Alison Gemmill
Biographic Data
| ID | 107174 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alison Gemmill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alison |
| FAMILY NAME | Gemmill |
| SIGNATURE | GEMMILL A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5879-9730 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 54 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 54 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Do Anti-immigration Rhetoric and Policy Impact Reporting of Intimate Partner Violence To Police Among Latina/e Survivors in the United States? A Comparative Interrupted Time Series Study
Low-risk Cesareans Across the US: A Decomposition of Individual- and County-level Factors by Race/Ethnicity
Non-Hispanic (NH) Black birthing persons show the highest prevalence of low-risk cesareans (30.8%), compared to NH White birthing persons (25.3%). Individual, as well as place-based and ecological factors, may contribute to this racial disparity. We examine individual- and county-level characteristics that contribute to the racial disparity, as well as the extent to which the disparity can be attributed to differences in measured characteristics …
Wildfire-specific fine particulate matter and preterm birth: A US Echo Cohort analysis
Blood Transfusions for Pregnancy Loss in Texas Before and After Abortion Bans, 2017‒2023
Objectives. To measure changes in blood transfusion related to pregnancy loss in Texas after the 2021 Senate Bill 8 (SB8), which banned abortion after the detection of fetal cardiac activity (6-week ban), and the ban that was enforced after the 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Supreme Court decision, which banned abortion at all gestational durations (total ban). Methods. We used administrative data from all Texas hospital, emergency, and ambulatory surgical…
Using sequence analysis to visualize exposure to pregnancy in the postpartum period
BACKGROUND: Exposure to pregnancy during the postpartum period is shaped by biological and behavioral determinants, such as resumption of sexual activity, return of menses, and contraceptive use dynamics. OBJECTIVE: We implement sequence and cluster analyses to generate new insights about exposure to pregnancy during the postpartum period using unique longitudinal data in a low-resource setting. METHODS: We used population-based data from a sampl…
Dynamic changes in place-based measures of structural racism and preterm birth in the USA
BACKGROUND: Structurally racist systems, ideologies and processes generate and reinforce inequities among minoritised racial/ethnic groups. Prior cross-sectional literature finds that place-based structural racism, such as the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE), correlates with higher infant morbidity and mortality. We move beyond cross-sectional approaches and examine whether a decline in place-based structural racism over time coincid…
Changes in Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Pregnancy-Associated Death in the United States During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Objectives. To examine changes in cause-specific pregnancy-associated deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic by race and ethnicity and assess changes in racial and ethnic inequities in pregnancy-associated deaths. Methods. We used US vital statistics mortality data from 2018 to 2021 to identify pregnancy-associated deaths among females aged 15 to 44 years. We calculated crude pregnancy-associated death rates (deaths per 100 000 live births) by year,…
Are Contraceptive Method Preferences Stable? Measuring Change in the Preferred Method among Kenyan Women
Contraceptive preferences are important for reproductive outcomes, such as contraceptive continuation and pregnancy. Current approaches to measuring reproductive preferences in population surveys are limited to exploring only fertility preferences and implicitly assume that contracepting people are using a method they want. We know that people change their fertility preferences over the life course as a response to life events, but there is no in…
Male twinning after the 2008 Obama election: A test of symbolic empowerment
Fertility in a Pandemic: Evidence from California
The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by social and economic changes previously associated with fertility delay and reduction, sparking widespread discussion of a "baby bust" in the United States. We examine fertility trends using restricted vital statistics data from California, a diverse population of 40 million, contributing 12 percent of U.S. births. Using time series models that account for longer-run fertility trends, we observe modest, sho…
Secular trends in premature and early menopause in low-income and middle-income countries
BACKGROUND: While secular trends in high-income countries show an increase in the mean age at menopause, it is unclear if there is a similar pattern in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where women's exposure to biological, environmental and lifestyle determinants of menopause may differ. Premature (before age 40 years) and early (ages 40-44 years) menopause could have negative repercussions on later life health outcomes which in ag…
Pregnancy and pregnancy intention after experiencing infertility: A longitudinal study of women in Malawi
Background Infertility is a common experience among individuals and couples. Infertility may resolve without intervention, but little is known about pregnancy intentions and incidence of pregnancy following infertility, particularly in low-resource settings. Methods Data come from UTHA, a longitudinal cohort study in Central Malawi, with baseline and follow up surveys conducted from 2014–2019 (N = 1,030 reproductive-aged women). We assessed bivar…
Reproductive outcomes following contraceptive discontinuation for method-related reasons: An analysis of 49 Demographic and Health Surveys
