Housing is a foundational determinant of health and has been recognized as such since the early days of public health. In the 19th century, outbreaks of infectious diseases sparked interest in housing reform to address poor sanitation, crowding, and inadequate ventilation. One hundred and fifty years later, a report from the WHO commission on the social determinants of health has returned to the concept of “safe housing” as key to the health of populations.
There are ample data connecting poor housing conditions to a broad range of infectious diseases, chronic diseases, injuries, childhood development and nutrition issues, and to mental health. For example, substandard housing conditions such as poor ventilation, pest infestation, and water leaks are directly associated with the development and exacerbation of respiratory diseases, such as asthma. There are about 24 million Americans with asthma, and it is the most common chronic disease in children worldwide. About 40 percent of diagnosed childhood asthma is attributed to exposures at home.
The ACA Debate Shows We Need to Change How We Talk About Health | Dean's Note
The Trump administration is once more trying to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In a recent federal appeals court filing, the Justice Department said it concurred with a federal judge in Texas, who ruled to strike down the ACA after deeming it unconstitutional.
This comes almost two years after the administration pushed to repeal the law and replace it with a plan that would have stripped health coverage from millions of Americans. The administration has never stopped trying to undermine the ACA. It has consistently chipped away at it by attempting to undermine its provisions and resisting efforts to expand the law’s reach. Yet this new attempt to undo the law through the courts is arguably its most direct challenge to the ACA’s existence since the GOP-led Senate failed to repeal the law in a dramatic, middle-of-the-night vote.
The Public's Health: What Data Do We Need for Health? | Public Health Post
We spend, as the reader of this column will already know, an inordinate amount of money on our healthcare. Much of our recent spending goes to data acquisition, to medical monitoring, and to assessment of how our health systems function.
Are there other places where money devoted to gathering health data might be better spent?
The Public's Health: A Party Trick | Public Health Post
Here’s a game you can play. At your next dinner party or discussion with friends at a bar, start a conversation about how to make Americans healthier. You can talk about anything you wish: the fact that health in America is getting worse, that the opioid epidemic has led to a life expectancy decline, or that firearms are a health problem. When you start the conversation, start a timer.
The object of the game: to see how long it takes for someone in the conversation to use the word “healthcare” interchangeably with health.
We have played this game many times and are confident in saying that the end of the game will come within 5 minutes. It never takes longer for some to inadvertently say “healthcare” when they mean “health.”
Let's Move Beyond The Political Fight Over Health Care To Address The Forces That Shape Health | Cognoscenti
The Trump administration is once more trying to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In a recent federal appeals court filing, the Justice Department said it concurred with a federal judge in Texas, who ruled to strike down the ACA after deeming it unconstitutional.
This comes almost two years after the administration pushed to repeal the law and replace it with a plan that would have stripped health coverage from millions of Americans. The administration has never stopped trying to undermine the ACA. It has consistently chipped away at it by attempting to undermine its provisions and resisting efforts to expand the law’s reach. Yet this new attempt to undo the law through the courts is arguably its most direct challenge to the ACA’s existence since the GOP-led Senate failed to repeal the law in a dramatic, middle-of-the-night vote.
The Public's Health: The Story We Are Not Talking About Enough | Public Health Post
In 1918, a pandemic of Spanish flu infected approximately one third of the global population, killing between 20 and 50 million people. In the United States alone, more than 650,000 people died, enough to contribute to a decline in the country’s life expectancy. For a century, this was the worst decline in American health. Until this year. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that, between 2016 and 2017, US life expectancy dropped from 78.7 to 78.6 years. This marks the third consecutive year that life expectancy in the US has decreased.
We have not had a drop like this since the 1918 flu pandemic. What does our lack of attention tell us about how we think about health in this country?
A Wall from Mexico to New Zealand | Fortune
On March 15, a gunman killed 50 people, and injured dozens more, at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The attack, which was the deadliest in the country’s recent history, was made even more horrible by happening near the time of Friday Prayer, one of the central rituals of Islam. While the investigation into the shooting is still ongoing, the alleged shooter reportedly wrote a manifesto espousing anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and white supremacist beliefs.
That same day, in the US, President Donald Trump continued his efforts to build a wall between the US and Mexico, vetoing a Congressional resolution that would have blocked his declaration of a national emergency along the southern border. Such a wall would fulfil his often-stated campaign promise to reject immigrants who ostensibly threaten the country’s “security,” immigrants about whom the President has spoken in disparaging terms, using an expletiveto refer to countries with predominantly nonwhite populations and callingundocumented immigrants “animals.”
Mental Health Should Matter as Much as Physical Health | Psychology Today
Over the last year, we have seen high profile suicides that have gripped our attention—from Kate Spade, to Anthony Bourdain, to, most recently, the tragic death of Parkland shooting survivor Sydney Aiello. It is often recognized, correctly, that suicide is highly linked to mental illness, particularly depression. That, in and of itself, is ample reason for us to think carefully about mental illness and its consequences, but before I tackle the issue of suicide, I want to comment, more foundationally, on why mental health should matter, and be more central to our attention in health.