Posts Tagged ‘public health’

As Seen on the Web… Money, Health, and One Crazy Statistician

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Seriously, we’ve never been so excited to watch someone talk about statistics.

In just four minutes, learn everything you need to know about the relationship between income and lifespan, and how the wildly the world has changed since 1810. Very cool.

Soda No Longer Covered By Food Stamps

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is sometimes known as Nanny Bloomberg, but that’s not entirely fair…

  • In an effort to fight the twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the mayor of New York City and the governor of New York State have teamed up to get sugary drinks out of the hands of low-income residents. Bloomberg has already won smoking bans in restaurants and bars, and junk food bans in public schools.
  • They’ve asked the federal government to ban the sale of soda and other sugary drinks to New York City residents using food stamps. Cigarettes and alcohol are already off-limits to these customers.
  • The ban will serve as a two-year experiment to see whether reducing availability of sugary drinks reduces obesity and diabetes rates, as well as overall sales of sugary drinks. Bloomberg recently tried to add a tax on all sugary drinks, but his proposal was defeated by industry lobbyists.

Facts & Figures

  • 1.7 million city residents currently receive food stamps.
  • An estimated $135 million in federal food aid is used to purchase sugary drinks.
  • Approximately 40% of kids from kindergarten through eighth grade and 60% adults in NYC are overweight or obese.
  • Drinking one sugary drink per day increases a child’s likelihood of being obese by 60%.

Best Quote

“We’re saying you can’t use a government-subsidized health program to do it.” – Jessica Scaperotti, Mayoral Press Aide, insisting the mayor is not trying to prevent poor New Yorkers from purchasing sugary drinks

After AIDS, Bringing The Fight To Cancer

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

“Rich country problems” are starting to be recognized in the developing world.

  • Even though aid money to developing nations has typically been spent fighting contagious diseases like HIV and malaria, public health workers are now confronting a rise illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
  • The fight against noncommunicable diseases isn’t as well-funded, but funding for it has increased since 2004. Even organizations that focus their work on U.S. victims of cancer and heart disease are starting to expand into international aid.
  • One obstacle to greater funding for noncommunicable diseases is simply that donors are used to fighting AIDS and tuberculosis, not heart disease and cancer. Contagious diseases are also easier to prevent than non-contagious ones. The UN’s Millennium Development Goals don’t even address this type of illness.

Facts & Figures

  • 60% of deaths in developing nations result from noncommunicable diseases.
  • Only 3% of the $22 billion dedicated to health aid around the world is for fighting noncommunicable diseases.
  • The United Nations is holding its first high-level conference on noncommunicable diseases in 2011.

Best Quote

“We happily see declines in infectious diseases and unhappily see increases in non-infectious diseases, and donor funding has just not come close to responding to that changed health profile. There is a huge and glaring disparity.” – Rachel Nugent, Deputy Director for Global Health, Center for Global Development

Baltimore Hires For Healthy Food

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Providing healthy food to Baltimore’s poor residents has been given a face, and a salary

    • Baltimore recently became one of the first U.S. cities to hire a “food czar” – someone who works to make healthy food more accessible to the city’s poor residents.
    • But Holly Freishat, Baltimore’s food czar, lacks a budget for major food programs and so spends most of her time raising grant money.
    • Despite these challenges, Ms. Freishtat’s paid position signifies a hefty improvement in the effort to provide healthy food to a city’s residents. Though many cities have food-policy councils, few of them have managed to implement lasting changes.

    Facts & Figures

    • Ms. Freishat is paid for 30 hours of work per week
    • New York, Boston, and Kansas City have also hired food policy directors

    A Strategy To Prevent AIDS For Everyone

    Thursday, July 15th, 2010

    America is diverse, so a strategy to prevent a national problem has to be just as varied.

    • On Tuesday, President Barack Obama issued the first national AIDS plan, a strategy that is considered a milestone in the history of AIDS in America.
    • In America, AIDS users are diverse and the causes of the disease vary according to geography and economic background. Therefore, one single method of prevention cannot be applied to everyone.
    • Obama’s plan links nonprofits, organizations, businesses, and philanthropies with local governments to tailor specific prevention programs according to the surrounding demographic of AIDS users.

    Facts & Figures

    • 1 in 30 adults in Washington, D.C. are infected with HIV
    • HIV is the leading cause of death among black women of childbearing age

      In The Future, There May Be Fewer Doctors, More Patients

      Monday, June 7th, 2010

      Access to adequate medical care is a serious problem in the developing world. But could the U.S. face a similar crisis?

      • Some major medical associations are warning that there may be a deficiency of tens of thousands of doctors as soon as 2020, especially in traditionally underserved areas like inner cities and rural towns.
      • There are many reasons for this: an uneven concentration of specialists in certain fields due to compensation differences, an aging population with unique and extensive medical needs, an increasing overall population, and increased access to medical care thanks to health care reform.
      • But not everyone agrees that the problem is so dire – there are doctors who suggest that this warning is simply an attempt by medical training institutions to demand more funding.

      Facts & Figures

      • For a 30-minute office visit, Medicare will pay a general physician $103.42; it will pay $449.44 for a colonoscopy performed in the same amount of time.
      • Between 2000 and 2030, the number of Americans over 65 will double.
      • The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that by the year 2020, there will be a deficit of 65,560 primary-care physicians.

      Best Quote

      “When we talk about a shortage, we are looking at the current way we provide care to people and say it has to be provided by a primary care physician. From community health workers to other services provided by physician assistants and nurse practitioners, so much of what can be addressed in terms of routine care can be performed by others.” – Kevin Barnett, Senior Investigator, Public Health Institute (Oakland, CA)