Spirituality As A Determinant Of Health: Emerging Policies, Practices, And Systems.

Reimagining public health's future should include explicitly considering spirituality as a social determinant of health that is linked to human goods and is deeply valued by people and their communities. Spirituality includes a sense of ultimate meaning, purpose, transcendence, and connectedness. With that end in mind, we assessed how recommendations recently issued by an expert panel for integrating spiritual factors into public health and medicine are being adopted in current practice in the United States.

Learning from COVID-19: government leaders' perspectives to improve emergency risk communication.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the challenges of effective emergency risk communication (ERC) to protect public health, including the difficulty in tackling the spread of inaccurate information. This study aimed to understand those challenges and potential solutions by interviewing leading government spokespersons and their advisors from around the world with experience during large scale emergencies. Interviews were conducted with 27 individuals representing governments from 19 countries across five continents.

Exploring the spiritual foundations of public health leadership.

The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the challenges of public health leadership. Faced with criticism, threats, and even violence, many public health leaders have left the field. A healthier future for the nation may well rest on training aspiring public health leaders to build deeper capacity for perseverance, healing, and resilience.

E-cigarette use behaviors of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander youth in the contiguous United States: Insights from the Monitoring the Future Study (2018-2019).

This study examines e-cigarette use behaviors of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) youth, in relation to other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Data were obtained from the 2018 and 2019 Monitoring the Future surveys, which include a random, probability-based sample of youth in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades surveyed annually across the contiguous United States. Respondents provided information on race/ethnicity and e-cigarette use (n = 42,980).

Oral Antiviral Therapy Utilization Among Adults with Recent COVID-19 in the United States.

Background: This is the first study, to our knowledge, to assess uptake of oral antiviral treatment (OAV) for COVID-19 in the US and assess whether it is reaching recommended groups.

Objective: The study evaluated uptake among persons of all ages, with emphasis on utilization among individuals ages 65 + who comprise 75% of all COVID-19 deaths. To maximize public health outreach and benefit, we sought to understand reasons for use and non-use of OAV among individuals 65 + with at least mild COVID-19 symptoms.

Establishing Academic Homes for Homelessness: A Call to Action.

Although homelessness ranks as one of society's most pressing and visible health equity challenges, the academic community has not actively addressed its health impacts, root causes, and potential solutions. Few schools and programs of public health even offer a basic course for students. In the COVID-19 pandemic era, academia must demonstrate urgency to address homelessness and educate learners, motivate fledgling researchers, inform policy makers, offer community-engaged and evidence-based studies, and join in the growing national debate about best approaches.

Spirituality in Serious Illness and Health.

Importance: Despite growing evidence, the role of spirituality in serious illness and health has not been systematically assessed.

Objective: To review evidence concerning spirituality in serious illness and health and to identify implications for patient care and health outcomes.

Evidence Review: Searches of PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science identified articles with evidence addressing spirituality in serious illness or health, published January 2000 to April 2022.

Progress in Reducing Disparities in Premature Mortality in the USA: a Descriptive Study.

Background: Eliminating health disparities among different segments of the US population is an overarching goal of the US Healthy People 2020 objectives.

Objective: Examine changes in educational, rural-urban, and racial disparities in premature mortality during the past 10 years.

Design And Participants: Descriptive analysis of US mortality data from 2007 to 2017.

Prioritizing Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Health Equity Agenda.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations are growing rapidly in the United States, yet AANHPIs remain understudied, overlooked, and misunderstood. During the COVID-19 pandemic, themes from the tragic history of anti-Asian bias and marginalization have resurfaced in a surge of renewed bigotry and xenophobic violence against AANHPIs. In this commentary, the authors discuss the role of medical schools in combating anti-Asian sentiment as an important step toward achieving health equity.

Training Clinicians to Care for Patients Where They Are.

Homelessness remains a pervasive, long-standing problem in the United States and is poised to increase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals experiencing homelessness bear a higher burden of complex medical and mental health illnesses and often struggle to obtain quality and timely health care. The United States desperately needs to train a workforce to confront this large and growing crisis, but few health professional schools currently devote curricula to the clinical needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Invited Commentary: Religious Service Attendance and Implications for Clinical Care, Community Participation, and Public Health.

In this commentary, we review the evidence concerning associations between religious service attendance and subsequent health and wellbeing outcomes. The evidence base for a link between religious service attendance and health has increased substantially over the past 2 decades. The interpretation and implications of this research require careful consideration (Am J Epidemiol.