The Aging Population in the Twenty-First Century


Book Description

2) The panel identified the essential components of a comprehensive program of statistics on the elderly that can be implemented within a decentralized statistical system and that would provide adequate data on aging for all functional areas and recommended changes and procedures that would facilitate integrating data from the various components. 3) The panel determined whether changes or refinements are needed in the statistical methodology used in health policy analysis or in the planning and administration of programs for the elderly and recommended actions or further research. The panel's 3 charges are addressed in separate chapters of the report.




The Demography of Health and Healthcare


Book Description

In this 3rd edition of the definitive work on health demography, Pol and Thomas offer an updated view of the field and a current perspective on the applications of health demography to contemporary issues. The significance of health demography within the field of population studies has continued to increase and this work provides background on the healthcare arena and systematically presents the various aspects of demography as they relate to healthcare. This addition has been streamlined to focus on the important aspects of health demography and enhanced through the addition of charts, maps and other graphics. All statistics and tables have been updated and the most current references are included. A separate chapter on morbidity has been included and the final chapter focuses on the public policy interface with health demography. Case studies and sidebars are included throughout the book to illustrate the applications of demography within the healthcare arena. Recent developments in U.S. healthcare are highlighted to give the text a very contemporary presence.




The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century


Book Description

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.




Population Health in America


Book Description

In this engaging and accessibly written book, Population Health in America weaves demographic data with social theory and research to help students understand health patterns and trends in the U.S. population. While life expectancy was estimated to be just 37 years in the United States in 1870, today it is more than twice as long, at over 78 years. Yet today, life expectancy in the U.S. lags behind almost all other wealthy countries. Within the U.S., there are substantial social inequalities in health and mortality: women live longer but less healthier lives than men; African Americans and Native Americans live far shorter lives than Asian Americans and White Americans; and socioeconomic inequalities in health have been widening over the past 20 years. What accounts for these population health patterns and trends? Inviting students to delve into population health trends and disparities, demographers Robert Hummer and Erin Hamilton provide an easily understandable historical and contemporary portrait of U.S. population health. Perfect for courses such as population health, medical or health sociology, social epidemiology, health disparities, demography, and others, as well as for academic researchers and lay persons interested in better understanding the overall health of the country, Population Health in America also challenges students, academics, and the public to understand current health policy priorities and to ask whether considerably different directions are needed.




Communities in Action


Book Description

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.




Population Health: Behavioral and Social Science Insights


Book Description

The purpose of this book is to gain a better understanding of the multitude of factors that determine longer life and improved quality of life in the years a person is alive. While the emphasis is primarily on the social and behavioral determinants that have an effect on the health and well-being of individuals, this publication also addresses quality of life factors and determinants more broadly. Each chapter in this book considers an area of investigation and ends with suggestions for future research and implications of current research for policy and practice. The introductory chapter summarizes the state of Americans’ health and well-being in comparison to our international peers and presents background information concerning the limitations of current approaches to improving health and well-being. Following the introduction, there are 21 chapters that examine the effects of various behavioral risk factors on population health, identify trends in life expectancy and quality of life, and suggest avenues for research in the behavioral and social science arenas to address problems affecting the U.S. population and populations in other developed and developing countries around the world. Undergraduate and graduate students pursuing coursework in health statistics, health population demographics, behavioral and social science, and heatlh policy may be interested in this content. Additionally, policymakers, legislators, heatlh educators, and scientific organizations around the world may also have an interest in this resource.







Why is Health Related to Socioeconomic Status?


Book Description

There are striking disparities in morbidity and mortality by socioeconomic status (SES) within the United States. I examine pregnancy and health at birth to investigate possible mechanisms linking SES and health. I find that a limited set of maternal health habits during pregnancy, particularly smoking habits, can explain about half (one third) of the correlation between SES and low birth weight among white (black) mothers. I show evidence on three hypotheses to explain why health habits vary by SES. First, differences in knowledge by SES create only modest differences in health behaviors by SES, explaining about 10 percent of differential smoking by education. Second, women respond to common knowledge differentially by SES, so that knowledge and its use combined explain up to one third of differential smoking by education. Third, the most important determinants of differential health behavior are 'third variables,' or variables that can simultaneously determine health habits and SES. Finally, I show evidence that network effects at the family level exacerbate differences in behavior regardless of the source.




Quantitative Demography and Health Estimates


Book Description

This book provides new theoretic and applied material with focus on quantitative methods and data analysis techniques applied in demography, population studies, health issues and statistics. It discusses the quantitative techniques to estimate the healthy life expectancy by expanding the classical life tables to include the proportion with disability calculated from life tables, along with the Sullivan method. The provided templates apply immediately to the life tables from WHO, HMD, Eurostat and other life table providers. Furthermore, the book explores the possibility of creating new health indicators along with Covid-19 pandemic management, factors associated to loneliness and an alcohol indicator. Part of the book is devoted to mortality, epidemic models, and the supercentenarians age estimation. Data analysis and artificial intelligence methods are included to apply in demographic and socio-economic cases. By providing a methodology to cope with health problems in demography and society by quantifying important health parameters, this book is a valuable guide for researchers, theoreticians, and practitioners from various disciplines and especially health scientists, statisticians, economists, and sociologists.