APHA 2008 PROGRAM:

The Spirit of 1848 is happy to present its program for

the 136th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association

October 25-29, 2008,

San Diego, CA

(For a 2-page pdf version of the 2008 Spirit of 1848 Program click here.)

SESSIONS

All Spirit of 1848 Sessions will take place in the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC).

Mon, Oct. 27:

10:30 am to 12 noon:
History, Borders, Immigration, and Public Health: From 1848 to 2008 -- 160 years of debate (Session 3159.0; SDCC Meeting Room 7A) <more info>

2:30 pm to 4:00 pm:
Analyzing health inequities: what’s new in the 160 years since 1848? – applying new methods to longstanding problems of health injustice (Session 3359.0; SDCC Meeting Room 2) <more info>

4:30 pm to 6:00 pm:
160 years of the Spirit of 1848: Critical reflections, celebration and inspiration (Session 3433.0; SDCC Meeting Room 6C/F) <more info>

Tues, Oct. 28:
8:30 am to 10:00 am:
Teaching Critical History of Public Health and Health Policy: Progressive Pedagogy in Action (Session 4063.0; SDCC Meeting Room 2) <more info>

12:30 pm to 1:30 pm:
Social Justice & Public Health: Student Posters (Session 4149.0 SDCC Halls ABC) <more info>

6:30 pm to 8:00 pm:
Spirit of 1848 Caucus Business Meeting (Session 438.0 SDCC Meeting Room 27A)

Note: we are also co-sponsoring:

1). the P. Ellen Parsons Memorial Session “P. Ellen Parsons Memorial Session: Health Access & the Election: What Happened, What Didn't, What Next”, organized by Ellen Shaffer and sponsored by the Medical Care Section and co-sponsored by the Women’s Caucus and the Socialist Caucus. Tuesday, October 28, 2:30 to 4:00 pm (Marriott Hotel & Marina, Marriott Hall, Salon 5). P Ellen Parsons was a founding member of the Spirit of 1848 Caucus, as well as a longstanding member of the Women’s Caucus and the Medical Care Section.

2). the MONDAY night OHS ANNUAL HEALTH ACTIVIST DANCE PARTY (8pm -- 1am) at The Fleetwood 639 J St, San Diego [corner of 7th & J; phone: 619-702-7700]. Tickets are available at the Occupational Health & Safety Booth & at the door.

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Mon, Oct. 27

Mon, Oct. 27, 10:30 am to 12 noon:
History, Borders, Immigration, and Public Health: From 1848 to 2008 – 160 years of debate (Session 3159.0; SDCC Meeting Room 7A)

10:30 am
INTRODUCTION: Border conflicts and negotiations: A hidden history of public health.
Luis Alberto Aviles, PhD and Kirby Randolph, PhD
• More than just a frontier between two culturally different nations, the U.S-Mexico border is a most challenging area that defies the traditional theories of sociologists, anthropologists, economists and other research scientists. Current conflicts regarding the role of the border in national politics, migration policy, and economic relations of U.S. and Mexico demand a careful analysis of its historical record of conflicts, deportations, and negotiations. This session analyzes the historical role of this border area both as a promoter and a deterrent of public health policy and practice, and its consequence for social justice in health.

10:35 am
Commercial and social disturbance and restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border (1819-1924): An improvement to the public’s health?
Ana Maria Carrillo, PhD
• This paper explores the role played by restrictions imposed on persons and goods entering from Mexico to the US, in advancing sanitary practices in that country from 1891 to 1924. This study analyzes the Mexican participation in the American Public Health Association and in the International Sanitary Office, and the impact it had in urging Mexico to reorganize the Supreme Board of Health of the Mexican Republic and to draft a Sanitary Code (1891). This Sanitary Code awarded the Mexican federal executive the authority to be in charge of the Sanitary Service of all ports and frontiers, as well as to establish the National Departments of Health (1917) –which took under its charge the public hygiene of the entire nation–. The analysis includes the role played by the Sanitary Convention of Washington, signed in 1905, in preventing the invasion and propagation of infectious diseases from one country to another, and also its role in protecting foreign trade. Finally, I analyze the scopes and limits of the enforcement of interstate notification of epidemic diseases, vaccine protection for immigrants, and disinfection of infected people and things, on both sides of the US-Mexican border.