Contraceptive discontinuation for method-related reasons is a common experience in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and may heighten women’s risk of unintended pregnancy. Few studies have provided a comprehensive assessment of reproductive outcomes following contraceptive discontinuation in LMICs over the last decade. Using cross-sectional data from 49 Demographic and Health Surveys, we applied competing risks estimation to calculate mont…
Selection in utero against male twins in the U nited S tates early in the Covid ‐19 pandemic
OBJECTIVES: We aim to contribute to the literature reporting tests of selection in utero. The theory of reproductive suppression predicts that natural selection would conserve mechanisms, referred to collectively as selection in utero, that spontaneously abort fetuses unlikely to thrive as infants in the prevailing environment. Tests of this prediction include reports that women give birth to fewer than expected male twins, historically among the…
Environmental attitudes and fertility desires among US adolescents from 2005–2019
Objective: This Brief Report examines links between environmental attitudes and fertility desires over time in the U.S. Background: To understand fertility decision making, it is important to identify factors that influence fertility desires. Concerns about environmental problems may be associated with lower desired fertility, especially in recent cohorts transitioning to adulthood. Youth may feel that having one less child can reduce their "carb…
Casino-based cash transfers and fertility among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina: A time-series analysis
Expectations of non-Covid-19 deaths during the pre-vaccine pandemic: A process-control approach
New-signal, prior-response estimates can contribute to evaluating the efficacy of public health programming in reducing non-COVID-19 deaths during the pre-vaccine pandemic
Pregnancy intentions' relationship with infant, pregnancy, maternal, and early childhood outcomes: Evidence from births in Alaska, Missouri, and Oklahoma
Our findings suggest that pregnancy intention is less consequential for maternal and child well-being than socio-economic disadvantage, suggesting that re-orienting policy toward social conditions and reproductive autonomy will serve better individual and population health
The Pent-Up Demand for Breastfeeding Among US Women: Trends After Covid-19 Shelter-in-Place
Objectives. To estimate changes in national breastfeeding trends immediately before and after COVID-19‒related workplace closures in early 2020. Methods. The implementation of shelter-in-place policies in early 2020, when 90% of people in the United States were urged to remain at home, represents a unique natural experiment to assess the pent-up demand for breastfeeding among US women that may be stymied by the lack of a national paid leave polic…
Excess Injury Mortality in Washington State During the 2021 Heat Wave
Objectives. To determine whether the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave resulted in excess injury (both unintentional and intentional) deaths. Methods. With US death certificate data from December 29, 2013, to July 31, 2021, we generated weekly counts of injury deaths in Washington State and the rest of the country. We used time-series methods to identify excess injury deaths that may have occurred during and following the anomalously warm temperat…
The Relationship Between Contraceptive Method Use and Return of Fecundity Among Women Attempting Pregnancy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
One of the most common barriers to using effective family planning methods is the belief that hormonal contraceptives and contraceptive devices have adverse effects on future fertility. Recent evidence from high-income settings suggests that some hormonal contraceptive methods are associated with delays in return of fecundity, yet it is unclear if these findings generalize to low- and middle-income populations, especially in regions where the inj…
Characteristics Associated with Reliability in Reporting of Contraceptive Use: Assessing the Reliability of the Contraceptive Calendar in Seven Countries
Although the reproductive calendar is the primary tool for measuring contraceptive dynamics in low‐income settings, the reliability of calendar data has seldom been evaluated, primarily due to the lack of longitudinal panel data. In this research, we evaluated the reproductive calendar using data from the Performance Monitoring for Action Project. We used population‐based longitudinal data from nine settings in seven countries: Burkina Faso, Nige…
Stop or Switch: Correlates of Stopping Use or Switching Contraceptive Methods While Wanting to Avoid Pregnancy in 48 Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries
Contraceptive discontinuation for method‐related reasons, while presumably wanting to avoid pregnancy, is a common phenomenon and can contribute to high levels of unmet need and unplanned pregnancies. Some women discontinue contraceptive use and do not quickly resume a method (“stopping”), while others are able to quickly switch to another method to achieve their reproductive goal of avoiding pregnancy (“switching”). We use Demographic and Health…
Investigating the impact of structural racism on black birthing people - associations between racialized economic segregation, incarceration inequality, and severe maternal morbidity
Stability and change in fertility intentions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya
Fertility intentions are expected to decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic but limited empirical research on this topic has been conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. Longitudinal data from Kenya, with baseline (November 2019) and follow-up (June 2020) data, were used to 1) assess the extent to which individual-level fertility intentions changed, and 2) examine how security, specifically economic and health security, affected fertility intentions. The …
