PERVERSE POLICY. Study after study shows that early childhood poverty can
have lifelong health consequences. Twenty-two percent of American children
live in poverty. A new documentary — Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality
Making Us Sick? — will be shown at several locations in Multnomah County
in March and April. Pictured is an image from part one, "In Sickness and In
Wealth." (Photos/California Newsreel)
From The Asian Reporter, V18, #10 (March 4, 2008), page 11.
Multnomah County Health Department hosts health equity
documentary screenings and dialogues
By Ian Blazina
The United States spends more money on healthcare than any other nation
in the world, yet consistently ranks below most other developed nations on
the majority of health indicators. We have the greatest socioeconomic
inequality in the industrialized world, and the worst health.
The strongest predictor of health is socioeconomic standing, with people
at the bottom of the class ladder four times as likely to die an early death
as the people at the top. And even accounting for socioeconomic status,
people of color have worse health and die sooner than their white
counterparts.
While there is no doubt individual lifestyle choices greatly influence
health, health behavior is regulated by where we live and work. Access to
healthy food, safe places to exercise, clean parks, nontoxic housing,
well-financed schools, well-paying jobs, sick leave, and a host of other
quality-of-life issues mean more to our health than how often we go to the
doctor.
According to a study of health indicators performed by the Multnomah
County Health Department on data from 2001 to 2005, the homicide rate for
Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) in Portland is nearly twice that of white
non-Hispanics; 22 percent of API women do not receive prenatal care in the
first trimester of pregnancy, compared with 15 percent of white women; and
the percentage of low-birth-weight babies born to API mothers is 17 percent
higher than babies born to white mothers. Additionally, breast cancer
mortality among API women has more than doubled since the early 1990s, and
lung cancer mortality — while decreasing among whites and African Americans
— is 34 percent higher than a decade ago.
These disparities correspond to inequality in the socioeconomic realm,
where APIs make roughly 60 percent of their white counterparts and tend to
live in neighborhoods with limited transit service, restricted park access,
low sidewalk coverage, and poorer schools.
Understanding the institutional, systemic nature of health inequality —
including the wide range of environmental, economic, and social determinants
— it is clear that righting health disparity in the U.S. must involve much
more than health savings accounts, single-payer health insurance, or even
universal healthcare. Addressing the issues of grossly unequal wealth
distribution and the long history and culture of racism and discrimination
is fundamental to creating just solutions to this far-reaching crisis.
The Multnomah County Health Department is currently taking part in the
nationwide Health Equity Initiative, a multi-year program involving
community engagement, assessment, and policy development related to the
societal influences on health. The initiative seeks to educate people on the
ways social policy affects health policy, highlight efforts to eliminate
disparity, and create a dialogue on finding policy solutions.
Part of the Health Equity Initiative includes public screenings of the
PBS documentary Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, a
seven-part series examining the effect on health disparity of income
inequality, neighbor- hoods, acculturation, racism, land use, unemployment,
and foreign policy. Screenings are held throughout the county, and are
followed by dialogues with community members, organizations, civic and
business leaders, and local elected officials.
For more information, including dates, times, and locations of the
documentary screenings, call (503) 988-3030, ext. 22068 or visit <www.mchealth.org/healthequity>. |