11:00 am
Race, Disease, and Criminality: Creating the Deportable Mexican in 1940s California.
Natalia Molina, PhD
• In the early 1940s, just as the United States was launching the now widely known Bracero Program, a temporary contract labor with Mexico, Mexican laborers in California’s Imperial Valley were organizing to improve working conditions. Although many of these labor organizers were established community members and had friends and families in their community, they were deported because of their labor organizing work. During this time period, it was not uncommon to attempt to deport labor leaders for their organizing efforts, but usually they were accused of being communists in these cases. Those involved in the deportations of Mexicans in the Imperial Valley, however, which included border patrol agents, local employers, and immigration officers, deported the labor organizers on the grounds that they were health threats. They used their health records obtained from the clinics they visited to claim they had violated immigration laws by becoming public charges because of their use of public health clinics. This case demonstrates how notions of health were key in the constructing Mexicans as criminal and illegal, thus cementing ties between race and disease. In this presentation, I also discuss the methodological challenges of doing work on race and disease when so many of sources related to this subject are institutionally produced. It demonstrates how voices are silenced through the production of historical documents, the resonances and traces left in this process, and what this can tell us more broadly about early to mid 20th century intersections of citizenship, health, "normality," race and racialization.

11:25 am
“Medical Borders”: A historical perspective.
Rakefet Zalashik, PhD (discussant)
• The interrelation between the rise of modern welfare state and public health infrastructure have profound impacts on our current understanding of modernity. These processes were accompanied with borders' formation and destruction, with movement of immigrants, health care workers, diseases and scientific ideas. These processes of movement and border crossings, of people, technologies, and concepts, bear important implications for understanding the history of medicine and public health and its role in society. As discussant for the papers presented in this panel, I will seek to explore new ways of understanding "medical borders" in relation to global movement of people, epidemics and knowledge as expressed in the history of immigration and public health during the 19th and 20th centuries.

11:40 am
Question & answer period

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Mon, Oct. 27, 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm:
Analyzing health inequities: what’s new in the 160 years since 1848? – applying new methods to longstanding problems of health injustice (Session 3359.0; SDCC Meeting Room 2)

2:30 pm
Introduction to Politics of Public Health data session
Catherine Cubbin, PhD

2:35 pm
Using 21st c technologies to analyze the impact of racism on health: the implicit associate test (IAT), web-based surveys, and explicit measures of racial discrimination.
Nancy Krieger, PhD, Dana Carney, PhD, and Mahzarin Banaji, PhD
• A growing body of research demonstrates links between self-reported experiences of discrimination and health. Yet is reliance on what people self-report sufficient? New research on implicit social cognition and epidemiology suggests implicit measures of discrimination could perhaps usefully be combined with explicit measures to provide a more complete picture of the effects of discrimination on health. We accordingly used the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computer-based reaction-time methodology developed by social psychologists to study phenomena that lie outside the reaches of introspective access, in conjunction with an explicit validated “Experience of Discrimination” (EOD) self-report measure. In a pilot study of a random sample of members of a community health center, we found that: (1) the IAT and EOD were not correlated; and (2) black participants explicitly reported higher levels of discrimination against blacks as a group than for themselves personally, whereas on the IAT they showed equally high associations for discrimination against blacks as a group and themselves personally, suggesting the IAT picked up experiences of discrimination the EOD did not. We will also report preliminary results of a newly completed web-based survey investigating associations of the IAT and EOD with several measures of health status and health behaviors. Together, the results suggest that new technologies, tapping implicit cognition, can feasibly be used in epidemiologic and other population-based research and may potentially lead to new insights into the impact of discrimination on health.

2:55 pm
Utilizing the CT Health Equity Index, GIS, and community engagement to address health inequities.
Baker Salsbury, MPH, MSW, MHSA
• The Connecticut Association of Directors of Health, Inc., has developed a health equity index, a tool that provides a way to conceptualize and measure the influence of community context on population health and health disparities at a neighborhood level. It is based on a set of nine Social Determinants linked to health status: Economic Security, Livelihood and Employment, Education, Environmental Quality, Health Care Access, Housing, Civic Involvement, Community Safety, and Transportation. Components specify sub-categories within each determinant and indicators within each component provide measures of specific characteristics or conditions. Indicator data are categorized into a six-point scale ranging from low to high, i.e. the more favorable a specific condition the higher the score. Indicator, Determinant and overall Index scores are statistically analyzed against demographic and health outcome data. Preliminary statistical testing of the instrument has been conducted within 20 neighborhoods in Connecticut. Findings indicate that a lower HEI score is correlated with higher levels of chronic disease, injuries, emergency admissions, premature mortality and higher rates of communicable diseases. The findings are measurable and evidence-based, providing associations that link health outcomes with economic, environmental, and social indicators. Community planners, activists, organizations, and decision-makers can be provided with meaningful local data that reveals linkages between root causes and health inequities. This creates a platform for identifying potential policy or regulatory changes to address inequities.

