The United States has seen decreases in life expectancy and increases in obesity and drug overdose rates, as well as steadily increasing overall health care costs, according to a recent report from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics that spotlights the state of health in the country. For example, the report found that average life expectancy at birth decreased to 78.6 years in 2017, from 78.7 years in 2016. (Source: Axios‘ “Vitals,” 10/30)
Report Assesses Children’s Drink Choices
A new report from the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity assesses the sales, nutrition, and marketing of children’s drinks. Their findings show that sweetened drinks with added sugars and often low-calorie sweeteners continue to dominate sales and advertising of drinks marketed for children’s consumption. Overconsumption of these drinks can have adverse effects on children’s oral and overall health.
2019’s Fattest States in America + Diabetes Facts & Statistics – WalletHub Reports
With November being National Diabetes Awareness Month and Americans collectively spending nearly $200 billion per year on obesity-related health costs, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2019’s Fattest States in America as well as accompanying videos, along with interesting stats about diabetes in its Facts & Statistics infographic.
To determine which states contribute the most to America’s overweight and obesity problem, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 29 key metrics. They range from share of overweight and obese population to sugary-beverage consumption among adolescents to obesity-related health care costs.
Young Adults Who Inject Drugs at Risk for Hepatitis C Virus
Young adults aged 18-29 years old who live in rural areas and self-report injection drug use are at risk for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Researchers in New Mexico identified gaps in knowledge about risk and prevention, screening, treatment, and reinfection as a source of this risk and highlight the importance of risk reduction counseling by frontline public health providers. The study was published earlier this year and is now available in the library of the National Institutes of Health. Click here for the full report.
Understanding the Dynamics of Rural Communities in America
A report from the RAND Corporation “describes a basic, multi-level framework for mapping the system of factors and mechanisms that most influence positive and negative outcomes in rural communities.” Researchers sought to go beyond data and statistics on national trends and investigate variables at the local level. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization researching solutions to public policy challenges.
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children’s Annual State of Children’s Health Care Report Released
The opportunity to prosper begins with preventive health care when children are young. A healthy start includes immunizations, screenings, regular dental care, well-child visits and access to nutritious food. However, 124,000 Pennsylvania children do not have health insurance, and children under six are the most likely to be without coverage according to our newest report, “State of Children’s Health Care in Pennsylvania: Powering Up Healthy Kids.”
While Pennsylvania’s uninsured rate falls below the national average, it remains stagnant at 4.4 percent, with Pennsylvania ranking in the middle of the pack at 24th for the percentage of uninsured children.
According to a new report released by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, the number of uninsured children increased nationally by more than 400,000 between 2016 and 2018, reversing a long-standing positive trend.
No child should be without health care insurance and our report sets a clear agenda to strengthen both access and coverage benefits in health care for the Commonwealth’s children.
Research: Policy Change and Implementation of a Needle Exchange Program Averts More than 10,000 Potential Diagnoses of HIV
Syringe exchange programs (SEP) reduce HIV incidence associated with injection drug use (IDU), but legislation often prohibits implementation. We examined the policy change impact allowing for SEP implementation on HIV diagnoses among people who inject drugs in 2 US cities.
Using surveillance data from Philadelphia (1984–2015) and Baltimore (1985–2013) for IDU-associated HIV diagnoses, we used autoregressive integrated moving averages modeling to conduct 2 tests to measure policy change impact. We forecast the number of expected HIV diagnoses per city had policy not changed in the 10 years after implementation and compared it with the number of observed diagnoses postpolicy change, obtaining an estimate for averted HIV diagnoses. We then used interrupted time series analysis to assess the immediate step and trajectory impact of policy change implementation on IDU-attributable HIV diagnoses.
The Philadelphia (1993–2002) model predicted 15,248 new IDU-associated HIV diagnoses versus 4656 observed diagnoses, yielding 10,592 averted HIV diagnoses over 10 years. The Baltimore model (1995–2004) predicted 7263 IDU-associated HIV diagnoses versus 5372 observed diagnoses, yielding 1891 averted HIV diagnoses over 10 years. Considering program expenses and conservative estimates of public sector savings, the 1-year return on investment in SEPs remains high: $243.4 M (Philadelphia) and $62.4 M (Baltimore).
The authors conclude that pPolicy change is an effective structural intervention with substantial public health and societal benefits, including reduced HIV diagnoses among people who inject drugs and significant cost savings to publicly funded HIV care.
Access the full report here.
DentaQuest Report Part 1: The Burden of Dental Care Costs for Low-Income Families
Did you know that people living in poverty spend ten times more as a proportion of their annual family income on dental services than high-income families? Click here to read Part 1 of our 3-part series that outlines barriers to dental care based on income, and how expansion of an adult dental benefit could increase access to care and reduce out-of-pocket costs.
Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 in our series about the burden of out-of-pocket costs of dental care for low-income families. Visit our Research page for other research briefs, white papers, articles and more.
Read the report from DentaQuest here: https://www.dentaquestpartnership.org/system/files/Poverty%20Report.pdf
Disrupting Food Insecurity
Researchers at the Urban Institute identified several factors that contribute to a higher rate of insecurity in rural areas. Their report features an interactive map with county-level data on these risk factors and a rural-specific list of facts and resources to disrupt food insecurity. The report can be accessed here.
Challenges to Mapping Broadband Availability
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) serves all congressional committees and Members of Congress by analyzing all aspects of current policies and the impact of proposed policy alternatives. In this report, the CRS identifies the federal agencies involved in mapping broadband access across the United States, and factors contributing to the urban/rural digital divide. The Federal Communications Commission currently has a map that shows residential internet service connections per 1,000 households and the CRS report seeks to make it easier to understand how rural areas are impacted. The report can be accessed here.