Population Health News Roundup: July 2023

IAPHS Members in the News

Sandro Galea’s article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “Trends in U.S. Depression Prevalence from 2015 to 2020: The Widening Treatment Gap,” was named one of AJPM‘s two Articles of the Year. (July 2023)

Adam Lippert, Jason Houle, and Katrina Walsemann on student debt in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine: “Ordinary least squares regression revealed higher cardiovascular disease and C-reactive protein risks among those in households who became indebted or were consistently in debt between young adulthood and early mid-life than among those in households who were either never in debt or repaid their loans.” (August 2022)

Chioun Lee in Research on Aging: Purpose in Life (PIL) is linked to health benefits, but diminishes with age. “We found the upwardly mobile group exhibits higher PIL than the cumulatively disadvantaged and downwardly mobile groups. The consistently disadvantaged group experiences more adverse events at non-normative times. Socioeconomic status disparities in PIL during old age decrease after controlling for life events.” (2023)

Sandro Galea and Steven Woolf wrote a JAMA Internal Medicine commentary, “The Persistent Challenge of Preventable Death in the US.” (July 3, 2023)

Magdalena Cerda in the American Journal of Epidemiology:  “We described the health equity implications of predictive modeling to guide interventions along urbanicity, racial/ethnic composition, and poverty.” (May 17, 2023)

Health Equity and Disparities

Staffing differences could contribute to nursing home racial disparities: In nursing homes with a high proportion of Black residents, fewer RNs likely contribute to higher rates of hospitalizations and emergency room visits. (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, June 12, 2023)

Disparities in heart health among gay and bisexual people: While gay or bisexual urban men have higher health scores than their heterosexual counterparts, lesbian and bisexual women may be less likely to have ideal heart health scores. (American Heart Association, May 17, 2023, from a study in JAMA)

Health equity is $5.9 billion economic issue in Massachusetts: Health inequities pose not just a moral imperative, but an economic one as well. In Massachusetts, the burden falls heaviest on Black communities. (WBUR News, June 13, 2023)

Environmental Health & Justice

Clean water crises in Black communities: A lack of access to clean water can play a role in “how people within these communities relate to one another,” affecting whether neighbors trust one another, and rates of cancer, violence, and premature death. (Grist, June 22, 2023, originally published by CapitalB.) 

Mobile home park residents face environmental and health disparities: Manufactured home community residents are more likely to have health problems often linked to exposure to low-quality building materials, formaldehyde, infrastructure needs, flood exposure, and substandard water. (Health Affairs, May 30, 2023)

Built Environments, Spaces, and Places

Hospital travel times are longer for rural Black and Latinx residents: In the rural US South, hospital closures have contributed to travel burdens for acute care. (Milbank Quarterly, May 2023)

Neighborhood gun violence is isolating youth and causing harm: Some experts say that neighborhood gun violence should be considered an adverse childhood experience (ACE) and given more research, prevention, and help. (KFF Health News, June 2, 2023) 

New Orleans, trees, and a new reforestation plan: New Orleans has lost hundreds of thousands of trees, and the city is a heat island, with temperatures nine degrees higher than surrounding areas. An improvement plan is underway. (Bloomberg CityLab, May 10, 2023)

Policy & Programs

Improving emergency responses for people with disabilities: People with disabilities are more likely to die or be critically injured during disasters. “FEMA, along with cities and governments at all levels, are making efforts to upgrade their emergency response and resiliency plans to cover this often-overlooked demographic.” (Bloomberg CityLab, June 22, 2023)

Black veterans less likely to be given physical and mental health benefits: The VA’s Agency Equity Team is exploring disparities in how benefits are provided. (NBC News, June 23, 2023)

Health equity and the end of affirmative action: Fewer providers of color could make racial gaps in health outcomes even worse. (Bloomberg, July 3, 2023)