3:15 pm
Biological embedding of social factors: epigenetic processes and health inequalities.
Darlene Francis, PhD
• Biological, psychological and social processes interact over a lifetime to influence health and vulnerability to disease. A wealth of epidemiological data has documented the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, with low SES groups fairing poorest across multiple outcome measures. Using new methodologies, recent work exploring molecular epigenetic mechanisms of gene expression (in humans as well as other comparative mammalian systems) has provided us with evidence demonstrating that the genome is subject to regulation by surrounding contexts (e.g., cytoplasmic, cellular, organismic, social). I will present data demonstrating that organisms with identical genomes are capable of manifesting dramatically different phenotypic profiles in response to different environmental conditions and experiences. Old assumptions about an inert genome are simply incorrect. It appears that these epigenetic processes may be the missing link which will allow us to understand how social and political conditions, along with individual subjective experiences, can directly alter gene expression, and thereby contribute to observed social inequalities in health. The very recent and powerful new results demonstrating that the epigenome is subject to environmental regulation may provide the direct link between the biological and social/psychological worlds. I suggest that new methods in molecular biology and gene regulation will play a profound role in how we currently conceptualize health inequalities, by informing our concepts regarding the somatization or embodiment of social inequalities.

3:35 pm
Vickie Mays, PhD, MSPH (discussant)
• As discussant, I will reflect on the importance of research on health inequities employing new scientific methods and the particular contributions and questions raised by each paper presented at this session.

3:45 pm
Question & answer period

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Mon, Oct. 27, 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm:
160 years of the Spirit of 1848: Critical reflections, celebration and inspiration (Session 3433.0; SDCC Meeting Room 6C/F)
Nancy Krieger PhD and Anne-Emanuelle Birn, MA, ScD
• Back in 1998, the Spirit of 1848 organized an extravaganza to commemorate 150 years of the Spirit of 1848. This year, to mark 160 years of the Spirit of 1848, we are organizing a mini-extravaganza, featuring (like the one 10 years ago) a combination of music, poetry, dramatizations, photography, and academic presentations to stimulate reflection on and commitment to public health activism. Our closing song (before the APHA meeting, you will be able to download the words and melody from the Spirit of 1848 website, at: http://www.spiritof1848.org/activities.htm) will be “Step by Step,” based on the preamble of the 1863 constitution of the American Mineworkers Association, with the music arranged and adapted in 1948 by Waldemar Hill and Pete Seeger:

Step by step the longest march
Can be won, can be won.
Many stones can form an arch,
Singly none, singly none.
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still.
Drops of water turn a mill,
Singly none, singly none.

In the spirit of “Step by Step,” we seek in this session to regalvanize the Spirit of 1848 – by asking participants and audience to think critically about the past 160 years in terms of the struggles and accomplishments we can recognize and celebrate, the setbacks endured and the suffering they have caused and, ultimately, the work we need to do now, in our generation, in our own times, to advance the agenda of social justice and public health.

(For a pdf version of the program for this session click here.)

4:20 pm	Everyone	Musical prelude “Ella's Song” & "Step by Step"
4:30 pm	1848	Introduction: Anne-Emanuelle Birn	Click here for slides from this presentation.
4:35 pm	American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Caucus	Dean Seneca	Click here for slides from this presentation.
4:39 pm	Occupational Health and Safety Section and Labor Caucus	Peter Dooley
4:43 pm	Public Health Nursing Section	Noncenba Lubanga
4:48 pm	International Health Section	Samir Banoob
4:52 pm	Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus	Seth Welles	Click here for slides from this presentation.
4:56 pm	Black Caucus of Health Workers	Jill Dingle
5:00 pm	School Health Education and Services	Bill Cissell
5:04 pm	Socialist Caucus	Martha Livingston
5:08 pm	1848	Reflecting on the events of 1848: Kirby Randolph/Lisa Moore
5:13 pm	Peace Caucus	Patrice Sutton	Click here for slides from this presentation.
5:17 pm	Family Violence Prevention Forum	Peggy Goodman
5:21 pm	Trade and Health Forum	Susanna Bohme	Click here for slides from this presentation.
5:25 pm	Medical Care Section	Gordy Schiff	Click here for slides from this presentation.
5:29 pm	Sigerist Circle	Ted Brown	Click here for slides from this presentation.
5:33 pm	Social Work Section	Kim Jaffee
5:37 pm	Women’s Caucus	Heather Brandt	Click here for slides from this presentation.
5:41 pm	Latino Caucus	Henry Montes
5:45 pm	1848	Looking forward, building on the Spirit of 1848: Nancy Krieger
5:50-6:00 pm	Everyone	“Step by Step”: Andrea Kidd-Taylor

