Health Policy Commons^™

Cancer Patient Perspectives During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Thematic Analysis Of Cancer Blog Posts, Matthew A. Hintermayer, Mark Sorin, Joan M. Romero, Sarah M. Maritan, Owen J. Chen, Surabhi Rawal

Patient Experience Journal

The content of online cancer patient blogs has previously been analyzed to inform physicians about the cancer experience and patient concerns. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly affected cancer patients due to their vulnerable health status, as well as changes in cancer testing and treatment. We sought to qualitatively describe the concerns and experiences expressed online by cancer patients, survivors, and family members in relation to COVID-19. 152 blog posts written by cancer patients, survivors, or family members, were selected using combined Boolean searches and snowball sampling. Reviewers extracted subthemes from blog posts using line-by-line text analysis until …

Patient-Centric Culture And Implications For Patient Engagement During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Umair Majid, Aghna Wasim

Patient Experience Journal

Some consider patient engagement as the “holy grail” of healthcare because of its potential to revolutionize how we view and address health system problems. Multiple efforts around the world have attempted to cultivate a patient-centric culture whereby health services are grounded by the needs and preferences of patients. Recently, health service organizations are engaging patients in a wide array of activities including research and quality improvement. There are many ethical imperatives and economic and social benefits to patient engagement such as higher patient self-esteem and trust, and a more cost-efficient system. However, these benefits have been realized in some contexts …

Moving Forward To The Future Of Healthcare, Jason A. Wolf

Patient Experience Journal

To say this moment in our shared global history feels shaky or uncertain for so many is not a statement of despair. Rather, it is acknowledging a reality through which we can best act and hopefully step through. As of the time this editorial will publish, well over 50 million cases of COVID-19 will have been reported. This is a reality all of humanity is sharing together; it is a challenge that healthcare is being called on to tackle. The work of people around the world to care for the sick, to find the right treatments and vaccines and the …

Scholars And Sense

DePaul Magazine

Four DePaul alumni who were the recipients of McNair scholarships have gone on to careers of servies. Pedro Serrano is a public health researcher who most recently has been working on how COVID-19 is affecting people's emotional, physical and mental health. Pascale Ife Williams, a human ecologist, engages is culture and arts initiatives that lift up communities oppressed by institutional inequity. Peter Dziedzic explores interfaith dialogue and religious pluralism as a PhD candidate at Harvard University. Robert Vargas, a tenured sociology professor at the University of Chicago, is using geographic information system mapping software to help governments anticipate and reduce …

Substance Use Among Rural And Urban Youth And Young Adults, Jennifer D. Lenardson Mhs, Nathan Paluso Mph, Erika C. Ziller Phd

Mental Health / Substance Use Disorders

Rural youth and young adults have historically had higher use rates of alcohol and other substances than their urban counterparts. Recent research suggests that rates of youth and young adult alcohol and other substance use have declined over the past two decades, but we have limited knowledge of whether and how current rural and urban substance use patterns may differ. As national substance use rates decline, it is important to re-assess differences in use among rural versus urban youth and young adults. This study uses data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to examine rural-urban differences …

Migration And Inequalities In The Face Of Covid-19: Economic, Political And Social Context In Mexico And The United States, Claudia Masferrer

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

Our world changed drastically on February 11th 2020 when the World Health Organization announced the name of the new coronavirus disease as COVID-19, and the pandemic was later considered the greatest challenge we have faced since World War II. Although we have started to experience social life in various new ways, the impacts that it will bring are still unknown. In recent years, migration had already undergone different transformations globally, and more changes are expected. How will populations on the move and migrant populations live in the following years post-COVID, and how different actors will respond to these changes, is …

Migration And Inequalities In The Face Of Covid-19: Vulnerable Populations And Support Networks In Mexico And The United States, Claudia Masferrer

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

Our world changed drastically on February 11th 2020 when the World Health Organization announced the name of the new coronavirus disease as COVID-19, and the pandemic was later considered the greatest challenge we have faced since World War II. Although we have started to experience social life in various new ways, the impacts that it will bring are still unknown. In recent years, migration had already undergone different transformations globally, and more changes are expected. How will populations on the move and migrant populations live in the following years post-COVID, and how different actors will respond to these changes, is …

It Shouldn’T Take A Pandemic To Increase School Meal Access For Low-Income Students: A Two-Step Floating Catchment Area Analysis Of School Meal Access During Covid-19, Jason Jabbari, Yung Chun, Pranav Nandan, Laura Mcdermott, Tyler Frank, Dan Ferris, Sarah Moreland-Russell, Stephen Roll

