Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We investigated the first two years of the implementation of BERDO with a particular focus on rulemaking — that is, the process through which the City of Boston developed rules and regulations to imple ment and enforce BERDO. We used a mixed-methods approach that combined five months of participant observation within Boston's Envi ronment Department, twenty interviews with city staff and community leaders involved in the implementation of BERDO, and a systematic content analysis of over 200 policy documents related to rulemaking. ...

    Options:
    A. This rich combination of multiple qualitative methods provided us with in-depth insight into the social, cultural and political context in which BERDO is unfolding.
B. This enabled us to directly track and experience the process through which the justice goals and mandates embedded in BERDO were debated, reinterpreted and, ultimately, translated into specific regulatory and implementation decisions.
C. Cities in the USA are taking an important role in the pursuit of climate justice, a movement that recognizes the inequitable effects of climate change for historically marginalized groups and advances justice through climate action.
D. Although city governments are increasingly integrating justice into their climate goals and plans, many questions remain about how cities will be able to operationalize climate justice in practice.
E. Boston's Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) provides an early example of how contestations around climate justice are already shaping cities' implementation of climate action on the ground.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Health behaviors are increasingly unequal. Researchers have learned that people's health behaviors do not happen in a vacuum. ...

    Options:
    A. Instead, they are situated in broader group-based health lifestyles that arise from and reinforce social inequalities.
B. Yet health lifestyles research has measured only health behaviors and examined only individuals.
C. We know little about how local contexts inform health lifestyles or how parents and children exercise agency in constructing children's health lifestyles.
D. We sought to address these gaps by situating families within communities and creating space for new understandings of health, health behaviors, and health lifestyles to arise from the data.
E. How are children's health lifestyles created by parents, children, and communities, and how do they arise from and perpetuate social inequalities?

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Our 2015-2016 qualitative study focused on families with elementary school-age children. We combined in-home family observations, parent interviews and focus groups, and key informant interviews in two neighboring cities in the U.S. West—upper-middle-class “Greenville” and middle-class “Springfield.” ...

    Options:
    A. The primary data source was 35 interviews with parents who also participated in a home observation and 20 standalone parent interviews.
B. The semistructured interviews included topics such as the child's daily routine, how parents navigate children's preferences, what parenting messages they try to convey, what parenting is like in their community, defining “health” and “well-being,” and what shapes children's health.
C. Health behaviors are increasingly unequal.
D. Researchers have learned that people's health behaviors do not happen in a vacuum.
E. Through health lifestyles, parents attempted to shape children's everyday lives in multifaceted ways that they imagined would affect their long-term well-being and socioeconomic success.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Changing people's health behaviors is challenging. Our research recognizes that children's behavior is embedded in a health lifestyle, a tool that rein forces social inequalities. ...

    Options:
    A. Policy efforts from a class-advantaged child's community or school to change her health behavior are unlikely to succeed unless they engage with her broader health lifestyle, its links to her present and future, her parents' deep identity investment, her identity expression, and the lifestyle's embeddedness in localized community norms that deem specific behaviors as “healthy” and deserving, embodied through thinness and fitness and expressed in narratives that link health to discipline and moral worth.
B. This means successful efforts to change health behavior must move well beyond an individual child and her family—which is harder to implement but potentially much more effective.
C. Class-privileged parenting involved constructing an individualized health lifestyle reliant on expansive understandings of health and composed of parents' identities and narratives, children's health behaviors and identity expressions, and community norms.
D. Children's predominant health lifestyles varied by focus on parent versus child identity expression and children's future achievements versus present well-being.
E. An “elite achievement” lifestyle, with structured exercise, limited screen time, and increased body size regulation, focused on parent identity expression and future child achievements, predominated in upper-middle-class settings, and had some downsides for children.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    State-level immigration legislation has been on the rise for two decades. Whereas some state policies aim to drive out immigrants by enhancing immigration enforcement and restricting immigrants' access to services and benefits, others aim to support immigrant integration by expanding protections from deportation and increasing access to key resources. ...

    Options:
    A. One such resource is driver's licenses.
B. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws expanding access to driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, most recently Minnesota in 2023.
C. Research shows restrictive policies can negatively affect the health and well-being of immigrants and their children.
D. It is unknown if and how supportive state-level immigration policies, such as those expanding access to driver's licenses, impact health.
E. We examined the birth records of more than 4 million singleton births born to Mexican and Central American immigrants between 2008 and 2021 who lived in a state that adopted a driver's license policy during the study period.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We examined the birth records of more than 4 million singleton births born to Mexican and Central American immigrants between 2008 and 2021 who lived in a state that adopted a driver's license policy during the study period. We use multivariable log binomial and linear models to estimate the association between state laws granting undocumented immigrants access to driver's licenses and perinatal health. ...

    Options:
    A. In addition, as a control measure, we replicated the analysis for U.S.-born, non-Hispanic White pregnant people living in the same states.
B. Do state laws granting undocumented immigrants access to driver's licenses improve birth outcomes among Mexican and Central American immigrants?
C. State-level immigration legislation has been on the rise for two decades.
D. Whereas some state policies aim to drive out immigrants by enhancing immigration enforcement and restricting immigrants' access to services and benefits, others aim to support immigrant integration by expanding protections from deportation and increasing access to key resources.
E. For Mexican and Central American immigrants, implementation of a license law is associated with fewer low birth weight births and higher mean birth weight—critical measures of early development (see Figure 1).

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Findings from this study show the potential for an individual state policy to positively shape the lives of immigrants and their families amid a largely restrictive federal immigration climate. The laws included in this study were implemented between 2013 and 2020—a period characterized by increasingly negative discourse around immigration nationally and an increasingly restrictive federal immigration enforcement climate under President Trump. ...

    Options:
    A. Within this context, we find that extending the legal right to drive to undocumented immigrants is associated with health benefits for the children of Mexican and Central American immigrants.
B. These laws likely influence birth outcomes by lessening deportation fears and subsequent chronic stress, a key risk factor for low birth weight, and increasing immigrants' access to financial resources, including better paying jobs and more weekly work hours.
C. State policies that facilitate immigrants' integration into U.S. society may buffer against a restrictive federal immigration climate.
D. The association between license laws and birth weight was stronger the longer the law was in effect (see Figure 1).
E. License law implementation was not associated with birth weight for U.S.-born non-Hispanic White pregnant people, a group for whom no effect from the law was expected.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Poor health and economic disparities therein among U.S. older adults present significant social and economic costs for society. Policymakers can find cost effective interventions that improve the condition of future older adult health through improvements in the working conditions that Americans face during their careers. ...

    Options:
    A. Strong labor unions represent one time-tested option with a demonstrated track record of improving the earnings, job security, working conditions, voice, and scheduling among otherwise marginalized workers.
B. We show that a further benefit of the unionized career is that it improves older adults' health and thus has the secondary benefit of reducing the costly policy interventions required to meet the health needs of vulnerable older adults.
C. Policy decisions contributed to the demise of labor unions.
D. Policymakers can help foster its reemergence.
E. Labor unions are critical for workers' material well-being, with their membership and impacts increasing throughout mid-twentieth century.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Labor unions are critical for workers' material well-being, with their membership and impacts increasing throughout mid-twentieth century. Their subsequent decline in recent years has contributed to high and rising levels of economic inequality. ...

