Research Expertise and Interest
public health, mental health services, economic antecendents, stress related illness
Research Description
Ralph Catalano is a Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley. Catalano studies the implications of population stressors for gestation. His best known work focuses on the economy as stressor and fetal death as an outcome. The work shows that environmental stressors affect which gestations yield a live birth and, therefore, the health of birth cohorts that sum into the populations for which public health professionals take responsibility.
In the News
Latina mothers experienced jump in preterm births after 2016 election
Latina mothers living in the United States experienced a significant jump in preterm births in the nine months following the Nov. 8, 2016, election, according to a study by researchers at UC Berkeley and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Featured in the Media
Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.
July 19, 2019
While a number of studies have shown that the health of Latinos in the U.S. has suffered since the 2016 election, a new one co-authored by public health professor Ralph Catalano, using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has found that Latina women's rates of premature birth have increased unexpectedly since then. The study is notable because births provide hard data, unlike other illnesses, such as depression or stress, and it's alarming because premature birth is the most significant contributor to infant mortality. While the researchers note in their findings that the increase occurred after the election, they acknowledge the coincidence is not proof that the election or anti-immigration policies enacted shortly afterward caused the increase. However, experts do point out that the study aligns with a growing number of studies indicating very troubling health trends. The study is available at Jama Network.
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