Unnatural CausesEpisode Five: Place Matters

February 16, 2010

Jim Bloyd, MPH

‘Why are zip code and street address good predictors of population health’

Closing the Gap in A Generation Final Report of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (WHO, 2008)

Resource

• Fairchild et al (2010): The mandate of public health-Can public health promote social, economic and political reforms?

• The ‘New Public Health:’

“The old public health was concerned with the environment; the new is concerned with the individual” Hill (1913)

ResourceBlack–White Health Disparities in the United

States and Chicago:A 15-Year Progress Analysis (Orsi, et al, 2010)

• Findings: “Overall, progress toward meeting the Healthy People 2010 goal of eliminating health disparities in the United States and in Chicago remains bleak. With more than 15 years of time and effort spent at the national and local level to reduce disparities, the impact remains negligible.”

‘50’s, 60’s, Chicago and the USA

$1,000,000 per day was estimated paid by blacks in Chicago in 1958 under a racist contract buying system, enriching white slumlords and elite investors. (Satter, 2009)

Disproportionate effect on communities of color

Differences in life expectancy across different counties narrow and then widen

Change in County Life Expectancy in 1961–1983 and 1983–1999

1961-1983 Female

1983-1999 Female

Source: Ezatti and others, 2008, PLoS Med 5(4): e66. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050066

Location of

Grocery Stores: City of

Chicago

Grocery Stores: 6 counties

Deaths from Heart

Disease percent and rate range

by town 1999-2001deaths/100,000

population

Youth hospitalized for

asthma rate per 10,000

people 2003-’05

Thank you

Cook County Department of Public Health

www.cookcountypublichealth.org

Jim Bloyd, MPH 708-492-2019

jbloyd@ccdph.net

jimbloyd@gmail.com