Home, sweet home

The September issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health includes some articles on the relationship between housing and ill-health.  One study considers the effect of cumulative exposure to housing affordability stress and its association with poorer mental health, while another looks at the impact of housing improvement on common childhood illnesses amongst Indigenous Australian communities.  A new report from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) assesses routes for preventing homelessness.  Making Every Contact Count sets out nine "local challenges," including limiting use of bed and breakfast accomodation (especially for young people and families), adopting a No Second Night Out model and offering a housing options prevention service.  Supporting this strategy there is an evidence review on the cost of homelessness;  DCLG has also released current statistics on homelessness prevention and relief.

Hit or miss?

Giving evidence before the Commons Education Select Committee, Alan Milburn, the government's preferred candidate for chair of the soon-to-be Child Poverty and Social Mobility Commission, suggested that there was not "snowball's chance in hell" of meeting the 2020 target for eradicating child poverty in the UK.  The conversation also included some interesting discussion about how far reducing child poverty and enhancing social mobility were competing claims.  Childhood socio-economic disadvantage has regularly been linked with obesity but does social mobility have any significant health effects in this regard.  A study from the USA looks at family income trajectories and their association with obesity in adolescence. Elsewhere, a survey of current policy and practice considers the role of maternal employment in tackling poverty and promoting social mobility.

Not making it bettter

A brief study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health aims to discover from systematic review evidence what kinds of public health interventions actually increase health inequalities, by providing disproportionate benefit to less disadvantaged groups.  The researchers conclude that media campaigns and workplace smoking interventions appear to increase inequalities, while structural workplace interventions and fiscal interventions, such as tobacco pricing, appear to reduce inequalities.

Soft option

The latest edition of Public Health Nutrition features several studies on soft drink consumption, along with an editiorial that echoes the recent fighting talk about fizzy drinks: Making soft drinks the dietary version of the cigarette.  One study, from the University of Alberta, examines pre-school children's consumption of soft drinks, finding that socio-economic and built environment factors are associated with soft drink consumption in children of pre-school age. No surprises there, then.  A recent study from the University of Bangor has been much commented on: Adaptive metabolic response to 4 weeks of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in healthy, lightly active individuals and chronic high glucose availability in primary human myotubes has been translated into "fizzy drinks are evil" by the press (Daily Mail article, of course).

Target practice

Pulse reports that CCGs in deprived areas will have their commissioning outcomes framework targets adjusted according to the demographics of their populations.  NICE intends to level the playing field, promising a  ‘robust approach to case mix adjustment.'  HSJ focuses on lobbying around the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (ACRA)'s interim proposals for setting public health budgets for councils.

Time travel

US blog Decisions Based on Evidence highlights some research from the States on differences in life expectancy on the basis of ethnicity and educational achievement.  The summary puts it starkly: “Despite advances in health care and increases in life expectancy overall, Americans with less than a high school education have life expectancies similar to adults in the 1950s and 1960s."  The study's authors conclude: "The message for policy makers is clear: implement educational enhancements at young, middle, and older ages for people of all races, to reduce the large gap in health and longevity that persists today."