The Smoking Gap

Pained ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 163-166
Author(s):  
Michael D. Stein ◽  
Sandro Galea
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Smoking Prevalence ◽  
Premature Mortality ◽  
The United States ◽  
High School Education ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Smoking Rate ◽  
American Southeast ◽  
Education Groups ◽  
College Educated

This chapter discusses the smoking gap. Fifty years ago, smoking prevalence for all education groups was clustered at the 40%–45% mark. Five decades later, 6.5% of college-educated individuals continue to smoke, while the prevalence is more than triple that among those with a high school education or less (23.1%). These smokers tend to be disadvantaged socially and economically, and bear the majority of morbidity and premature mortality. As such, in the process of lowering smoking overall, people have created a smoking gap between those who are well-educated and those who are less educated, between those with higher and lower incomes. However, the smoking gap is not restricted only to socioeconomic status. Geography is also at play. “Tobacco Nation”—a swath across the American Southeast where 700 million pounds of tobacco are harvested annually, and rates of smoking remain higher than elsewhere—suggests that policy, culture, and the persistent influence of the tobacco industry in this region has shaped who smokes and who does not in the United States. Other studies have documented the high tobacco retailer density in neighborhoods with larger proportions of African Americans, the ethnic group with the highest smoking prevalence. The chapter then details what people can learn from the smoking gap and the best public health approach to reduce the smoking rate.

scholarly journals Healthy People 2020 Objectives for Violence Prevention and the Role of Nursing

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Simon ◽  
Kimberly Hurvitz
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Violence Prevention ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Youth Violence ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Healthy People ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Healthy People 2020

Violence, including child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence, is a significant public health problem in the United States. A public health approach can help providers understand the health burden from violence, evaluate evidence for prevention strategies, and learn where to turn for information about planning and implementing prevention strategies for this preventable problem. For the past three decades, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has published “Healthy People” objectives for the next decade. The Healthy People 2020 initiative includes 13 measurable objectives related to violence prevention, one of which was selected as a Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicator. Progress to achieve these objectives can save thousands of lives, reduce the suffering of victims and their families, and decrease financial cost to the law enforcement and healthcare systems. The role that nurses can and do play in violence prevention is critical and extends beyond just caring for victims to also include preventing violence before it happens. This article summarizes the violence prevention objectives in Healthy People 2020 and the resources for prevention available to support nurses and others as they move prevention efforts forward in communities to stop violence before it starts.

Pornography as a US Public Health Problem

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Emily F. Rothman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Sexually Explicit Material ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Dating Abuse ◽  
Explicit Material ◽  
Sexually Explicit

Pornography is being indicted as a public health crisis in the United States and elsewhere, but the professional public health community is not behind the recent push to address pornography as a public health threat. While pornography may not be contributing directly to mortality or acute morbidity for a substantial percentage of people, it may be influencing other public health problems, such as sexual violence, dating abuse, compulsive behavior, and sexually transmitted infections. However, the evidence to support pornography as a causal factor is mixed, and there are numerous other factors that have more strongly established associations with these outcomes of interest. Throughout history, repressive forces have inflated the charges against sexually explicit material in order to advance a morality-based agenda. Nevertheless, a public health approach and tried public health practices, such as harm reduction and coalition-building, will be instrumental to addressing the emergence of mainstream Internet pornography.

A public health approach for Asian people with problem gambling in foreign countries

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samson Tse ◽  
John Wong ◽  
Hyeeun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Problem Gambling ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
Asian Immigration ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Asian People

There has been a rapid increase in Asian immigration to English-speaking countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Anecdotal accounts and research suggest high levels of participation in gambling by people from Asian countries. Asian problem gambling is seen as being a social rather than an individual problem compounded by difficulties with post-migration adjustment. Contemporary public health perspectives are not limited to the biological and behavioural dimensions, but can also address socioeconomic determinants such as income, employment, poverty, and access to social and healthcare services related to gambling and health. This paper discusses how a public health viewpoint can lead to effective strategies against problem gambling. The five principles proposed in this paper are: (1) acknowledging similarities and differences within Asian populations, (2) ensuring that strategies are evidence-based, (3) treating Asian problem gambling in an acculturation framework, (4) addressing the issue of shame associated with problem gambling among Asian people, and (5) targeting at-risk sub-groups.

Increases in Premature Mortality Due to Homicide — United States, 1968-1985

1989 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverly Martinez-Schnell ◽  
Richard J. Waxweiler
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Causes Of Death ◽  
Premature Mortality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Relative Impact ◽  
Age At Death

From 1968 to 1985, the rate of homicide in the United States has increased 44%. Its relative impact on premature mortality, as measured by the percentage of years of potential life lost (YPLL) before age 65 from all causes of death due to homicide, has nearly doubled (93% increase). This increase calls attention to the emerging importance of interpersonal violence relative to all public health problems affecting persons under 65 years of age. The percentage of YPLL from all causes of death due to homicide increased in each race/sex group and for both firearm and nonfirearm means of homicide. The increase in homicide YPLL was traced mainly to an increase in the number of homicide deaths and, to a smaller extent, to a decrease in the average age at death of homicide victims.

