Population Health News Roundup: February 2021

IAPHS Members in the News

Alexander C. Tsai in PLOS Medicine: “Statewide social distancing measures were associated with a decrease in the COVID-19 case growth rate” and also with a decrease in COVID-19-attributed mortality growth rate in the 7-10 day implementation window. (August 11, 2020; corrected version October 6, 2020)

Sandro Galea is a contributing author in the Report of the Surgeon General: “Community Health and Economic Prosperity: Engaging Businesses as Stewards and Stakeholders.”  (January 2021)

Ana Diez-Roux and Usama Bilal in Nature Medicine: Urban health advantages aren’t heterogeneous in nine Latin American countries the researchers studied, but modifiable factors could improve life expectancies. (January 25, 2021)

Andrew Fenelon in Public Policy & Aging Report: Some seniors may experience challenges in finding affordable housing. (December 5, 2020)

Sarah Burgard, Jennier Karaz Montez, Jennifer Ailshire, and Robert Hummer in Public Policy & Aging Report: Using a geographic and life course perspective to understand healthy aging within a local, state, and federal context. (December 18, 2020)

Rita Hamad in Pediatrics: WIC works: When pregnant moms received a revised WIC food package, Bayley Scales of Infant Development and length-for-age z scores improved. (January 2021) 

Danya Keeene and Andrew Fenelon in the Connecticut Mirror: Expanding public housing into the suburbs could improve population health. (February 15, 2021)

Researchers at NYU Langone, IAPHS institutional member, in NYU Langone NewsHub and elsewhere : New York subway system is the Northeast’s most polluted; metals and organic particles could contribute to health risks over time. (February 10, 2021)

Courtney Boen in Social Science & Medicine: In young adults, eviction is a unique stressor and is associated with increased depressive risk. The association has “especially devastating consequences for low-income individuals and communities of color.”  (March 2021)

Steven Woolf in the Washington Post: The pandemic has had a “huge impact” on life expectancy in the U.S., greater for Black Americans (2.7 years lost) and and Latinos (1.9 years lost) than for Whites (.8 years). (February 18, 2021)

Disparities & Social Determinants of Health

U.S. Senate bill tackles racism in public health: The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2021 would address police violence and COVID-19 racial data disparities. (Vox, February 1, 2021, referring to this bill.)

Lack of data hinders equitable vaccine distribution: Data such as that on ZIP codes and race is lacking, giving us an incomplete look at where the vaccine is going, and how equitable distribution is. (USA Today, February 1, 2021)

Communication infrastructure is an SDOH, too: Inequalities in communication paths and systems lead to gaps in health information, but investing in minority-served media could help close the gaps. (Milbank Quarterly, February 2, 2021)

Place & Built Environment

A streetcar named inequality: When New Orleans expanded its streetcar network, tourists benefited but local commuters didn’t. Many working-class people and people of color still don’t have the public transit they need. (CityLab, January 27, 2021)

Neighborhood sound level can harm adolescent sleep: While no association with neighborhood density was found, sound levels were associated with delayed sleep onset, and a higher tree canopy was associated with “more favorable sleep timing.” (Sleep, January 2021)

Environmental Health and Justice

Tool will map underserved communities: The MassROUTES screening tool identifies communities that are overburdened by environmental pollution and underserved by transportation. (Union of Concerned Scientists Blog, January 28, 2021.)

The new Civilian Climate Corps is coming: The CCC is inspired by the prior CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps. The new CCC aims to “conserve and restore public lands and waters, bolster community resilience,” and more.  (Grist, February 8, 2021,  and Whitehouse.gov. January 27, 2021)

Policies & Programs

Cigarette tax in the Philippines saved lives, money: A 29% cost increase for cigarettes translated to 1,961 lives and USD $367 million saved. (Preventive Medicine, January 22, 2021)

Defunding the police in Austin:  Some funds removed from the Austin police department budget will be used to buy a hotel to be converted into permanent supportive housing for people who are homeless. (The Appeal, January 27, 2021.) 

New healthy food guidelines leave out some cultures: What we eat is driven partly by our culture, and what works for some may not work for others. (Kaiser Health News, February 1, 2021)

Global Health

Zimbabweans at increased COVID-19 risk: Informal work, high unemployment, a drought, and a “deepening economic crisis” are helping increase the risk of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe, where the rate of infection is increasing. (AlJazeera, February 16, 2021)

Ebola outbreak in Guinea has caused at least three deaths: Seven hundred trained volunteers are responding, and WHO is on the ground to help. (CNN, February 15, 2021)