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The Partners for Advancing Health Equity (P4HE) Resource Library is a virtual portal containing action-oriented health equity research, practice, and policies. The library aims to increase equity in health by offering free access to field-tested, evidence-informed and evidence-based programs strategies and high-quality research.


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  • African Americans are disproportionately affected by COVID-19-related disease and mortality due to long-standing social, political, economic, and environmental injustice; and COVID-19 inequities are exacerbated by institutional distrust. In the absence of trust, public health authorities have not adequately fulfilled their professional and ethical obligations to protect African American…
    March 2021
    COVID-19/Coronavirus
  • Over the last year, COVID-19 has emerged as a highly transmissible and lethal infection. As we address this global pandemic, its disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities has served to further magnify the health inequities in access and treatment that persist in our communities. These sobering realities should serve as the impetus for reexamination of the root causes of…
    March 2021
    COVID-19/Coronavirus
  • There is striking racial disparity in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection rates in the United States. We hypothesize that the disparity is significantly smaller in areas with a higher ratio of green spaces. County level data on the SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of black and white individuals in 135 of the most urbanized counties across the United States were…
    February 2021
    COVID-19/Coronavirus, Systemic Determinants
  • February marks Black History Month and it is a time for us to celebrate and remember the people and events that have got us to where we are today. It encourages many to learn about the history they were never taught, how the world has changed, and what still needs to be done to create a world free from racism, stigma, and discrimination. (author introduction)
    February 2021
    HIV, HIV, Advocacy
  • A lingering mistrust of the medical system makes some Black Americans more hesitant to sign up for COVID-19 vaccines. It has played out in early data that show a stark disparity in whom is getting shots in this country — more than 60% going to white people, and less than 6% to African Americans. The mistrust is rooted in history, including the infamous U.S. study of syphilis that left Black men…
    February 2021
    COVID-19/Coronavirus, Vaccine Trust
  • Black women in the United States have experienced substantial improvements in health during the last century, yet health disparities persist. These health disparities are in large part a reflection of the inequalities experienced by Black women on a host of social and economic measures. In this paper, we examine the structural contributors to social and economic conditions that create the…
    February 2021
    Illness/Disease/Injury/Wellbeing, Social/Structural Determinants
  • There are 600 diverse American Indian/Alaska Native communities that represent strong and resilient nations throughout Indian Country. However, a history of genocidal practices, cultural assaults, and continuing oppression contribute to high rates of mental health and substance use disorders. Underresourced mental health care and numerous barriers to services maintain these disparities.…
    February 2021
    Mental/Behavioral Health
  • Health care professionals nationally may be inadequately trained to address gaps in health care affecting underserved communities, according to findings published this summer in a JAMA Network Open paper. VCU’s health sciences schools are working to bridge this gap. In the fall of 2020, VCU’s health sciences schools initiated several inaugural events to increase awareness of the health care…
    January 2021
    Illness/Disease/Injury/Wellbeing, Policy and Practice, Social/Structural Determinants
  • Since the beginning of the pandemic, workers in essential industries needing to work in person continued going to work and keeping the nation running while risking exposure to the novel coronavirus. And as states reopened, many nonessential workers returned to work, risking exposure to the virus to allow people to shop in stores, eat in restaurants, and obtain personal services. We find that…
    December 2020
    COVID-19/Coronavirus, Vaccines
  • Autism research has a race problem. Despite improvements in screening and diagnosis, autism continues to be underdiagnosed in Black and Hispanic children, and those who obtain a diagnosis often have limited access to support services. Racial disparities persist during the transition to adulthood, with autistic adults from racial and ethnic minority groups experiencing a number of challenges,…
    December 2020
    Mental/Behavioral Health
  • A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study published in September found that pregnant women, especially Black and Latinx, are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 compared to non-pregnant individuals. They are more likely to be admitted to intensive care units (ICU), receive invasive ventilation, and are at increased risk of death.In response to COVID-19, several states…
    November 2020
    COVID-19/Coronavirus, Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
  • The inequities laid bare by COVID-19 underscore the importance of states’ efforts to develop policies and interventions to address all health disparities. Systemic racism, a driver of these inequities, also fuels disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality – Black women are four-times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women. States are on the frontlines, working…
    October 2020
    Adverse Birth Outcomes, Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
