Population Health News Round-Up: December 2024

Health Equity and Disparities

In Georgia, people with disabilities are segregated and institutionalized: Despite federal laws, people with disabilities and mental illnesses are placed in institutions without supports and sometimes against their wishes. (KFF Health News, November 22, 2024)

Asian Americans and liver health disparities: Asian Americans experience 60% of liver cancer cases in the U.S., though they’re only 6% of the population. At the University of California San Francisco, the new UCSF Asian Liver Health Center aims to help. (KCBS Radio, December 12, 2024)

Environmental Health and Justice

Environmental policy and health under Trump part two: Politicization of climate change and marginalization of science are possible under the second Trump administration. To fight back, local efforts will be needed. (Public Health on Call Podcast from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, December 11, 2024)

Vulnerable communities and coal-fired power plants: Air quality and public health could improve if vulnerable communities are prioritized in plant closure plans. (Penn State, December 11, 2024, citing a study in Environmental Science & Technology)

Benzene fumes rising in Channelview, Texas: Residents weren’t told, however. (Environmental Health News, December 17, 2024)

Wildfire smoke increases dementia risk: In a study of people over age 60 in southern California, those exposed to PM2.5 particles from wildfires faced an increased risk of dementia. (University of Washington News, November 25, 2024)

Built Environments, Spaces, and Places

Historical redlining is linked to diabetes: Indirectly and directly, redlining is “associated with a higher diabetes prevalence via social factors such as incarceration, poverty, discrimination, housing, and unemployment.” (NIMHHD, September 30, 2024, citing Diabetes Care)

Policing the parks can harm people of color: Historically, citizen-based policing has kept people of color from equal access to city parks. In places like Buffalo’s LaSalle Park, the inequity seems to be continuing. (Environmental Health News, October 30, 2024) 

Policy and Programs

Gun law helps prevent suicides: Extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws limit firearm access to people at risk of harm to themselves or others. These laws can “offer a versatile and promising intervention to prevent suicides.” (Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, September 2024)

Some Texas hospitals required to ask about immigration status: If hospitals in Texas accept Medicaid or CHIP, they now have to ask patients about their immigration status. This risks harming health outcomes and social justice efforts. (Boston University School of Public Health Viewpoint, November 26, 2024)

Teens who have guns probably got them at home: Sixty percent of adolescent school shooters got firearms from relatives or friends, while just 30% “came from the street or illegal market.” The study’s authors call for laws to require safe gun storage. (Boston University Public Health Post, November 21, 2024)

What Los Angeles is doing about people who are homeless: Providing housing via hotels and offering social services are strategies that have reduced encampments and given people experiencing homelessness another chance. (Reuters, December 13, 2024)