Health Disparities
State Medicaid Expansions and Health Care Coverage of Immigrant Adults
Dr. Daphne Hernandez, assistant professor of human development and family studies, has received a $75,000, twenty-five-month grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) through the New Connections program to study immigrants' health insurance.
Hernandez is analyzing data that should provide a sense of how effective expanded state coverage is in providing increased health care coverage. She is working with data from two major surveys, the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) and the 2004 Current Population Survey (CPS). NIS, administered through Princeton University, targeted 12,500 immigrants and reported on individual and demographic data, such as education level, difficulty of visa process, family structure, English language proficiency, household income, and region of origin. CPS, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, provides state-by-state data on health insurance coverage. Click Here For More
The Community Preparedness Research Project
The Community Preparedness Research Project is headed by Dr. David McBride. It is an outgrowth of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Investigator Award Program. The project focus has been investigating the ethnography and policy outcomes of disasters that have occurred in disadvantaged city communities throughout the nation. These disasters include severe weather events such as floods and hurricanes, disease epidemics, industrial accidents, terrorist attacks, and other emergencies that can strike our schools, hospitals, and other neighborhood institutions. The project is developing case-studies of disaster events and community preparedness in cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Camden, and Chester (PA). It is also conducting a survey of residents and professionals in these and other cities relating to disaster apprehension, preparedness, and community capacity building. Click Here For More
Women Receiving Optimal Medical Help Prior to Pregnancy
Preterm and low weight births are increasing in the US, despite increasing use of prenatal care services. CHCPR researcher Marianne Hillemeier and her colleagues believe that women's health before pregnancy may be an important factor influencing this trend. The first three months of pregnancy are often the most important for fetal development. However, many risk factors involve the woman's health and behaviors before the pregnancy, and others cannot be optimally treated after the woman has conceived. Unfortunately, few women receive the counseling and care they need in the months just prior to and very early in pregnancy. Click Here For More
Race May Play a Role in Children's Asthma Care
Children in the U.S. suffer from asthma more than any other chronic illness, and new research finds African-American children with the condition have a greater risk than others of experiencing severe symptoms that escalate into an emergency. Click Here For More
Dental Care in Rural Communities
Poor dental health
is a serious health issue in rural communities. "People living
in rural areas face a multitude of structural barriers when seeking
dental care. These barriers, which include dentist availability,
ability to pay, and transportation issues, contribute to minimal
expectations for receiving dental care and cause people to undervalue
dental care," states Lisa Davis, director of the Pennsylvania
Office of Rural Health. Click Here For More
Asthma in Rural School Children
Asthma is a chronic lung disease that can involve sudden attacks that have been described as gasping, painful and frightening struggles to get air in to and out of the lungs. Immediate treatment with appropriate medication is needed during these episodes to prevent worsening and potentially life-threatening respiratory difficulty. With over 45,000 rural Pennsylvania school children with asthma, understanding the capacity of rural schools to meet their needs is an important health and policy issue. Click Here For More