The Muslim Ban and preterm birth: Analysis of U.S. vital statistics data from 2009 to 2018
Recent Trends in U.S. Childbearing Intentions
The U.S. period total fertility rate has declined steadily since the Great Recession, reaching 1.73 children in 2018, the lowest level since the 1970s. This pattern could mean that current childbearing cohorts will end up with fewer children than previous cohorts, or this same pattern could be an artifact of a tempo distortion if individuals are simply postponing births they plan to eventually have. In this research note, we use data on current p…
From Some to None? Fertility Expectation Dynamics of Permanently Childless Women
Permanent childlessness is increasingly acknowledged as an outcome of a dynamic, context-dependent process, but few studies have integrated a life course framework to investigate the complex pathways leading to childlessness. This study focuses on an understudied yet revealing dimension of why individuals remain childless: stated fertility expectations over the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, I …
Perceived Subfecundity and Contraceptive Use Among Young Adult U.S. Women
Because few studies have investigated fecundity perceptions in their own right, more research is needed to understand how women evaluate their fecundity and to integrate these perceptions into broader frameworks describing women's perception of pregnancy risk. Such work may help identify potential levers to improve contraceptive use
Characteristics Associated with Reliability in Reporting of Contraceptive Use: Assessing the Reliability of the Contraceptive Calendar in Seven Countries
Although the reproductive calendar is the primary tool for measuring contraceptive dynamics in low‐income settings, the reliability of calendar data has seldom been evaluated, primarily due to the lack of longitudinal panel data. In this research, we evaluated the reproductive calendar using data from the Performance Monitoring for Action Project. We used population‐based longitudinal data from nine settings in seven countries: Burkina Faso, Nige…
Investigating the impact of structural racism on black birthing people - associations between racialized economic segregation, incarceration inequality, and severe maternal morbidity
Low perceived susceptibility to pregnancy as a reason for contraceptive nonuse among women with unintended births
While low perceived susceptibility (PS) to pregnancy is a common risk factor for having sex without contraception among women susceptible to unintended pregnancy, little research has examined the correlates of low PS, and none have investigated whether low
Fertility in a Pandemic: Evidence from California
The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by social and economic changes previously associated with fertility delay and reduction, sparking widespread discussion of a "baby bust" in the United States. We examine fertility trends using restricted vital statistics data from California, a diverse population of 40 million, contributing 12 percent of U.S. births. Using time series models that account for longer-run fertility trends, we observe modest, sho…
The Surprising Decline in the Non-Marital Fertility Rate in the United States
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article
The Relationship Between Fertility History and Incident Dementia in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study
In this population-based, multiethnic cohort, we observed limited evidence for an association between measures of fertility history and incident dementia among men and women after adjusting for potential confounders
Very low birthweight: Dysregulated gestation versus evolutionary adaptation
Stop or Switch: Correlates of Stopping Use or Switching Contraceptive Methods While Wanting to Avoid Pregnancy in 48 Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries
Contraceptive discontinuation for method‐related reasons, while presumably wanting to avoid pregnancy, is a common phenomenon and can contribute to high levels of unmet need and unplanned pregnancies. Some women discontinue contraceptive use and do not quickly resume a method (“stopping”), while others are able to quickly switch to another method to achieve their reproductive goal of avoiding pregnancy (“switching”). We use Demographic and Health…
Are Contraceptive Method Preferences Stable? Measuring Change in the Preferred Method among Kenyan Women
Contraceptive preferences are important for reproductive outcomes, such as contraceptive continuation and pregnancy. Current approaches to measuring reproductive preferences in population surveys are limited to exploring only fertility preferences and implicitly assume that contracepting people are using a method they want. We know that people change their fertility preferences over the life course as a response to life events, but there is no in…
The Relationship Between Contraceptive Method Use and Return of Fecundity Among Women Attempting Pregnancy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
One of the most common barriers to using effective family planning methods is the belief that hormonal contraceptives and contraceptive devices have adverse effects on future fertility. Recent evidence from high-income settings suggests that some hormonal contraceptive methods are associated with delays in return of fecundity, yet it is unclear if these findings generalize to low- and middle-income populations, especially in regions where the inj…
Perceptions of Partners’ Fertility Preferences and Women's Covert Contraceptive Use in Eight Sub‐Saharan African Countries
