Before the COVID crisis, there was the opioid crisis. Though the pandemic has grabbed the headlines, Americans continue to die of opioids at alarming rates: 136 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. In all, more than 840,000 Americans have died of opioid-related causes since 1999. This surge has been more than 20 years in the making, revealing underlying inequities in terms of who is afflicted, healthcare access and use, and treatments, among others. Six IPR experts share their research-based insights around how this devastating crisis began and offer their insights on policies to address various aspects of the crisis, including addiction and treatment.
This spring, IPR social policy expert Sally Nuamah was honored with the Jackie Kirk Award for her book How Girls Achieve from the Comparative and International Education Society, and the Urban Affairs Association named her the 2021 Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar.
IPR biological anthropologist Thomas McDade explains that breastfeeding for three months or longer decreases a child's risk for health problems like type 2 diabetes, disabilities, and heart disease later in life. Watch the IPR explainer video and read the related policy brief to learn more about his research. You can also view other videos featuring IPR faculty.
A new study led by IPR health psychologist Edith Chen reveals that individuals who balance the amount of social support they give, such as helping someone with childcare, when compared with what they receive have a lower risk of dying at an earlier age compared to those who do not achieve a balance.
New research by IPR faculty explores a new way to measure gender in homeownership, developing survey questions to better assess women’s agency, and understanding why some still read print newspapers.
IPR psychologist Sandy Waxman, research specialist Kali Woodruff Carr, and their colleagues use electroencephalograms (EEGs) to measure infants' neural responses as they listen to human speech and lemur calls, providing novel insights into how listening to language supports infant cognition.
Faculty Opinion
"It shouldn't matter if you're receiving care on the Magnificent Mile, next to Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus ... It should be the same quality of care you're getting on the South Side of Chicago."
