Dear Closing the Health Gap Community:

I hope your New Year is off to a wonderful start! This is our first Weekly Update of the year and we have a variety of content highlighting racial and ethnic health disparities across the country. From maternal mortality data and breast cancer health equity programs to the ongoing scourge of healthcare deserts that leave millions of Americans without the care they need.

Those are the types of critical issues and stories we're focused on as we begin 2025. What are you working on and what issues are you tackling. How can our organization help you spread the word?

Here's to a year filled with collaboration and partnership as we all continue to close the gap together. Have a safe and blessed week ahead!

Renee Mahaffey Harris

President & CEO

Maternal mortality data is murky — but the crisis faced by new moms is clear

Too many new moms are dying in the U.S. Exactly how many, however, is harder to establish. After years of neglect, the issue of maternal mortality is finally getting attention in policy and politics, as well as in the media, with headlines drawing attention to figures that show the maternal mortality rate has, at least according to some measurements, doubled in the past two decades.

But some recent papers and media stories have questioned whether the crisis is more one of perception, raising concerns about whether overcounting and poor data have led to fear-mongering. An essay published in The Atlantic, criticizing the “doom and gloom” attitude about the state of maternal health in the U.S., argued: “Things aren’t getting worse for women; we’re just getting better at tracking what’s going on.”

Click here for the full story.

Public Health Is Everywhere

Shortly before this fall’s election, New Yorker executive editor Michael Luo wondered, “Should Political Violence Be Addressed Like a Threat to Public Health?” If you’re wondering what public health has to do with political violence, you’re not following the zeitgeist. For many years now, treating various social and political issues like public health problems has been all the rage. People have suggested that a public health approach be applied to issues such as climate change, racism, gun violence, police transparency (or the lack of it), and even fast-food marketing.

Why the impulse to treat policy questions like the Plague? According to Luo, “The premise is tantalizingly straightforward: utilize scientific data to identify risk factors and the most vulnerable populations and adopt multipronged solutions to stop problems before they arise.” Put another way, the appeal is that the public health approach takes complex issues and makes them simple as pie—or at least a pie chart. But is it really all that simple? Before we replace our elected officials with men and women in lab coats, perhaps we should unpack some of the possible shortcomings.

Click here for the full story.

Socioeconomic Status, Diet, and Behavioral Factors and Cardiometabolic Diseases and Mortality

Observational studies have provided key evidence for associations between diet and long-term health outcomes because randomized clinical trials are often not feasible. However, these findings have been criticized for methodologic limitations due to observational designs. In particular, dietary patterns are associated with socioeconomic status (SES), an important health determinant. People with lower educational or income levels tend to consume excessive amounts of energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods but inadequate amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, with potentially different patterns across neighborhoods. However, to what extent SES is involved in observed associations between diet and health outcomes remains unclear.

Click here for the full story.

Breast Health Equity Program Aims to Erase Outcome Disparities

The rate of breast cancer among Black and white women is roughly equal. However, Black women are significantly more likely to die from it, due in part to lower rates of mammographic screening that result in more advanced stages of cancer at diagnosis, leading to higher mortality. In Seattle, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s grant-backed Breast Health Equity Program set out in 2020 to improve rates of up-to-date mammography screening for Black women, while also increasing screening overall for women who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) post-COVID-19 pandemic. The centerpiece of the effort was outreach. 

Click here for the full story.

Finding shows 1.7 million Americans don’t have access to dental clinics within 30-minute drive

A finding shows that about 1.7 million people in the U.S. did not have access to dental clinics within a 30-minute drive, and 24.7 million lived in dental care shortage areas. The analysis published on the JAMA Network on Dec. 23 made the finding after a cross-sectional study of 205,762 U.S. dentists. Access to dental clinics became even more problematic when it comes to rural areas and those impacted by “high levels of segregation and socioeconomic deprivation.”

Click here for the full story.

Black Health Disparities: Still a Thing

From COVID to cancer, Black people have always had to exist with higher instances of health problems than our white counterparts. These disparities are impacted by what experts call social determinants of health (SDOHs), that keep kicking us whether we are up or down. According to the HHS, SDOHs cover five nonmedical domains:

• Economic stability
• Education access and quality
• Healthcare access and quality
• Neighborhood and environment
• Social and community context

Seems obvious, right? These five factors have a major impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life. Without economic stability, one is more likely to end up without medical insurance, or worse, living in a neighborhood that is a labeled a food desert. And you can forget about access to the best educational opportunities.

Click here for the full story.

FORBES: How To Close The Healthcare Desert Gap And Improve Access In The US

Healthcare deserts, areas in the United States with limited or no access to essential medical services, are a growing concern, leaving millions of Americans without the care they need. The U.S. healthcare system is currently contending with a growing healthcare worker shortage. In addition, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has recently proposed significant restrictions on telehealth prescribing in 2025. It’s clear that healthcare access is a true problem that will require innovative solutions from healthcare business leaders.

Click here for the full story.

Documenter Free Virtual Training on January 11

Looking for a side hustle that impacts your community? Signal Cincinnati invites you to become a Documenter, earning $18 an hour while making local government meetings accessible and transparent. Join our civic-minded community at our FREE VIRTUAL orientation and training, Saturday January 11^th 11-1 pm. RSVP at www.documeters.org NETWORK- Cincinnati. 

EPA data shows entrenched health disparities tied to pollution

Black children are far more likely than their white counterparts to suffer from asthma, while they also generally have higher blood levels of toxic lead, according to EPA assessments. And among the Black population as a whole, death comes earlier than for other racial and ethnic groups, apart from American Indians and Alaska natives. Those gaps are perhaps the most consistent thread running through a newly released EPA compilation of a half-dozen indicators of “environmental health disparities.” Also covering areas such as the incidence of underweight births and hypertension, the data show that Blacks fare worse by those yardsticks as well.

Click here for the full story.

Conducting Research to Address Health Disparities and Improve Health Equity

NIAMS is dedicated to supporting research that will ultimately reduce or eliminate the disparity gaps in diseases and conditions within its mission, including development of approaches to enable access to health care that can contribute to every person’s ability to live long, healthy lives. Many of these diseases and conditions exhibit sex, racial, ethnic, and other disparities. NIAMS seeks to support research that not only considers and investigates disparities in terms of potential biological root causes but also examines the impact of socioeconomic factors and other social determinants of health on people from populations with health disparities as defined by NIMHD.

Click here for the full report.