The effects on population health status of using dedicated property taxes to fund local public health agencies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the United States, a dedicated property tax describes the legal authority given to a local jurisdiction to levy and collect a tax for a specific purpose. We investigated for an association of locally dedicated property taxes to fund local public health agencies and improved health status in the eight states designated as the Mississippi Delta Region.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed the difference in health outcomes of counties with and without a dedicated public health tax after adjusting for a set of control variables using regression models for county level data from 720 counties of the Mississippi Delta Region.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Levying a dedicated public health tax for counties with per capita income above $28,000 is associated with improved health outcomes of those counties when compared to counties without a dedicated property tax for public health. Alternatively, levying a dedicated property tax in counties with lower per capita income is associated with poor health outcomes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There are both positive and negative consequences of using dedicated property taxes to fund public health. Policymakers should carefully examine both the positive association of improved health outcomes and negative impact of taxation on poor populations before authorizing the use of dedicated local property tax levies to fund public health agencies.</p

Sí Se Puede: Using Participatory Research to Promote Environmental Justice in a Latino Community in San Diego, California

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) increasingly is seen as a potent tool for studying and addressing urban environmental health problems by linking place-based work with efforts to help effect policy-level change. This paper explores a successful CBPR and organizing effort, the Toxic Free Neighborhoods Campaign, in Old Town National City (OTNC), CA, United States, and its contributions to both local policy outcomes and changes in the broader policy environment, laying the groundwork for a Specific Plan to address a host of interlocking community concerns. After briefly describing the broader research of which the OTNC case study was a part, we provide background on the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) partnership and the setting in which it took place, including the problems posed for residents in this light industrial/residential neighborhood. EHC’s strong in-house research, and its training and active engagement of promotoras de salud (lay health promoters) as co-researchers and policy change advocates, are described. We explore in particular the translation of research findings as part of a policy advocacy campaign, interweaving challenges faced and success factors and multi-level outcomes to which these efforts contributed. The EHC partnership's experience then is compared with that of other policy-focused CBPR efforts in urban environmental health, emphasizing common success factors and challenges faced, as these may assist other partnerships wishing to pursue CBPR in urban communities

Schools of Public Health and the Health of the Public: Enhancing the Capabilities of Faculty to Be Influential in Policymaking

Faculty members of schools of public health contribute to better health largely through their teaching, research, and community service roles. We suggest attention to another role: exerting their influence to ensure effective public health policy

Consenso brasileiro sobre políticas públicas do álcool Brazilian consensus on public policies on alcohol

Esse é um resumo de uma reunião na qual vários especialistas, representando diversas organizações médicas e universitárias brasileiras, criaram um consenso sobre as principais políticas que deveriam ser implementadas pelos diferentes níveis de governo no Brasil. Há mais de 30 anos a OMS vem buscando um consenso internacional sobre as ações com maior potencial de trazer benefícios sociais. Essa busca trouxe duas conclusões importantes: 1) A pesquisa estabelece, sem margem à dúvida, que existem medidas de eficácia comprovada para reduzir os custos e os danos relacionados ao uso de álcool, visando ao bem comum; 2) É possível desenvolver estratégias que influenciam tanto a quantidade de álcool consumida por uma comunidade quanto os comportamentos de consumo e os contextos de alto risco causadores dos problemas relacionados ao consumo de álcool. Os objetivos deste Consenso são: 1) Tornar as evidências científicas mais acessíveis para os que elaboram políticas públicas; 2) Facilitar a avaliação das diversas estratégias disponíveis segundo critérios de efetividade, suporte científico, custo e viabilidade de transposição cultural; 3) Familiarizar o profissional de saúde, e em especial os que trabalham em saúde mental, sobre as prioridades da política do álcool.<br>This is the summary of a meeting where a group of experts, representing several health organizations and academic departements from different parts of Brazil, created a consensus about the main alcohol policies which should be implemented by different levels of the brazilian government. The World Health Organization has been suggesting for 30 years the actions that should be implemented for the public good. Two important conclusions were reached: 1) The research establishes beyond doubt that public health measures of proven effectiveness are available to serve the public good by reducing the widespread costs and pain related to alcohol use; 2) To that end, it is appropriate to deploy responses that influence both the total amount of alcohol consumed by a population and the high-risk contexts and drinking behaviours that are so often associated with alcohol-related problems. To conceive of these intrinsically complementary approaches as contractory alternatives would be a mistake. The objectives of the consensus are: 1) To make the scientific evidences more available to the Brazilian policy makers; 2) To facilitate the evaluation of the available estrategies according their effectivity, scientific support, cost and cultural adaptability; 3) To make the brazilian health professionais familiar with the priorities of alcohol policies

Linking Science and Policy Through Community-Based Participatory Research to Study and Address Health Disparities

With its commitment to balancing research and action, community-based participatory research (CBPR) is well suited to efforts at the intersections of science, practice, and policy to eliminate health disparities. Drawing on a larger study, we use 2 case studies to highlight the role of CBPR in helping achieve policy changes promoting, respectively, access to healthy foods (Bayview, San Francisco, CA) and higher air quality standards (Harlem, New York, NY). We then present facilitating factors and challenges faced across all 10 case studies from the larger study. Although we underscore the importance of analyzing contribution rather than claiming attribution in policy-focused work, CBPR's attention to both the distributive and the procedural justice necessary for eliminating health disparities may make it a particularly relevant approach in such work