Alison Valier
Mid-career Tenured Researcher, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
2 active projects
Young Adults’ Social Determinants of Health
Scientific Questions Being Studied
Young adults sit in a unique position in the health care system, often relying on emergency health care as opposed to routine or preventative services. This trend in young adult health care is explained in part by lack of insurance or access to a consistent health care provider. As young adults are more likely than other groups to be uninsured, they may have more incidence of being underserved in the health care system. Research shows young adults tend to seek care more often in emergency departments rather than use preventative care services. Understanding the barriers and potential solutions for increasing access to care for young adults is essential, as habits formed in young adulthood may continue and develop into lifelong habits. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate and describe social determinants of health affecting young adults and their utilization of various health care services.
Project Purpose(s)
- Population Health
Scientific Approaches
This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study design. We plan to use descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, averages, and percentages, to examine the characteristics of young adults (18 years old to 30 years old) within the All of Us database. These characteristics include young adults’ demographic information, their social determinants of health (income, employment, access to health care services, health insurance rates, access to reliable transportation, housing, social environment, and physical environment), and their utilization of both preventative and emergency health care services. There are several questions in the “Basics”, “Health Care Access and Utilization”, “Overall Health”, “Health History”, and “Social Determinants of Health” surveys that can help answer our research questions.
Anticipated Findings
This is meant to be a descriptive study, and we do not expect to conduct inferential statistics with this data at this time. We are aiming to produce newer data surrounding this topic for use in public health efforts and research. We anticipate that we will find results similar to other literature in the field: young adults utilize preventative care services less than emergency services. This research regarding the health behaviors of young adults, while impactful, is outdated. However, it will be interesting to compare this data to previous reports in the literature, as many policies have been created and enacted since the early 2000s related to access to health care services. Regardless, it is essential to obtain up-to-date information relevant to young adults’ health care utilization, including their social determinants of health, in order to determine the most effective community and public health strategies to increase patient health outcomes.
Demographic Categories of Interest
- Access to Care
- Others
Data Set Used
Registered TierResearch Team
Owner:
- Bailey Jones - Research Fellow, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
- Alison Valier - Mid-career Tenured Researcher, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
Collaborators:
- Steven Webb - Project Personnel, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
- Mary Wang - Other, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
- Mark Brunk-Grady - Project Personnel, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
- Aymone Kouame - Other, All of Us Program Operational Use
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Scientific Questions Being Studied
Young adults sit in a unique position in the health care system, often relying on emergency health care as opposed to routine or preventative services. This trend in young adult health care is explained in part by lack of insurance or access to a consistent health care provider. As young adults are more likely than other groups to be uninsured, they may have more incidence of being underserved in the health care system. Research shows young adults tend to seek care more often in emergency departments rather than use preventative care services. Understanding the barriers and potential solutions for increasing access to care for young adults is essential, as habits formed in young adulthood may continue and develop into lifelong habits. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate and describe social determinants of health affecting young adults and their utilization of various health care services.
Project Purpose(s)
- Population Health
Scientific Approaches
This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study design. We plan to use descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, averages, and percentages, to examine the characteristics of young adults (18 years old to 30 years old) within the All of Us database. These characteristics include young adults’ demographic information, their social determinants of health (income, employment, access to health care services, health insurance rates, access to reliable transportation, housing, social environment, and physical environment), and their utilization of both preventative and emergency health care services. There are several questions in the “Basics”, “Health Care Access and Utilization”, “Overall Health”, “Health History”, and “Social Determinants of Health” surveys that can help answer our research questions.
Anticipated Findings
This is meant to be a descriptive study, and we do not expect to conduct inferential statistics with this data at this time. We are aiming to produce newer data surrounding this topic for use in public health efforts and research. We anticipate that we will find results similar to other literature in the field: young adults utilize preventative care services less than emergency services. This research regarding the health behaviors of young adults, while impactful, is outdated. However, it will be interesting to compare this data to previous reports in the literature, as many policies have been created and enacted since the early 2000s related to access to health care services. Regardless, it is essential to obtain up-to-date information relevant to young adults’ health care utilization, including their social determinants of health, in order to determine the most effective community and public health strategies to increase patient health outcomes.
Demographic Categories of Interest
- Access to Care
- Others
Data Set Used
Registered TierResearch Team
Owner:
- Alison Valier - Mid-career Tenured Researcher, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
Collaborators:
- Mary Wang - Other, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
- Mark Brunk-Grady - Project Personnel, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
- Bailey Jones - Research Fellow, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
Request a Review of this Research Project
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