Year: 2012
Funding: Jr Investigator Award
Status: Completed
Overview
This project will help establish a health equity research agenda, led by the CA PBRN that will build local health department (LHD) capacity to more effectively design and evaluate interventions aimed at improving social and physical environments. This project also expands knowledge of two specific areas within the national PHSSR agenda (1) the capabilities of LHDs to assess and monitor health outcomes and (2) the social determinants of health and health disparities. Here in California we are specifically poised to answer critical questions in Latino Health Disparities. Whereas 37% of California’s population is Latino, in some regions Latinos represent more than 50% of the population. As many as 20% of the residents in these high Latino areas live below the federal poverty level. In addition, the Latino population in some areas of California is expected to grow 350% by 2050 and it raises significant concerns for LHDs throughout the State. The goal of this project is to assess the use of tools that can be applied to advance a Health in All Policies approach by LHDs (e.g., health equity indices, health impact assessments, and local land use policy activities) and their effect on health equity and health disparities. A Health in All Policies, or HiAP, approach recognizes that health and prevention are impacted by policies that are managed by non-health government and non-government entities, and that many strategies that improve health will also help to meet the policy objectives of other agencies. The State of CA is a national leader for a HiAP approach to population health improvement and the CA PBRN is well positioned to coordinate and advance this type of research agenda.
Researcher
Mentor
Dawn Jacobson, M.D., M.P.H.
Multimedia
This Stanford Ph.D. Became A Fruit Picker To Feed California's Hungry
Research Areas