Population Health News Roundup: March

We curate the top population health news each month. This month, sidewalks in Montana, breathing better in Brussels, how the Great Recession made us sicker, and Yup’ik tribes look to their ancestors….

Interdisciplinary spotlight

Linking systems builds community, food security, and health: Food banks and health care providers connect to improve health. In Houston and Dallas, partnerships are showing how food security can benefit both the healthcare sector and the community as a whole. (All In Data, March 5, 2018)

Place

Where the sidewalk begins: Three Montana neighborhoods ask for sidewalks to boost health equity (ShelterForce, February 22, 2018)

Growing trees, growing brains: Long-term greenspace exposure helps childhood brain development (Science Daily, February 26, 2018)

Breathing better in Brussels: Free public transport on high-pollution days (The Guardian, February 26, 2018)

Where the air is dirtier: People of color and in those with lower incomes breathe more pollution, says EPA reports (The Atlantic, February 2018)

This Second City isn’t funny: Chicago’s West Garfield Park residents are 57 times more likely to die by assault than Loop residents are (Chicago Mag, February 2018) 

Disparities

Growing kids: Childhood obesity still rising (NPR, February 26, 2018)

The persistence of (and resistance to) inequity: Hope in the face of discrimination against African Americans (RWJ Culture of Health Blog, February 22, 2018)

Multiple barriers, less viral suppression: Minority youth achieve less HIV suppression  (PolicyLab, February 7, 2018)

When ICE takes Dad away, daughters suffer: Removing immigrant fathers harms daughters’ well-being (Scholars Strategy Network, February 2018)

A shot to the kidneys:  Food insecurity hits kids with chronic disease hard, especially kidney disease (Preventive Medicine Reports, June 2018)

As if having no home wasn’t hard enough: The homeless face additional harm from storms, shelters  (Washington Post, March 2, 2018)

And we’re still not well: The Great Recession of 2008 made sick Americans even sicker (Inverse.com and PNAS, March 2018)

Programs & Policy

Can no-strings attached cash boost health? Ontario begins a guaranteed basic income program  (Toronto Star, February 24, 2018)

Value-based payments may worsen health disparities: This frame may counter the 123forEquity pledge to reduce disparities (Annals of Internal Medicine, February 27, 2018)

Reducing tobacco access for kids: California sees drop in tobacco sales to kids after legal age goes to 18 California Healthline, March 7, 2018 )

Circling youth as their ancestors did: Yup’ik communities turn to indigenous knowledge to prevent suicide and alcohol abuse in Alaska (NIMHD, December 2017)

Medicaid is kid aid: Medicaid pays for nearly half of all births annually, and is vital for rural or struggling hospitals (Kaiser Health News, March 12, 2018); and losing OB services in rural counties can harm maternal health  (AJMC from JAMA, March 12, 2018)

Being there for veterans: The VA has launched #BeThere to help prevent suicide among veterans (Department of Veterans Affairs)