Analysis Of Health Indicators For California S Minority Populations

Presents data for a selected set of health status indicators to monitor and evaluate the health of a given community or population. These indicators are a subset of the Year 2000 National Health Objectives, which include 13 health status indicators and 5 risk indicators: infant deaths, births to teenagers, low birth weight infants, early prenatal care, deaths due to all causes, deaths due to motor vehicle crashes, lung cancer deaths, unintentional injury deaths, suicides, homicides, coronary heart disease deaths, stroke deaths, breast cancer deaths, and incidence of AIDS, TB, measles, and Syphilis. Charts.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

"This very important work calls for research and policy-making that is proactive, multi-level, multi-method, and interdisciplinary--not disease-driven. It synthesizes perspectives on wellness that have the potential to produce a paradigm shift in research and policy planning, implementation, and evaluation." -- Lene Levy-Storms, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Medicine/Geriatrics "[This book] helps broaden the field of inquiry and legitimates the social and political perspectives in health care research and planning." --Ellen R. Shaffer, University of California, San Francisco, Program in Medical Ethics

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In this book, Dr. Richard Allen Williams has assembled the very best scholars on healthcare disparities to raise the public consciousness of this issue. Arranged into discrete categories, this volume contains comprehensive coverage, both historical and current, of the healthcare disparity crisis currently plaguing our country in hopes of leading us all to a brighter future.