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Tues, Oct. 28:

Tues, Oct. 28, 8:30 am to 10:00 am:
Teaching Critical History of Public Health and Health Policy: Progressive Pedagogy in Action (Session 4063.0; SDCC Meeting Room 2)

8:30 am
Introduction.
Lisa Dorothy Moore, DrPH and Suzanne Christopher, PhD
• Public health inequities are produced by histories of exploitation and neglect. When we ignore history, we often end up reproducing those inequities. When public health ignores its own history, it cannot develop the necessary reflectivity to be a force of change. History is not a mandatory public health competency. However, we believe it is a necessary competency for those committed to social justice in public health. To this end, this panel will explore the teaching of history in community settings, and in undergraduate and graduate university programs.

8:35 am
A role for exhibitions: “Making a Difference in Global Health.”
Manon Parry, MA, MSc
• In April 2008, the National Library of Medicine will launch a major exhibition on global health. The project celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the World Health Organization and is designed to broaden visitors' understanding of the social determinants of health. The exhibition highlights historical examples of successful responses to a diverse range of problems such as warfare and landmines, the lack of nutritious food and clean water, and barriers to affordable health care. Case studies highlighted include Chinese barefoot doctors in the 1970s, community health centers in South Africa in the 1950s, and AIDS activism in the United States in the 1980s. A primary goal is to teach young people to think critically about global health stories in the news, and encourage them to get involved in health issues in their own community and around the world. Common assumptions held by audiences in the United States and challenged in the exhibition include the notion that infectious diseases are the biggest threat to health, that global health means other, poorer countries, that “developing” countries lack medical expertise, and that governments, not communities, should take the lead in solving health problems. In this paper the exhibition curator will describe how the project was developed, from research on the views of the target audiences to the approach to storytelling used. The presentation will be illustrated with images of materials displayed in the exhibition and photographs of the galleries, and will end with a review of the responses to the project since its launch.

8:50 am
Literacy, access to information, and social power – 1848 and 2008.
Sherry Spence, MA
• At the core of all public health programs is the development and dissemination of information. The target audience can use public health information only if it has effective access the medium that provides the information. How, then, does the economically and socially disadvantaged target audience receive, understand, and use health information? How has this changed over time as new technologies were introduced? What are and have been the barriers and facilitators to information access, and how are they related to social power? This session presents a brief overview of major information dissemination technologies – print and electronic – and global impacts on information dissemination, the associated social power, and the barriers that arose to restrict access to each. The focus is on health information and the historical progress of literacy, access to information, and social power. Factors that have inhibited or facilitated effective access to health

information are presented, such as the effects of mobility and isolation on minority groups' access to information and social power. The historical trends and current roles of public health in removing barriers and facilitating the flow of information are presented. Some of the barriers within public health information development and dissemination are discussed. The session concludes with an interactive discussion of ways to make public health information more accessible to disadvantaged populations.

9:05 am
Necessity of teaching the history of public health from a critical perspective.
John P. Elia, PhD
• It is quite common for public health professionals to receive their academic training at either the undergraduate and graduate levels without ever formally or systematically studying the history of public health. This presentation underscores why specifically critical histories of public health are imperative not only to foster an understanding the historical bases of health (in)equity and social determinants of health, but also to see how current health disparities have deep historical roots. The Main purpose of this presentation, however, is to provide examples of how an undergraduate class entitled the "critical history of public health in the U.S." approaches such a study to not only foster a deep understanding of public health issues in diverse populations, but also to cultivate (intellectual) activism. This presentation reveals relevant aspects of the content of this course as well as fosters a discussion about pedagogical approaches to the historical study of public health. Also, various forms of resistance this class faces given its unconventional approach to history are explored.