Covert use of contraception is a common but underreported and understudied phenomenon where one partner uses contraception without the other's knowledge. We used Demographic and Health Survey couple data to examine the relationship between wives’ perceptions of husbands’ fertility preferences and type of contraceptive use (overt vs. covert) in Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia using logistic regression. Wives…
Demographic and Fertility Characteristics of Contraceptive Clusters in Burundi
Examining women's reproductive experiences over time reveals a more dynamic view of women's behaviors and needs than current status measures alone. This study uses sequence and cluster analyses, which are designed for identifying patterns and subgroups in longitudinal data. We apply these methods to contraceptive calendar data in Burundi to identify discrete clusters of women based on contraceptive and pregnancy behaviors over the past 5 years. W…
Pregnancy intentions' relationship with infant, pregnancy, maternal, and early childhood outcomes: Evidence from births in Alaska, Missouri, and Oklahoma
Our findings suggest that pregnancy intention is less consequential for maternal and child well-being than socio-economic disadvantage, suggesting that re-orienting policy toward social conditions and reproductive autonomy will serve better individual and population health
Excess Injury Mortality in Washington State During the 2021 Heat Wave
Objectives. To determine whether the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave resulted in excess injury (both unintentional and intentional) deaths. Methods. With US death certificate data from December 29, 2013, to July 31, 2021, we generated weekly counts of injury deaths in Washington State and the rest of the country. We used time-series methods to identify excess injury deaths that may have occurred during and following the anomalously warm temperat…
Being Accountable for Capability—Getting Public Health Reform Right This Time
Understanding periviable birth: A microeconomic alternative to the dysregulation narrative
Global causes of maternal death: A WHO systematic analysis
BACKGROUND: Data for the causes of maternal deaths are needed to inform policies to improve maternal health. We developed and analysed global, regional, and subregional estimates of the causes of maternal death during 2003-09, with a novel method, updating the previous WHO systematic review. METHODS: We searched specialised and general bibliographic databases for articles published between between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2012, for research data,…
Very low birthweight: Dysregulated gestation versus evolutionary adaptation
Stroke-attributable death among older persons during the great recession
Do macroeconomic contractions induce or ‘harvest’ suicides? A test of competing hypotheses
BACKGROUND: Researchers often invoke a mortality displacement or 'harvesting' mechanism to explain mortality patterns, such that those with underlying health vulnerabilities die sooner than expected in response to environmental phenomena, such as heat waves, cold spells and air pollution. It is unclear if this displacement mechanism might also explain observed increases in suicide following economic contraction, or if suicides are induced in pers…
Global, regional, and national levels and trends in maternal mortality between 1990 and 2015, with scenario-based projections to 2030: A systematic analysis by the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Int…
Timing of birth: Parsimony favors strategic over dysregulated parturition
OBJECTIVES: The "dysregulated parturition" narrative posits that the human stress response includes a cascade of hormones that "dysregulates" and accelerates parturition but provides questionable utility as a guide to understand or prevent preterm birth. We offer and test a "strategic parturition" narrative that not only predicts the excess preterm births that dysregulated parturition predicts but also makes testable, sex-specific predictions of …
The Surprising Decline in the Non-Marital Fertility Rate in the United States
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article
Separating the Bruce and Trivers‐Willard effects in theory and in human data
OBJECTIVES: Theories of reproductive suppression predict that natural selection would conserve mechanisms that abort the gestation of offspring otherwise unlikely to thrive in prevailing environments. Research reports evidence among humans of at least two such mechanisms-the Trivers-Willard and Bruce Effects. No literature, however, compares the mechanisms nor estimates their relative contribution to observed characteristics of human birth cohort…
Perceived Subfecundity and Contraceptive Use Among Young Adult U.S. Women
Because few studies have investigated fecundity perceptions in their own right, more research is needed to understand how women evaluate their fecundity and to integrate these perceptions into broader frameworks describing women's perception of pregnancy risk. Such work may help identify potential levers to improve contraceptive use
Association of Preterm Births Among US Latina Women With the 2016 Presidential Election
Importance: The circumstances surrounding the 2016 US presidential election have been proposed as a significant stressor in the lives of the US Latino population. Few studies to date, however, have evaluated the population health implications of the election for Latina mothers and their children. Objective: To determine whether preterm births (gestational age, <37 weeks) among US Latina women increased above expected levels after the 2016 US pres…
From Some to None? Fertility Expectation Dynamics of Permanently Childless Women
Permanent childlessness is increasingly acknowledged as an outcome of a dynamic, context-dependent process, but few studies have integrated a life course framework to investigate the complex pathways leading to childlessness. This study focuses on an understudied yet revealing dimension of why individuals remain childless: stated fertility expectations over the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, I …
