Dr. Jermane Bond of the Health Policy Institute will make a Grand Rounds presentation entitled "The Other 'P-Value': Paternal Involvement in Pregnancy Outcomes" at the University of Nebraska Medical Center on Wednesday, April 18, 2012. The presentation will review racial and ethnic disparities in pregnancy outcomes, describe historical and contemporary aspects of paternal involvement, and identify pathways to improve paternal involvement in pregnancy outcomes.

A live stream of the presentation will be available at http://hog.unmc.edu:8080/ramgen/broadcast/cophgrlive.rm. RealPlayer will be needed for viewing.

More information on the presentation can be found at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

On March 21, 2012 Dr. Brian Smedley will moderate a webinar sponsored by Communities Joined in Action, focusing on health inequities.  Racial and ethnic health inequities persist from the cradle to the grave, in the form of higher rates of infant mortality, disease and disability, and premature mortality for many communities of color relative to national averages.The causes of these inequities are complex, but are associated with differences in socioeconomic status, environmental risks and exposures, occupational exposures, health behaviors, and access to health care.At their core, many of these factors can be traced to differences in neighborhood and work environments that are the result of residential segregation and other structural inequalities.

This presentation explores how neighborhood and community contexts directly and indirectly shape health and contribute to health inequities as a result of racial and ethnic residential segregation.The presentation will also feature a discussion of policy strategies that de-concentrate poverty and increase investments in health-enhancing resources in communities that suffer from disinvestment.

Objectives:
1. Participants should be able to identify social and economic conditions that shape health and health inequities.
2. Participants should be able to identify why residential segregation is a root cause of these inequities.
3. Participants should be able to identify at least three policy strategies (i.e., land use) that can address these inequities.

For more information about the webinar visit the Communities Joined in Action website, here.

Where you live can be an indicator of how long you'll live, according to a new study on San Joaquin Valley health.

Published by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, the report found that in counties spanning from Tulare to Stanislaus, life expectancy varied markedly by ZIP code. In the most extreme cases, there was as much as a 21-year difference between neighborhoods.

“It doesn’t have to do with the attributes of the individuals in a community, but often the conditions they find themselves living in,” Brian Smedley, Vice President and Director of the center’s Health Policy Institute, said of the wide swing in life expectancy across the valley. “Some people in neighborhoods that enjoy the best and worst health are just a few miles apart.”

Read more at California Watch.

WASHINGTON—Health disparities are creating economic burdens for families, communities and the nation’s health care system. Across the country, infant mortality and chronic diseases continue to affect people of color at rates far higher than those for whites.

In recent years, the focus has increased on the impact of disparities on minority communities, with public officials, community activists, civic leaders and health care experts proposing ways to improve access to medical care and raise awareness of positive benefits of preventive care. But health experts say the economic toll of health disparities and substantial costs associated with lost productivity are being overlooked. 

“Racial and ethnic groups have higher incidences of diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer, et cetera,” says Brian D. Smedley, vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. “That prevalence [of chronic diseases] comes with a price tag in terms of excess direct medical costs, nearly $230 billion over a four-year period that we studied.”

Read more at americaswire.org.

The Howard University Initiative on Democracy, Markets, Communication, and Technology will hold a one-day symposium on disparities in U.S. healthcare on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at the Blackburn University Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Brian Smedley of the Health Policy Institute will be a panelist at this event.

For more information, visit Howard University.

Grantmakers in Health will hold its 2012 annual meeting on health philanthropy, entitled Health and Equity for all, from March 7 through March 9 in Baltimore, Maryland. This event will examine and discuss philanthropy's role in moving the nation's health agenda forward. Dr. Brian Smedley of the Health Policy Institute will headline the National Alliance for Health Equity breakfast on Thursday, March 8 from 7 to 8:30 AM.

For more information on the meeting, please visit Grantmakers in Health.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and San Joaquin Valley PLACE MATTERS team today released a report, “Place Matters for Health in the San Joaquin Valley: Ensuring Opportunities for Good Health for All,”  that provides a comprehensive analysis of the range of social, economic, and environmental conditions in communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley (Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, and Tulare Counties) and documents their relationship to the health status of valley residents.

The study, supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health, 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.  The study shows that the rate of premature deaths in the lowest-income zip codes of the San Joaquin Valley is nearly twice that of those in the highest-income zip codes.  In addition, the study found that life expectancy varies by as much as 21 years in the San Joaquin Valley depending on zip code—in the zip codes with lowest life expectancy, people can live to be only about 69 years or less, while people can live to be 90 years or more in zip codes with the highest life expectancy.  Zip codes with the lowest life expectancy tend to have a higher percentage of Hispanic and low-income residents.

The report was released at the opening of the PLACE MATTERS: Action Lab, a convening of over 80 health experts and community leaders from across the nation. Conference participants will learn about ongoing initiatives to address the policy and environmental determinants of racial/ethnic and other group differences in health and well-being.

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Summaries of the report are available in English and in Spanish. Download:

• Full report
• Spanish-language summary
• English-language summary
• VCU Center On Human Needs

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of how neighborhood differences in a range of social, economic and environmmental conditions are linked to health outcomes in the San Joaquin Valley. It finds that the conditions in low-income and non-white neighborhoods make it more difficut for people in these neighborhoods to live healthy lives.

This is a summary. The full report is here.

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of how neighborhood differences in a range of social, economic and environmmental conditions are linked to health outcomes in the San Joaquin Valley. It finds that the conditions in low-income and non-white neighborhoods make it more difficut for people in these neighborhoods to live healthy lives.

This is a Spanish language summary. The full report is here.