Hello Readers!

I was contacted by a representative at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, about a current project they just completed – The County Health Rankings. The project is an “annual health check-up highlights healthiest and least healthy counties in every state.” This type of work is a great example of how Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) influence policy change within one’s local community. I’ve linked to the original article and provided an excerpt below.

Also, I will post interview questions that I’ve asked a representative from the project later in the week.

The following article is from the The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the complete article can be accessed HERE:

“A new set of reports rank the overall health of nearly every county in the nation. In its second year, the County Health Rankings continue to confirm the critical role that factors such as education, jobs, income, environment and access to health care play in how healthy people are and how long they live.

Published online at www.countyhealthrankings.org by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rankings allow people to see how their county compares with others in their state on multiple health factors and against national benchmarks. It is the only tool of its kind that measures the overall health of counties in all 50 states.”

source: The New Yorker

A great story from the January 2011 issue of the New Yorker about how health care can be provided at lower costs, while receiving personal attention from your doctor. Thanks Miguel from Simoleon Sense for referring the article!

The story features passionate health care workers who are working with their local communities to provide quality/affordable health care for “complex high-needs patients.” It proves that there are means to lower health care costs by first identifying where the highest-cost medical patients live (The Hot Spots) via GIS-mapping; then tailoring an individual’s care to target the specific health issues (versus throwing them into the E.R).

After reading the article, I explored the health coalition that was featured – the Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers.

Original Article from The New Yorker – “The Hot Spotters”

Recently, I was contacted by Barbara Dunn from Kimberly-Clark Worldwide to inform the readers of the Public Health Bugle about the organization’s campaign to prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections.

The Department of Health & Human Services recently released its annual report on the quality of health care Americans receive. While there have been some improvements, hospitals still have work to do to put an end to the ongoing – but solvable – problem of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs).

To help achieve this goal, Kimberly-Clark Health Care launched “Not on My Watch” (www.haiwatch.com), a website that provides tools and information to help facilities eliminate HAIs.

Check it out!

Thanks Barbara

The star of Food Networks’s “The Naked Chief,” Jamie Oliver, has committed himself to change the state of school cafeteria lunches.  Here is his letter to the nation on this pressing issue from ABC.com:

Jamie’s Petition

You can also see Jamie on his new show “Food Revolution,” which airs on ABC. I have been keeping up with it and must say it’s very interesting and has given me ideas for future initiatives in my local neighborhood.

Follow the link to ABC.com and watch full episodes from your computer:

Food Revolution

Marriages at later ages was a micro-trend that I was brought to my attention over a year ago. Later data supports this continuing trend. So what does it mean for communities where raising a family at an early age is expected?

Original Post

(source: Gap Minder)

There are large differences across the world in the age at the first marriage for girls. Some regions have experienced a dramatic increase. This can be seen in the new dataset compiled by Gapminder. Arab women who used to marry very early, now marry later and later. Today a couple is expected to have their own place to live as married. Hence, many families are forced to save for a long time before the young ones are able to marry. This social norm is a relative new phenomenon and is a major explanation for the increased marriage age.