Population Health News Round-Up: April 2025

Health Equity and Disparities

Improving care for Black women with HIV: The AJPH has an open-access special issue focused on care and quality of life for HIV-positive Black women. (April 2025)

Federal funding cuts are hitting veterans especially hard: Trump administration budget cuts are de-staffing the Veterans Crisis Line, reducing staffing in the VA system, and decreasing funding for research. (PBS Newshour, March 16, 2025)

Mass deportations may impact immigrants’ health and well-being: As the Trump Administration begins detaining and deporting people, undocumented people in the U.S. face increased fears, difficulty finding employment, behavioral changes in children, and other harms. (Kaiser Family Foundation, April 16, 2025)

Environmental & Climate Health and Justice

Fossil fuels driving “interlinked crises“: Fossil fuels harm people, animals, and the planet in multiple ways, including via links to preterm birth, childhood leukemia, and even depression. Clean energy is needed.  (BUSPH, March 31, 2025, citing a review in Oxford Open Climate Change.)

Oil & gas money and universities create an unhealthy alliance: At Louisiana State University, partnerships with petrochemical companies can influence climate change research. (Floodlight News, March 21, 2025)

Wildfire prevention and response in danger: Trump administration cuts to the US Forest Service and National Park Service have put communities at risk of harm from wildfires. (APHA’s Public Health Newswire, March 3, 2025)

Built Environments, Spaces, and Places

Better walkability, better health: In Texas, neighborhood walkability is linked to a lower BMI and a reduced risk of diabetes. (Nature, March 19, 2025)

Architecture can affect our health and mood: Traditional architecture, classical urban planning, easy access to nature, and designs that mimic nature can be beneficial. (ScienceNorway, March 30, 2025)

Trees may help babies grow: Newborns living near trees had a higher birthweight. (Drexel University News, April 23, 2025)

Policy and Programs

Trump’s DEI removal attacks people with disabilities: Trump administration policies include removing ASL interpreters, cutting staff at the VA and DHHS, and halting disability research. (KFF Health News, April 3, 2025)

Blood disorder research staff put on leave: “Nearly all of the staff at the Division of Blood Disorders and Public Health Genomics at the CDC were placed on administrative leave….” This division led the Sickle Cell Disease Data Collection program. (WFYI Indianapolis, April 10, 2025)

Chicago hopes to require pollution burden assessments: The city’s proposed measure is a “test case for local action” in the face of federal policies against environmental justice. (Grist, April 16, 2025)

Book Spotlights

Disposable: America’ Contempt for the Underclass, by Sarah Jones. This book looks at how America’s underclass–already vulnerable–were abandoned during the pandemic. On Amazon.

Rx Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing Our Humanity, by Gail C. Christopher. Christopher suggests ways to help America reject racial hierarchies and engage in transformational change.  Buy from the American Association of Colleges and Universities.