    Options:
    A. Research shows that the benefits of union membership extend beyond employment outcomes and also encompass health and well-being.
B. However, most studies have limited their focus to point-in-time comparisons between union and nonunion workers, neglecting the fact that many of the protections and benefits of union membership accrue through mechanisms that play out over the life course.
C. As such, it is critical for researchers to explore prospectively the longer-term cumulative impacts of unionization for health.
D. We followed individuals throughout their careers into older adulthood using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1968 to 2019.
E. We document union membership over one's career and use multilevel growth curve regression models to evaluate the impacts of union careers on self-rated health, functional limitations, and chronic conditions in older adulthood (i.e., ages 60-79).

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Research shows that the benefits of union membership extend beyond employment outcomes and also encompass health and well-being. However, most studies have limited their focus to point-in-time comparisons between union and nonunion workers, neglecting the fact that many of the protections and benefits of union membership accrue through mechanisms that play out over the life course. ...

    Options:
    A. As such, it is critical for researchers to explore prospectively the longer-term cumulative impacts of unionization for health.
B. Individuals who spent a longer portion of their career as union members reported substantially better physical health across all indicators in older adulthood compared to similar individuals who spent less time in unions.
C. Associations between union membership and health are strongest among men, those with less than a college degree, and Black individuals.
D. The greatest health benefits were found among those who joined a union early in their careers, before the age of 30.
E. Poor health and economic disparities therein among U.S. older adults present significant social and economic costs for society.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Receiving preventive health care can decrease the risk of illness and death, yet many U.S. adults do not receive the recommended preventive care procedures. This study examines state-level structural sexism as one factor potentially influencing the use of preventive care. ...

    Options:
    A. Structural sexism is a measure of systematic gender inequality in power and resources in a given U.S. state.
B. We argue that it likely impacts preventive health care use by influencing how individuals perform gender in their care-seeking behaviors (Figure 1a) or by affecting access to resources based on the gendered decisions of state political actors (Figure 1b).
C. Using data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we estimate a series of gender-stratified multilevel models with individuals nested in states.
D. The health care outcomes include dichotomous measures of whether or not individuals had received preventive care services, including cancer screenings, flu vaccinations, tests for sexually transmitted diseases, and clinician visits.
E. The predictor of interest is a state-level measure of structural sexism, which is a composite score of inequality between men and women in political, economic, cultural, and physical/reproductive domains of society.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Using data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we estimate a series of gender-stratified multilevel models with individuals nested in states. The health care outcomes include dichotomous measures of whether or not individuals had received preventive care services, including cancer screenings, flu vaccinations, tests for sexually transmitted diseases, and clinician visits. ...

    Options:
    A. The predictor of interest is a state-level measure of structural sexism, which is a composite score of inequality between men and women in political, economic, cultural, and physical/reproductive domains of society.
B. Data for this measure were drawn from various administrative sources.
C. Receiving preventive health care can decrease the risk of illness and death, yet many U.S. adults do not receive the recommended preventive care procedures.
D. This study examines state-level structural sexism as one factor potentially influencing the use of preventive care.
E. This study identifies an important relationship between state-level structural sexism and preventive health care.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    This study identifies an important relationship between state-level structural sexism and preventive health care. Our findings suggest that policymakers can strive to increase preventive care use by targeting harmful gender norms and increasing access to health-promoting resources. ...

    Options:
    A. For example, policies that encourage men to embrace the traditionally feminine task of care taking, such as paid parental leave, may reshape gendered expectations, thereby altering masculine behaviors like avoiding care.
B. In addition, policymakers should embrace policies that decrease barriers to preventive care.
C. Expanding Medicaid in all states would increase access to health insurance and health care.
D. Policies can also tackle logistical challenges of receiving care by providing affordable childcare and accessible public transportation.
E. By addressing underlying reasons for insufficient use of care, the United States can decrease preventable illness and death.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Life expectancy differs dramatically across U.S. states. In 2018, it ranged from 74.7 years in West Virginia to 81.9 years in Hawaii. ...

    Options:
    A. States' income inequality and policy contexts are key explanations.
B. This study examined how these two state-level characteristics jointly affect life expectancy.
C. Specifically, are the harmful effects of income inequality on life expectancy attenuated in states with more liberal policy contexts, and are the harmful effects exacerbated in states with less liberal policy contexts?
D. Using state-level data from 2000-2014, we estimated a series of fixed-effects regression models.
E. These models tested whether changes in income inequality and policy liberalism predicted life expectancy.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Using state-level data from 2000-2014, we estimated a series of fixed-effects regression models. These models tested whether changes in income inequality and policy liberalism predicted life expectancy. ...

    Options:
    A. We tested whether the association between income inequality and life expectancy varied depending on a state's level of policy liberalism.
B. Life expectancy differs dramatically across U.S. states. In 2018, it ranged from 74.7 years in West Virginia to 81.9 years in Hawaii.
C. States' income inequality and policy contexts are key explanations.
D. We found states with higher income inequality tend to have lower life expectancy.
E. The findings illustrate how states like California and New York with liberal policy contexts can exhibit both high income inequality and high life expectancy.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Our findings suggest that greater policy investments in the general welfare of populations tend to enhance population health. This is especially true in states with high levels of income inequality. ...

    Options:
    A. This study has shown that state policy contexts are a powerful lever for improving population health and for mitigating known risk factors for poor health (i.e., income inequality).
B. States should enact policies that invest in the health, safety, and well-being of their populations, including, for example, policies that center around environmental regulation, civil rights, health and welfare, and gun safety.
C. Our research suggests that initiatives along these lines would help to offset the harmful effects of rising levels of income inequality on population health.
D. More liberal state policies regarding LGBT rights, the environment, health and welfare, and gun safety were important in mitigating the harmful effects of income inequality on life expectancy.
E. Using state-level data from 2000-2014, we estimated a series of fixed-effects regression models.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    IOL is used to begin labor and delivery, an effort to reduce poor infant and maternal health outcomes that could occur if the person remains pregnant. Since the 1980s, rates of IOL have nearly tripled in the United States. ...

    Options:
    A. The rising use of IOL should correspond with increases in risk factors among pregnancies at high risk of poor outcomes among states' childbearing populations.
B. However, the rising use of IOL among pregnancies to Black and Latina women could be shaped by “obstetric racism” (Davis 2019) given that health care in the United States is often centered on the needs and preferences of White patients.
C. We examined IOL rates among singleton first births to U.S. states' White, Black, and Latina childbearing populations between 1990 and 2017.
D. The analytic samples were composed of over 40 million births.
E. We fitted separate models to states' IOL rates by racial-ethnic population and accounted for year-specific indicators of each racial-ethnic childbearing populations' own demographic characteristics and maternal risk factors.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We examined IOL rates among singleton first births to U.S. states' White, Black, and Latina childbearing populations between 1990 and 2017. The analytic samples were composed of over 40 million births. ...

