Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Roanoke's Collective Public Health Activities, Michael Lytton

Journal of Appalachian Health

Roanoke is addressing problems that confront many small and medium sized cities in the U.S., especially disparities in health and life expectancy between neighborhoods. These disparities are often legacies of decades of racial and economic segregation, resulting in low-income or disinvested communities. Typically, such neighborhoods have fewer parks, higher vacancy rates and less stable affordable housing stock, inadequate public transit systems, too few clinics, too many fast food restaurants and insufficient access to high quality schools. In Roanoke these are the northwest and southeast quadrants, both federally designated Medically Underserved Areas, and characterized by a large proportion of the city’s …

The Effects Of Opioids On Kentucky's Workforce, Michael W. Clark, Jenny A. Minier, Charles J. Courtemanche, Bethany L. Paris, Michael T. Childress

CBER Research Report

From the executive summary:

Opioid abuse represents a significant and growing public health issue for both the nation and Kentucky. In 2016, opioids contributed to more than 62,000 deaths nationally and 1,406 deaths in Kentucky. National studies have placed the societal costs of opioid abuse at $55.7 billion in 2007 and $78.5 billion in 2013 (Birbaum et al. (2011) and Florence et al. (2016)). These costs included increased health care expenditures, higher criminal justice costs, and lost earnings due to reduced employment and premature deaths. The While House Council of Economic Advisors (2017) estimated the societal costs of opioid abuse …