ArticleHealth affairs (Project Hope)2022
Easing Cash Assistance Rules During COVID-19 Was Associated With Reduced Days Of Poor Physical And Mental Health.
Article in Health affairs (Project Hope), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Association of pandemic-era US county-level policies with adult health and health behaviors.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Changes in young children's behavior following COVID-19 pandemic onset: A tale of three cities.Child development · 2026Article
- Safety Net Programs as Primary Prevention Against Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in the United States: Natural Experiments with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Easing Cash Assistance Rules and Breastfeeding.JAMA health forum · 2025Article
- Article
- Associations between local COVID-19 policies and anxiety in the USA: a longitudinal digital cohort study.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Methods Used to Evaluate the Health Effects of Social Policies: A Systematic Review.Current epidemiology reports · 2025Article
- Homelessness in pregnancy: life course factors and mental health in the context of COVID-19.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The social determinants of resilience: A conceptual framework to integrate psychological and policy research.The American psychologist · 2024Article
- Psychiatric Epidemiology During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Current epidemiology reports · 2024Article
- Unconditional cash transfers for preterm neonates: evidence, policy implications, and next steps for research.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2024Article
- Association of Increasing the Minimum Wage in the US With Experiences of Maternal Stressful Life Events.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- State-level data on TANF policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC research notes · 2023Article
- Child Tax Credit, Spending Patterns, and Mental Health: Mediation Analyses of Data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey during COVID-19.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Poverty, Policy, and Mental Health Inequities: Evidence, Challenges, and Opportunities.Harvard review of psychiatryReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Unemployment rates soared at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, increasing financial stress that can affect physical and mental health. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is the primary cash assistance program for low-income families in the US, with benefits conditional on work activities and subject to suspension. However, many states loosened requirements during the pandemic. Using TANF policy data and data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from the period January 2017-December 2020 with a triple-difference design, we found a general protective effect of supportive changes to TANF on poor physical and mental health days and binge drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic for likely TANF participants. For example, providing emergency cash benefits to those not already participating in TANF, waiving work requirements, waiving or pausing sanctions, and automatically recertifying benefits were associated with reductions in the number of mentally unhealthy days. This study provides support for increasing generosity and easing administrative burdens in safety-net programs to buffer against negative impacts of public health and economic crises.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.