    Options:
    A. We fitted separate models to states' IOL rates by racial-ethnic population and accounted for year-specific indicators of each racial-ethnic childbearing populations' own demographic characteristics and maternal risk factors.
B. We then refitted the models to account for the year-specific indicators of demographics and risk factors for each different racial-ethnic childbearing population.
C. Together, changes in the demographic characteristics and risk factors of White childbearing populations are driving the rising use of IOL in the United States for all racial-ethnic populations.
D. Changes in demographics and increases in risk factors among U.S. Black and Latina childbearing populations do not explain the rising use of IOL among these populations.
E. Instead, increases in IOL use among these populations appear to be strongly associated with changes among White childbearing populations.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Changes in demographics and increases in risk factors among U.S. Black and Latina childbearing populations do not explain the rising use of IOL among these populations. Instead, increases in IOL use among these populations appear to be strongly associated with changes among White childbearing populations. ...

    Options:
    A. The study's findings suggest that obstetric care in the United States has likely not been attentive to the needs and preferences of Black and Latina childbearing populations but, instead, has been “centered on” the normative White patient (Hardeman et al. 2016).
B. The findings provide population-level evidence for obstetric racism experienced by Black women in U.S. birth settings (Davis 2019).
C. To provide obstetric care that attends to the needs of marginalized racial-ethnic populations in the United States, multilevel research on the development of obstetric practice standards and the normalization of White patients in these standards is needed.
D. IOL is used to begin labor and delivery, an effort to reduce poor infant and maternal health outcomes that could occur if the person remains pregnant.
E. Since the 1980s, rates of IOL have nearly tripled in the United States.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Mental health problems are much more commonly seen in individuals who face the greatest social disadvantages. Yet this is not the case all over the world. ...

    Options:
    A. We set out to investigate whether, why, and how different government choices about social policies could make a difference.
B. We identify two distinguishable theoretical pathways in government policy and spending that may intervene in the processes that link SES to mental health: Social Investment and Social Protection.
C. Social investment policies focus on individual-level prevention of pathways leading to inequality and poverty such as poor education and labor market attachment.
D. Our main findings generalize the SES and mental health link across the effects of education, occupation, and income across 21 coun tries while demonstrating significant policy effects that alter this association.
E. Our main policy findings suggest that Social Investment, rather than Social Protection, both generally and via specific disaggregated policies, reduces mental health inequalities between low and high individual status across countries.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We identify two distinguishable theoretical pathways in government policy and spending that may intervene in the processes that link SES to mental health: Social Investment and Social Protection. Social investment policies focus on individual-level prevention of pathways leading to inequality and poverty such as poor education and labor market attachment. ...

    Options:
    A. Social protection policies reflect reactive policies and are more responsive to immediate needs, for example, by transferring income or the provision of services when individuals cannot meet their needs from the labor market.
B. We analyze Rounds 3, 6, and 7 of the European Social Survey and use a new application of the three-level hierarchical model that allows us to test both historical differences between countries and within-country change in the relationship.
C. We argue that distinguishing within- and between-country differences is important because it represents the effects of historical continuity while also examining the impact of the direction of policy changes over time.
D. We found that when governments choose to invest resources in Social Investment programs, they can almost completely break the unequal pattern of mental health dif ferences in society.
E. This finding shifts the responsibility of poor mental health from an individual-level problem toward the choices of policymakers.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We found that when governments choose to invest resources in Social Investment programs, they can almost completely break the unequal pattern of mental health dif ferences in society. This finding shifts the responsibility of poor mental health from an individual-level problem toward the choices of policymakers. ...

    Options:
    A. Our findings also offer policymakers specific policy levers to reduce the risks of poor mental health faced by low-SES individuals.
B. Investing in policies that generally impact individuals earlier in the life course, including early childhood education and care, education, and active labor market policies, and caring for those in old age by investing in old age care reduced mental health risks the most.
C. Mental health problems are much more commonly seen in individuals who face the greatest social disadvantages.
D. Yet this is not the case all over the world.
E. As shown in Figure 1, countries with higher levels of Social Investment report more equal levels of mental health across education, occupa tion, and income. This is reflected by the flattening of the differences between low and high status as investment increases.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Abortion is one of the most common and polarized medical procedures. Since 2010, a surge in state-level abortion restrictions further politicized and limited access to abortion care in the United States. ...

    Options:
    A. Previous research about abortion restrictions focuses on the impact restrictions have on care provision in and decreased access to abortion facilities.
B. How these restrictions affect reproductive health care professionals in other health care settings, such as hospitals, remains underexplored.
C. Health care providers in hospital and ambulatory care settings also interact with patients who need care that may be affected by abortion restrictions.
D. We conducted focus groups and interviews with 54 obstetrician-gynecologists and prenatal genetic counselors working in various hospital settings in Ohio, one of the most abortion-restrictive states prior to the 2022 Dobbs decision.
E. Genetic counselors advise patients on reproductive options, including abortion, prior to prenatal testing and following prenatal diagnosis.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We conducted focus groups and interviews with 54 obstetrician-gynecologists and prenatal genetic counselors working in various hospital settings in Ohio, one of the most abortion-restrictive states prior to the 2022 Dobbs decision. Genetic counselors advise patients on reproductive options, including abortion, prior to prenatal testing and following prenatal diagnosis. ...

    Options:
    A. Obstetrician-gynecologists treat patients with a range of reproductive health care needs, such as abortion, miscarriage management, and ectopic pregnancy.
B. We analyzed the data by identifying major themes, including confusion and uncertainty about the status of abortion legislation, negative impacts of restrictions, ethical dilemmas, varied interpretations of state laws and institutional policies, and regional variation.
C. The political context of care was a source of medical uncertainty. The political context of care included cultural politicization, such as stigma; the legal, regulatory, and policy contexts; and the economic organization of health care.
D. In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade, reproductive health care is being practiced in state-legislative contexts that are more uncertain than ever.
E. The political context of care may also create uncertainty in other areas of medicine, such as transgender care.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade, reproductive health care is being practiced in state-legislative contexts that are more uncertain than ever. The political context of care may also create uncertainty in other areas of medicine, such as transgender care. ...

    Options:
    A. Professional societies and institutions should ensure that health care professionals are equipped with accurate and timely information about how legislation impacts abortion care provision and referral practices.
B. Providers will be better able to care for their patients if they have guidance about how to navigate legislation that may not be medically legible in clinical practice.
C. Professional societies and advocacy organizations preparing recommendations for providers should also address that institutional policies can vary and contribute to uncertainty.
D. Abortion is one of the most common and polarized medical procedures.
E. Since 2010, a surge in state-level abortion restrictions further politicized and limited access to abortion care in the United States.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Substance use during pregnancy is a growing concern. In the United States, pregnant and postpartum individuals may experience criminal prosecutions or child welfare investigations for their substance use. ...

