Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
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Using data from a large cohort of urban children, this study identified multilevel correlates of asthma to determine whether neighborhood attributes remain associated with asthma after adjustment for individual level and immediate housing characteristics. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study and its substudy, the In-Home Longitudinal Study of Pre-Schooled Age Children (n = 1,784). The primary outcome was asthma diagnosis by age 5. ⋯ After multivariable adjustment, non-Hispanic Black, Puerto Rican, or other Hispanic race, child's lack of insurance coverage, male gender, presence of allergies, the exterior condition of a child's home, mother's educational attainment, and the percent of the neighborhood population with a bachelor's degree remained significantly associated with having received an asthma diagnosis by age 5. The authors identified sociodemographic and economic factors at the individual, household, and neighborhood level which are correlates of childhood asthma in urban areas. After adjustment for more proximal characteristics, the effects of all neighborhood markers were minimal, with the exception of neighborhood education.
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Firearms have widely supported legitimate purposes but are also frequently used in violent crimes. Owners and senior executives of federally licensed firearms dealers and pawnbrokers are a potentially valuable source of information on retail commerce in firearms, links between legal and illegal commerce, and policies designed to prevent the firearms they sell from being used in crimes. To our knowledge, there has been no prior effort to gather such information. ⋯ Trace frequency was directly associated with the percentage of firearm sales involving handguns, inexpensive handguns, and sales to women. Frequency of denied sales was strongly and directly associated with frequency of trace requests (p < 0.0001). These results are based on self-report but are consistent with those from studies using objective data.
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In this paper, we consider social forces that affect the processes of both knowledge production and knowledge translation in relation to urban health research. First, we briefly review our conceptual model, derived from a social-conflict framework, to outline how unequal power relations and health inequalities are causally linked. ⋯ Third, we broaden the scope of our analysis to examine how the ideological, political, and economic environment beyond the academy creates barriers to health equity policy making. We conclude with some key questions about the role that knowledge translation can possibly play in light of these constraints on research and policy for urban health.
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Drug addiction is a major public health problem, one that is most acutely felt in major cities around the globe. Harm reduction and safe injection sites are an attempt to address this problem and are at the cutting edge of public health policy and practice. ⋯ This paper also argues that the experience of INSITE suggests that science and social justice, the meta-ideas that lie at the core of the public health enterprise, are an inadequate basis for a theory of public health policy making. However, on a more positive note, INSITE also shows the value of concepts drawn from the ways in which political science analyzes the policy process.
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The purpose of this article was to discuss significant challenges to the achievement of urban health, specifically acknowledging numerous controversies in knowledge translation for community-based drug treatment that prevent the achievement of health equity. Seven specific controversies are analyzed in this article. ⋯ Among the most important recommendations is a call to end the policies of the war on drugs and mass incarceration of drug offenders-as policies reflecting how politics and the misuse of power may derail knowledge translation. The article provides justification for evidence-based policy that supports community-based drug treatment as a public health approach consistent with the goals of health equity, ethical practice, and effective knowledge translation.