Blogs - Page 53 of 100 - This Week In Public Health

Policy

The Fragile Balance of Trust

Imagine scrolling through your newsfeed and encountering a headline about a miraculous new COVID-19 cure. The article looks legitimate, but how do you decide whether to believe it? This decision hinges on an intricate psychological mechanism called epistemic trust—our ability to assess the credibility of knowledge and determine if it’s relevant, accurate, and worth adopting. […]

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Health equity

How Socioeconomic Factors Shape Lifetime Healthcare Costs

Healthcare policy debates often focus on costs, accessibility, and fairness. A new study, leveraging comprehensive data from Denmark, flips the script on a common assumption: that lower-income individuals consistently use more healthcare resources over their lifetime than wealthier individuals. This research reveals a surprising equality in lifetime healthcare expenditures across socioeconomic groups, even in a […]

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Commentary

A Clinical Trial is the Definition of Vaccine Skepticsm.

Next Week in Public Health, December 6, 2024 After a month of discouragement and avoiding the news, I’ve been back at monitoring what’s going on from a policy perspective in the US. Obviously, the big change is the incoming administration and what several, eh, sketchy picks for different agency heads might have for public health. […]

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Wellbeing

How Fulfilling Employee Values Boosts Wellbeing and Productivity

In today’s work environments, where burnout and job dissatisfaction are on the rise, a study offers a simple insight: supporting employees to fulfill what they value at work leads to long-term benefits like job satisfaction, productivity, and reduced burnout. This isn’t just about the work they do—it’s about enabling people to thrive by aligning work […]

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Workforce

What do you get for an MPH?

Imagine you’ve invested years in earning a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, hoping to climb the career ladder and make a meaningful impact in your field. But what if the reality of the job market doesn’t align with these aspirations? This question drove a recent study from the University of Haifa in Israel, which […]

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Commentary

From Data-Driven to Data-Informed

In public health, data has become the cornerstone of our work. Whether it’s tracking disease outbreaks, measuring health disparities, or evaluating program outcomes, the demand for data has never been greater. Buzzwords like “data-driven decision-making” are often celebrated as the gold standard. But as public health professionals, we know the world isn’t as simple as […]

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Health equity

Hidden Costs of Preventive Care: Why Understanding Patient Demographics Matters

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was introduced, it promised to make preventive care free for many Americans. This exemption from cost-sharing for services like cancer screenings, diabetes tests, and cholesterol checks aimed to improve health equity. But new research sheds light on a troubling reality: unexpected out-of-pocket (OOP) costs continue to affect many patients, […]

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Policy

Did Philadelphia’s Soda Tax Help Kids Lose Weight?

When Philadelphia implemented its soda tax in 2017, many hoped it would be a game-changer in the fight against childhood obesity. The logic seemed simple: tax sugary drinks, reduce consumption, and improve health outcomes for kids. But did it work? A new study provides some surprising answers, challenging assumptions and sparking questions about the most […]

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Funding

How New York’s Ground Ambulance Law Impacted Emergency Prices

Imagine being in a medical emergency, vulnerable, and unable to choose your ground ambulance provider. When the ambulance arrives, the last thing on your mind is whether it’s in-network. This was the reality for many people until New York took a bold step in 2015 by enacting surprise billing regulations to shield patients from unexpected […]

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