Social Policy Institute Research

COVID-19 created an additional barrier for students who benefit from free school meals. While some schools attempted to provide alternative meal access points, many students lack adequate transportation. Thus, physical proximity to meal access points is particularly important during the pandemic. Taking into account both the “supply” and the “demand” for free meals, we employed a two-step floating catchment area analysis to analyze meal accessibility in St. Louis, MO. Overall, while meal access during the spring 2020 semester was substantially lower than the spring 2019 semester, meal access during the 2020 summer was substantially higher than the 2019 summer. Moreover, …

Income Loss And Financial Distress During Covid-19: The Protective Role Of Liquid Assets, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard

Social Policy Institute Research

Nearly a quarter of U.S. households have experienced job or income losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Liquid assets mitigate financial distress in the face of financial shocks such as job loss, yet this relationship in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is unknown. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. households (N = 4,383) who completed a survey in the early days of the pandemic, we examined pre-pandemic liquid assets as a moderator of the relationship between job and income loss and difficulty meeting financial obligations and use of high-cost financial resources. Estimates from propensity score-weighted linear probability models …

The Role Of The Opioid Crisis In Elder Abuse, Kimberly I. Snow Mhsa, Jennifer Pratt, Stuart Bratesman Mpp

Disability & Aging

As the opioid crisis has deepened over the past twenty years, its effect on individuals and families, including older adults, has grown. To find out how the opioid crisis might be impacting elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in Maine, we conducted a mixed methods analysis of 2015-2018 Maine Adult Protective Services (APS) investigations to determine: 1) Did opioid-related investigations increase over time? 2) Do investigations involving opioid misuse or abuse differ from investigations that don’t involve opioids? 3) What themes or features of cases involving opioid misuse or abuse by clients and/or perpetrators emerge from the data?

Key Findings: The …

Evaluating The Inclusion Of Family Planning Within The National Health Insurance Benefits Package In Ghana, Kamil Fuseini, Augustine Ankomah

Reproductive Health

Contraceptive use in Ghana has remained low despite annual increases since 2012. Having a high unmet need for family planning (FP) suggests that there may be barriers to access and uptake. Over time, several policies, including Ghana’s Costed Implementation Plan from 2015–20, have suggested FP initiatives to improve contraceptive use yet they have not been entirely implemented. Further, although FP was included in the health insurance act passed in 2003, amended in 2008, and revised in 2012, which indicated that health-care benefits include FP, people continue to pay out of pocket for services at National Health Insurance Authority facilities because …

Availability And Affordability Of Medicines And Cardiovascular Outcomes In 21 High-Income, Middle-Income And Low-Income Countries, Clara Kayei Chow, Tu Ngoc Nguyen, Simone Marschner, Rafael Diaz, Omar Rahman, Alvaro Avezum, Scott A. Lear, Koon Teo, Karen E. Yeates, Khawar Kazmi

Section of Cardiology

Objectives: We aimed to examine the relationship between access to medicine for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) among people at high risk of CVD in high-income countries (HICs), upper and lower middle-income countries (UMICs, LMICs) and low-income countries (LICs) participating in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.
Methods: We defined high CVD risk as the presence of any of the following: hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke, smoker, diabetes or age >55 years. Availability and affordability of blood pressure lowering drugs, antiplatelets and statins were obtained from pharmacies. Participants were categorised: group 1-all three drug types …

Pennsylvania’S Covid-19 Response Through The Homeland Security Frameworks And Research Lens – Lessons Learned, Alexander Siedschlag

Publications

• Although typically framed as a pandemic owned by the public health sector, the COVID-19 response falls directly within the homeland security mission space, whose core missions include “Ensuring Resilience to Disasters” (QHSR 2014).
• In some aspects PA’s COVID-19 response is in line with security research.
• In other dimensions, it is neither in line with what research would recommend nor with what the National Preparedness System would foresee.
• The Keystone State has yet to fully make the step from disaster to catastrophe as the characteristic challenge to U.S. emergency management in our century.

Global Burden Of 87 Risk Factors In 204 Countries And Territories, 1990–2019: A Systematic Analysis For The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2019, Christopher J L Murray, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Gbd 2019 Risk Factors Collaborators, 938 Co-Authors

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

Rigorous analysis of levels and trends in exposure to leading risk factors and quantification of their effect on human health are important to identify where public health is making progress and in which cases current efforts are inadequate. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a standardised and comprehensive assessment of the magnitude of risk factor exposure, relative risk, and attributable burden of disease.

