Population Health News Round-Up: October 2025

Health Equity and Disparities

Accessible digital health could advance equity for people with disabilities: The authors suggest specific policies to reduce disparities: Universal design for digital platforms, inclusion of people with disabilities in the design process, funding incentives, digital literacy training, and more. (Milbank Quarterly, August 28, 2025)

Multilevel drivers of cancer disparities in Latinos: Environmental exposures (agriculture and construction work), cultural factors (fatalismo, beliefs in natural medicine), behavioral factors (alcohol), and access to healthcare (lack of insurance, lack of Medicaid expansion) are among these drivers. (Frontiers in Public Health, July 22, 2025) 

Women veterans face many health disparities but also funding cuts: Women veterans have higher rates of suicide, high-risk pregnancies, cancers, and chronic illness. Budget cuts are forcing these women to seek care outside the VA system, where they find fewer well-informed providers able to help them. (The American Prospect, October 15, 2025)

Environmental & Climate Health and Justice

Experts face an uphill battle in the fight against valley fever: Endemic in parts of the American southwest, valley fever may  accelerate due to climate change. But federal policy threatens to harm rather than help patients, doctors, and researchers in the fight to prevent, treat, and cure it. (Grist, October 2, 2025)

Residents in Chelsea, Massachusetts face high levels of environmental pollution: Chelsea’s neighborhoods — all of which are designated as environmental justice populations — are fighting back against many sources of water, soil, and air pollution. (WBUR, October 9, 2025)

Built Environments, Spaces, and Places

Biophilic design can improve health in urban areas: Bringing natural elements can help reduce the harm from urban living. Viewing greenery instead of concrete and traffic, fragrance from live plants at building entries, and bird and water sounds can help our brains. (USA Today, September 29, 2025)

Kids with disabilities in Idaho don’t have equal access: In Idaho, many disabled children can’t access outdoor playgrounds and face steep ramps, and awkward door handles. Some districts say that even bathrooms, gyms, and cafeterias aren’t accessible. Accessibility is legally required, and funds have been sent to the state, but disparities remain. (ProPublica, October 15, 2025)

Incarcerated people starving, suffering in privately contracted prisons: Private companies like NaphCare and Wellpath are the focus of complaints of mistreatment, in American prisons. Complains include lack of medical care, malnutrition, and dehydration. Most people in this investigation were on pretrial holds, and some died. Mistreatment was found in government-run prisons as well. (The New Yorker, April 21, 2025)

Policy and Programs

How Trump administration policies are affecting health for immigrant families: Some lawfully present groups will be ineligible for some types of coverage and benefits. Even lawfully present immigrants report negative mental and physical health impacts due to worries about immigration status. (Kaiser Family Foundation, October 8, 2025)

Medicaid expansion boosted specialty treatment rates for drug abuse: Expansion states saw a 28% increase in visits to specialty substance use disorder treatment from 2010-2022. (HealthAffairs, October 2025)

If OSHA goes away, what happens then?: The Occupational Health and Safety Administration and NIOSH are facing cuts, which could put workers at risk of musculoskeletal injuries, repetitive strain, trips and falls, and more. The NEJM interviews Andrew Gabrielson on what’s at stake and what might follow. (NEJM, October 4, 2025)

Book Spotlight

In What is Critical Environmental Justice, David Naguib Pellow writes about a “new framework” for looking at environmental justice scholarship. He looks at why indigenous studies, disability studies, and even multi-species justice can help us think in new ways. (MIT Press Bookstore)