VCU Health’s Post

To those who require some inspiration to complete a policy brief in public health, I've got a bit. Reproduced with permission of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, examples of: A) not-so-good (https://lnkd.in/dDWsaTqx) B) rewritten, succinct, and comprehensive policy brief (https://lnkd.in/dmD7JHjU)

Native American and Black infants die of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) at a higher rate than white infants. SPH researcher Naomi Thyden looked into Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on SUIDs to examine how disparities based on race, ethnicity, and geography play a role in how thoroughly these deaths were investigated. She found that 24% of SUIDs had incomplete death investigations, and that American Indian/Alaska Native infants and infants in rural areas were most likely to have incomplete investigations. We need rigorous work like Thyden’s to improve public health data and reduce health inequities. https://lnkd.in/gYu2HDfe #PublicHealth #HealthEquity #UMNDriven #Research University of Minnesota School of Public Health

🚰 Startling Study on Lead Exposure in Chicago's Drinking Water💧 A crucial study led by Benjamin Huynh, PhD, and Mathew Kiang, ScD, with their teams at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, reveals alarming levels of lead exposure in Chicago's children. Study Findings: Widespread Exposure: Estimates suggest about two-thirds of Chicago children under 6 are exposed to lead in tap water. AI and Data Analysis: Researchers used AI models and data from over 38,000 household lead tests, projecting double the amount of lead in children's blood due to exposure. Racial Disparities: Black and Hispanic children are more likely to live in homes with lead-contaminated water. 🌟 Quote from Mathew Kiang: "It’s not going to get done through individual action alone... the models we’ve developed could help the government prioritize neighborhoods with lots of kids who are exposed to lead-contaminated water." 📣 This research underscores a public health crisis, calling for significant policy changes and immediate action. 🔗 https://ow.ly/tKtQ50QXbj4 #PublicHealth #EnvironmentalHealth #ChicagoLeadCrisis #HealthcareResearch

The Effects Of Education! The positive effect of education on reducing all-cause adult mortality is known; however, the relative magnitude of this effect has not been systematically quantified. The aim of our study was to estimate the reduction in all-cause adult mortality associated with each year of schooling at a global level. Full Article On : The Lancet Public Health https://bit.ly/3vXbQ6M

IHME neatly summarizes the relationship between education & mortality, as reported in The Lancet. Generally, the more education you have, the longer you'll live. https://lnkd.in/gB4gJq7z

The Effects Of Education! The positive effect of education on reducing all-cause adult mortality is known; however, the relative magnitude of this effect has not been systematically quantified. The aim of our study was to estimate the reduction in all-cause adult mortality associated with each year of schooling at a global level. Full Article On : The Lancet Public Health https://bit.ly/3vXbQ6M

Avenir Health are pioneers in the field of demographic and projection modeling and have lent their expertise to The DHS Program as official partners for the past 15 years. Read more in the newest post in our series on Partnerships. dhsdata.com/3PW8po0

We need to move forward with thoughtful collection of race-based data to understand inequities and close gaps in care and health outcomes A nice article in today's The Globe and Mail featuring colleagues Aisha Lofters and Andrew Pinto https://lnkd.in/gfsgEwBg Here are a few resources that may be useful for jurisdictions and organizations interested in taking action: -our commentary in Canadian Medical Association Journal on collecting race-based data through health card renewal https://lnkd.in/gdNuM4rK -key learning from our research on implementing sociodemographic data collection in our primary care practice Unity Health Toronto https://lnkd.in/gayJvT9A -a new tool to support practices to collect sociodemographic data directly from Upstream Lab https://lnkd.in/gQ2QeCQe cc: University of Toronto, Department of Family and Community Medicine MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions

"As a collection of clinicians, researchers, health policy experts, NIH RECOVER PIs, journalists, patient and disability organizations, community organizations, and research organizations, we write to urge you to address the crisis of Long COVID and other infection-associated chronic conditions1 as you establish priorities in the FY25 budget. #longcovid is an infection-associated chronic condition (IACC) that can develop following a #covid19 infection, and has devastating impacts - on people’s individual health and quality of life, on caregivers and families, and on communities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 5.3% of American adults were experiencing Long COVID as of October 2023 and at least 1.3% of American children ever had Long COVID as of 2022.2 While Long COVID can affect anyone (including people who are vaccinated against COVID), transgender people, women, Hispanics/Latinos, and people with a pre-existing disability are disproportionately impacted. Recovery rates are dismal: of patients sick at 2 months, only 15% were recovered at one year, and of those, one-third subsequently relapsed. Estimates place the disease burden of Long COVID higher than that of heart disease and cancer, and there are significant impacts to people’s ability to work, with Brookings estimating in January 2022 that the disease could account for upwards of 15% of unfilled jobs. Harvard economist David Cutler and others have estimated that the economic cost of Long COVID approaches $3.7 trillion in the first five years alone in terms of diminished quality of life, lost earnings, and medical care costs, which is equivalent to 17% of prepandemic US GDP. Meanwhile, the de Beaumont Foundation reports that while the vast (1 Infection-associated chronic conditions (IACCs) are conditions that develop following an infection, and include Long COVID, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (#MECFS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (#pots ) and other forms of #dysautonomia , chronic Lyme disease, and mast cell activation disorders. 2 These prevalence rates of Long COVID underestimate the true number of people impacted due to survey respondent bias, lack of public knowledge about Long COVID, inaccuracy of testing, and lack of access to healthcare and testing, particularly amongst Black and Indigenous communities who are underrepresented or not included in the Household Pulse Survey. Of note, meta-analyses show that about 25% of children who have COVID develop Long COVID.) majority of physicians understand that Long COVID is a problem, only 7% are very confident diagnosing it and 4% are very confident treating it. This follows the historical neglect and underfunding of other infection-associated chronic conditions, like myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and other forms of dysautonomia, chronic Lyme disease, and #mcas"

“Racism is a public health crisis” I was proud to have worked with and been inspired by Kevin Fenton CBE FFPH FRCP PhD during my time leading the NHE England South East COVID Disparity programme. It’s great to see the shift and much needed drive to see racial and ethnic disparities addressed as a public health issue and the need for anti racist practice to be applied to all areas of health, care and regulation, where there are differential outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities. Kevin as always is leading the charge, are organisations ready to demonstrate they understand, they don’t react with fragility, or discrimination as a result of anti racist practices and challenge? The status quo is your comfortable place, change and improvements that save “black” lives will be uncomfortable for some. Are you personally ready. Is your leadership and board ready? Sadly some organisations show an inability to learn from thier recent mistakes and will continue to stay behind the curve of real public health approaches. When there are disproportionate deaths of racial and ethnic minorities in health and care? it’s not an equality and diversity issue, its a clinical safety and quality issue that leads to a one of public health outcomes. It’s really not a difficult concept. However so many current approaches and mindsets lead to the fact that racism is a public health crisis.