    Options:
    A. The role that maternal and infant health care providers play in identifying and referring patients to punitive systems is not well documented.
B. In most settings and jurisdictions, the decision to drug test patients is up to the discretion of providers.
C. This study examines providers' rationales and justifications for drug testing their pregnant patients.
D. I argue that when providers drug test patients, they introduce criminalization processes that transform clinical norms.
E. To understand providers' decisions to drug test patients, I conducted qualitative interviews with 30 health care professionals in a Midwest state that classifies prenatal substance use as a form of child neglect.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To understand providers' decisions to drug test patients, I conducted qualitative interviews with 30 health care professionals in a Midwest state that classifies prenatal substance use as a form of child neglect. The sample of providers was recruited from five local hospitals to capture experiences working with race- and class-diverse patient populations and included obstetricians, neonatologists, and hospital social workers. ...

    Options:
    A. I asked participants about a broad range of experiences providing care to pregnant patients with sub stance use issues.
B. The themes that inform drug-testing decisions highlight clinical decision-making, medical surveillance, risk, and collaborations between medicine and child welfare.
C. This research reveals several ethical challenges posed by drug testing patients in perinatal care settings.
D. Providers and hospitals should consider the role they play in referring pregnant and postpartum patients to punitive systems.
E. Substance use during pregnancy is a growing concern.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    This research reveals several ethical challenges posed by drug testing patients in perinatal care settings. Providers and hospitals should consider the role they play in referring pregnant and postpartum patients to punitive systems. ...

    Options:
    A. Prior research suggests that the risk of criminalization and child welfare referral deters women from seeking prenatal care and care beyond the perinatal period.
B. Current guidelines outlined by maternal health organizations discourage the use of drug testing and emphasize the importance of informed consent.
C. Clinicians and health care advocates should challenge laws and institutional practices that violate their code of ethics.
D. As the provision of health care becomes increasingly politicized (i.e., seen in recent debates about trans health care and abortion access), policymakers have an opportunity to proactively create laws that solidify patient rights, for example, by codifying informed consent and strengthening patient privacy laws.
E. Seeking health care should not place patients at risk of punitive system involvement.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The overdose crisis within the United States has escalated dramatically since the 1990s, with the use of prescribed and illicit opioids as a key driver of this pattern of premature deaths. Between 1999 and 2019, approximately 850,000 people died in the United States from a drug overdose. ...

    Options:
    A. What is the impact of policies related to opioids and overdose on mortality caused by psychoactive drugs at the county level across the United States?
B. Using the case of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs), which are state-level databases that track prescriptions of con trolled substances, we contend that PDMP implementation illustrates the role of surveillance in public health policy as a potential tool to reduce premature mortality.
C. Nonetheless, certain forms of surveillance leave prescribers, pharmacists, and patients able to perceive freedom in decision making despite their choices being constrained.
D. We consider whether such surveillance mechanisms are suffi cient to affect overdose mortality or whether prescriber/dispenser direct access to these systems or requirements for them to utilize a PDMP are necessary for population health impact.
E. After integrating national U.S. data on mortality with policy data covering a 17-year period, we utilized fixed-effects models with leads and lags to determine the effect of PDMPs (in various forms) on overdose mortality at the county level.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    After integrating national U.S. data on mortality with policy data covering a 17-year period, we utilized fixed-effects models with leads and lags to determine the effect of PDMPs (in various forms) on overdose mortality at the county level. Thus, we test whether PDMPs reduced overdose mortality while considering that the effects of surveillance may require time to reach effectiveness. ...

    Options:
    A. We examine these effects for multiple drug overdose mortality outcomes, including overall opioid overdose mortality as well as mortality specific to prescribed opioids, benzodiazepines, and psychostimulants.
B. The overdose crisis within the United States has escalated dramatically since the 1990s, with the use of prescribed and illicit opioids as a key driver of this pattern of premature deaths.
C. Between 1999 and 2019, approximately 850,000 people died in the United States from a drug overdose.
D. Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs have been an effective tool for reducing overdose mortality within the United States.
E. Notably, their effects extend beyond opioids to mortal ity related to benzodiazepines and stimulants as well.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs have been an effective tool for reducing overdose mortality within the United States. Notably, their effects extend beyond opioids to mortal ity related to benzodiazepines and stimulants as well. ...

    Options:
    A. Yet the effect is not immediate because the resulting changes in clinical prac tice require some time for the surveillance driven effect to take hold.
B. Nonetheless, pre scribers and dispensers need not be compelled to directly use these systems with each pre scription for the general effect of surveillance to have an impact on prescribing in a manner that yields benefits for reducing drug over dose mortality.
C. PDMPs reduced overall opioid overdose mortality starting two years after implementation with sustained effects, with similar effects for prescription opioids, benzodiazepines, and psychostimulants.
D. Neither prescriber/dispenser access nor mandates to utilize the PDMP system reduce mortality beyond the effect of surveillance.
E. Overall, PDMP effects on overdose mortality are likely due to self-regulation occurring within the context of surveillance rather than actions mandated by policy adjustments.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Administration requirements made it difficult to quickly distribute the COVID-19 vaccine during the initial rollout. Thus, the task of public health officials was to make equitable allocations that prioritized those most vulnerable. ...

    Options:
    A. Using data from Texas, we compare where these vaccine allocations went with the demographic characteristics of those neighborhoods to see if racial/ethnic minority neighborhoods were disadvantaged in this regard.
B. Previous work has shown that racial/ethnic minority communities have fewer health care facilities, and we expected that this played a role in the ability of these areas to receive vaccine doses.
C. The state of Texas provided a week-by-week list of the address, number of doses, and type of vaccine for all vaccine distribu tions.
D. We collected this information for the first 10 weeks of the vaccine rollout and mapped their locations across the five largest urban counties in the state of Texas.
E. In the early rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, when supplies were limited, where did these allocations go, and were certain types of communities advantaged or disadvantaged?

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The state of Texas provided a week-by-week list of the address, number of doses, and type of vaccine for all vaccine distribu tions. We collected this information for the first 10 weeks of the vaccine rollout and mapped their locations across the five largest urban counties in the state of Texas. ...

    Options:
    A. We then overlaid these locations on the demographic characteristics of neighbor hoods and included data on the existing health care resources.
B. We examined two different outcomes: the number of facilities providing COVID-19 vaccines and the number of doses that went to each facility.
C. We analyzed these patterns using spatial statistical models.
D. The COVID-19 pandemic is, for many people, one of the most disruptive and challenging public health events of their lifetimes.
E. However, not having ade quate health care infrastructure in place means that when confronted with this public health catastrophe, the existing inequalities in our health care system were deepened.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The COVID-19 pandemic is, for many people, one of the most disruptive and challenging public health events of their lifetimes. However, not having ade quate health care infrastructure in place means that when confronted with this public health catastrophe, the existing inequalities in our health care system were deepened. ...

    Options:
    A. Even though state public health officials implemented eligibility systems that prioritized health care workers, the elderly, and those with medical comorbidities, the allocation of the vaccine over time was not implemented equitably and served to further disadvantage minority communities.
B. This sug gests that we need to create more equitable access to care broadly so that in crisis times, the infrastructure is already available to equitably meet the needs of affected communities.
C. Administration requirements made it difficult to quickly distribute the COVID-19 vaccine during the initial rollout.
D. Thus, the task of public health officials was to make equitable allocations that prioritized those most vulnerable.
E. Black and Latino segregated neighborhoods were less likely to have COVID-19 vaccination facilities.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Research suggests that higher education is associated with a range of positive health outcomes, from lower risk of mortality and fewer morbidities to less disability and better mental health. Yet little is known about these links when education is completed later in life when individuals have taken on additional responsibilities, such as becoming a parent. ...

