10 Ideas for Better Health of the Massachusetts Public.

Before I begin today’s note, a quick word about the SPH This Week publishing schedule. Respecting the heart of summer, we will stop SPH This Week for the next four weeks, starting up again on August 23. We will continue to update the community about events and announcements via SPH Today, and research stories and other school news will continue to appear on our website.

We are in the business of promoting the health of populations. I have written frequently of the role of foundational and structural factors, among them policies and laws, as the core conditions that make people healthy. What, then, are some policy efforts that can indeed achieve better population health, delivering high return on investment yield in our lifetimes? I solicited answers to the question from the School’s Governing Council members—with a focus on the health of the population of Massachusetts—and added to the list a few of my own thoughts. Here I summarize 10 such ideas that rise to the top, in no particular order. This is not a “Top 10 List,” but rather “10 ideas among many.” The intent is to highlight ideas that are indeed doable, and that can yield benefits to the health of populations in both the short- and long-term.

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1. 1. Increase alcohol taxation in the state. There is no question that alcohol taxation is linked to less alcohol consumption and that said taxation will, in turn, reduce substantial morbidity and mortality in the state. The health consequence of unhealthy alcohol use are abundantly clear, including cardiovascular disease, injury, liver damage, mortality, violence, and other health outcomes. Just to cite one example, Ziming Xuan from our community health sciences department recently led a study that found a 1 percent increase in alcohol prices was associated with a 1.4 percent decrease in the prevalence of adults who binge drink. Several economic studies have found that increasing alcohol prices can lower drinking and driving, alcohol-related injury and death, and alcohol-related violence and crime. Forward-looking alcohol taxation can both decrease alcohol consumption and channel tax revenue into health promoting opportunities such as those discussed here.

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1. 1. Mandate health impact assessment for public policies surrounding transportation and housing. Cities shape the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Policies around transportation and housing affect mobility and shelter, but also the health of the state’s urban populations. Creating an evidence base around the health impacts of proposed policies can guide the state towards wiser structural investments that maximize the health of our populations. Health impact assessments can inform recommendations to promote positive health outcomes and minimize negative ones. There are several successful health impact assessment (HIA) examples for the housing sector and transportation. Importantly, health impact assessments have been shown to embed public health considerations into development strategies, in no way minimizing the import of the latter but contributing to the embedding of health as a priority for municipal administrations.

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I hope everyone has a terrific week, and a great rest of the summer. Until August 23.

Warm regards,

Sandro

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean and Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
@sandrogalea

Acknowledgement. This Dean’s Note was informed by conversations with the school’s Governing Council, with thanks to Laura Sampson and Catherine Ettman for contributing data to this Dean’s Note.

Previous Dean’s Notes are archived at: /sph/category/news/deans-notes/