Tackling ‘Food Deserts’ in Illinois June 5, 2009
Posted by Katelyn Mack in Disparities, Neighborhoods, Nutrition, Politics.2 comments
A FRESH FOOD FUND has been established in Illinois to address the problems associated with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables in low-income, underserved areas of the State. Also known as ‘food deserts’, these areas see higher rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and overall poor health of children and adults. Often they exist at the intersection of many vulnerabilities for poor health including structural violence, low socioeconomic status, racial segregation, and lack of access to health care.
According to a recent news digest report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Illinois General Assembly has recently funded supermarket expansion into underserved areas of the state in order to improve the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables in those locations.
Pennsylvania began a Fresh Food Financing Initiative in 2004 to incentivize the growth of corner stores (remember those neighborhood grocery stores back in the day?) and eliminate food deserts. New York City is also trying to provide tax and monetary incentives to small businesses to provide fresh produce in poor neighborhoods. (Both discussed in a recent New York Times editorial)
To learn more about what is happening around the nation to eliminate food deserts and its associated health disparities check out TheFoodTrust.org.
Public Health Commission Convenes Forum to Discuss Dating Violence April 24, 2009
Posted by Katelyn Mack in Children and Adolescents, Events, Neighborhoods, Violence.5 comments
This afternoon, the Boston Public Health Commission along with Northeastern University brought together stakeholders and citizens interested in learning more about youth attitudes toward dating violence and current activities to prevent intimate abuse and reach out to teens.
Soon after Chris Brown’s assault on Rihanna in February, the Commission conducted a survey of 200 teens to examine their attitude toward dating violence, and the Rihanna-Chris Brown incident specifically. The results: staggering.
- 44% of youth said fighting was a normal part of a relationship.
- 46% said Rihanna was responsible for the incident.
- 52% said both individuals were to blame (despite knowing that Rihanna had been beaten badly enough to require hospital treatment)
Young people from various violence prevention organizations sat on a panel to discuss the findings and share their own views on dating violence and its meaning for Boston teens. They gave excellent commentary and provided strong insight into some of the causes of partner violence, especially witnessing domestic violence in your own family, and the lack of awareness and communication about the issue.
Boston is in a strong position to address dating violence; they have a Division of Violence Prevention and recently received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop programs and change norms around dating violence among young adolescents. The RWJF program is called Strong Start: Building Healthy Teen Relationships and is directed by Casey Corcoran.
The organizers were extremely cognizant of the need to include young people in the discussion, especially in dicussing what the results of this survey really mean.
Strong Start intends to continue these conversations in neighborhoods throughout the city. If you hear about one near you — go! And if you have kids, bring them too!
What Teenagers REALLY Think April 22, 2009
Posted by healthandsociety in Children and Adolescents, Neighborhoods.add a comment
The teenage mind is a funny thing. On one level, teens are capable of complex logical reasoning that is equivalent to that of an adult, by about age 16. But cool-headed comprehension is not the same as decision making, judgment and planning – also known as executive function, these competencies don’t finish developing until as late as 25. Moreover, at puberty the brain’s sensitivity to dopamine – or the “reward” neurotransmitter – changes, so that teens seek out greater thrills and risks to get the same level of satisfaction they had in childhood, also known as “reward deficiency syndrome.”
Early adolescent brain changes that encourage risk taking, late adolescent brain development of impulse control and self regulation: a temporal window for the perfect storm that makes the teenage years so turbulent.
So what does all of this biologically-driven, individualistic neuroscience mumbo jumbo have to do with the social factors and influences that affect health?
One: Because the other decision-making portions of their brains haven’t developed yet, teens rely on their emotions to help them make decisions. This also makes them particularly susceptible to peer influence. Ever notice that most risk-taking by teens occurs in groups? Who your peers are, their norms and expectations, these are all influenced largely by environment.
Two: Many high risk behaviors begin in adolescence. If we really want to learn more about preventing violence, alcohol and drug abuse, risky sexual practices, many have their roots in this period of vulnerability to risk-taking.