Methods

GBD 2019 estimated attributable mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years of life lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 87 risk factors and combinations of …

Global Age-Sex-Specific Fertility, Mortality, Healthy Life Expectancy (Hale), And Population Estimates In 204 Countries And Territories, 1950–2019: A Comprehensive Demographic Analysis For The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2019, Kaja M. Abbas, Haidong Wang, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Gbd 2019 Demographics Collaborators, 725 Co-Authors

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019.

Methods

8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used …

Public Policy Origins Of U.S. Data, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides detailed introduction and overview of public policy origins of U.S. data. Shows how congressional legislation and Office of Management and Budget documents influence compilation and dissemination of U.S. Government data. Stresses how Indiana General Assembly requirements influence compilation of Indiana state agency data and Indiana local government agency data. Places emphasis on roles played in data compilation and dissemination by public policy research institutions/think tanks. Concludes by stressing limitations of data collection by governmental and non-governmental entities.

Interim Evaluation Report By The Independent Evaluator For The New Hampshire Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (Dsrip) Program, Mary Lindsey Smith Phd, Deborah Thayer, Katie Rosingana Ba, Catherine Mcguire, Rachel M. Gallo Mph, Evelyn Ali, Olivia Dooley Mpa, Carolyn Gray Mph, Tom Merrill Ma, Karen Pearson Mlis, Ma,, Mark Richards Bs

Substance Use Research & Evaluation

Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs are part of the broader Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Section 1115 Waiver programs and provide states with significant funding to support system transformation efforts. CMS approved New Hampshire’s five-year Building Capacity for Transformation Section 1115(a) Medicaid Demonstration Waiver in 2015. The overall goal of the DSRIP Demonstration is to improve the care for New Hampshire’s Medicaid Beneficiaries with behavioral health disorders by addressing workforce and infrastructure shortages, improving care transitions, and integrating physical and behavioral health.

Months Into The Covid-19 Pandemic, Community Health Centers Report Signs Of Improvement, But Face Financial Uncertainty, Jessica Sharac, James Hernandez, Feygele Jacobs, Peter Shin

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

Executive Summary:

This policy brief reports on the COVID-19 experience of the nation’s community health centers over a six-month period, utilizing data from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) weekly Health Center COVID-19 Survey from April 3rd, 2020 to October 2nd, 2020. The data demonstrate that community health centers were immediately responsive to the public health crisis, initiating diagnostic testing for the COVID-19 virus, and adapting care such as telehealth to address patient needs. However, with visits down overall and limited financial relief, the pandemic has taken an enormous financial toll on health centers. Cumulative patient revenue losses over …

Public Health Implications Of Early Marriage, Prachi Joshi, Tilicia Mayo-Gamble

Health Policy & Community Health: Faculty Publications

Work published by Georgia Southern University Press.

Improving Health Care In Nevada, Ember Smith, Kaylie Pattni

Policy Briefs and Reports

Across the United States, improvements in health outcomes lag while health care costs rapidly rise. Medical personnel and resource shortages combined with high underinsured and uninsured rates further complicate access to quality, affordable health care. In order to better understand state-level solutions, we explore factors that contribute to health care deficiencies and emphasize Nevada’s unique obstacles.

Teletherapy Use In Children’S Advocacy Centers: An Effective Solution Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Camille T. Traczek

Student Publications

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected people’s lives in unprecedented ways. Concerns about social distancing have resulted in the cancellation of therapy and doctor’s appointments, leaving those with serious mental health issues without treatment. The need for social distancing amidst the pandemic has particularly affected children seeking treatment from Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), many of whom have witnessed or experienced abuse. In order to treat children who cannot physically go to a center, many CACs have begun using teletherapy, which is the use of interactive, synchronous technology to provide counseling services. The Adams County Children’s Advocacy Center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania has …

Planned Policy Action, Nicole T. Cesanek

Student Publications

Gettysburg College was built on the foundation of “doing great work,” not just for the betterment of ourselves and our education but also for others in the college and surrounding community. This project seeks to do precisely this, encourage everyone, including students, tourists, and community members, to do great work in benefiting others around them. It primarily consists of a comprehensive summary of the plans and actions required to create a community-wide tab collection bin to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). The project seeks to achieve two main goals: encourage people to collect and donate their aluminum can …

Child Injuries And The Timing Of Snap Benefits Receipt, Colleen Heflin, Irma Arteaga, Jean Felix Ndashimye, Matthew P. Rabbitt

Population Health Research Brief Series

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an important federal resource that provides nutritional assistance to low-income families. Timing of SNAP benefits can reduce childhood injuries.

