Did you know guns and traffic crashes are the leading causes of death for youth ages 1-19? These deaths are problematic and unacceptable for four key reasons: These child deaths are unnatural and violent.
Child deaths from guns and traffic crashes have risen since 2013, with spikes in both in 2020.
Traffic and firearm death rates among American youth are higher than other high-income countries.
These violent deaths are preventable. Traffic and gun violence are not criminal justice issues, they are public health issues. Preventing violent child deaths from traffic crashes and firearms requires a comprehensive and multi-layered public health approach to: Define and monitor the problem
Identify risk and protective factors
Develop prevention strategies
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Amid the baby formula shortage, American women are now facing a tampon shortage. The shortage has resulted in a 10% price increase in the last year, with some retailers price gouging as high as $114 for one box of 18 tampons. The shortage stems from the economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a shortage of raw materials and labor. As some women frustratingly scour multiple stores to buy menstrual hygiene products, others fall deeper into period poverty.
The High Cost of Menstruating
While menstruating women nationwide are affected by this shortage, low-income women, such as Latinas, are hit particularly hard as they already face disproportionate health inequities, including a lack of access to healthy food, affordable housing, and childcare. Nearly 22 ...
Many Latinos and other people of color were not counted in the 2020 Census. Latinos have historically been undercounted, but the 2020 Census undercounted Latinos by more than three times the rate for that group in the 2010 census, CNN reports. Learn what led to the census undercount, why it matters for Latinos, and how we can fight inequities in our communities.
What Happened with the 2020 Census?
Overall, about 0.24% of the country’s population, or about 782,000 people, were not counted in the 2020 Census. The undercount rate for Latinos was 4.99%, according to NPR. Latinos are often undercounted because the Census has a harder time reaching marginalized communities. “The census has historically undercounted populations that are harder to reach through surveys, phone ...
A wage gap between Latino and white workers is a large factor in preventing economic mobility for Latinos, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co. The gap is particularly large for Latino immigrants, who are paid far less in the same job categories as other workers. “The median wage for foreign-born Hispanics is $31,700 compared to $38,848 for those born in the U.S. For non-Latino white workers, the number goes up to $52,942,” according to NBC Latino. With low wages and fewer opportunities for fields that offer career growth, Latinos are at a disadvantage and are more likely to struggle to meet basic needs like housing, food, healthcare, and more. This, in turn, heightens their risk for disease and poor health outcomes. Let’s learn how low wages and other barriers ...
The expanded child tax credits are working to help families make ends meet and experience less stress, a new survey shows. As part of the American Rescue Plan, Congress expanded the child tax credit in March 2021. Since July, the IRS has been providing cash benefits to most households with children, including some of the country’s poorest families. Now, given sufficient time to study this effort, a survey by the Center for Law and Social Policy found that the enhanced child tax credit made a difference for many parents and children. Many Latinos and other families of color benefitted, but many immigrants also were left out. “Consistent and broad evidence [shows] that this policy is working as intended,” Zach Parolin, who has studied the tax credit at Columbia University’s ...
Inadequate transportation can hurt a person’s social, economic, and health outcomes. But planners and policymakers have not had a good tool to measure transportation insecurity—a condition in which one is unable to regularly move from place to place in a safe or timely manner due to the absence of the material, economic, or social resources needed for transportation. So, in 2018, researchers from University of Michigan and others created a tool to explore transportation security modeled after the Food Security Index and based on interviews with families living in poverty. They call it the Transportation Security Index. In 2021, they validated the 16-question index using a nationally representative sample. “We hope [the Transportation Security Index 16] will be adopted ...
The link between systemic racism and health inequities is undeniable. Health inequities among people of color arise from systemic racism, which has been and continues to be enforced by historic and present-day policies, laws, and practices at the local, state, and national levels. For example, past and present land use and transportation decisions perpetuate residential and school segregation which concentrates racial disadvantage and limits access to opportunity to stay healthy and thrive. Thus, local jurisdictions across the country are recognizing and addressing systemic racism through formal resolutions declaring racism a public health crisis. Through these resolutions, jurisdictions are committing to action to address underlying beliefs that fuel racism, transform ...
Workforce inequities are nothing new for people of color, specifically Latinos. Long before COVID-19, many Latinos had unstable jobs with little-to-no benefits and lower wages than their white non-Latino coworkers. The pandemic made things worse. But one thing saved many Latino jobs—a labor union contract, according to a comparison of unionized and non-unionized Latino workers by UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative. Labor unions are organizations of workers that come together to negotiate better working conditions or other benefits as a collective bargaining. “Our analysis suggests that unionization—even within the same industry and occupation—preserved employment and wages for workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for variations in ...
Where we live and the conditions that we live in impact our health and life outcomes. This concept is widely called the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). Unfortunately, when people live in and experience negative conditions, it can lead to poor health outcomes and disparities, particularly among Latinos and other marginalized communities. In their new SDOH framework, the Praxis Project highlights the root systems of oppression that have led to health disparities for communities of color. “Many traditional SDOH frameworks lack the explicit naming of systems of oppression that cause disparities in health determinants. In an effort to incorporate these systems of oppression and to highlight the root causes of these determinants from a justice and community power ...
