Geographical Disparities

The HPV vaccine is routinely recommended to male and female youth and adolescents. New evidence shows that early vaccination, at age 9, can significantly boost vaccine initiation and completion rates, address disparities in access, and prevent more cancers. The National HPV Vaccination Roundtable developed a communications toolkit to assist hospital systems and state and local health departments in implementing age 9 HPV vaccination messaging.

Food insecurity has major ramifications on an individual’s health, causing increased rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and mental health disorders. Recent research shows that low food security is much higher among cancer survivors and their caregivers, causing greater cancer-related challenges such as decreased quality of life, depression, medication nonadherence and cancer progression. To help address this disparity, the American Cancer Society recently released a food security toolkit to assist comprehensive cancer control coalitions in their efforts to address food security among cancer survivors.

ChangeLab Solutions recently expanded their suite of resources dedicated to advancing rural prosperity by adding a strategy brief on advancing racial equity and a policy table that can assist in these changes. These resources are a part of the Toward Better Rural Futures project which focuses on equipping leaders with the tools necessary to ensure that their community can thrive. These two new publications include tools for local and state policymakers, community leaders, and changemakers in rural areas to make a lasting impact through policy changes that can raise the bar for everyone.

A recent report released by the Truth Initiative highlights the reasons behind the higher smoking prevalence among several southern and midwestern states. This report also emphasized the importance of adopting strong commercial tobacco policies to decrease commercial tobacco usage and secondhand smoke exposure in these areas.

The Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group (Aspen CSG) recently released a Call to Action as a response from their Thrive Rural Action-Learning Exchange (TRALE) where they sought to answer the question, “What will it take for outdoor recreation economies to grow equitable rural prosperity?” They found that there are five principles for creating equitable and thriving rural outdoor recreation economies.

Last month the Geographic Health Equity Alliance and one of CADCA’s Master Trainers, Dylan Ellerbee, partnered to host a one-day, in- person training workshop for the Eliminate Tobacco Use Virginia Summit. The Eliminate Tobacco Use Initiative is a nationwide initiative to address tobacco use across colleges and universities.