Three: Interactions between genes and environment shape the brain’s development. Adolescence is a period of great brain development that begins with a wave of proliferation of neural synapses, followed by pruning and myelination; you trade plasticity and potential for increased competency and faster connections between the brain cells that remain. It is critical to create safe, supportive environments in which teenagers can develop. This means supportive home environments, school environments, neighborhoods. This is an interactive process between biology and social context, between neurons and neighborhoods.
Families and individuals are constrained by external forces that shape the flexibility and choices they have. Parents cannot provide oversight to their children if they have a 3 hour daily commute of bus connections or traffic-logged highways, or if they have to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. We need safe neighborhoods for our children. The family unit is important, but families do not exist in a vacuum. Poverty and income inequality, access to healthy foods, neighbors and friends who can lend a hand, safety and crime, presence of sidewalks or parks to facilitate exercise, these all affect a family and individual’s options to lead a healthy life.
Four: In order to truly understand how the larger social context affects teenagers, we should understand the brain’s response to this context, and which tools we can capitalize upon to effect change.
At the very least, the next time a teen acts out – in your life, or as portrayed in the media – you’ll hvae a better understanding as to why.
Top 5 April 1, 2009
Posted by Michelle Lugalia in Health Reform, Neighborhoods, Politics, Top 5.1 comment so far
The following are the Top 5 health issues (besides the peanut scare) that I’ve seen a lot in the news, heard on the bus, talked to friends about…some socially determined…others not quite…wait…who am I kidding? I’m in SHDH…anything can be socially determined. Right?
- The air is thick with debate about autism and its causes. Whose fault is it? Folks across the country are increasingly opting to pass on routine shots yet the powers that be have declared that there is no evidence that it is those pesky, meddling vaccines that we all had shot into our arms back in the day after all (whew)! But with emerging outbreaks in new and specific populations there still is much mystery around where it comes from, who it touches, why and what it means for our futures.
- Health care reform. Seems like everyone’s in the mood…or getting there, but thank goodness the administration is all about it. But what do some of the highlights tell us about the shape that our health system will eventually take and what priorities will be championed? What will make the final cut, who will be the model for health systems reform? Who’s gonna pay for it and who determines it all? From senior advocacy groups to insurance companies, everyone seems to want their say. Rumor has it that those special interests are still alive and kicking…and may be the real determinants of many of our public health troubles. Only time will tell. At least in terms of bipartisan support our administration seems to have learned from history, let’s hope it works.
- The recession is KILLING US! Apparently.
- The first lady is championing food access and building a platform of support for the benefits of local, organic produce. Change has come to the White House and the administration in several forms and is now itching to take over our school cafeterias in an effort to begin addressing obesity and malnutrition in schoolchildren ….Yes we can! I’m gonna go find a patch of land and start digging too, Tom Vilsak style!
- Finally, some issues never die even though they should have a long time ago. Believe it or not lead still lurks amongst us! Do you know what is in your backyard? Shout out to Head Start whose routine screening detected the young boy’s lead levels. Attention public health practitioners, we can change the world …one federally funded public health intervention at a time!
New Evidence for Fast Food and Obesity April 1, 2009
Posted by Katelyn Mack in Neighborhoods, Nutrition.add a comment
There is new evidence that going to school close to fast food chains increases adolescents’ risk of obesity. A National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper published in February and recently reported on by the New York Times provides strong evidence that living close to (for pregnant women) or going to school near (for high-school students) a fast food outlet is associated with increased rates of obesity, after accounting for income, education, and race.
By comparing students in the same grade in years before and after the fast food outlet opened, there is a strong case for the temporal ordering and even causal effect of fast food chains on adolescent obesity.
Most articles written about obesity and overweight focus on individual-level risk factors, specifically diet and physical activity. I do not deny that those modifiable risk factors are important, but they simply do not paint the whole picture of the myriad social forces that affect overweight and obesity. Indeed, they likely cause those unhealthy diets and physical inactivity in the first place. Furthermore, better understanding the social factors can provide great opportunities for population-based interventions.
I was most excited to see that the New York Times article considered public policy interventions that could result from these findings. Namely,
zoning laws that prohibit fast-food restaurants near schools
according to Kelly Brownell (cited in the NYTimes article).
While this by no means settles the controversy of the contribution of fast food chains in the development and continuation of the obesity ‘epidemic,’ it is one more carefully conducted study to be added to the mix.
