Public health reports
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Public health reports · May 2018
Naming Institutionalized Racism in the Public Health Literature: A Systematic Literature Review.
Although a range of factors shapes health and well-being, institutionalized racism (societal allocation of privilege based on race) plays an important role in generating inequities by race. The goal of this analysis was to review the contemporary peer-reviewed public health literature from 2002-2015 to determine whether the concept of institutionalized racism was named (ie, explicitly mentioned) and whether it was a core concept in the article. ⋯ Although institutionalized racism is recognized as a fundamental cause of health inequities, it was not often explicitly named in the titles or abstracts of articles published in the public health literature during 2002-2015. Our results highlight the need to explicitly name institutionalized racism in articles in the public health literature and to make it a central concept in inequities research. More public health research on institutionalized racism could help efforts to overcome its substantial, longstanding effects on health and well-being.
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Public health reports · May 2018
Improved Health and Insurance Status Among Cigarette Smokers After Medicaid Expansion, 2011-2016.
The high concentration of smokers among subgroups targeted by the Affordable Care Act and the historically worse health and lower access to health care among smokers warrants an evaluation of how Medicaid expansion affects smokers. We evaluated the impact of Medicaid expansion on smoking behavior, access to health care, and health of low-income adults, and we compared outcomes of all low-income people with outcomes of low-income current smokers by states' Medicaid expansion status. ⋯ Greater improvements among low-income smokers in Medicaid expansion states compared with nonexpansion states could influence future smoking behaviors and warrant longer-term monitoring. Additionally, health and insurance gains among low-income smokers in expansion states suggest the potential for Medicaid expansion to improve health among smokers compared with nonsmokers.