About

Jon M. Hussey, PhD, is a sociologist and demographer with a primary interest in the association between social stratification and health. His work is particularly concerned with the causes of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differentials in morbidity and mortality. He focuses on understanding how childhood exposures influence adult health disparities. Dr. Hussey is an assistant professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and is a faculty fellow at the Carolina Population Center. His research activities include health equity, social determinants, and the developmental origins of health and disease.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Developmental psychology
• Demography
• Psychology
• Endocrinology
• Internal medicine
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology
• Pediatrics
• Obstetrics

Selected publications

• Examining the Effect of Maternity Cash Incentives Under Nepal’s Aama Program on the Continuum of Maternity Care: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of NDHS 2011 to 2022

  INQUIRY The Journal of Health Care Organization Provision and Financing · 2026-03-01

  articleOpen access

  This study examines whether higher maternity cash incentives under Nepal’s Aama Program —intended to reduce household out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures for delivery care—are associated with completion of the continuum of maternity care across Nepal’s three ecological regions: mountainous, hilly, and Terai . A difference-in-differences (DID) analysis was conducted using data from the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys 2011 and 2022. The treatment group included mountainous and hilly districts (n = 55), which received higher cash incentives for facility deliveries, while the control group comprised Terai districts (n = 20). The primary outcome was a binary ‘continuum of care’ indicator, coded as 1 if a woman received 4 or more antenatal care (ANC) visits, at least 1 ANC from a skilled provider, and skilled birth attendance (SBA) during delivery, and 0 otherwise. From 2011 to 2022, continuum-of-care coverage increased from 16.2% to 46.3% in treatment districts and from 18.9% to 42.4% in control districts, yielding an unadjusted DID of 6.7 percentage points. The regression DID analysis found that the higher cash incentive in hilly and mountainous regions was associated with a statistically significant 0.7 percentage point increase in the likelihood of completing the continuum of maternity care ( P = .014). While statistically significant, the magnitude is modest, indicating incremental improvement rather than a transformational shift in service utilization. Mother’s age, mother’s education, and husband’s education were positively associated with completion, whereas poverty, rural residence, and higher parity were negatively associated (all P < .001). These findings suggest that targeted financial incentives can positively influence maternal health service utilization, but achieving larger improvements will likely require refining the program and addressing non-financial barriers. Limitations include the two-period DID design, reliance on parallel trends, and potential residual confounding.

  PublisherDOI

• Depression and Antidepressant Use Among Asian and Hispanic Adults: Association with Immigrant Generation and Language Use

  UNC Libraries · 2025-09-13

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Association of remittances with skilled delivery in Uganda, 2019/2020

  PLOS Global Public Health · 2025-06-13

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  There are significant disparities in maternal and child mortality ratios between high-income and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite large decreases in maternal and child mortality in recent decades, with programs such as the Safe Motherhood Initiative, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Millennium Development Goals in LMICs, these differences remain large. The objective of this study is to examine the association between the receipt of remittances received by households and skilled delivery among women reporting a recent birth. This study uses data from the household, woman, and community modules of the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS) from 2019/2020 to examine skilled delivery and skilled delivery with the use of safe birthing kits. Women of reproductive age with a birth within the last three years of data collection were included in the analysis. A cross-sectional analysis of 2019/2020 UNPS data is analyzed using logistic regression and a dose-response analysis plotting the estimated probabilities of skilled delivery and skilled delivery with use of safe birthing kits against increasing amounts of remittances. While no statistically significant associations were found between remittances and skilled delivery in the logistic model, the dose-response model did find such a relationship. Recommendations for future research in this topic area include improving questionnaire design to collect better data on remittances, utilizing longitudinal data with larger sample sizes, and examining mechanisms of money transfer.

  PublisherDOI

• Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Diabetes Diagnosis and Glycemic Control Among Women of Reproductive Age

  UNC Libraries · 2025-09-05

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Types 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus complicate pregnancies and threaten the health of women of reproductive age and their children. Among older adults, diabetes morbidity disproportionately burdens racial/ethnic minorities, but diabetes emergence among younger adults has not been as well characterized. The objective of this study was to describe the distribution of diagnosed diabetes, undiagnosed diabetes, suboptimal preconception glycemic control, and prediabetes among women of reproductive age across racial/ethnic backgrounds. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed data collected in 2007-2008 from 6774 nonpregnant women, ages 24-32, in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Prediabetes and undiagnosed diabetes were identified by fasting glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) and diagnosed diabetes by self-report or antihyperglycemic medication use. We used multinomial regression models to predict prediabetes or diabetes versus normoglycemia. Within women with diabetes, we used logistic regression to predict those being undiagnosed and having suboptimal preconception glycemic control based on A1C. RESULTS: The estimated prevalence of diabetes was 6.8%, of which 45.3% was undiagnosed. Diabetes prevalence varied by race/ethnicity (p < 0.001): 15.0% of non-Hispanic black women (75.6% undiagnosed), 7.5% of Hispanic women (48.1% undiagnosed), 4.8% of non-Hispanic white women (22.8% undiagnosed), and 4.5% of Asian women (11.4% undiagnosed). The prevalence of prediabetes was highest in non-Hispanic black (38.5%), followed by Hispanic (27.8%), Asian (25.1%), Native American (20.3%), and non-Hispanic white (16.6%) women. CONCLUSIONS: Racial/ethnic disparities exist among women of reproductive age with prediabetes and diabetes. Meeting their healthcare needs requires addressing health inequities and coordination of diabetes management with reproductive health.