    Options:
    A. This is an important question because parenthood imposes challenges and constraints that may interfere with one's educational experiences and reduce the benefits of receiving a degree.
B. Given the large share of mothers in col lege, this question should be investigated.
C. To investigate this issue, I studied a large sample of lower-educated mothers, many who returned to school to complete a higher education degree, to understand the impact of additional education on their health
D. This sample came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.
E. I considered the impact of different degree types, for example, bachelor's or vocational degrees.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    This sample came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. I considered the impact of different degree types, for example, bachelor's or vocational degrees. ...

    Options:
    A. The analysis drew on 15 years of data subsequent to a birth and longitudinal statistical techniques that examined changes in mothers' health.
B. The results of this study point to three important policy considerations.
C. First, policies that aim to reduce health dispari ties by promoting access to higher education may not benefit the health of all population groups, such as mothers caring for dependent children.
D. Mothers' postsecondary degree completion after having children does not improve their health, including their self-rated health, mental health, levels of parenting stress, or reports of smoking.
E. These patterns were true irrespective of whether mothers completed a vocational, associate's, or bachelor's degree and were robust across population groups like White women, first-time mothers, and mothers with out high school degrees as well as alternate analysis methods.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The results of this study point to three important policy considerations. First, policies that aim to reduce health dispari ties by promoting access to higher education may not benefit the health of all population groups, such as mothers caring for dependent children. ...

    Options:
    A. Second, policies should reflect knowledge of the challenges faced by mothers pursuing postsec ondary college in ways that could help mothers experience more health returns to their degrees.
B. Third, education policies that aim to improve population health may be most efficacious if they target adolescents and young adults and help them to transition from high school to postsecondary schooling and avoid interruptions to their education.
C. Research suggests that higher education is associated with a range of positive health outcomes, from lower risk of mortality and fewer morbidities to less disability and better mental health.
D. Yet little is known about these links when education is completed later in life when individuals have taken on additional responsibilities, such as becoming a parent.
E. The analysis drew on 15 years of data subsequent to a birth and longitudinal statistical techniques that examined changes in mothers' health.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Bias, a set of social stereotypes about groups of people, influences how one perceives and interacts with others. In the United States, health care providers hold biases about patients that can positively or negatively affect how they counsel, treat, and diagnose patients. ...

    Options:
    A. These biases contribute to lower quality care and worse health outcomes for marginalized patients.
B. Ameri can medicine acknowledges this problem and has worked to address it through numerous interventions, such as changing medical school curricula and offering provider-level training.
C. Yet bias still remains.
D. Little research looks at how providers subsequently try to rationalize, cope with, and manage bias within their care.
E. To do so, we held hour-long interviews with 51 diverse health care providers.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To do so, we held hour-long interviews with 51 diverse health care providers. They represented various clinical specializations, practiced in the same U.S. state, and offered contraceptive counseling as a part of their care. ...

    Options:
    A. Contraceptive counseling is an important and useful clinical setting to explore bias given that researchers have found that U.S. providers disproportionately prescribe contraception to marginalized women, thereby limiting their number of children.
B. Therefore, we asked providers how their counseling differed depending on the social and demographic backgrounds of their patients.
C. We then observed and reported patterns in how providers sought to minimize bias within these settings.
D. American health care increasingly asks providers to see more patients with less time.
E. Consequently, providers resort to stereo typing patients and differentiating their care accordingly.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    American health care increasingly asks providers to see more patients with less time. Consequently, providers resort to stereo typing patients and differentiating their care accordingly. ...

    Options:
    A. Providers need more, higher quality time with patients and incentives to build relationships that allow them to fully assess patients' complex needs.
B. It is also important that providers and health care organizations first accept and acknowledge biases and take time to spe cifically explore how these biases impact provider care.
C. Ongoing assessments, meaningful incentive schemes, and strong organizational leadership and vision are necessary to sustain improvements around bias reduction.
D. In addition to those changes, public health initiatives that promote contraception should explicitly address the United States's legacy of reproductive coercion when training providers on contraceptive counseling techniques and include opportu nities for providers to reflect on personal biases and systemic coercion within health care.
E. Bias, a set of social stereotypes about groups of people, influences how one perceives and interacts with others.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Mass incarceration is a public health challenge, particularly among marginalized groups. Not only do prisons and jails serve as vectors for the transmission of infectious diseases, but the carceral experience also heightens risk for stress-related illnesses and premature mortality. ...

    Options:
    A. Several important challenges confront this research.
B. First, few studies account for selection effects resulting from preexisting health and behavioral propensities.
C. Second, it is unclear whether hostile social interactions experienced while incarcerated affect the biological health of individuals. Third, this research often relies on self-reported indices rather than objective biomarkers.
D. Self-reports suffer from biases of memory and do not assess predisease processes.
E. The study used data from a longitudinal sample of 410 African American adults in the Family and Community Health Study.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The study used data from a longitudinal sample of 410 African American adults in the Family and Community Health Study. Aging was assessed using an epigenetic clock known as the GrimAge index. ...

    Options:
    A. The pace of aging was calculated based on the discrepancy between the individual's epigenetic age and chronological age.
B. This approach captured whether individuals were biologically older or younger than their calendar age.
C. Regression models using treatment weights assessed the effects of incarceration exposure on the pace of aging.
D. We tested whether experiences with violence, both direct and secondary encounters, during incarceration moderated the association between exposure and accelerated aging.
E. With many Americans cycling through prisons and jails each year, the public health toll of the carceral experience should be subject to scientific investiga tion.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    With many Americans cycling through prisons and jails each year, the public health toll of the carceral experience should be subject to scientific investiga tion. That we uncovered evidence of incarceration's contributions to the pace of biological aging among African American adults is important. ...

    Options:
    A. Research shows that accelerated aging is a critical predisease process linked to morbidity and mortality.
B. Epigenetic aging may be a pathway through which incarceration leaves individuals vulnerable to poor health.
C. Policymakers should consider incarceration as a potential source of population health inequalities.
D. Further more, it would be wise for correctional practitioners to recognize the lasting effects of prison violence on the health of correctional populations.
E. Policies should be designed to improve the environments of prisons and jails to reduce experience with hostile interactions.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Why do racial-ethnic minorities report generally better mental health than non-Hispanic whites? Previous research has struggled to explain why racial-ethnic minorities report better mental health even as they also report more stress and more disadvantageous social environments. ...

