Peer-Reviewed Publication

The professional world has no shortage of micromanagers — or, as Penn State School of Labor and Employment Relations (LER) faculty members Craig L. Pearce and Hee Man Park like to call them, “accidental dictators.” But leaders don’t have to fall into that trap, according to an article published in the journal Organizational Dynamics co-written by Pearce, Brova Family Endowed Professor of leadership and human resources, and Park, associate professor of human resource management and director of LER’s graduate program. 

People with medical debt in 2023 were about five times more likely to forgo mental health care treatment in the following year due to cost, compared to those without medical debt, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

At a time of increasing gun ownership among women, just under 4 in 10 women who died by firearm suicide had no documented history of mental or physical health problems, highlighting a need for prevention strategies tailored to at-risk women.

About The Study: In this survey study, more than 1 in 7 adults reported carrying medical debt in 2023, of whom 1 in 3 forwent mental health care in the subsequent year. Medical debt may exacerbate the treatment gap by potentially (1) raising the threshold for seeking care, (2) eroding patient trust in the health system, or (3) being denied care due to outstanding debts.

About The Study: In this serial cross-sectional study of adolescents in grades 7 to 11, legalization of cannabis edibles and extracts was associated with an increase not only in edible cannabis use and cannabis smoking, but also in the overall prevalence of cannabis use and co-use of alcohol and cannabis, highlighting the need for stricter policy measures to curb adolescents’ access to cannabis edibles and extracts and greater awareness among adolescents about harms of cannabis use.

Both the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) testing for cancer and the rate of claim denials for such testing increased between 2016 and 2021, despite implementation of a recent Medicare national coverage determination that established coverage standards for NGS testing.