Rita Hamad

@ritahamad.bsky.social

4.2K followers 220 following 220 posts

Professor, social epidemiologist @hsph.harvard.edu • Social policy + health equity • Director https://hsph.me/sphere • Mama, immigrant • Opinions mine

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Public Health 41%

Medicine 22%

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Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · Aug 8

Our latest study @jamahealthforum.com shows the harms of work requirements for safety net programs. Women who were subject to harsher requirements and who received less cash assistance from TANF were less likely to breastfeed. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... @donmoyn.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu 1/

Reposted by Kathryn A. Phillips

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 20h

I had the pleasure of curating a collection of articles for #HAScholar special collection on social policies & #health. The full collection is now freely available online, including articles on policy impacts, implementation barriers & more: academic.oup.com/healthaffair... @kathrynp-phd.bsky.social

Intersections of Social Policies and Health

A collection of articles published by Health Affairs Scholar. Edited by Rita Hamad. This collection examines the effects of social policies on health; differen

academic.oup.com

Reposted by Rita Hamad

Courtney Boen @courtneyboen.bsky.social · 3d

🚨 New paper: “The Bodily Scars of Legal Violence: Local immigration enforcement, state immigrant policy, & health inequality” 🚨

Forthcoming in @sfjournal.bsky.social w @ngraetz.bsky.social @atheendar.bsky.social & Robin Ortiz

academic.oup.com/sf/advance-a...

The bodily scars of legal violence: local immigration enforcement, state immigrant policy, and health inequality

Abstract. Over the past three decades in the United States, a surge of federal, state, and local laws and policies has increased levels of immigration enfo

academic.oup.com

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 4d

You need to be a member to view recordings if you miss the events. Do consider joining as a member! IAPHS is my favorite professional organization :).

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 4d

Lots of exciting events @iaphs.bsky.social coming up soon on interdisciplinary #pophealth topics for trainees and researchers. E.g., #scicomm, how to develop research, working with communities, etc. Webinars open to the public! iaphs.org/tools-for-su...

Online Events – IAPHS – Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science

iaphs.org

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 4d

It's often good to precisely quantify these benefits, so that policymakers who are interested in evidence can weigh these benefits against a policy's costs.

Reposted by Christian E. Weller, Daniel S. Goldberg, Stephen D. Murphy

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 5d

New study finds more generous state safety net policies w/ fewer administrative barriers are linked to better birth outcomes, esp for marginalized groups. Very relevant finding in current policy environment!
doi.org/10.1016/j.so... @gabeschwartz.bsky.social @npwf.bsky.social @donmoyn.bsky.social

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 6d

New article @nytimes.com on how SNAP & other safety net programs are inaccurately portrayed as "Democrat" programs, when in fact they help Americans of all stripes: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/o... @hsph.harvard.edu @tombedsall.bsky.social @centeronbudget.bsky.social @americanprogress.bsky.social

Opinion | It Would Be Trump’s Honor to Pay for Food Stamps

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner, Rita Hamad, Matthew A. Kraft

Thomas S. Dee @tomdee.bsky.social · 6d

The aggressive immigration raids we now see across the nation began 10 months ago in California's Central Valley. Their impact on children, families, and communities is an important & active area of research

I'm pleased my study of the initial raid's early impact on students is now out in @pnas.org

Reposted by Rita Hamad

JAMA @jama.com · 6d

An estimated 61% of US children have been enrolled in #Medicaid or CHIP and 42% have experienced periods of uninsurance by age 18, with insurance disruptions being more common in states with restrictive Medicaid policies.

ja.ma/47Vjn6y

Line graphs show cumulative experiences in relation to Medicaid/CHIP and uninsurance by birthday. Graph A: Medicaid/CHIP coverage trends. Graph B: Uninsurance trends. Data covers ages 1-18, showing percentages of US children.

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 10d

Reminder: even if administration complies with judges' orders & pays out #SNAP benefits, there will be delays given timeline, and many families will still need support because of reductions to SNAP as part of #OBBBA. Consider donating to your local food bank: www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

Find Your Local Food Bank | Feeding America

Find the Feeding America member food bank nearest you. Over 200 member food banks can connect you with free food, food pantries, soup kitchens, and mobile pantries in your community.

www.feedingamerica.org

Reposted by Rita Hamad

Julia Raifman, ScD @juliaraifman.bsky.social · 10d

Did you know? The US has one of the highest child poverty rates of OECD countries.

