The National Urban League Policy Institute will host an event to release their new report, The State of Urban Health: Eliminating Health Disparities to Save Lives and Cut Costs on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET in Washington, DC. A panel discussion will cover highlights of the report, which addresses the economic costs society endures when health disparities persist in our nation. Congresswoman Donna Christensen will provide opening remarks. 

HPI Director Dr. Brian Smedley will be featured on the panel.

For more information, view the event invitation.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today released a report documenting how neighborhood social and economic conditions in Baltimore powerfully shape racial and ethnic health inequities in the city.

The report, “Place Matters for Health in Baltimore:  Ensuring Opportunities for Good Health for All,” finds that residents’ place of residence is an important indicator of their health and health risks.  Importantly, because of persistent racial and class segregation, place of residence is an especially important driver of the poorer health outcomes of the city’s non-white and low-income residents.

The report, prepared by the Joint Center and the Baltimore Place Matters team, Equity Matters, Inc., in conjunction with the Center for Human Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Network for Geospatial Health Research, was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health.   The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the range of social, economic, and environmental conditions in Baltimore—particularly as it relates to the quality of housing and educational opportunities—and documents their relationship to the health status of the city’s residents.

Download this press release by clicking the link below.

Another study is adding to growing evidence that the condition of a neighborhood can have a significant impact on its residents' health.

The latest by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Equity Matters Inc. found that people living in Baltimore's lower-income neighborhoods had worse health outcomes than those in its more affluent areas.

Life expectancy varied by as much as 30 years between the city's poorest and wealthiest neighborhoods between 2005 and 2009, the study found. People lived longest in the greater Roland Park area in North Baltimore, 86.3 years, and shortest in Upton/Druid Heights, 56.7 years.

Because Baltimore has significant patterns of segregation, health disparities often align by race. For instance, in 2007 the premature death rate in Baltimore for blacks was 1.8 times higher than for whites.

Many characteristics of a neighborhood play a role in health outcomes, including access to medical care and healthful foods and exposure to violence and environmental hazards, the study found.

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Read more at The Baltimore Sun.

The report, “Place Matters for Health in Baltimore:  Ensuring Opportunities for Good Health for All,” finds that residents’ place of residence is an important indicator of their health and health risks.  Importantly, because of persistent racial and class segregation, place of residence is an especially important driver of the poorer health outcomes of the city’s non-white and low-income residents.

The report, prepared by the Joint Center and the Baltimore Place Matters team, Equity Matters, Inc., in conjunction with the Center for Human Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Network for Geospatial Health Research, was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health.   The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the range of social, economic, and environmental conditions in Baltimore—particularly as it relates to the quality of housing and educational opportunities—and documents their relationship to the health status of the city’s residents. 

The study finds that social, economic, and environmental conditions in low-income and non-white neighborhoods make it more difficult for people in these neighborhoods to live healthy lives.  Among the study’s key findings are that life expectancy in Baltimore varies by as much as 30 years depending on the census tract, and that census tracts with the lowest life expectancy tend to have a higher percentage of people of color and low-income residents.  Community-level risk factors, such as poor quality housing and education, are among the factors that predict health inequalities in the city.  Residents in census tracts characterized by a high density of liquor stores, vacant properties, rodent- or insect-infested homes, and lead exposure have an average life expectancy that is six to nine years shorter than residents of census tracts with the lowest rates of these characteristics.  Similarly, residents in areas with a better educational environment—such as a greater percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree, lower school absenteeism rates, and fewer students scoring below basic proficiency levels—live nearly nine years longer than residents of neighborhoods with poorer educational environments.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will release a report, Place Matters for Health in Baltimore:  Ensuring Equitable Opportunities for Good Health.

The report documents a 30-year difference in life expectancy across census tracts in the city.  Census tracts with a high proportion of people of color, the report finds, disproportionately suffer from a lack of investment in the opportunity structures that help people to be healthy, such as high-quality schools and housing.  Conversely, these communities tend to host a disproportionate concentration of health risks, such as environmental degradation, vendors selling unhealthy products, and unsafe streets.

The report offers a number of policy strategies to address these neighborhood-level health risks.  Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) will comment on the report.
 

Read the entire report by clicking the icon below.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will release a report, “Place Matters for Health in Baltimore:  Ensuring Equitable Opportunities for Good Health.”

The report documents a 30-year difference in life expectancy across census tracts in the city.  Census tracts with a high proportion of people of color, the report finds, disproportionately suffer from a lack of investment in the opportunity structures that help people to be healthy, such as high-quality schools and housing.  Conversely, these communities tend to host a disproportionate concentration of health risks, such as environmental degradation, vendors selling unhealthy products, and unsafe streets.

The report offers a number of policy strategies to address these neighborhood-level health risks.  Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) will comment on the report.

For full details click the link below.

In celebration of Food Day—a nationwide celebration and movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food—the Mississippi South Delta PLACE MATTERS team held a community meeting to discuss the connection between the rise in obesity and lack of affordable, healthy foods in Sharkey and Issaquena counties. The South Delta PLACE MATTERS team is part of an initiative of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies that builds the capacity of communities to address social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health and health outcomes.

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The South Delta PLACE MATTERS team intends to draw attention to the root causes of this obesity crisis: the social, economic, and environmental factors that shape Mississippians’ opportunities to be healthy. Many neighborhoods in Sharkey and Issaquena counties lack the resources that residents need in order to buy healthy foods and live active lifestyles.

Download the full press release below.

In celebration of Food Day—a nationwide celebration and movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food—the Mid-Mississippi Delta PLACE MATTERS team held two community meetings to discuss the connection between the rise in obesity and lack of affordable, healthy foods in most Delta communities. The Mid Delta PLACE MATTERS team is part of an initiative of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies that builds the capacity of communities to address social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health and health outcomes.

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The Mid Delta PLACE MATTERS team intends to draw attention to the root causes of this obesity crisis: the social, economic, and environmental factors that shape Mississippians’ opportunities to be healthy. Many Delta neighborhoods lack the resources that support easily accessible and affordable healthy eating and active lifestyles.

Download the full press release below.

Dr. Brian Smedley delivers the keynote speech at the Urban Neighborhood Initiative Symposium in Kansas City, MO on October 4, 2012. This video can be found on Vimeo.

Good nutrition can be good business when it comes to providing healthy food options in low-income neighborhoods, according to a national health expert who spoke at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

In comments delivered Thursday, Brian Smedley cited a Pennsylvania tax-incentive program targeted to grocery store developers in areas where meal options are often limited to convenience stores and fast-food restaurants.

“Many of these stores (in Pennsylvania) have achieved a triple bottom line,” said Smedley, vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. “That’s why I’m so excited about the potential of these kinds of partnerships to leverage the existing good intentions of our business community and to help them do business in communities where they simply weren’t able to in the past.”

Smedley said Kansas City’s Urban Neighborhood Initiative (UNI) is exactly the type of community partnership that can make such strides.

Smedley’s keynote address came as leaders of the initiative unveiled their action plan to an audience of about 250 civic leaders, community activists, and government officials.


Read more at Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.