    Options:
    A. Finding an explanation for this paradox has been difficult given that it is challenging to think of a risk factor that would be more common among non-Hispanic whites or a resource that would be more common among minorities.
B. Some research has shown that polypharmacy—the use of more than one pharmaceutical at a time—is on the rise and furthermore, that Ameri cans consume a large number of medications with depression as a side effect.
C. Previous research has also shown that taking multiple such medications increases depressive symptoms significantly.
D. We found that non-Hispanic whites take more pharmaceuticals than minorities, and furthermore, they take more pharmaceuticals with depression as a side effect across a wide variety of specific drug indications and classes.
E. When adjusting for the use of such medications, the minority paradox is reduced.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Some research has shown that polypharmacy—the use of more than one pharmaceutical at a time—is on the rise and furthermore, that Ameri cans consume a large number of medications with depression as a side effect. Previous research has also shown that taking multiple such medications increases depressive symptoms significantly. ...

    Options:
    A. We extend this insight to understanding racial-ethnic differences in mental health.
B. We use nationally representative data that includes information on psychological distress and what, if any, drugs respondents are taking and append this information with data on those drugs' side effects.
C. Our results suggest that the pursuit of better health can sometimes produce more psychological distress.
D. Many medications that have depression as a side effect are essential and life-saving—they should be used routinely and equitably among patients who need them.
E. Psychological side effects should not be ignored and should be part of the discussion between patients and providers.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Our results suggest that the pursuit of better health can sometimes produce more psychological distress. Many medications that have depression as a side effect are essential and life-saving—they should be used routinely and equitably among patients who need them. ...

    Options:
    A. But when treating other diseases, mental health is regularly overlooked by both patients and physicians, and this can lead to the systematic neglect of depression in treatment settings.
B. The most advantaged patients may occasionally find that their relatively higher-quality health care combined with the expanding armamentarium of medicine come at some cost to their emotional well-being.
C. Psychological side effects should not be ignored and should be part of the discussion between patients and providers.
D. Why do racial-ethnic minorities report generally better mental health than non-Hispanic whites?
E. Previous research has struggled to explain why racial-ethnic minorities report better mental health even as they also report more stress and more disadvantageous social environments.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Diagnosis can bring positives, like proper treatment, extra testing time, and social support, but may also trigger negatives, like stigmatization. Although rates of diagnosis are high across SES groups, the balance of positive and negative consequences of diagnosis may differ by SES. ...

    Options:
    A. In high-SES communities, mental health diagnoses are less stigmatized and parents have greater ability to connect children to support resources, suggesting greater positive effects of diagnosis for high-SES children.
B. Alternatively, the greater academic pressure present in high-SES communities may amplify the negative effects of mental health stigma, suggesting larger negative diagnostic effects.
C. The present study addresses these competing hypotheses by empirically disentangling the effects of an ADHD diagnosis from that of chil dren's underlying behaviors, social contexts, and medication treatment.
D. To do so, I used coarsened exact matching (CEM) and propensity score matching (PSM) techniques to compare diagnosed and otherwise similar undiagnosed children within the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohorts of 1998-99 and 2010-11.
E. For children in low-SES families, ADHD diagnosis is not significantly tied to any of the outcomes considered here.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The present study addresses these competing hypotheses by empirically disentangling the effects of an ADHD diagnosis from that of chil dren's underlying behaviors, social contexts, and medication treatment. To do so, I used coarsened exact matching (CEM) and propensity score matching (PSM) techniques to compare diagnosed and otherwise similar undiagnosed children within the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohorts of 1998-99 and 2010-11. ...

    Options:
    A. Each cohort, respectively, contains a nationally representative sample of U.S. kinder gartners in 1998 and 2010.
B. This study carries several practical implications for policy and practice.
C. It might caution against parents, educators, and medical providers consider ing an ADHD diagnosis for middle- and upper-SES children at the first signs of behavioral difficulties.
D. For upper-SES children, ADHD diagnosis is significantly tied to poorer learning approaches and greater externalizing problems regardless of whether they are receiving medication for ADHD.
E. How does a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affect children's perceived self-competence and ultimately, teacher rated social and academic behaviors at school?

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    This study carries several practical implications for policy and practice. It might caution against parents, educators, and medical providers consider ing an ADHD diagnosis for middle- and upper-SES children at the first signs of behavioral difficulties. ...

    Options:
    A. For example, prior research points to potential negative diagnostic effects on later academic achievement among children who had only mild prediagnosis behavioral problems.
B. Further research is needed to understand diagnostic effects on academic outcomes among high-SES children, but the current research suggests that positive and nega tive consequences of diagnosis should be considered.
C. Findings should not dissuade ADHD diagnosis for high-SES children who have severe symptoms.
D. Diagnosis can bring positives, like proper treatment, extra testing time, and social support, but may also trigger negatives, like stigmatization.
E. Although rates of diagnosis are high across SES groups, the balance of positive and negative consequences of diagnosis may differ by SES.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The drug overdose epidemic in the United States is a public health emergency that is part of the larger phenomenon known as the “deaths of despair,” which also includes deaths from alcohol and suicide. The United States drug-related mortality rate (age-adjusted) increased from 6.1 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 21.7 per 100,000 people by 2017. ...

    Options:
    A. Opioids are the major contributor to drug-related mortality, but an increasing number of deaths also involve cocaine and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine.
B. There is still considerable debate to what is driving the drug overdose epidemic.
C. Some argue that it is due to the predatory practices of the pharmaceutical industry, whereas others contend that it is due to macroeconomic changes that leave behind working-class people who turn to drug use as a coping mechanism.
D. An increase in the share of income going to the bottom 20% of earners was associated with a reduction in drug-related mortality.
E. We also found that states with a higher opioid prescription rate, on average, had higher drug-related mortality.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    There is still considerable debate to what is driving the drug overdose epidemic. Some argue that it is due to the predatory practices of the pharmaceutical industry, whereas others contend that it is due to macroeconomic changes that leave behind working-class people who turn to drug use as a coping mechanism. ...

    Options:
    A. We tested both perspectives and also investigated whether income inequality (measured as the share of income going to the top 5%, top 20%, bottom 20%, and Gini coefficient) was driving the epidemic with state-level data from 2006 to 2017 using a within-between random-effects model.
B. Our findings suggest that an adequate prevention response will require both (1) limiting the availability of opiates and (2) redistributing income, especially to earn ers at the bottom of the income distribution.
C. Policy makers should strengthen government regulations to restrict the manufacturing, distribution, and prescription of legal opioid medications.
D. Of the four measures of income inequality that we used (see Figure 1), the share of income going to the bottom 20% was the key inequality measure associated with drug-related mortality.
E. Prior research indicates that lower-income people disproportionately make up drug-related overdoses, and as our analysis shows, the lack of resources going to the bottom 20% of earners is a driving force.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Our findings suggest that an adequate prevention response will require both (1) limiting the availability of opiates and (2) redistributing income, especially to earn ers at the bottom of the income distribution. Policy makers should strengthen government regulations to restrict the manufacturing, distribution, and prescription of legal opioid medications. ...

