Three articles just published in the American Journal of Public Health address home-visit programs for expectant and new parents. As accumulating research finds these interventions to improve children’s health and development, will the Affordable Care Act’s funding for home-visit programs be renewed?
The day I spoke with Idaho minimum wage activist Anne Nesse, it was quite cold in her hometown of Coeur d’Alene — 29 degrees, to be exact. The harsh winters came up more than once during our conversation about low wages in the northwestern state.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about preterm birth and we know even less about the disparities in those births.” Those are words from Ondine von Ehrenstein, who recently examined the links between occupational exposures and preterm birth rates among Hispanic women.
Public Health Practice
Worth reading: West Virginia chemical release, antibiotics in agriculture, and using statistics to tackle substance abuse
Reporters and bloggers delve into the chemical release that tainted tap water for thousands of West Virginians; the problem of antibiotic overuse by livestock producers, and what to do about it; how one statistician is working to advance effective treatments for substance abuse; and more.
Addiction & Substance Abuse
Fifty years and 8 million lives saved since the first surgeon general’s smoking report
It’s probably my earliest public health memory — the image of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and his grandfatherly beard on the television warning my elementary school self about the dangers of smoking. He was the first doctor I knew by name.
With so much pressure on the Affordable Care Act to immediately live up to high expectations, and with opponents who seem gleeful at the news that Americans are having a hard time signing up for affordable health care, it’s reassuring to read that the health reform law can readily take a few blows and keep moving forward.
I am always just a little skeptical about public health education. Do students learn to apply the principles they learn? Recently, I was able to answer in the affirmative, at least about a single occurrence.
Public Health Practice
10 years after SARS: Are healthcare systems ready for the next global public health emergency?
On March 12, 2003, the World Health Organization issued a global health alert for an atypical pneumonia that was soon dubbed SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome. Ten years later, the International Health Regulations have been revised, but the US isn’t doing enough to maintain its surveillance and response capabilities. (Re-post, by Liz Borkowski)
Public Health Practice
In tight fiscal times, National Public Health Week highlights the return on public health investments
The 2013 National Public Health Week highlighted the theme of “Public Health ROI: Save Lives, Save Money.” (Re-post, by Kim Krisberg)
People who hold down more than one job not only experience an increased risk of injury at work, but while they’re not at work as well, according to a new study.