Deborah Karasek
Biographic Data
| ID | 117741 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Deborah Karasek |
| GIVEN NAMES | Deborah |
| FAMILY NAME | Karasek |
| SIGNATURE | KARASEK D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, San Francisco |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5909-5441 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 49 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
No strings attached
Economic insecurity during pregnancy is a critical social determinant of maternal and infant health. Traditional public assistance programs often fail to meet the needs of marginalized communities, particularly Black and Pacific Islander (Pasifika) pregnant women and people. Guaranteed income (GI)–unconditional cash transfers for specific populations–has emerged as a potential solution, but little is known about the experiences of participants ac…
Economic Insecurities and Mental Health Among Low-Income Pregnant People in the Central Valley Region of California
We found low-income pregnant people experience significant economic insecurities that may impact mental health adversely. Programs that increase economic supports during pregnancy may serve as important maternal mental health interventions, especially among racial/ethnic minoritized groups
Barriers to Accessing Paid Parental Leave Among Birthing Parents With Perinatal Health Complications
Estimating the effect of timing of earned income tax credit refunds on perinatal outcomes
This analysis offers a novel method to impute EITC eligibility using a probabilistic algorithm in a data set with richer sociodemographic information relative to the clinical and administrative data sets from which outcomes are drawn. These results could be used to determine the optimal intervention time point for future income supplementation policies. Future work should examine frequent income supplementation such as the minimum wage or basic i…
The Pent-Up Demand for Breastfeeding Among US Women
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…
It was just one moment that I felt like I was being judged
Black women and birthing people shared that exposure to racism has heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing their levels of stress and anxiety. Understanding how racism impacts Black birthing people's lives and care experiences is critical to reforming the police force and revising enhanced prenatal care models to better address their needs
Evaluating the Effect of San Francisco’s Paid Parental Leave Ordinance on Birth Outcomes
Since 2017, San Francisco's Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (PPLO) has allowed parents who work for private-sector employers to take 6 weeks of fully paid postnatal parental leave. Previous studies have linked paid parental leave with health improvements for birthing people and babies, although evidence for birth outcomes is limited. We hypothesized that the PPLO may have improved birth outcomes via reduced stress during pregnancy due to anticipati…
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and birth outcomes in California
These findings suggest weak to modest initial benefits of DACA for select birthweight outcomes during the period immediately following DACA passage for Mexican-born individuals whose births were billed to Medicaid; any benefits were subsequently attenuated to the null. The benefits of DACA for population health may not have been sufficient to counteract the impacts of threats to the program's future and heightened immigration enforcement occurrin…
Interpregnancy Interval and Birth Outcomes
This study demonstrates a dose response association between short IPI and adverse birth outcomes, with no increased risk beyond 12 months. Findings suggest that longer IPI recommendations may be overly proscriptive
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…
Racial Differences in the Association between the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit and Birthweight
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…
Risk and Protective Factors for Preterm Birth Among Black Women in Oakland, California
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…
Understanding periviable birth
Socioeconomic Status, Preeclampsia Risk and Gestational Length in Black and White Women
Compared to White women, Black women had increased preeclampsia risk. Higher SES attenuated risk for preeclampsia among White women, but not for Black women. Similarly, higher SES indirectly predicted longer gestational length via reduced preeclampsia risk among White women, but not for Black women. These findings are consistent with diminishing returns of higher SES for Black women with respect to preeclampsia
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…
Timing of birth
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 …
Stroke-attributable death among older persons during the great recession
Abortion Patients' Experience and Perceptions of Waiting Periods
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…
Very low birthweight
The contribution of attenuated selection in utero to small-for-gestational-age (SGA) among term African American male infants
Women’s Empowerment and Ideal Family Size
CONTEXT: The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) program collects data on women's empowerment, but little is known about how these measures perform in Sub-Saharan African countries. It is important to understand whether women's empowerment is associated with their ideal number of children and ability to limit fertility to that ideal number in the Sub-Saharan African context. METHODS: The analysis used couples data from DHS surveys in four Sub-Sah…
Unprotected Intercourse among Women Wanting to Avoid Pregnancy
Contraceptive Features Preferred by Women At High Risk of Unintended Pregnancy
The contraceptive features women want are largely absent from currently available methods. Developing and promoting methods that are more aligned with women's preferences presumably could help increase satisfaction and thereby encourage consistent and effective use
It was just one moment that I felt like I was being judged
Black women and birthing people shared that exposure to racism has heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing their levels of stress and anxiety. Understanding how racism impacts Black birthing people's lives and care experiences is critical to reforming the police force and revising enhanced prenatal care models to better address their needs
Social Norms, Collective Efficacy, and Smoking Cessation in Urban Neighborhoods