9:20 am
University of Toronto’s history of international health course.
Anne-Emanuelle Birn, MA, ScD
• This presentation will discuss the graduate course "History of International Health," taught at the University of Toronto. The course provides a critical historical perspective on many of the contemporary problems of international health. It explores the ideologies, institutions, and practices of the field of international health from its imperial origins to the present, covering the role of health in empire-building and commercial expansion; the perennial fears of pandemics and their economic consequences; the “class-ing,” “race-ing,” and gendering of international health through attention to sex, maternity, fertility, and productivity; and the power and contest over defining and addressing the diseased mind, body, and soul of the non-metropolitan subject. Through examination of historical sources (documents and films) and scholarly research, we seek to understand the political, scientific, social, and economic underpinnings of the principles and activities of the international health field, its embedded cultural values, and its continuities and discontinuities.

9:35 am
Question & answer period

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Tues, Oct. 28, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm:
Social Justice & Public Health: Student Posters (Session 4149.0; SDCC Halls ABC)
This session highlights posters prepared by students of public health and health-related programs focused on intersections between social justice and public health from a historical, epidemiological, global, and/or methodological perspective.

Board #1
Invisible Places, Invisible People: Facing health disparities in urban North Carolina.
K. Wu, MPH Candidate; J. Kadis, MPH Candidate; C. Katz, MPH Candidate; K. MacGuire, MPH Candidate; A. Agyemang, MPH Candidate
• Background/Purpose: As a result of a community's low socioeconomic status, available services are diminished and underutilized. Low socioeconomic status manifests as sub-standard housing, decreased access to public transportation, inability to seek healthcare services, and reduced quality of life. Disparities are magnified in areas of constant demographic shifts and transience, ultimately leading to compromised health. This paper presents the results of a community diagnosis performed in a diverse and transient community highly concentrated with low-cost, multi-family housing units, and focuses on disparities regarding access and availability of healthcare services.
Methods: An eight-month Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis was conducted in an urban area of North Carolina. The strengths and challenges facing this community were assessed using qualitative data collection methods: participant observation field notes, individual interviews and focus groups with community members and service providers, and secondary data sources such as historical archives and public records. Transcript data were analyzed using qualitative methods and software to highlight major themes and concerns identified by the community.
Results/Implications: Preliminary findings indicate distinct differences in health outcomes and access to healthcare based on socioeconomic status. In order to eliminate health disparities in these communities, public health practitioners must continue to work with government and community leaders to ensure healthcare services are provided to and utilized by members of all socioeconomic strata. Integral to the use of healthcare services are availability of effective public transportation and provision of multi-lingual health programs. These amendments to the existing public infrastructure will aid in eliminating health disparities in this population.

Board #2
Other side of the tracks: Understanding the historical, social and environmental context of health in an African American community in eastern North Carolina.
S. Barber, MPH Candidate; J. Tzeng, MPH Candidate; A. George, MPH Candidate; J. Thompson, MPH Candidate
• Background/Purpose: Social stratification by race and class has played a significant role in shaping the economic and social context of many communities across the U.S. For example, an African American community in rural eastern North Carolina has experienced economic and social disparities as a result of living on the other side of the town's railroad tracks. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of historical, social and environmental influences as it relates to the strengths and challenges of this community. Methods: An Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCD) was conducted in collaboration with an African American community in rural eastern North Carolina. AOCD is a Community-Based Participatory Research technique that allows researchers to identify the strengths, challenges, needs, and opportunities of a community from the perspective of community members themselves. Primary data were collected from interviews, focus groups, and field notes. Qualitative data were analyzed from the transcripts using codes that were developed from themes identified a priori by the study team, and modified in an inductive fashion to reflect themes that emerged from the data. Results/Implications: A preliminary analysis of qualitative data revealed five prominent themes: housing, employment, transportation, education, and community support and mobilization. Qualitative data suggested that much of the community's challenges are largely shaped by the town's historical, social and economic influences. Upon completion of the AOCD, future CBPR processes should include identification of important and changeable issues, and a community forum to guide and empower community members to identify, mobilize and achieve action steps.

Board #3
Interdisciplinary approaches: A student-initiated course on Critical Race Theory.
J. J. García, MPH
• Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a branch of legal scholarship that studies the relationship between race and law in U.S. society. Last year, social science graduate students at UCLA recognized the potential that a CRT lens could bring to disciplines outside of law. Students from the fields of urban planning, public policy, social welfare, education, and public health initiated a student-led CRT class to study the causes and symptoms of institutional and structural racism and explore how CRT concepts and methodologies apply to social science disciplines. Class participants acted as both students and teachers, and produced a final collaborative report that underscores the importance of race-conscious training in graduate and professional school for researchers and practitioners working toward racial and social justice. Ongoing efforts of the student organizers include a critical race studies working group, CRT “teach-ins” and plans to offer the class again this year. A pivotal byproduct from the class is the potential of a critical race perspective in stimulating novel approaches to understanding and addressing social inequalities in health. Public health applications of CRT include the use of intersectionality as a framework for understanding health disparities, the role that implicit bias may play in health care settings, and a critical examination of how a race neutral approach to health policy and research reinforces the racist status quo. In creating and participating in this process the students have encountered many challenges, but have also found the power in reaching across disciplinary borders to achieve a shared goal.

