West Coast Ballroom
Effects of Medicaid expansion policy on the prevention of multiple forms of violence (307827)
Luciana Assini-Meytin, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthElizabeth Letourneau, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Beth McGinty, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
*Reshmi Nair, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Elizabeth Stuart, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Keywords: Medicaid expansion policy, violence prevention, difference-in-difference, comparative interrupted time series
Given the stark need for violence prevention, research is needed to identify and evaluate broad public policies targeting violence risk factors to yield knowledge about strategies operating at the macrosystem levels that effectively reduce multiple forms of violence. Medicaid expansion was not intended to exert effects on violence, yet there is reason to believe that it may, given the impact of Medicaid expansion on well-established risk factors associated with several types of violence including parental depression, parental substance misuse, and family financial problems. We use a comparative interrupted time series approach on national level administrative data to examine the effects of Medicaid expansion from 2008-2019 on the prevention of 1) child abuse and neglect, 2) youth violence, and 3) intimate partner violence. This talk will discuss some of the statistical challenges that come up when studying the effects of state policies, including data challenges, defining the policy, choices of statistical methods, and more, using Medicaid expansion as a case study.