The average child poverty rate across OECD countries is 12.2%

In the US, it’s over 20%

It’s partly why many children rely on SNAP

High rates of child poverty warrant a national conversation.

OECD Child poverty rate by country

“On average across OECD countries, 12.2% of children live in relative income poverty (Chart CO2.2.A),
but rates differ considerably from country to country. In six OECD countries (Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Spain,
Türkiye and the United States), more than 20% of children live in relative poverty; rates are particularly high,
at around 30%, in Costa Rica. In 17 other OECD countries (Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia and
Sweden), however, less than 10% of children live in relative income poverty. In Denmark and Finland, the
child relative income poverty rate is only around 4%.”

Source:
https://webfs.oecd.org/els-com/Family_Database/CO_2_2_Child_Poverty.pdf

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 10d

Calvin and Hobbes, speaking deep truths even about our world today. Thanks, @billwatterson.bsky.social.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

Reposted by Rita Hamad

Ben Chrisinger @bchrisinger.bsky.social · 10d

SNAP boosts households' average monthly income by 31%.

For households with kids, it's 42%.

SNAP prevents food insecurity, but it also enables households use scarce non-SNAP resources for other things... rent, utilities, diapers, school supplies...

from: www.fns.usda.gov/data-researc...

🥗 🛟

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 12d

Great reporting from @americanprogress.bsky.social on other ways that the administration is endangering women's health, beyond cancelling this key maternal and child health data set. E.g., hacking of safety net programs, misinformation. www.americanprogress.org/article/the-... @npwf.bsky.social

The Trump Administration Is Endangering Women’s Reproductive Health

The Trump administration is dismantling programs to prevent, treat, and cure diseases that affect women as well as threatening access to basic reproductive and maternal health care—and the One Big Bea...

www.americanprogress.org

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 14d

Great! Happy to chat with you about PRAMS, a critical research resource for my team and others! Feel free to email me if you'd like.

Reposted by Sarah Burgard

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 14d

Not new, but still a crisis: CDC PRAMS staff were also laid off this year, removing access to the only national survey data on prenatal & postpartum health. HHS is jeopardizing the health of US kids in many ways. hsph.harvard.edu/news/with-fe... @hsph.harvard.edu @icpsr.bsky.social @npwf.bsky.social

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 17d

As a reminder, the US is the only high-income country without a national #paidleave policy, but some states have passed their own policies. Whitney's recent paper @amjepi.bsky.social described this policy's positive impacts on breastfeeding: academic.oup.com/aje/advance-... @hsph.harvard.edu 2/2

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 17d

Excited to share an op-ed by @ucsfmedicine.bsky.social PhD student @whitneywells.bsky.social on her personal experiences with #paidleave after childbirth, and how they intersect with her research. progressive.org/op-eds/paid-... @paidleaveforall.bsky.social @scholars.org 1/

Paid Family Leave Can Be a Lifeline

I study how paid family leave impacts the health of parents. When I gave birth, I became one of my own statistics.

progressive.org

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 19d

New article @jamanetworkopen.com showing cash during pregnancy ⬆️ prenatal care among women in Flint. Cash support to low-income families supports healthy babies & kids, but our current safety net falls short. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... @monahanna.bsky.social @michiganstateu.bsky.social

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · 21d

Important post @ipums.bsky.social showing how unique CPS data are for measuring food insecurity. Other data sets fall short. This reinforces how troubling USDA/Trump's recent cancellation of CPS data on food security is. blog.popdata.org/food-securit... @hsph.harvard.edu @npr.org @bostonglobe.com

Measuring Food Security with U.S. Federal Data – Use It for Good

blog.popdata.org

Reposted by David Lazer, Rita Hamad

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health @hsph.harvard.edu · 24d

Rita Hamad, professor of social epidemiology and public policy, explains why losing the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System puts the health of mothers and infants at risk, and how she hopes to help keep its data accessible. “Without data, we can’t fix problems,” says @ritahamad.bsky.social

With federal maternal health database in limbo, a risk to mother and infant health | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Rita Hamad explains why losing PRAMS puts the health of mothers and infants at risk, and how she hopes to help keep its data accessible.

hsph.harvard.edu

Reposted by Rita Hamad

Gabe Schwartz @gabeschwartz.bsky.social · 25d

📣 In a new paper using data on >11,000 kids, we find children who are #evicted suffer worse mental health & increased sleep problems... but so do children whose families simply struggle to pay the rent each month, implicating the health of 100,000s of young people in the housing crisis. #episky 🧪

Reposted by Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Rita Hamad

Population Association of America @popassocamerica.bsky.social · 26d

Join letter to congressional leaders rejecting USDA's decision to halt data collection and release of food security reports. Support restoring funding for the Food Security Supplement in the Current Population Survey.

