scholarly journals Transportation & Rising Public Health Concerns in America

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Private Transportation

Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States, as it causes a variety of serious health problems including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, some cancers, kidney disease, and more. In the United States, obesity has been on the rise for decades and has shown no sign of slowing down. The epidemic disproportionately affects low-income and minority individuals. One factor contributing to this health disparity is inadequate public and private transportation among such communities, making access to supermarkets (which carry fresh, healthy produce) less attainable. Solving the obesity epidemic in the United States will require significant government support and will likely take a combination of efforts to improve multiple contributing factors: corporate marketing, city zoning, supermarket pricing, transportation, etc. This review discusses the consequences – and potential solutions - of one aspect of the obesity epidemic: transportation. This focus of this paper is on the United States, but its content has international relevance relating to transportation’s effects on public health as a whole. Keyword : Obesity Epidemic, Transportation, Public Health, Public Policy, Nutrition

PERCENTAGE OF UNINSURED CHILDREN HAS INCREASED

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 1051-1051
Author(s):  
STUDENT
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Health Care Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Insurance ◽  
Care Policy ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Uninsured Children

The proportion of children in the United States without private or public health insurance increased from roughly 13 percent to 18 percent between 1977 and 1987, according to a new study by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR). The growth in the proportion of uninsured children in poor and low-income families over the decade was even more dramatic—it rose from 21 percent to 31 percent.

scholarly journals Feeding the disparities: the geography and trends of breastfeeding in the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Garnier ◽  
Ana I. Bento ◽  
Pejman Rohani ◽  
Saad B. Omer ◽  
Shweta Bansal
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Breast Milk ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Breastfeeding Rates

AbstractThere is scientific consensus on the importance of breastfeeding for the present and future health of newborns, in high- and low-income settings alike. In the United States, improving breast milk access is a public health priority but analysis of secular trends are largely lacking. Here, we used data from the National Immunization Survey of the CDC, collected between 2003 and 2016, to illustrate the temporal trends and the spatial heterogeneity in breastfeeding. We also considered the effect sizes of two key determinants of breastfeeding rates. We show that, while access to breast milk both at birth and at 6 months old has steadily increased over the past decade, large spatial disparities still remain at the state level. We also find that, since 2009, the proportion of households below the poverty level has become the strongest predictor of breastfeeding rates. We argue that, because variations in breastfeeding rates are associated with socio-economic factors, public health policies advocating for breastfeeding are still needed in particular in underserved communities. This is key to reducing longer term health disparities in the U.S., and more generally in high-income countries.

scholarly journals Resurgence of Syphilis in the United States: An Assessment of Contributing Factors

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 117863371988328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Schmidt ◽  
Paul James Carson ◽  
Rick J Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Systemic Disease ◽  
Premenopausal Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Behavioral Factors ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Effective Prevention

In the last decade, there has been a marked resurgence of syphilis in the United States despite the availability of effective treatments and previously reliable prevention strategies. The majority of cases are among the population of men who have sex with men (MSM); however, there has also been a recent increase among premenopausal women, coinciding with a concerning rise of congenital cases. The resurgence of syphilis can be largely attributed to changing social and behavioral factors, especially among young MSM. The biological association of syphilis with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission and acquisition is particularly alarming because of the increased individual and healthcare burden. In addition, some individual actions and public health efforts that are meant to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV may actually lead to risk compensation that facilitates the transmission of syphilis. Untreated syphilis is associated with detrimental health outcomes; therefore, both effective prevention strategies and treatment of this systemic disease have important short-term and long-term public health implications. This article offers a review of social and behavioral factors contributing to the current resurgence and recommendations for reducing syphilis incidence through medical and public health prevention strategies.