scholarly journals Chagas Disease in the United States: a Public Health Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caryn Bern ◽  
Louisa A. Messenger ◽  
Jeffrey D. Whitman ◽  
James H. Maguire
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Chagas Disease ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Gastrointestinal Disease ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Diagnostic Test Performance ◽  
Improve Access

SUMMARY Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas disease, usually transmitted by triatomine vectors. An estimated 20 to 30% of infected individuals develop potentially lethal cardiac or gastrointestinal disease. Sylvatic transmission cycles exist in the southern United States, involving 11 triatomine vector species and infected mammals such as rodents, opossums, and dogs. Nevertheless, imported chronic T. cruzi infections in migrants from Latin America vastly outnumber locally acquired human cases. Benznidazole is now FDA approved, and clinical and public health efforts are under way by researchers and health departments in a number of states. Making progress will require efforts to improve awareness among providers and patients, data on diagnostic test performance and expanded availability of confirmatory testing, and evidence-based strategies to improve access to appropriate management of Chagas disease in the United States.

Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories and Violent Extremism on the Far Right: a Public Health Approach to Counter-Radicalization

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Bradley Byington
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Public ◽  
Societal Benefits ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Conspiracy Thinking

Conspiracy theories, and especially antisemitic conspiracy theories, form a core ideological component of right-wing violent extremism in the United States. This article argues that conspiracy narratives and their psychological antecedents are key to understanding the ideological appeal of right-wing extremist formations such as white supremacist and Christian Identity movements, providing insight into the motivations and behaviors of those individual participants who become sufficiently radicalized to carry out terrorist actions. It is further proposed that standard radicalization models can be enhanced for applications specific to right-wing extremism through an understanding of conspiracy thinking (both antisemitic and otherwise), and that this understanding can assist in addressing the motivated roots of the ideologies that sustain this particular type of violent extremism through a public health approach to counter-radicalization that aims to “inoculate” the public against the cognitive tendencies exemplified in antisemitic con- spiracy theories and in conspiracist culture more generally. The proposed approach would complement existing efforts in a unique way, as it would have the potential not only to improve public security, but also to provide further societal benefits by countering other negative tendencies associated with conspiracy belief (for example, decreased intention to vaccinate). This would provide an exceptional cost versus benefit ratio while supporting existing counter-radicalization programs and leaving them intact.

Differences in Mortality Rates of Gunshot Victims: The Influence of Neighborhood Social Processes

2021 ◽  
pp. 108876792110471
Author(s):  
Lauren A. Magee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Community Factors ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Firearm Violence ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Physical Features

Firearm violence is considered a public health crisis in the United States. Firearm violence spatially concentrates within neighborhoods and is associated with community factors; however, little is understood about the geographic differences in gunshot wound mortality and associated neighborhood social processes. Applying a public health approach through the Haddon’s Matrix, the results demonstrate systematic differences in social and physical features associated with gunshot mortality. These findings have important implications to improve neighborhood physical and social conditions, police transporting gunshot victims, and police-public health partnerships to improve data collection on nonfatal shootings and shots fired.

scholarly journals An Integrated Public Health Approach to Interpersonal Violence and Suicide Prevention and Response

2018 ◽  
Vol 133 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 65S-79S ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele R. Decker ◽  
Holly C. Wilcox ◽  
Charvonne N. Holliday ◽  
Daniel W. Webster
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Community Violence ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Violence Risk ◽  
Public Health Burden ◽  
The Public ◽  
Age Related

Violence is a leading source of morbidity and mortality in the United States. In this article, we suggest a public health framework for preventing community violence, intimate partner violence and sexual violence, and suicide as key forms of interpersonal and self-directed violence. These types of violence often co-occur and share common risk and protective factors. The gender, racial/ethnic, and age-related disparities in violence risk can be understood through an intersectionality framework that considers the multiple simultaneous identities of people at risk. Important opportunities for cross-cutting interventions exist, and intervention strategies should be examined for potential effectiveness on multiple forms of violence through rigorous evaluation. Existing evidence-based approaches should be taken to scale for maximum impact. By seeking to influence the policy and normative context of violence as much as individual behavior, public health can work with the education system, criminal justice system, and other sectors to address the public health burden of interpersonal violence and suicide.

Myths, Mysteries, and Monsters: When Shaken Babies Make the News

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi J. Hennink-Kaminski ◽  
Elizabeth K. Dougall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
News Media ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Shaken Baby Syndrome ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
News Reports

As the predominant cause of infant head injury that often results in death or long-term disability, Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is both a criminal act and a public health concern. This article reports the findings of a qualitative content analysis of SBS-related news coverage from 1996 to 2007, exploring how broadcast and print news media categorize, frame, and source stories about SBS. This study reveals that while the legitimacy of SBS is widely acknowledged by child abuse experts in the United States, news reports typically frame SBS as a questionable diagnosis, the perpetrators as monsters, and the act of abuse unpreventable. Further, thematic health coverage appeared least frequently of all story types, reflecting a criminal justice rather than public health approach to reporting about SBS. These findings have several implications for crafting the media campaign strategy for The Period of PURPLE Crying: Keeping Babies Safe in North Carolina.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document