  PublisherDOI

• Association of remittances with skilled delivery in Uganda, 2019/2020

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-02

  articleOpen access

  There are significant disparities in maternal and child mortality ratios between high-income and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite large decreases in maternal and child mortality in recent decades, with programs such as the Safe Motherhood Initiative, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Millennium Development Goals in LMICs, these differences remain large. The objective of this study is to examine the association between the receipt of remittances received by households and skilled delivery among women reporting a recent birth. This study uses data from the household, woman, and community modules of the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS) from 2019/2020 to examine skilled delivery and skilled delivery with the use of safe birthing kits. Women of reproductive age with a birth within the last three years of data collection were included in the analysis. A cross-sectional analysis of 2019/2020 UNPS data is analyzed using logistic regression and a dose-response analysis plotting the estimated probabilities of skilled delivery and skilled delivery with use of safe birthing kits against increasing amounts of remittances. While no statistically significant associations were found between remittances and skilled delivery in the logistic model, the dose-response model did find such a relationship. Recommendations for future research in this topic area include improving questionnaire design to collect better data on remittances, utilizing longitudinal data with larger sample sizes, and examining mechanisms of money transfer.

  PublisherDOI

• Cohort profile: The national longitudinal study of adolescent to adult health (Add Health)

  UNC Libraries · 2024-05-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Why was the cohort set up? The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) was developed in the 1990s in response to a mandate from the United States Congress to fund a study of adolescent health, and was designed by a team of multidisciplinary investigators from the social, behavioural and biomedical sciences. The original purpose of Add Health was to understand the causes of adolescent health and health behaviour, with special emphasis on the multiple contexts of adolescent life. To achieve this scientific goal, Add Health sampled the school and family environments in which young people live their lives, which included data on peer relationship dyads, parents, siblings, neighbourhoods and communities, and provides independent and direct measurement of these complex environments over time. As the cohort transitioned into adulthood, research objectives turned to understanding how adolescent experiences, behaviours and contexts are linked to health and achievement outcomes in adulthood, and the name of the study was officially changed to The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health in 2014.

  PublisherDOI

• Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms Across Early- and Mid-Life Among the Add Health Cohort

  UNC Libraries · 2024-05-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• The depths of despair among US adults entering midlife

  UNC Libraries · 2024-05-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Objectives. To test whether indicators of despair are rising among US adults as they age toward midlife and whether this rise is concentrated among low-educated Whites and in rural areas. Methods. We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally representative study of US adolescents in 1994. Our sample was restricted to individuals who participated in 1 or more of 5 waves (1994-2017) and self-identified as non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, or Hispanic (n = 18 446).We examined change in indicators of despair from adolescence to adulthood using multilevel regression analysis, testing for differences by race/ethnicity, education, and rurality. Results. We found evidence of rising despair among this cohort over the past decade. This increase was not restricted to low-educated Whites or to rural areas. Conclusions. Results suggest that generally rising despair among the young adult cohort now reaching midlife that cuts across racial/ethnic, educational, and geographic groups may presage rising midlife mortality for these subgroups in the next decade.

  PublisherDOI

• 16. We Are Not a Monolith: Nativity, Racial Discrimination, and Maternal/Infant Health Across the Black Diaspora

  American Public Health Association eBooks · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Pregnancy loss is related to body mass index and prediabetes in early adulthood: Findings from Add Health

  PLoS ONE · 2022 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Obstetrics
  • Internal medicine

  Pregnancy loss, including miscarriage and stillbirth, affects 15-20% of pregnancies in the United States (US) annually. Accumulating evidence suggests that pregnancy loss is associated with a greater cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden later in life. However, few studies have evaluated the impact of pregnancy loss on CVD risk factors in early adulthood (age <35 years). The aim of this study was to examine associations between pregnancy loss and CVD risk factors (body mass index, blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, diabetes status) in early adulthood. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using the public-use dataset for Wave IV (2007-2009) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Our sample consisted of women, ages 24-32 years, with a previous pregnancy who completed biological data collection (n = 2,968). Pregnancy loss was assessed as any history of miscarriage or stillbirth; and quantified as none, one, or recurrent (≥2) pregnancy loss. Associations between pregnancy loss and each CVD risk factor were tested using linear and logistic regression adjusting for sociodemographic factors, parity, health behaviors during pregnancy, and depression. We tested for interactions with race/ethnicity. A total of 670 women reported a pregnancy loss, of which 28% reported recurrent pregnancy loss. A prior pregnancy loss was related to a 3.79 (kg/mm2) higher BMI in non-Hispanic Black women, but not white women. Women with recurrent pregnancy loss were more likely to have prediabetes (AOR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.10-3.37, p<0.05) than women with all live births. Findings suggest that pregnancy loss may be associated with a more adverse CVD risk profile in early adulthood, particularly for women who experience recurrent pregnancy loss. This highlights the need for CVD risk assessment in young women with a prior pregnancy loss. Further research is necessary to identify underlying risk factors of pregnancy loss that may predispose women to CVD.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant P01HD031921

  NIH · $150.3M · 2021

• NIH Grant R01HD057073

  NIH · $675k · 2012

• NIH Grant R03DA014622

  NIH · $142k · 2005

Frequent coauthors

• Carolyn Tucker Halpern

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  32 shared

• Eric A. Whitsel

  22 shared

• Kathleen Mullan Harris

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  21 shared

• Joyce W. Tabor

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  19 shared

• Howard Dubowitz

  University of Maryland, Baltimore

  15 shared

• Dallas R. English

  University of Melbourne

  14 shared

• Ley A. Killeya‐Jones

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  12 shared

• Chirayath Suchindran

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  11 shared

Education

• B.A.

  University of California Santa Cruz

Awards & honors

• Edward G. McGavran Award for Excellence in Teaching (2011)