Individuals: buff.ly/m2pb60w
Organizations: buff.ly/VLQjNjg

Individual Sign-on to PAA FFS Letter

Please click the link to complete this form.

form.jotform.com

Reposted by Caroline Krafft, Rita Hamad

Population Association of America @popassocamerica.bsky.social · 27d

PAA and Government Affairs Committee member Colleen Heflin, alongside colleagues, authored this op-ed piece in The Hill: Now is not the time to stop measuring food insecurity buff.ly/sFy8n7u

Reposted by Rita Hamad

Amy Hanauer @amyhanauer.bsky.social · Oct 10

Feel hopeless bc Congress and the President don’t care about families in your community? Send this report to your mayor and city council members!

The Potential of Local Child Tax Credits to Reduce Child Poverty

Local governments have a critical role to play in reducing child poverty. Local Child Tax Credits could provide large tax cuts to families at the bottom of the income scale, lessening the overall regr...

itep.org

Reposted by Dani Rodrik, Stephen M. Walt, Cas Mudde , and 51 more Dani Rodrik, Stephen M. Walt, Cas Mudde, Ben H. Ansell, Jan W. Mueller, Guntram B. Wolff, Christian Odendahl, Richard S.J. Tol, Colin F. Camerer, Robbert Sanderman, David Brady, Gabriel Felbermayr, Steven Van de Walle, Tomasz Mickiewicz, Alistair Munro, Michael A. Clemens, Cyrus Samii, Lucas Leemann, Francesco Saraceno, Laia Balcells, Andrew Curry, Paul Lehmann, Guy Grossman, John Mullahy, Joshua Goodman, David Dorn, Ingo Rohlfing, Daniel W. Drezner, Iikka Korhonen, Robert C. Richards, Aaron Sojourner, Daniel Huppmann, Julia Lynch, Rita Hamad, Stephen D. Murphy, Nazita Lajevardi, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Miguel Á. Malo, Henry Farrell, Dean Eckles, Maria Abreu, Dana R. Fisher, Jason Lyall, Brian Weatherson, Brooke Harrington, Bård Harstad, Christina Pagel, Jürgen Janger, Nicolai von Ondarza, Karsten Mäuse, Dietmar Fehr, Bartosz Bartkowski, Adam Tooze, Anita Gohdes

Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · Oct 10

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7

Reposted by Rita Hamad

Ambika Kandasamy @ambikakandasamy.bsky.social · Oct 9

I looked into research about the short and long-term struggles that children living in poverty face, including access to food, healthcare and education.

Thank you to Dr. @ritahamad.bsky.social and Dr. Joseph Llobrera for speaking with me for this story.

What Are Some Challenges of Growing Up Poor in America? | FRONTLINE | PBS | Official Site | Documentary Series

The U.S. has one of the highest child poverty rates among wealthy countries. Here’s a look at struggles kids living in poverty face, including access to food, healthcare and education.

www.pbs.org

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · Oct 8

Postdoc @emilydore.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu provided an interview to @healthyfutures.bsky.social discussing the findings of this study, highlighting the importance of social policy design for improving #healthequity. www.healthyfutures.blog/p/how-social... @rwjf.org @policies4action.bsky.social

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · Oct 8

I also chatted with them about my team's research on anti-poverty policies as key drivers of child health. A recent report @nationalacademies.org also describes the role of tax credits in addressing child poverty: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/09... @itep.org @centeronbudget.bsky.social 2/2

www.nationalacademies.org

Rita Hamad @ritahamad.bsky.social · Oct 8

Thanks to @frontlinepbs.bsky.social for covering continuing crisis of child #poverty in the US, which harms children & society at large. This is a critical topic in the wake of federal cuts to social safety net programs. www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontli... @ambikakandasamy.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu 1/

What Are Some Challenges of Growing Up Poor in America? | FRONTLINE | PBS | Official Site | Documentary Series

The U.S. has one of the highest child poverty rates among wealthy countries. Here’s a look at struggles kids living in poverty face, including access to food, healthcare and education.

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