Board #4
Goods Movement 101: A training model for community engagement and education.
J. Lucky, MPH; A. Logan; A. M. Hricko, MPH; I. Ramirez; C. Truax; A. J. Groopman, MHS
• In Southern California, the growth and development of large ports and transportation corridors to accommodate the distribution of imported goods throughout the state and to the rest of the country has resulted in the release of thousands of tons of polluting emissions each year. Goods movement poses an issue of environmental injustice by placing a disproportionate burden of this pollution on the primarily low-income and communities of color living in close proximity to areas such as ports, freeways and railways. Historically, these heavily impacted communities have not had access or opportunity to participate in critical decision making processes regarding land use and development. As a result, community concerns regarding health, safety and quality of life issues have not been given consideration when decisions are made related to the development and expansion of goods movement systems and infrastructure. In order to provide skills and training to community residents to build their capacity to participate in dialogue and decisions regarding goods movement development, the poster's authors developed and pilot tested a “Goods Movement 101” training course. Community based organizations in Southern California are currently using the training curriculum to teach local residents about how their communities are impacted by goods movement pollution. The poster will demonstrate the ways in which the Goods Movement 101 training has been utilized to educate, engage and empower community residents and public health advocates to meaningfully participate in efforts to reduce the harmful impacts of goods movement, improve community health and work towards building healthier environments.

Board #5
A gender analysis of cervical cancer.
R. M. Lee
• The recent release of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, has elicited debates among activists, politicians, physicians and religious groups about female sexuality and the rights of women. The stigma that comes with cervical cancer's link to sexual behavior is pervasive and can be seen in the disparities within national data as well as the current policies and programs supported by the US government. This gender analysis examines how the social construct of gender intersects with the sex-linked disease of cervical cancer. It describes the impact of gender norms and assumptions on the racial, socioeconomic, geographic, and age-related disparities in cervical cancer incidence and mortality. A review of current US policy reveals inconsistent recommendations, vague language, and a glaring silence towards women's sexual behavior that could be increasing women's cervical cancer risk. The emergence of the HPV vaccine as a new prevention tool has the potential to reduce this highly preventable disease; however failure to consider gender and its intersections with other social structures could widen the incidence and mortality gaps further. This analysis provides recommendations for future strategies to incorporate a gender perspective in research, programming, and federal policy.

Board #6
Disparities in Breast Cancer Mortality: A Social Justice Perspective.
M. Taylor-Jones, MPH
• Background: Black women have the highest breast cancer death rates when compared to any other racial or ethnic groups. Significant research efforts have focused enormous attention towards factors such as race often juxtaposed with socioeconomic status as determinants for such disparities. The purpose of this research is to explore if there is a relationship between political and other economic factors and breast cancer mortality. These factors include the degree of income inequality and investments in crucial social welfare programs. Methods: Using data from the National Cancer Institute and the Health Care Safety Net's Data Book II on States and Counties in a multivariate analysis, the primary independent variable included income inequality. The political variables included the presence of health care safety net institutions, public assistance programs and Medicaid expenditures at the county level. The economic variables included income inequality, uninsured and unemployment rates. Results: Income inequality was a positive and significant predictor of breast cancer mortality. Being uninsured and the presence of health care safety net systems also had a strong effect. The measure on income inequality was not significant when race was included in the regression models. Being black was also positively and significantly associated with breast cancer mortality while the presence of health care safety net systems continued to have a strong effect. Conclusions: Including political and economic factors could be crucial to understanding of social determinants for disparities in breast cancer mortality.

Tues, Oct. 28, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm:
Spirit of 1848 Caucus Business Meeting (Session 438.0; SDCC Meeting Room 27A)
Come to a working meeting of THE SPIRIT OF 1848 CAUCUS. Our committees focus on the politics of public health data, progressive public health curricula, social history of public health, and networking. Join us in planning future sessions & projects!

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