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Dear Community:
November brings a powerful menu of health observances that matter deeply to our community. It’s National Diabetes Awareness Month and Movember, spotlighting men’s health issues like prostate and testicular cancer. We also recognize Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Month, Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and National Alzheimer’s Disease Month – all conditions that too often strike Black families earlier, harder, and with fewer resources.
At the Center for Closing the Health Gap, our mission is clear: We Must Save Us. That means knowing our numbers, asking hard questions, and using trusted information to act, including screenings for diabetes and cancer, memory and caregiver resources, and heart–lung checkups. This month, we’ll share tools, events, and navigation help to connect you with culturally responsive care across Cincinnati.
And don't forget about our new Caregiver Support sessions on Nov. 8 and Nov, 15 as well as our special Unwrap Your Joy event tomorrow morning. Details are below. Please forward this newsletter to a friend, schedule a screening, and check on a loved one. When we lift our health together, we lift our future. Wishing you all a safe and blessed week ahead.
Renee Mahaffey Harris
President & CEO
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ARE YOU CARING FOR A LOVED ONE 60 YEARS OR OLDER?
New 1-Day Saturday Sessions Added for Caregiver Support Series
Caring for a loved one is both rewarding and challenging. Most people cannot truly understand these challenges. Our series allows you to be in community and learn from other Caregivers like you, and give you tools to fulfill your responsibilities even better.
Click the One-Day Saturday Session Best for Your Schedule
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Many Questions Remain After Judges Order USDA to Fund SNAP During Shutdown
At the eleventh hour on Friday, October 31, two New England federal judges ruled that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) must use billions of dollars in emergency funds to partially cover Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for 42 million Americans living in every county in the nation.
The orders followed weeks of dire warnings from anti-hunger advocates and public officials that freezing these benefits, which were set to expire on November 1, would cause “irreparable harm” to the families who depend on these monthly SNAP benefits to access affordable and adequate food.
Despite the rulings, millions of SNAP recipients remain anxious and uncertain about exactly when and how much of their November benefits they will receive, and how much they will struggle to feed their families in the coming weeks. Massachusetts Judge Indira Talwani also required the Trump administration to explain how it would disperse the benefits as soon as possible but recognized that the funds would not be available to people at the start of the month.
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BlackDoctor unveils Generational Health initiative to spur culturally grounded care, improve diversity in healthcare workforce
BlackDoctor.org, a health platform that reaches 20 million people, launched a new initiative, Generational Health, that aims to connect science and culture to improve the health and longevity of Black families. The initiative, unveiled at the 2025 American Public Health Association (APHA) conference in Washington, D.C., represents a sustained national effort to "reimagine how health is understood, taught and passed down," according to the organization.
Generational Health also aims to expand educational opportunities for historically excluded students to enter healthcare professions.It marks the beginning of a five-year effort that will use BlackDoctor.org's 20-year history of providing trusted health information as well as community and cultural engagement as a foundation, and the organization plans to partner with pharmaceutical brands to shape conversations around culturally grounded care, according to Aki Garrett, president and chief operating officer at BlackDoctor Inc.
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RESOLUTION: NAACP Calls for a Comprehensive National Plan to Combat Premature Morbidity and Mortality in African American Men in the United States
WHEREAS, Significant and persistent health disparities exist in the United States, resulting in disproportionately higher rates of premature morbidity and mortality among African American men compared to other racial and gender groups, with a life expectancy at birth of 67.6 years (Arias, Xu, Kochanek, 2023); and
WHEREAS, These disparities are rooted in a complex interplay of systemic discrimination and racism, historical injustices, socioeconomic inequities, environmental factors, violence, and limited access to quality healthcare; and
WHEREAS, The consequences of this premature morbidity and mortality extend beyond individual loss, impacting families, communities, and the overall well-being and productivity of the nation
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Cancer screening disparities persist in U.S. despite overall gains
Screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer has increased overall in the U.S.—but disparities between regions persist, with disadvantaged communities most likely to have low screening rates, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Geographic variation in rates of cancer screening are understudied, despite these patterns being crucial to understanding why the U.S. continues to fall short of meeting its national screening goals. To fill this gap, the researchers conducted one of the first nationwide examinations of county-level prevalence of screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer. They used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the National Health Interview Survey from 1997 to 2019 to estimate cancer screening rates in every county of the contiguous U.S., and used data from the 2000 U.S. Census to understand the socioeconomic characteristics of each county.
The study found that breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screenings increased overall over the course of the study period, leading to more even cancer screening rates across counties. The distribution of mammography screening, for example, became 83% more uniform. However, disparities persisted between regions, with high screening prevalence in the Northeast and lower prevalence in the Southwest. Low screening rates tended to be associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, the researchers found.
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Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Events and Deaths Among Black Adults Via Systolic Blood Pressure Equity
High blood pressure (BP) contributes to more cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and deaths than any other modifiable risk factor in the US and worldwide. Randomized clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of nonpharmacologic interventions and antihypertensive medication for lowering BP and preventing CVD. Despite the availability of approaches to reduce BP among all racial and ethnic groups, racial disparities in systolic BP (SBP) have persisted for decades, contributing to a higher rate of CVD events and mortality among non-Hispanic Black compared with non-Hispanic White US adults.
The purpose of the present study was to estimate the number of CVD events and deaths that could be prevented among non-Hispanic Black adults by achieving SBP equity (ie, the same mean SBP as experienced by non-Hispanic White adults in the US). To accomplish this goal, we analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) as the reference standard for nationally representative BP data, the REGARDS study for contemporary estimates of CVD incidences in the US, and published estimates of the reduction in CVD events and CVD mortality with BP lowering from the Blood Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists Collaboration (BPLTTC).
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The Critical Role Payers Can Play in Closing the Oral Health Gap
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) face some of the deepest oral health disparities in the healthcare system — and the consequences are costly. Higher rates of cavities, gum disease, and tooth loss are driven by limited access to care, provider training gaps, and the sensory and mobility challenges that make routine dental care difficult. Poor oral health doesn’t stay in the mouth, either — it contributes to chronic conditions like heart disease, increasing long-term healthcare costs. As payers look for smarter ways to improve outcomes and manage spend, one emerging tool deserves serious attention: salivary diagnostics.
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Alarming surge in memory problems among young adults
An increasing share of American adults, especially those under 40, say they are struggling with memory, focus, and decision-making, according to a new study published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"Challenges with memory and thinking have emerged as a leading health issue reported by U.S. adults," said study author Adam de Havenon, MD, MS, of Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. "Our study shows that these difficulties may be becoming more widespread, especially among younger adults, and that social and structural factors likely play a key role."
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Public Health Experts Warn That Federal Policies Could Widen Racial Health Disparities
A recent Stateline article highlighted concerns among public-health experts that racial health disparities in the United States may widen as the federal government has begun dismantling programs designed to address inequities. Many grants and offices aimed at supporting health outcomes for communities of color, low-income populations, and rural areas have been terminated or scaled back. The reductions include thousands of research grants through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and related agencies, and the discontinuation of funding for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which had been used to mitigate historic gaps in care, environmental burdens and chronic-disease burden among racial and ethnic minorities.
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