Population Health News Roundup: August

Interdisciplinary Spotlight

Philanthropy and technology join forces to help get people moving: Mobility options help older Americans, especially those in rural location, to stay healthy. Drones, Uber, and a self-driving electric minibus are helping people get to medical appointments.  (Health Affairs, August 2, 2018)

Place

Mother nature is equigenic: Simply looking at green spaces improved mental health in Philadelphia (NPR’s “Morning Edition,” July 20, 2018)

Getting healthy in public housing: Walking groups, fresh fruit and vegetable trucks, and other interventions improve health in Boston public housing  (University of Washington Medical School Newsroom via BMC Public Health, July 27, 2018)

Healthy spots in Appalachia: Why certain counties have much better population health stats than expected. (Lexington Hearld Leader, July 24, 2018)

The walkability conundrum: Walkable typically means less affordable (Medium, June 22, 2018)

Decolonized data is different: Native American tribes generate own data, express sovereignty, find different conclusions (Searchlight New Mexico, August 3, 2018)

Moms and housing: Housing instability contributes to maternal health harms, particularly for women of color (Rewire News, April 12, 2018)

Disparities

Who still smokes, and why?: Disparities exist in smoking rates and who receives treatment (U.S. News & World Report, July 26, 2018)

California breathin’: In California, almost half of Latinx live in communities with poor air quality, compared with 25% of non-Latinos (Salud-America.org, July 25, 2018)

At the intersection of population and health:  WNYC talks population health with Julie Willems Van Dijk and Dr. Adam Schickedanz (WNYC radio, July 30, 2018, audio from “The Takeaway.”)

Diversity in the great outdoors: How Saguaro National Park is attracting Latino visitors.(Salud America!, July 19, 2018)

Occupational opioid disparities: A quarter of Massachusetts opioid-related deaths are people who work in construction. (Boston Globe, August 8, 2018)

Unequally housed: Black Americans face disproportionate rates of homelessness, and the causes go beyond poverty (The Takeaway, WNYC, August 13, 2018) 

Global Population Health

Barriers to health in rural Kenya: Gates Foundation program seeks to improve geography and financial access to diagnostic and pharmaceutical services  (Medium, July 24, 2018)

Stopping malaria is still an urgent goal: In SE Asia, drug-resistant strains of malaria hide, waiting to emerge and spread (Nature, July 26, 2018)

Programs & Policy

A hot meal, an apartment, and a ride to the gym? Insurers are investing in different ways to remove barriers and help patients (AP, July 23, 2018) and (Forbes, August 14, 2018)

Austerity harms health in Greece: Death rates rose and population health declined in Greece after austerity measures in 2010   (University of Washington Medicine Newsroom via The Lancet Public Health, July 26, 2018)

Vaccines in Italy take a hit: Italian senate votes to remove vaccination requirement despite rising measles rate. (Financial Times, August 6, 2018)

Expanding Medicaid beyond doctor visits: The Medicaid Early Childhood Innovation Lab looks at ways Medicaid can work with other sectors to support SDOH in high-risk families. (Center for Health Care Strategies, July 2, 2018)