirees — 2001
Waiving Informed Consent: Military Use of Non-FDA-Approved Drugs in Combat — 2000
Introducing Managed Care in the Military Health System — 1999
Can the Military Help Prevent Drug Use Among Youth? — 1995
Neighborhood Influences on Health
Why People Overeat: Rethinking the Causes of Obesity— 2008
Using the ''Getting to Outcomes'' Approach to Help Communities Prevent Underage Drinking — 2007
How Neighborhoods Can Reduce the Risk of Obesity — 2007
How Schools Can Help Children Recover from Traumatic Experiences — 2006
Does Neighborhood Deterioration Lead to Poor Health? — 2005
Overweight and Obesity
Modeling the Health and Medical Care Spending of the Future Elderly — 2008
Why People Overeat: Rethinking the Causes of Obesity— 2008
How Neighborhoods Can Reduce the Risk of Obesity — 2007
Obesity and Disability: The Shape of Things to Come — 2007
Future Health and Medical Care Spending of the Elderly: Implication for Medicare — 2005
Obese Women Receiving Breast Cancer Chemotherapy are Often Undertreated — 2005
Some Prescription Diet Drugs Promote Weight Loss — 2005
Weight Loss Surgery is More Effective than Diet and Exercise in Helping Severly Obese People Lose Weight — 2005
The Health Risks of Obesity: Worse Than Smoking Drinking, or Poverty, RAND — 2002
Public Health
Modeling the Health and Medical Care Spending of the Future Elderly — 2008
Why People Overeat: Rethinking the Causes of Obesity— 2008
Promoting Accountability in Public Health Emergency Preparedness — 2007
Bioterrorism with Zoonotic Disease: Public Health Preparedness Lessons from a Multiagency Exercise— 2007
Health Coverage Options for Military Retirees— 2007
Using the ''Getting to Outcomes'' Approach to Help Communities Prevent Underage Drinking — 2007
How Neighborhoods Can Reduce the Risk of Obesity — 2007
Obesity and Disability: The Shape of Things to Come — 2007
Health System Reconstruction and Nation-Building — 2007
Consumer-Directed Health Care: Early Evidence Shows Lower Costs, Mixed Effects on Quality of Care — 2007
Measuring the benefits from research— 2007
Reviewing the returns of research: Capturing payback from funding by the Arthritis Research Campaign — 2007
Vaccinating Residents and Staff Can Reduce Influenza Outbreaks in Nursing Homes — 2006
The Health Insurance Experiment: A Classic RAND Study Speaks to the Current Health Care Reform Debate — 2006
The Public Spends Little to Provide Health Care for Undocumented Immigrants — 2006
Improving Access to Needed Health Care Improves Low-Income Children's Quality of Life — 2006
Are Small Businesses Riskier Than Larger Ones? — 2006
Emergency Preparedness Is Stimulating Changes in Public Health Practice — 2006
Quality Improvement Methods Can Be Used to Improve Public Health Emergency Preparedness — 2006
HIV Testing Among Indigent Women: Who Gets Tested? — 2005
Obese Women Receiving Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Are Often Undertreated — 2005
Some Prescription Diet Drugs Promote Weight Loss — 2005
State Efforts to Insure the Uninsured: An Unfinished Story — 2005
Weight Loss Surgery is More Effective than Diet and Exercise in Helping Severely Obese People Lose Weight — 2005
Will Smallpox Vaccinations Save Lives? — 2005
Gaps in Public Health Preparedness: Lessons Learned in California — 2004
Role of Doctors Critical in Effective Public Health — 2004
Will Public Health's Response to Terrorism Be Fair? — 2004
Prisoner Reentry: What Are the Public Health Challenges? — 2003
The Health Risks of Obesity: Worse than Smoking, Drinking, or Poverty — 2002
Youth Violence: A Public-Health Problem with Disturbing Correlations — 1998
Quality of Care
Oranizing for Quality: Inside the ''Black Box'' of Health Care Improvement in Europe and the United States — 2008
Improving the Quality of Health Care for Older Adults — 2008
A Systematic Review of the Adverse Effects of Prescription Drug Cost Sharing — 2007
Consumer-Directed Health Care: Early Evidence Shows Lower Costs, Mixed Effects on Quality of Care — 2007
Measuring the benefits from research— 2007
Reviewing the returns of research: Capturing payback from funding by the Arthritis Research Campaign — 2007
Discrete choice modelling: Methods for understanding why people make the choices that they do — 2007