    Options:
    A. However, given the avail ability and low cost of illicit opioids, addressing structural factors like income inequality will also be key to reduc ing drug-related demand and use in low-resource communities where stress, despair, and lack of economic opportunity are predominant.
B. Prior research indicates that lower-income people disproportionately make up drug-related overdoses, and as our analysis shows, the lack of resources going to the bottom 20% of earners is a driving force.
C. The drug overdose epidemic in the United States is a public health emergency that is part of the larger phenomenon known as the “deaths of despair,” which also includes deaths from alcohol and suicide.
D. The United States drug-related mortality rate (age-adjusted) increased from 6.1 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 21.7 per 100,000 people by 2017.
E. Opioids are the major contributor to drug-related mortality, but an increasing number of deaths also involve cocaine and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    A key component of national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic was the creation of social distancing measures that limited public engage ment in meetings, businesses, and informal social gatherings. The pandemic and its social distancing measures likely lead to greater public feelings of social isolation and lack of trust in neighbors. ...

    Options:
    A. Rising levels of isolation and distrust will be reflected in more psychological distress in the population.
B. Older individuals may be particularly vulnerable to increases in feelings of isolation and neighborhood distrust, which will cause greater increases in distress.
C. Two cross-sectional samples of working Canadians were compared.
D. Both samples come from the Canadian Quality of Work and Economic Life Study. One was a nationally representative sample from September 2019.
E. A sense of social isolation and lack of trust in neighbors both increased from September 2019 to March 2020.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Two cross-sectional samples of working Canadians were compared. Both samples come from the Canadian Quality of Work and Economic Life Study. ...

    Options:
    A. One was a nationally representative sample from September 2019.
B. The second was a nationally representative sample from late March 2020, after social distancing measures were instituted.
C. Each sample was about 2,500 people.
D. We compared respondents to the two surveys on feelings of social isolation, lack of trust in neighbors, and symptoms of psychological distress.
E. We also compared younger and older people in our samples to see if changes were larger in older people.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Social distancing measures are important for slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but social distancing also appears to have negative effects on the mental health of the population, especially in older adults. The mental health costs of social distancing are important to consider because social distancing may limit indi viduals from seeking out professional assistance for increased distress. ...

    Options:
    A. Social distancing policies should be paired with a con certed effort to fund and strengthen programs to help people combat increases in psychological distress.
B. Programs targeted to help older people avoid feelings of isolation during the pandemic would be especially helpful in addressing increases in psycho logical distress.
C. A key component of national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic was the creation of social distancing measures that limited public engage ment in meetings, businesses, and informal social gatherings.
D. The pandemic and its social distancing measures likely lead to greater public feelings of social isolation and lack of trust in neighbors.
E. Increases in feelings of isolation were especially notable at later ages, which led to greater increases in distress (see Figure 1).

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Wildfire-specific air pollution is an increasing public health concern under a warming climate with a greater frequency and intensity of wildfire occurrences. Previous estimates reveal that fire-prone regions globally might increase by 29% by 2100. ...

    Options:
    A. Given the socioeconomic and health burdens expected from wildfire-specific air pollution and limited research in this area, it becomes necessary to evaluate the respiratory hospitalization risk from such pollution sources and identify vulner able populations at a higher risk of wildfire-specific PM2.5 exposure.
B. This is important for the development of targeted relief efforts and evidence-based mitigation and adaptation strategies, in addition to air quality policies that account for the varying health impacts of PM2.5 that differ by emission sources.
C. We found that wildfire-specific PM2.5 emerged as a significant source of respiratory hospitalization risks from short-term PM2.5 exposure.
D. It posed a greater risk for all major types of respiratory diseases than non-wildfire PM2.5 (Fig. 1).
E. Evaluating the short-term exposure to wildfire-specific fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) showed greater risks of hospitalization for all major respiratory diseases than non-wildfire PM2.5 . When developing air quality guidelines, it is also important to consider that PM2.5 from varying sources can have different health effects, which require targeted health and environmental policy approaches.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We found that wildfire-specific PM2.5 emerged as a significant source of respiratory hospitalization risks from short-term PM2.5 exposure. It posed a greater risk for all major types of respiratory diseases than non-wildfire PM2.5 (Fig. 1). ...

    Options:
    A. Annually, around 25,321 respiratory hospitali zations were attributable to wildfire-specific PM2.5 , with its proportion relative to total respiratory hospitalizations increasing in Australia, Vietnam and Taiwan during 2000‒2019.
B. Wildfire's substantial contri bution to PM2.5-linked respiratory hospitalizations demands contin ued relief efforts across most countries and territories.
C. Vulnerable disease types and populations needing targeted intervention were influenza, children and adolescents, older individuals, individuals in low-income and high-polluted communities, and residents of Brazil, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam.
D. Our findings can be generalized to regions sharing similar socio-demographic characteristics with our study communities.
E. Despite extensive spatiotemporal coverage, this study cannot be interpreted as a global representative because it only included seven countries and territories with the best data availability.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We performed a time-series analysis on 35.6 million daily respiratory hospitalization counts across 1,052 communities in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan, during varying periods in 2000‒2019. The statistical method included two stages, which works perfectly for multi-location data in epidemiol ogy. ...

    Options:
    A. In stage one, we estimated the respiratory hospitalization risk associated with wildfire-specific PM2.5 in each community separately.
B. In stage two, we combined the risk estimates from different communities to calculate the overall risk, along with the risk for different popula tion groups and each country and territory.
C. Using the same method, we also estimated the hospitalization risk for respiratory diseases from exposure to non-wildfire PM2.5 . We further calculated the res piratory hospitalizations attributable to PM2.5 from both wildfire and non-wildlife sources.
D. Our large dataset and the unified well-established two-stage analytic framework facilitate robust, generalizable and comparable findings.
E. Wildfire-specific air pollution is an increasing public health concern under a warming climate with a greater frequency and intensity of wildfire occurrences.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Women's mental health is significantly influenced by their work and family life trajectories, especially given the pressures of balancing employment and caregiving roles. With societal changes over time, the unpredictability of employment and evolving family dynamics have led to increased mental health challenges for many women. ...

    Options:
    A. Yet not all women experience these stressors equally.
B. The role of defamilization policies, which reduce dependency on family for economic security, may be a key factor in moderating these mental health outcomes, par ticularly for women navigating complex work-family life paths.
C. This study analyzed data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), focusing on women born between 1924 and 1965 across 15 European countries.
D. Using multichannel sequence analysis, a method that allowed me to track people's work and family events over time systematically, the study categorized women into different life patterns (see Figure 1) to understand how these patterns relate to mental health, specifically, depressive symptoms.
E. Defamilization policies moderated the impact of life trajectories on mental health, with greater policy support benefiting women in tra ditional roles but proving less effective for those following nontra ditional life paths.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    This study analyzed data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), focusing on women born between 1924 and 1965 across 15 European countries. Using multichannel sequence analysis, a method that allowed me to track people's work and family events over time systematically, the study categorized women into different life patterns (see Figure 1) to understand how these patterns relate to mental health, specifically, depressive symptoms. ...

    Options:
    A. Defamilization policies, which reduce reliance on family caregiving, were con sidered as factors that might influence the impact of these life patterns on mental health.
B. Logistic regression models were used to examine the associations controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors.
C. These research findings are highly relevant for policymakers focused on improving women's mental health through social and welfare policies.
D. The results highlight that defamilization policies, which aim to reduce reliance on family for care, can have varied impacts depending on women's life course trajectories.
E. Women following traditional life paths (e.g., stable jobs combined with traditional family structures) reported better mental health out comes compared to those with less conventional trajectories.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    These research findings are highly relevant for policymakers focused on improving women's mental health through social and welfare policies. The results highlight that defamilization policies, which aim to reduce reliance on family for care, can have varied impacts depending on women's life course trajectories. ...

