Where You Live Should Not Determine Your Health Care

In recent years we have witnessed incredible advances in science and technology that improve the care we deliver to patients. But if people can’t take their medication because they don’t have a home, or have to choose between buying food and medication, then this innovation means little. Health is about so much more than the care we provide at a hospital or medical office. An individual’s ZIP code can be a more accurate driver of health than their genetic code. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, Kaiser Permanente found stark evidence that select neighborhoods experience higher rates of diabetes (up to 11%) and child obesity (up to 23%). A study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention in 2017 concluded that obesity rates among breast-cancer survivors were higher among African Americans and U.S.-born Hispanics than non-Hispanic whites in part because of their social and built environments. The reality is that the enormous social and economic issues that dominate the news will prevent us from improving health if we can’t resolve them and create a more equitable system. The good news is, we can make progress, and that progress will build on itself and encourage others to join the fight. It’s always made sense to me that health care organizations would be a critical partner in solving issues so directly related to health. Who knows the population better? Who better understands the impact those issues have on our communi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Healthcare Source Type: news