Vaccinating Residents and Staff Can Reduce Influenza Outbreaks in Nursing Homes — 2006
Measuring the Quality of Cancer Care: The National Initiative for Cancer Care Quality (NICCQ) — 2006
Effects of Medicare's Prospective Payment System on the Quality of Hospital Care — 2006
The First National Report Card on Quality of Health Care in America — 2006
Improving Access to Needed Health Care Improves Low-Income Children's Quality of Life— 2006
Meeting the Health Care Needs of Adults with Severe Mental Illness — 2006
Quality Primary Care Requires More Than Insurance — 2006
Three Steps for Improving the Quality of Mental Health Care in the United States — 2006
Triple Jeopardy for Vulnerable Children: Greater Health Needs, Less Access, Poorer Primary Care — 2006
Do Cardiologists Perceive Racial or Ethnic Disparities in the Treatment of Heart Patients? — 2005
Do People with HIV Get the Dental Care They Need? Results of the HCSUS Study — 2005
Health Information Technology: Can HIT Lower Costs and Improve Quality? — 2005
HIV Testing Among Indigent Women: Who Gets Tested? — 2005
Improving Quality of Care: How the VA Outpaces Other Systems in Delivering Patient Careh — 2005
The Relationship Between Volume and Quality in Mental Health Care — 2005
Developing Quality of Care Indicators for the Vulnerable Elderly: The ACOVE Project — 2004
Is Patient Volume a Useful Quality Measure for Very Low Birthweight Infants? — 2004
The Quality of Health Care Received by Older Adults — 2004
The Societal Promise of Improving Care for Depression — 2004
"Voltage Drops" in Children's Health Care: Barriers that Impede Children's Access to Quality Health Care — 2004
Consumer Choice and Health Care Quality — 2002
Report Cards for Health Care: Is Anyone Checking Them? — 2002
Measuring Quality of Care for Prostate Cancer — 2000
Partners in Care: Hope for Those Who Struggle with Hope — 2000
Caring for HIV Patients: Good News and Bad News — 1999
A Portrait of the HIV+ Population in America: Initial Results from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study — 1999
Taking the Pulse of Health Care in America — 1999
Assessing the Appropriateness of Care: How Much is Too Much? — 1998
The Effect of Case Management on Immunization Rates and Well-Child Care — 1998
Effects of Medicare's Prospective Payment System on the Quality of Hospital Care — 1998
Improving the Quality and Cost-Effectiveness of Treatment for Depression — 1998
Substance Abuse: Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Issues Among People with HIV: Lessons from HCSUS — 2007
Teens Who Work Are More Likely to Smoke — 2008
New Perspectives on Marijuana and Youth: Abstainers Are Not Maladjusted, but Lone Users Face Difficulties — 2007
Using Outcomes to Assess Teen Substance-Use Treatment Programs -- How Feasible? — 2007
Using the ''Getting to Outcomes'' Approach to Help Communities Prevent Underage Drinking — 2007
Forging the Link Between Alcohol Advertising and Underage Drinking — 2006
Getting To Outcomes: Improving Community-Based Substance-Use Prevention — 2006
Integrating Treatment for People with Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders in Public Systems of Care — 2006
Project ALERT Plus May Leverage the Effect of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign — 2006
Assessing U.S. Drug Problems and Policy — 2005
Reducing Sexual Risk Among Injection Drug Users — 2005
Saturated in Beer — 2005
Classroom Drug Prevention Works — 2004
Evaluating Substance Abuse Treatment Programs for Adolescent Probationers — 2004
How State Medical Marijuana Laws Vary: A Comprehensive Review — 2003
Does Early Smoking Signal Later Problems? — 2002
Using Marijuana May Not Raise the Risk of Using Harder Drugs — 2002
What Are the True Benefits of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs? — 2002
Does Involuntary Outpatient Treatment Work? — 2000
Helping Adolescents Resist Drugs — 2000
Improving Block Grant Allocation Formulas — 1998
Can the Military Help Prevent Drug Use Among Youth? — 1995
Violence and Health
Curbing Teen Dating Violence: Evidence from a School Prevention Program — 2006
Helping Children Cope with Violence: A School-Based Program That Works — 2005