    Options:
    A. For women in traditional roles, these policies provide significant mental health benefits.
B. However, for those with delayed family formation or unconventional work patterns, the policies may need to be adapted to address the unique stressors they face.
C. Policymakers should consider expanding these policies to better support diverse life paths, ensuring mental health benefits across all demographic groups.
D. Women's mental health is significantly influenced by their work and family life trajectories, especially given the pressures of balancing employment and caregiving roles.
E. With societal changes over time, the unpredictability of employment and evolving family dynamics have led to increased mental health challenges for many women.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Women experience more barriers to health care access than men. Most existing research implicates provider gender bias and discrimination as the primary causes of these health care disparities; however, an exclusive focus on sexism at the interpersonal level does not consider the role of sociopolitical inequities that intersect with the health care system, such as gender inequities in pay, political representation, and employment. ...

    Options:
    A. Therefore, our research examines the role of state-level structural sexism, or gender inequity in power and resources across political, economic, and cultural domains, in shaping health care disparities between women and men in the United States.
B. We linked state-level administrative data gauging gender disparities in pay, employment, poverty, political representation, and policy protec tions to individual-level data on health care availability, affordability, and quality from the Consumer Survey of Health Care Access.
C. We then combined state-level measures into a single, multidimensional index of state-level sexism and used logistic regression analysis to test associa tions between state-level sexism and each indicator of health care access and quality.
D. Higher state-level sexism is associated with higher inability to access care and more barriers to affording care for women but not for men (Figure 1).
E. Women residing in states with higher state-level sexism report better quality of care than women in states with lower levels of sexism.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We linked state-level administrative data gauging gender disparities in pay, employment, poverty, political representation, and policy protec tions to individual-level data on health care availability, affordability, and quality from the Consumer Survey of Health Care Access. We then combined state-level measures into a single, multidimensional index of state-level sexism and used logistic regression analysis to test associa tions between state-level sexism and each indicator of health care access and quality. ...

    Options:
    A. All analyses were first done separately for women and men and then for the full sample to test for significant gender differences in the relationship between state-level sexism and health care access/ quality.
B. Although our research does not point to one specific policy area to mitigate gender disparities in health care access and quality, our findings do suggest that broader social, economic, and policy contexts matter for wom en's access to care, particularly health care affordability.
C. Policymakers should consider action to promote gender equity across multiple domains, including the labor force, political representation, and reproductive rights.
D. Individual-level factors, such as income, education, family structure, and demographic characteristics, do not explain these links.
E. Does state-level structural sexism across political, economic, and cultural domains contribute to gender disparities in health care access and quality?

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Although our research does not point to one specific policy area to mitigate gender disparities in health care access and quality, our findings do suggest that broader social, economic, and policy contexts matter for wom en's access to care, particularly health care affordability. Policymakers should consider action to promote gender equity across multiple domains, including the labor force, political representation, and reproductive rights. ...

    Options:
    A. Our research also suggests that a focus on health care policy alone is insufficient to address existing health care disparities.
B. As the future of U.S. health care reform con tinues to be debated, lawmakers must also consider social and economic policies as essential forms of health care legislation.
C. Women experience more barriers to health care access than men.
D. Most existing research implicates provider gender bias and discrimination as the primary causes of these health care disparities; however, an exclusive focus on sexism at the interpersonal level does not consider the role of sociopolitical inequities that intersect with the health care system, such as gender inequities in pay, political representation, and employment.
E. Therefore, our research examines the role of state-level structural sexism, or gender inequity in power and resources across political, economic, and cultural domains, in shaping health care disparities between women and men in the United States.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The global community is seeking innovative solutions to stabilize atmospheric CO2 that go beyond efforts to merely curb man-made CO2 emissions. One carbon-focused nature-based solution (NbS) to primarily tackle the global climate crisis focuses on blue carbon ecosystems, mainly vegetated coastal ecosystems (VCEs), such as seagrass meadows, tidal marshes and mangrove forests. ...

    Options:
    A. Protecting and expanding VCEs is now considered worldwide as a promising, cost-effective, scalable, practical and safe approach for achieving climate benefits, as well as advancing many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
B. NbSs can also have negative effects; however, these have received less attention.
C. Climate-friendly organic carbon (OC) and neurotoxic mercury (Hg) with contrary ecological effects are highly coupled in coastal ecosystems.
D. We therefore need a holistic understanding of the benefits, risks and trade-offs associated with the carbon-focused NbS, particularly in the context of changing CO2and Hg emissions scenarios as influenced by the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Minamata Convention on Mercury
E. This study focuses on the co-accumulation of sedimentary OC and Hg in coastal environments.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    This study focuses on the co-accumulation of sedimentary OC and Hg in coastal environments. We find that coastal sediment in VCEs is not only rich in OC, but also in Hg, and there is a strong and positive correlation between sediment OC and Hg across a variety of coastal habitats (Fig. 1a). ...

    Options:
    A. The Hg to OC ratios in the coastal sediments is about 2.5 times that of permafrost soils, which harbour the largest stock of OC and Hg in terrestrial ecosystems.
B. The Hg stored in blue carbon ecosystems ranges from 21,306 to 125,018 Mg with a mean of 73,162 Mg, and 95% of the Hg stock is stored in VCEs (Fig. 1b).
C. The disproportionate contribution of the VCEs to global Hg storage, cycle and risk suggests that the carbon-Hg relationships, dynamics, feedbacks and trade-offs should be addressed in the carbon-focused NbS efforts.
D. Our study consisted of three parts.
E.  First, we analysed 819 sediment samples collected from 58 coastal wetlands along Chinese coastlines to document the relationship between coastal habitat types and sediment OC and Hg contents.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a policy brief, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Our study consisted of three parts. First, we analysed 819 sediment samples collected from 58 coastal wetlands along Chinese coastlines to document the relationship between coastal habitat types and sediment OC and Hg contents. ...

    Options:
    A. Second, we combined the correlation of sediment OC and Hg generated from our study and the blue carbon data compiled by others to roughly estimate the Hg stock and flux in global blue carbon ecosystems.
B. Finally, we proposed the term “Blue Hg” and “Blue Hg dilemma” to highlight the close linkage of coastal OC and Hg storage and cycling (Fig. 1c), as well as the trade-offs between OC sequestration with Hg risks from the carbon-focused NbS in coastal ecosystems (that is, blue carbon strategies).
C. The global community is seeking innovative solutions to stabilize atmospheric CO2that go beyond efforts to merely curb man-made CO2emissions.
D. One carbon-focused nature-based solution (NbS) to primarily tackle the global climate crisis focuses on blue carbon ecosystems, mainly vegetated coastal ecosystems (VCEs), such as seagrass meadows, tidal marshes and mangrove forests.
E. Nature-based mitigation and adaptation strategies should therefore consider the carbon-mercury nexus to maximize sustainability goals.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A