Annual review of public health
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Annu Rev Public Health · Jan 2016
ReviewCivil Rights Laws as Tools to Advance Health in the Twenty-First Century.
To improve health in the twenty-first century, to promote both access to and quality of health care services and delivery, and to address significant health disparities, legal and policy approaches, specifically those focused on civil rights, could be used more intentionally and strategically. This review describes how civil rights laws, and their implementation and enforcement, help to encourage health in the United States, and it provides examples for peers around the world. ⋯ Suggestions are offered for improving health and equity broadly, especially within societal groups and marginalized populations. These recommendations include multisectorial approaches that focus on the social determinants of health.
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Annu Rev Public Health · Mar 2015
ReviewThe prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a public health approach to an epidemic of addiction.
Public health authorities have described, with growing alarm, an unprecedented increase in morbidity and mortality associated with use of opioid pain relievers (OPRs). Efforts to address the opioid crisis have focused mainly on reducing nonmedical OPR use. ⋯ A multifaceted public health approach that utilizes primary, secondary, and tertiary opioid addiction prevention strategies is required to effectively reduce opioid-related morbidity and mortality. We describe the scope of this public health crisis, its historical context, contributing factors, and lines of evidence indicating the role of addiction in exacerbating morbidity and mortality, and we provide a framework for interventions to address the epidemic of opioid addiction.
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Annu Rev Public Health · Mar 2015
ReviewFocused deterrence and the prevention of violent gun injuries: practice, theoretical principles, and scientific evidence.
Focused deterrence strategies are a relatively new addition to a growing portfolio of evidence-based violent gun injury prevention practices available to policy makers and practitioners. These strategies seek to change offender behavior by understanding the underlying violence-producing dynamics and conditions that sustain recurring violent gun injury problems and by implementing a blended strategy of law enforcement, community mobilization, and social service actions. ⋯ This article reviews the practice, theoretical principles, and evaluation evidence on focused deterrence strategies. Although more rigorous randomized studies are needed, the available empirical evidence suggests that these strategies generate noteworthy gun violence reduction impacts and should be part of a broader portfolio of violence prevention strategies available to policy makers and practitioners.
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Scholars and practitioners alike in recent years have suggested that real and lasting progress in the fight against gun violence requires changing the social norms and attitudes that perpetuate violence and the use of guns. The Cure Violence model is a public health approach to gun violence reduction that seeks to change individual and community attitudes and norms about gun violence. ⋯ Cure Violence operates independently of, while hopefully not undermining, law enforcement. In this article, we describe the theoretical basis for the program, review existing program evaluations, identify several challenges facing evaluators, and offer directions for future research.
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Gun violence is a major threat to the public's health and safety in the United States. The articles in this volume's symposium on gun violence reveal the scope of the problem and new trends in mortality rates from gunfire. ⋯ Each approach presents challenges to successful implementation. Future research should inform efforts to assess which approaches are most effective and how to implement evidence-based interventions most effectively.