Middle and high school racial composition linked to misuse of non-medical prescription painkillers later in life

A study by Harvard Pop Center director Lisa Berkman, faculty members Ichiro Kawachi and Mauricio Avendano, and colleagues has revealed that both white and black students who attended majority-white schools were at higher risk of lifetime, non-medical use of prescription painkillers. Blacks who attended predominantly white schools were twice as likely to report misuse compared to blacks who attended predominantly black schools.

Why is measuring cost-related medication burden for Medicare beneficiaries so important?

Jessica Williams, PhD, a Harvard RWJF Health & Society program alumna, has written a piece for the blog of the journal, Medical Care in which she discusses the timeliness and value of a recently published paper that examines the instruments used to measure cost-related medication burden.