Myelomeningocele: surgical trends and predictors of outcome in the United States, 1988–2010

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 666-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varun R. Kshettry ◽  
Michael L. Kelly ◽  
Benjamin P. Rosenbaum ◽  
Andreea Seicean ◽  
Lee Hwang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Hospital Stay ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Surgical Repair ◽  
The United States ◽  
Shunt Placement ◽  
Health Initiatives ◽  
Myelomeningocele Repair ◽  
Public Health Initiatives

Object Myelomeningocele repair is an uncommonly performed surgical procedure. The volume of operations has been decreasing in the past 2 decades, probably as the result of public health initiatives for folate supplementation. Because of the rarity of myelomeningocele, data on patient or hospital factors that may be associated with outcome are scarce. To determine these factors, the authors investigated the trends in myelomeningocele surgical repair in the United States over a 23-year period and examined patient and hospital characteristics that were associated with outcome. Methods The Nationwide Inpatient Sample database for 1988–2010 was queried for hospital admissions for myelomeningocele repair. This database reports patient, hospital, and admission characteristics and surgical trends. The authors used univariate and multivariate logistic regression to assess associations between patient and hospital characteristics and in-hospital deaths, nonroutine discharge, long hospital stay, and shunt placement. Results There were 4034 hospitalizations for surgical repair of myelomeningocele. The annual volume decreased since 1988 but plateaued in the last 4 years of the study. The percentages of myelomeningocele patients with low income (30.8%) and Medicaid insurance (48.2%) were disproportionately lower than those for the overall live-born population (p < 0.0001). More operations per 10,000 live births were performed for Hispanic patients (3.2) than for white (2.0) or black (1.5) patients (p < 0.0001). Overall, 56.6% of patients required shunt placement during the same hospital stay as for surgical repair; 95.0% of patients were routinely discharged; and the in-hospital mortality rate was 1.4%. Nonwhite race was associated with increased in-hospital risk for death (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.2–6.3) independent of socioeconomic or insurance status. Conclusions Overall, the annual surgical volume of myelomeningocele repairs decreased after public health initiatives were introduced but has more recently plateaued. The most disproportionately represented populations are Hispanic, low-income, and Medicaid patients. Among nonwhite patients, increased risk for in-hospital death may represent a disparity in care or a difference in disease severity.

Financing and Insurance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel H Zuvekas ◽  
Earle Buddy Lingle ◽  
Ardis Hanson ◽  
Bruce Lubotsky Levin
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public And Private

The complexity of US healthcare systems is staggering. In 2015, Americans spent approximately $3.7 trillion on healthcare, averaging almost $10,000 per person. Further, Americans rely on a mixture of public and private health insurance coverage to pay for the bulk of the healthcare services they receive. To provide a better understanding of the financing of healthcare in the United States, this chapter examines major government healthcare programs and funding. It begins with a look at the US public health insurance system and the healthcare “safety net,” comprised of a patchwork of public, private, and philanthropic providers and programs. The next sections look at how US insurers and families pay doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare providers to deliver services in the United States and how pharmacy services are financed in public health.

scholarly journals Delivering Public Health Insurance Through Private Plan Choice in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Insurance ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Government

The United States has seen a sea change in the way that publicly financed health insurance coverage is provided to low-income, elderly, and disabled enrollees. When programs such as Medicare and Medicaid were introduced in the 1960s, the government directly reimbursed medical providers for the care that they provided, through a classic “single payer system.” Since the mid-1980s, however, there has been an evolution towards a model where the government subsidizes enrollees who choose among privately provided insurance options. In the United States, privatized delivery of public health insurance appears to be here to stay, with debates now focused on how much to expand its reach. Yet such privatized delivery raises a variety of thorny issues. Will choice among private insurance options lead to adverse selection and market failures in privatized insurance markets? Can individuals choose appropriately over a wide range of expensive and confusing plan options? Will a privatized approach deliver the promised increases in delivery efficiency claimed by advocates? What policy mechanisms have been used, or might be used, to address these issues? A growing literature in health economics has begun to make headway on these questions. In this essay, I discuss that literature and the lessons for both economics more generally and health care policymakers more specifically.

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