A Century Later: Rural Public Health's Enduring Challenges And Opportunities., Erika C. Ziller Phd, Carly Milkowski Mph

Population Health

The US public health community has demonstrated increasing awareness of rural health disparities in the past several years. Although current interest is high, the topic is not new, and some of the earliest public health literature includes reports on infectious disease and sanitation in rural places. Continuing through the first third of the 20th century, dozens of articles documented rural disparities in infant and maternal mortality, sanitation and water safety, health care access, and among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. Current rural research reveals similar challenges, and strategies suggested for addressing rural-urban health disparities 100 years ago resonate …

Blood Transfusion: Knowledge, Perspectives, And Experiences Of Individuals With Sickle Cell Disease, Raymona H. Lawrence, Ashley Singleton, Jane Branscomb

Health Policy & Community Health: Faculty Publications

Patient voice and perspective were needed to inform effective, comprehensive strategies for reducing preventable transfusion-associated complications. This report presents the results of interviews with sickle cell disease (SCD) patients and implications for strategies to reduce transfusion complications in this population. Twenty-two participants were recruited from 2 comprehensive SCD treatment centers in Georgia and interviewed regarding knowledge about transfusions and potential complications, attitudes about data storage and sharing, and the transfusion experience. Participants had general knowledge of physiology, blood products, and blood transfusions, including knowing the risk of complications, but varied in comprehension of complex health information and level of misinformation. …

Data Detectives

In The Loop

A 2020 collaboration between DePaul and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) filled in missing racial data in the city’s COVID-19 case surveillance system to facilitate a more informed, racially equitable response. Using the algorithm an application was designed that lets CDPH researchers quickly receive calculated racial information when they enter surnames and zip codes. The application design team hopes to build other factors into the app, such as occupation, to improve its COVID-19 predictive modeling.

Many Older Americans Do Not Receive The Recommended Home Health Care After Hospitalization, Jun Li, Mingyu Qi, Rachel M. Werner

Population Health Research Brief Series

Only 54% of Medicare patients referred to home health care services following a hospitalization received home health care visits. Policymakers must address this discrepancy to ensure all patients receive the home health services they need.

Old Walled Politics Or New Pandemic Peace? Lessons From South Korea’S Fight Against Covid-19, Seung-Youn Oh

Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

Among the global pandemic’s effects is the way it has exposed the re-emergence of medieval-style walled politics, where countries reject international or regional co-operation and retreat into nationalist, go-it-alone approaches. At the same time, the crisis has revealed unusual opportunities to forge common approaches to battling this invisible enemy. South Korea, as a middle power that stood out as an early success story in the pandemic fight, has played an important role in countering the politics of the past.

Mapping Geographical Inequalities In Access To Drinking Water And Sanitation Facilities In Low-Income And Middle-Income Countries, 2000–17, Aniruddha Deshpande, Robert C. Reiner Jr, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Arianna Maever L. Amit, Local Burden Of Disease Wash Collaborators, 665 Co-Authors

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

Universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities is an essential human right, recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals as crucial for preventing disease and improving human wellbeing. Comprehensive, high-resolution estimates are important to inform progress towards achieving this goal. We aimed to produce high-resolution geospatial estimates of access to drinking water and sanitation facilities.

Methods

We used a Bayesian geostatistical model and data from 600 sources across more than 88 low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to estimate access to drinking water and sanitation facilities on continuous continent-wide surfaces from 2000 to 2017, and aggregated results to policy-relevant …

The Las Vegas Medical District And The Unlv School Of Medicine: An Economic Analysis And Tax Revenue Study, Jaewon Lim, Robert E. Lang, Sabrina Wang

Policy Briefs and Reports

In the 2011 report, “Unify, Regionalize, Diversify,” The Brookings Institution, SRI International, and Brookings Mountain West detailed Las Vegas’s experiences during and after the Great Recession, and identified the health and medical industry as a particularly potent opportunity for economic diversification – one that could improve health outcomes while also generating sustainable economic activity and high-quality jobs. The Las Vegas Metro medical industry began growing in 2006, grew during the Great Recession, and is expected to continue to grow for the next 10-year period spurred by the rapidly growing population in Southern Nevada. The establishment and launch of the UNLV …