Minority Health and Health Equity Archive
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21769
Welcome to the Minority Health and Health Equity Archive (MHHEA), an electronic archive for digital resource materials in the fields of minority health and health disparities research and policy. It is offered as a no-charge resource to the public, academic scholars and health science researchers interested in the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.
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Item Towards a public health approach to bioethics(2000) Lane, S D; Rubinstein, R A; Cibula, D; Webster, NIn this paper we examine the central commitments of bioethical enquiry and reasoning from a public health perspective. We argue that a core element of American national culture is individualism, which resonates in scholarly and popular debates. Our contention is that the habitus of bioethical debate is in large measure animated by an overriding concern with the individual, and the resulting social practice of the community has been to downplay the importance and legitimacy of group-level health care dilemmas. This paper calls for re-focusing of bioethics by employing a public health perspective, which would include a population focus, evidence-based research topics, and engagement of the ethical dilemmas that arise from decisions concerning prevention. Racial and ethnic health disparities throughout the life span of a population in central New York State are used to illustrate the need for a public health focus in bioethics.Item Declines in Hospital Admissions for Acute Myocardial Infarction in New York State After Implementation of a Comprehensive Smoking Ban(2007) Juster, Harlan R.; Loomis, Brett R.; Hinman, Theresa M.; Farrelly, Matthew C.; Hyland, Andrew; Bauer, Ursula E.; Birkhead, Guthrie S.Objectives. Reductions in exposure to environmental tobacco smoke have been shown to attenuate the risk of cardiovascular disease. We examined whether the 2003 implementation of a comprehensive smoking ban in New York State was associated with reduced hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction and stroke, beyond the effect of moderate, local and statewide smoking restrictions, and independent of secular trends. Methods. We analyzed trends in county-level, age-adjusted, monthly hospital admission rates for acute myocardial infarction and stroke from 1995 to 2004 to identify any association between admission rates and implementation of the smoking ban. We used regression models to adjust for the effects of pre-existing smoking restrictions, seasonal trends in admissions, differences across counties, and secular trends. Results. In 2004, there were 3813 fewer hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction than would have been expected in the absence of the comprehensive smoking ban. Direct health care cost savings of $56 million were realized in 2004. There was no reduction in the number of admissions for stroke. Conclusions. Hospital admission rates for acute myocardial infarction were reduced by 8% as a result of a comprehensive smoking ban in New York State after we controlled for other relevant factors. Comprehensive smoking bans constitute a simple, effective intervention to substantially improve the public’s health.Item New York State Minority Health Surveillance Report(2007) UNSPECIFIEDNew York State’s population has become increasingly diverse due, in large part, to a growing foreign-born population. In order to improve the health of all New Yorkers and to address health disparities in the population, it is critical that there be a base of knowledge and understanding of the variations in health measures that cross racial, ethnic and income groups. This Minority Health Surveillance Report (MHSR), which presents data on a wide variety of health indicators in New York State, serves as an important resource for identifying and addressing health disparities.