  • There is a profound lesson in the coincident timing of the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic: in each case, support for the most oppressed or most ill amongst us portends support for ourselves. We are humbled to concede that if we do not respect everyone, we do not respect anyone, just as if we don't prevent, treat, and cure disease everywhere, we don't do so anywhere. Our…
    October 2020
    COVID-19/Coronavirus, Social/Structural Determinants
  • Physicians still lack consensus on the meaning of race. When the Journal took up the topic in 2003 with a debate about the role of race in medicine, one side argued that racial and ethnic categories reflected underlying population genetics and could be clinically useful. Others held that any small benefit was outweighed by potential harms that arose from the long, rotten history of racism in…
    August 2020
    Illness/Disease/Injury/Wellbeing, Racism
  • Maternal morbidity and mortality (MMM) is a significant problem in the USA, with about 700 maternal deaths every year and an estimated 50,000 "near misses." Disparities in MMM by race are marked; black women are disproportionately affected. We use Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory to examine the root causes of racial disparities in MMM at the individual (microsystem), interpersonal…
    July 2020
    Maternal Morbidity and Mortality, Medicaid, Racism
  • The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and related policies have led to an unequal distribution of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. For Black women and birthing people, endemic vulnerabilities and disparities may exacerbate deleterious COVID-19 impacts. Historical and ongoing macro-level policies and forces over time have induced disproportionately higher rates of maternal morbidity and…
    July 2020
    COVID-19/Coronavirus, Maternal/Child Health, Social/Structural Determinants, Isms and Phobias
  • Research in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has increased in recent years with hundreds of studies finding a strong and consistent relationship between child adversity and numerous public health outcomes (see the ACE Pyramid in Figure 1). According to the CDC, ACEs are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood as well as the conditions in the child’s environment that can undermine…
    July 2020
    Maternal/Child Health, Racism
  • The Coronavirus pandemic has been wrecking African American communities. COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting African Americans nationwide. Dying at higher rates, it is becoming clear that the consequences of this virus will continue long after this pandemic has ended. This campaign, The Skin You’re In: Coronavirus & Black America, is intended to provide accurate and relevant information…
    May 2020
    COVID-19/Coronavirus
  • Recently the president said the worst was over and the pandemic was on the decline.  I do not agree.  I am especially worried about the poorest region of the nation, the region that I recently moved to: the South. (author introduction)
    April 2020
    COVID-19/Coronavirus
  • Objective: Sleep disturbances during pregnancy are associated with gestational diabetes and excessive weight gain. Diet could potentially play a role in these relationships, yet examinations of sleep and diet in African American pregnant populations are scarce. Methods: The study population includes pregnant African American women from Detroit, MI (n=53). At the baseline study…
    March 2020
    Maternal/Child Health
  • The coronavirus (COVID-19) is a massive threat to the safety of U.S. workers. Black, Indigenous, and other workers of color are particularly vulnerable, as they are overrepresented in jobs with high exposure rates, and structural racism has led to disproportionate rates of COVID-19 infection and death.COVID-19 will likely lead to a prolonged period of economic disparity and unemployment. This…
    January 2020
    COVID-19/Coronavirus, Social/Structural Determinants
  • ObjectiveRacial/ethnic disparities in the use of substance abuse treatment services have been documented. The objective of this study was to re-examine if racial/ethnic disparities in the use of treatment still exist using current data collected post-implementation of the Affordable Care Act.MethodsData were pooled from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health survey years 2015, 2016, and 2017…
    September 2019
    Substance Use and Misuse
  • Although the pace of gentrification has accelerated in cities across the US, little is known about the health consequences of growing up in gentrifying neighborhoods. We used New York State Medicaid claims data to track a cohort of low-income children born in the period 2006–08 for the nine years between January 2009 and December 2017. We compared the 2017 health outcomes of children who started…
    September 2019
    Asthma, Obesity, Anxiety, Depression, Physical Environment, Classism
  • Given chronic experiences of historical oppression, Indigenous peoples tend to experience much higher rates of depression than the general US population, which then, drives disproportionately high rates of suicide and other health disparities. The purpose of this research was to examine the core components of the culturally grounded Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and…
    June 2019
    Depression, Social/Structural Determinants, Historical Trauma
  • Practitioners in maternal and child health (MCH) make it a priority to solve complex public health problems facing women, children, adolescents, and their families across the life course. The field of MCH has made significant advances in the past century, including the expansion of family planning methods and services, the eradication of once-common deadly diseases such as polio, and innovations…
    May 2019
    Maternal/Child Health

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