skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Quantifying disparities in intimate partner violence: a machine learning method to correct for underreporting
Abstract The first step towards reducing the pervasive disparities in women’s health is to quantify them. Accurate estimates of therelative prevalenceacross groups—capturing, for example, that a condition affects Black women more frequently than white women—facilitate effective and equitable health policy that prioritizes groups who are disproportionately affected by a condition. However, it is difficult to estimate relative prevalence when a health condition is underreported, as many women’s health conditions are. In this work, we present , a method for accurately estimating the relative prevalence of underreported health conditions which builds upon the literature in positive unlabeled learning. We show that under a commonly made assumption—that the probability of having a health condition given a set of symptoms remains constant across groups—we can recover the relative prevalence, even without restrictive assumptions commonly made in positive unlabeled learning and even if it is impossible to recover the absolute prevalence. We conduct experiments on synthetic and real health data which demonstrate ’s ability to recover the relative prevalence more accurately than do previous methods. We then use to quantify the relative prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in two large emergency department datasets. We find higher prevalences of IPV among patients who are on Medicaid, not legally married, and non-white, and among patients who live in lower-income zip codes or in metropolitan counties. We show that correcting for underreporting is important to accurately quantify these disparities and that failing to do so yields less plausible estimates. Our method is broadly applicable to underreported conditions in women’s health, as well as to gender biases beyond healthcare.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2142419
PAR ID:
10514745
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
npj Women's Health
Date Published:
Journal Name:
npj Women's Health
Volume:
2
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2948-1716
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Oxford Review of Economic Policy)
    Abstract This paper estimates the long-run impacts of banning affirmative action on men and women from under-represented minority (URM) racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Using data from the US Census and American Community Survey, we use a difference-in-differences framework to compare the college degree completion, graduate degree completion, earnings, and employment of URM individuals to non-URM individuals before and after affirmative action bans went into effect across several US states. We also employ event study analyses and alternative estimators to confirm the validity of our approach and discuss the generalizability of the findings. Results suggest that banning affirmative action results in a decline in URM women’s college degree completion, earnings, and employment relative to non-Hispanic White women, driven largely by impacts on Hispanic women. Thus, affirmative action bans resulted in an increase in racial/ethnic disparities in both college degree completion and earnings among women. Effects on URM men are more ambiguous and indicate significant heterogeneity across states, with some estimates pointing to a possible positive impact on labour market outcomes of Black men. These results suggest that the relative magnitude of college quality versus mismatch effects vary for URM men and women and highlight the importance of disaggregating results by gender, race, and ethnicity. We conclude by discussing how our results compare with others in the literature and directions for future research. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
    Women experience higher morbidity than men, despite living longer. This is often attributed to biological differences between the sexes; however, the majority of societies in which these disparities are observed exhibit gender norms that favor men. We tested the hypothesis that female-biased gender norms ameliorate gender disparities in health by comparing gender differences in inflammation and hypertension among the matrilineal and patrilineal Mosuo of China. Widely reported gender disparities in health were reversed among matrilineal Mosuo compared with patrilineal Mosuo, due to substantial improvements in women’s health, with no concomitant detrimental effects on men. These findings offer evidence that gender norms limiting women’s autonomy and biasing inheritance toward men adversely affect the health of women, increasing women’s risk for chronic diseases with tremendous global health impact. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, BMC Public Health)
    Abstract BackgroundIntimate partner violence (IPV) remains a global public health concern for both men and women. Spatial mapping and clustering analysis can reveal subtle patterns in IPV occurrences but are yet to be explored in Rwanda, especially at a lower small-area scale. This study seeks to examine the spatial distribution, patterns, and associated factors of IPV among men and women in Rwanda. MethodsThis was a secondary data analysis of the 2019/2020 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS) individual-level data set for 1947 women aged 15–49 years and 1371 men aged 15–59 years. A spatially structured additive logistic regression model was used to assess risk factors for IPV while adjusting for spatial effects. The district-level spatial model was adjusted for fixed covariate effects and was implemented using a fully Bayesian inference within the generalized additive mixed effects framework. ResultsIPV prevalence amongst women was 45.9% (95% Confidence interval (CI): 43.4–48.5%) while that for men was 18.4% (95% CI: 16.2–20.9%). Using a bivariate choropleth, IPV perpetrated against women was higher in the North-Western districts of Rwanda whereas for men it was shown to be more prevalent in the Southern districts. A few districts presented high IPV for both men and women. The spatial structured additive logistic model revealed higher odds for IPV against women mainly in the North-western districts and the spatial effects were dominated by spatially structured effects contributing 64%. Higher odds of IPV were observed for men in the Southern districts of Rwanda and spatial effects were dominated by district heterogeneity accounting for 62%. There were no statistically significant district clusters for IPV in both men or women. Women with partners who consume alcohol, and with controlling partners were at significantly higher odds of IPV while those in rich households and making financial decisions together with partners were at lower odds of experiencing IPV. ConclusionCampaigns against IPV should be strengthened, especially in the North-Western and Southern parts of Rwanda. In addition, the promotion of girl-child education and empowerment of women can potentially reduce IPV against women and girls. Furthermore, couples should be trained on making financial decisions together. In conclusion, the implementation of policies and interventions that discourage alcohol consumption and control behaviour, especially among men, should be rolled out. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Health Psychology)
    How women experience pregnancy as uplifting or a hassle is related to their mental and physical health and birth outcomes. Pregnancy during a pandemic introduces new hassles, but may offer benefits that could affect how women perceive their pregnancy. Surveying 118 ethnically and racially diverse pregnant women, we explore (1) women’s traditional and pandemic-related pregnancy uplifts and hassles and (2) how these experiences of pregnancy relate to their feelings of loneliness, positivity, depression, and anxiety. Regressions show that women who experience more intense feelings of uplifts than hassles also feel more positive, less lonely, and have better mental health. Findings suggest that focusing on positive aspects of being pregnant, in general and during a pandemic, might be beneficial for pregnant women’s mental health. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; (, American Journal of Health Economics)
    Transgender people, African Americans, and Hispanics face mental health disparities. While mental health care can help, minoritized groups could face discriminatory barriers in accessing it. Discrimination may be particularly pronounced in mental health care because providers have more discretion over accepting patients. Research documents discrimination broadly, including in access to health care, but there is limited empirical research on discrimination in access to mental health care. We provide the first experimental evidence, from a correspondence audit field experiment (“simulated patients” study), of the extent to which transgender and non-binary people, African Americans, and Hispanics face discrimination in access to mental health-care appointments. We find significant discrimination against transgender or non-binary African Americans and Hispanics. We do not find evidence of discrimination against White transgender and non-binary prospective patients. We are mostly inconclusive as to whether cisgender African Americans or Hispanics face discrimination, except we find evidence of discrimination against cisgender African American women. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email