Social risk contributes significantly to poor health. These social risks—also known as social determinants of health—include food insecurity, housing instability, transportation insecurity, financial strain, and more. But without the right terminology about social risk, doctors and other healthcare workers may struggle to identify, support, and report patient’s social needs, which can harm health and hinder research. This is particularly problematic for Latinos and others who are overburdened by social risks. This why the Gravity Project, a coalition of experts on social risk, is recommending code changes and updates to CDC National Center for Health Statistics’ International Classification of Diseases-Clinical Modification, Tenth Revision (ICD-10-CM), which provides a ...
Health has become a huge priority in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. People of color, who face COVID-19 disparities as the virus worsens systemic social and economic inequities, are increasingly worried about holistic health. More Black and Latino Texans believe that the areas of life not typically associated with medical care—housing, education, racism, and other social determinants—directly impact their overall health than their white peers, according to a recently published survey from the Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF). "Texans across racial backgrounds agree that many non-medical factors like good air quality and clean water, community safety, and amount of stress are vital to a person's health," EHF writes in a recent press release. "But researchers ...
Experts say people who have underlying health conditions should guard against COVID-19. In fact, CDC now says that U.S. adults with diabetes, chronic lung disease, and heart disease are at higher risk for severe COVID-19-associated disease than people without these conditions. Latinos face a heavier burden for several of these conditions. The American Heart Association even warned elderly people with heart disease or hypertension. "Based on current information, it appears elderly people with coronary heart disease or hypertension are more likely to be infected and to develop more severe symptoms," according to AHA. "Stroke survivors may also face increased risk for complications if they get COVID-19" According to the latest report from State Department of Health, out of the ...
Our food systems affect our health in good and bad ways. For example, some of the most severe health impacts of food systems trace back to some of the core industrial food and farming practices. These include chemical-intensive agriculture, intensive livestock production, and mass production and marketing of processed foods. That is why the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES Food) published a report to identify five ways our current food systems make us sick, seven challenges to understanding and addressing them, and five leverage points for building healthier food systems. Here are five ways our current food system makes us sick:
1. People Get Sick Because They Work in Unhealthy Conditions
Pesticides are responsible for an estimated 200,000 acute ...
Inequities in health arise from social and structural inequities and the policies, laws, and culture that keep them in place. To address inequities that affect health, it is important to make the distinction between individual-level (midstream) interventions to address “social needs,” and community-level (upstream) interventions to address “social determinants.” Individual-level efforts to address social needs are necessary, but not enough. Characterizing these interventions as efforts to address social determinants of health conveys a false sense of progress. "If we, even inadvertently, imply that the social determinants of health can be solved by offering Uber rides to individual patients or by deploying community health navigators, it will be challenging, if not ...
Almost 4 in 5 Latino kids suffer at least 1 adverse childhood experience (ACE) such as poverty, neglect or abuse. 1 in 5 Latino youth suffer from depressive symptoms. This coupled with a lack of parental involvement in a child’s education and poor health can make things extraordinarily difficult for Latino kids to graduate from high school and succeed in life. The good news is communities can take action by pooling resources and working with others to support Latino families from before birth through adulthood. Join us this Tuesday, Jan. 9, during our weekly #SaludTues chat, as we chat about ways to support education and build communities that thrive. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: How to Build Support for Latino Families in 2018!
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET Tuesday, Jan. 9, ...
LOCUS and the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at the George Washington University School of Business released Foot Traffic Ahead 2016, a report ranking the country's 30 largest metropolitan areas focusing on walkable urban places (WalkUPs). LOCUS is Latin for "place." Place is important. According to the report, places with the highest levels of walkable urbanism are also the most educated, wealthy, and socially equitable. The new report will include three different rankings for all 30 metro areas: current walkability, development momentum, and social equity. In addition to market-driven development trends, current walkability, development momentum, and social equity of urban places are relevant indicators when considering population health because they ...
