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.

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.

Increasing Access to Healthy Food & Exercise in Public Housing

The National Center for Health in Public Housing (NCHPH) released a new publication, Increasing Access to Healthy Food and Exercise in Public Housing Communities, that addresses the existing challenges of living in communities with poor access to healthy foods and safe places to exercise. It includes examples of Public Health Housing Primary Care Grantee strategies and programs that have increased access to healthy food, exercise and weight control.

Pennsylvania Governor Wolf’s Administration Releases Ready to Start Task Force Report

During the week of September 23, 2019, the Wolf Administration released a report, “Governor’s Ready to Start Task Force: A Four-Year Framework to Support Pennsylvania’s Infants and Toddlers,” for how best to care for the state’s youngest residents.

Research shows that a child’s brain develops faster in the first three years than at any later period in life, building the foundation for all future learning, behavior and health. The Wolf Administration is an invaluable partner in helping set Pennsylvania’s youngest children on a path for future success in school and life, and we look forward to continuing to advance our shared goal of expanding access to high-quality programs for infants, toddlers, and their families.

Pennsylvania is 1 of 10 States with An Increased Number of Children Living in Concentrated Poverty

Growing up in a community of concentrated poverty — that is, a neighborhood where 30 percent or more of the population is living in poverty — is one of the greatest risks to child development.

Alarmingly, 1 in 8 children in Pennsylvania live in concentrated poverty according to Children Living in High Poverty, Low-Opportunity Neighborhoods,” a new KIDS COUNT® data snapshot released from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Other findings from the snapshot show that:

  • In Pennsylvania, 42 percent of Black or African American children live in concentrated poverty, which is worse than the national average of 28 percent. The number of Hispanic children living in concentrated poverty in Pennsylvania is 35 percent, also worse than the national average (19 percent).
  • Additionally, 36 percent of children under 18 in Pennsylvania live in low-income families. Approximately 44 percent of children under 18 in rural counties and 34 percent of children under 18 in urban counties are low income, according to our State of the Child

Federal, state and local governments must act to revitalize impoverished communities and transform them into areas of opportunity.

New Brief: CAH Participation in Flex Financial and Operational Improvement Activities

The national Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex) Monitoring Team has released a new policy brief on Critical Access Hospital (CAH) participation in Flex financial and operational improvement activities. The brief aims to identify the patterns of CAH participation in Flex-funded activities from 2015 to 2018 and to investigate whether CAHs at greater risk of financial distress were more likely to participate in financial and operational improvement activities.  The brief may accessed via the link below or on the Flex Monitoring Team website.