Understanding periviable birth: A microeconomic alternative to the dysregulation narrative
Reproductive suppression and longevity in human birth cohorts
OBJECTIVES: Reproductive suppression refers to, among other phenomena, the termination of pregnancies in populations exposed to signals of death among young conspecifics. Extending the logic of reproduction suppression to humans has implications for health including that populations exposed to it should exhibit relatively great longevity. No research, however, has tested this prediction. METHODS: We apply time-series methods to vital statistics f…
Variation in Self-Perceived Fecundity among Young Adult U.S. Women
Recent Trends in U.S. Childbearing Intentions
The U.S. period total fertility rate has declined steadily since the Great Recession, reaching 1.73 children in 2018, the lowest level since the 1970s. This pattern could mean that current childbearing cohorts will end up with fewer children than previous cohorts, or this same pattern could be an artifact of a tempo distortion if individuals are simply postponing births they plan to eventually have. In this research note, we use data on current p…
The Muslim Ban and preterm birth: Analysis of U.S. vital statistics data from 2009 to 2018
“I can try and plan, but still get pregnant”: The complexity of pregnancy intentions and reproductive health decision‐making for adolescents
INTRODUCTION: Teen pregnancy rates have declined in the United States; however, disparities continue to persist particularly among minority, low-income adolescents. A greater understanding of how pregnancy intentions are conceptualized for adolescents, and the role of the social context may illuminate reasons for disparities. The aim of this study was to expand the lens in which adolescents' perspectives of pregnancy are studied by exploring the …
African American Unemployment and the Disparity in Periviable Births
Periviable infants (i.e., born before 26 complete weeks of gestation) represent fewer than .5% of births in the US but account for 40% of infant mortality and 20% of billed hospital obstetric costs. African American women contribute about 14% of live births in the US, but these include nearly a third of the country’s periviable births. Consistent with theory and with periviable births among other race/ethnicity groups, males predominate among Afr…
Association between county-level coal-fired power plant pollution and racial disparities in preterm births from 2000 to 2018
Coal has historically been a primary energy source in the United States. The byproducts of coal combustion, such as fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), have increasingly been associated with adverse birth outcomes. The goal of this study was to leverage the current progressive transition away from coal in the United States (U.S.) to assess whether coal PM 2.5 is associated with preterm birth rates and whether this association differs by maternal B…
The Relationship Between Fertility History and Incident Dementia in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study
In this population-based, multiethnic cohort, we observed limited evidence for an association between measures of fertility history and incident dementia among men and women after adjusting for potential confounders
Demographic and Fertility Characteristics of Contraceptive Clusters in Burundi
Examining women's reproductive experiences over time reveals a more dynamic view of women's behaviors and needs than current status measures alone. This study uses sequence and cluster analyses, which are designed for identifying patterns and subgroups in longitudinal data. We apply these methods to contraceptive calendar data in Burundi to identify discrete clusters of women based on contraceptive and pregnancy behaviors over the past 5 years. W…
Low perceived susceptibility to pregnancy as a reason for contraceptive nonuse among women with unintended births
While low perceived susceptibility (PS) to pregnancy is a common risk factor for having sex without contraception among women susceptible to unintended pregnancy, little research has examined the correlates of low PS, and none have investigated whether low
Stability and change in fertility intentions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya
Fertility intentions are expected to decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic but limited empirical research on this topic has been conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. Longitudinal data from Kenya, with baseline (November 2019) and follow-up (June 2020) data, were used to 1) assess the extent to which individual-level fertility intentions changed, and 2) examine how security, specifically economic and health security, affected fertility intentions. The …
Unequal impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women's fertility preferences: Evidence from a longitudinal cohort in the United States
The COVID-19 pandemic suppressed fertility desires among US women.•Impacts on fertility preferences persisted from summer 2020 to early 2021.•The fertility preferences of younger women, women of color and those facing financial stress were most impacted
Past local government health spending was not correlated with Covid-19 control in US counties
Increasing resource availability for public health in local jurisdictions without thoughtful attention to bolstering the foundational capabilities inside health departments is unlikely to be sufficient to prepare the country for future outbreaks or other public health emergencies
Medicine (43 works) · Demography (39 works) · Population (34 works) · Environmental health (25 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Demography (21 works) · Fertility (21 works) · Pregnancy (20 works) · Global Maternal and Child Health (19 works) · Family planning (13 works)