Objectives. We examined the separate and combined relations of neighborhood-level social norms and collective efficacy with individuals’ cigarette smoking cessation. Methods. We modeled the hazard of quitting over a 5-year period among 863 smokers who participated in the 2005 New York Social Environment Study. Results. In adjusted Cox proportional hazard models, prohibitive neighborhood smoking norms were significantly associated with higher rate…
The contribution of attenuated selection in utero to small-for-gestational-age (SGA) among term African American male infants
Socioeconomic Status, Preeclampsia Risk and Gestational Length in Black and White Women
Compared to White women, Black women had increased preeclampsia risk. Higher SES attenuated risk for preeclampsia among White women, but not for Black women. Similarly, higher SES indirectly predicted longer gestational length via reduced preeclampsia risk among White women, but not for Black women. These findings are consistent with diminishing returns of higher SES for Black women with respect to preeclampsia
Very low birthweight
Understanding periviable birth
Attitudes Toward Unprotected Intercourse and Risk of Pregnancy among Women Seeking Abortion
Women’s Empowerment and Ideal Family Size
CONTEXT: The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) program collects data on women's empowerment, but little is known about how these measures perform in Sub-Saharan African countries. It is important to understand whether women's empowerment is associated with their ideal number of children and ability to limit fertility to that ideal number in the Sub-Saharan African context. METHODS: The analysis used couples data from DHS surveys in four Sub-Sah…
Unprotected Intercourse among Women Wanting to Avoid Pregnancy
Contraceptive Features Preferred by Women At High Risk of Unintended Pregnancy
The contraceptive features women want are largely absent from currently available methods. Developing and promoting methods that are more aligned with women's preferences presumably could help increase satisfaction and thereby encourage consistent and effective use
Social Norms, Collective Efficacy, and Smoking Cessation in Urban Neighborhoods
Objectives. We examined the separate and combined relations of neighborhood-level social norms and collective efficacy with individuals’ cigarette smoking cessation. Methods. We modeled the hazard of quitting over a 5-year period among 863 smokers who participated in the 2005 New York Social Environment Study. Results. In adjusted Cox proportional hazard models, prohibitive neighborhood smoking norms were significantly associated with higher rate…
The contribution of attenuated selection in utero to small-for-gestational-age (SGA) among term African American male infants
Very low birthweight
Stroke-attributable death among older persons during the great recession
Abortion Patients' Experience and Perceptions of Waiting Periods
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…
Timing of birth
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 …
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…
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…
Understanding periviable birth
Socioeconomic Status, Preeclampsia Risk and Gestational Length in Black and White Women
Compared to White women, Black women had increased preeclampsia risk. Higher SES attenuated risk for preeclampsia among White women, but not for Black women. Similarly, higher SES indirectly predicted longer gestational length via reduced preeclampsia risk among White women, but not for Black women. These findings are consistent with diminishing returns of higher SES for Black women with respect to preeclampsia
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…
Risk and Protective Factors for Preterm Birth Among Black Women in Oakland, California
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…
Racial Differences in the Association between the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit and Birthweight
Evaluating the Effect of San Francisco’s Paid Parental Leave Ordinance on Birth Outcomes
Since 2017, San Francisco's Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (PPLO) has allowed parents who work for private-sector employers to take 6 weeks of fully paid postnatal parental leave. Previous studies have linked paid parental leave with health improvements for birthing people and babies, although evidence for birth outcomes is limited. We hypothesized that the PPLO may have improved birth outcomes via reduced stress during pregnancy due to anticipati…
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and birth outcomes in California
These findings suggest weak to modest initial benefits of DACA for select birthweight outcomes during the period immediately following DACA passage for Mexican-born individuals whose births were billed to Medicaid; any benefits were subsequently attenuated to the null. The benefits of DACA for population health may not have been sufficient to counteract the impacts of threats to the program's future and heightened immigration enforcement occurrin…
Interpregnancy Interval and Birth Outcomes
This study demonstrates a dose response association between short IPI and adverse birth outcomes, with no increased risk beyond 12 months. Findings suggest that longer IPI recommendations may be overly proscriptive
Estimating the effect of timing of earned income tax credit refunds on perinatal outcomes
This analysis offers a novel method to impute EITC eligibility using a probabilistic algorithm in a data set with richer sociodemographic information relative to the clinical and administrative data sets from which outcomes are drawn. These results could be used to determine the optimal intervention time point for future income supplementation policies. Future work should examine frequent income supplementation such as the minimum wage or basic i…
The Pent-Up Demand for Breastfeeding Among US Women
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…
It was just one moment that I felt like I was being judged
Black women and birthing people shared that exposure to racism has heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing their levels of stress and anxiety. Understanding how racism impacts Black birthing people's lives and care experiences is critical to reforming the police force and revising enhanced prenatal care models to better address their needs
Medicine (26 works) · Demography (20 works) · Environmental health (14 works) · Population (13 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Pregnancy (12 works) · Demography (10 works) · Obstetrics (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Economics (7 works)