Get a ‘Health Equity Report Card’ on the condition of your community!

By Cliff Despres, Institute for Health Promotion Research, UT Health San Antonio

Wonder what health equity looks like in your community?

Select your county name and get a customized Health Equity Report Card from Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio. This report card will show how your area stacks up in housing, transit, poverty, health care, food and other health equity issues compared to your state and nation.

The Health Equity Report Card auto-generates local data with interactive maps and comparative gauges, which can help you visualize and explore health inequities.

Get your Health Equity Report Card at https://salud.to/equityreport!

“People can easily email their local Health Equity Report Card to decision-makers, share it on social media, and use it to make the case for community change to boost health equity—where everyone has a fair, just opportunity to live the healthiest lives possible,” said Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., director of the Salud America! Latino health equity program. Salud America! is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at the Institute for Health Promotion Research in the Department of Population Health Sciences at UT Health San Antonio.

Salud America!’s Health Equity Report Card uses daily-updated databases from the University of Missouri’s Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems.

Each report card includes local data, maps and gauges on:

  • Housing: Cost-burdened, substandard, affordability, mortgage lending.
  • Schools: Graduation, reading proficiency, Head Start enrollment, etc.
  • Transportation: Commute times, car-less households, crash mortality.
  • Food: Food deserts, food access, food insecurity, fast food, grocery, SNAP.
  • Environment: Population density, tree canopy, air toxin exposure, etc.
  • Socioeconomic status: Income, poverty, no high-school diploma, violent crime.
  • Health care: Uninsured, access to primary, prenatal, mental health and dental care.
  • Physical and mental health: Diabetes, heart disease, obesity, asthma, cancer, premature death, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, social-emotional support.
  • Comparisons of Latinos to non-Latino Whites: Children in poverty, youth obesity, median household income, high-school diplomas, lack of health insurance, teen birth rates, asthma, infant mortality, cancer mortality and motor vehicle crash deaths.

For example, the Health Equity Report Card for Bexar County, Texas, demonstrates monumental inequities between Latinos and non-Latino whites in the percentage of children in poverty, (27% to 10%), uninsured (20% to 9%), and median household income ($46,079 to $70,203). In housing, it also shows a greater percentage of Bexar County residents are severely housing cost-burdened, face substandard housing conditions, and would have to work 49 hours a week to afford the average-priced two-bedroom home.

Fortunately, each Health Equity Report Card also contains links to evidence-based research and emerging ways local communities are addressing health inequities.

“Advocates can use these report cards to identify gaps in health equity, spur ideas and conversations for healthy change, push policymakers for action, and even get data for research and grant proposals,” Dr. Ramirez said.

About Salud America!

Salud America! is a national Latino-focused organization that creates culturally relevant and research-based stories, videos, and tools to inspire people to start and support healthy changes to policies, systems, and environments where Latino children and families can equitably live, learn, work, and play. Latinos are a rising U.S. powerhouse, but they face barriers to be their healthiest and suffer high rates of obesity and other health disparities. Salud America! and its award-winning multimedia communications help our social and online network—more than 200,000 moms and dads, providers, researchers, and community and school leaders—push for healthy changes in schools and communities to build health equity for Latino and all kids. Salud America! is led by health disparities researcher Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez and supported by a passionate team of communicators at UT Health San Antonio, thanks to funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio®, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities. With missions of teaching, research, healing and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced 36,500 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.



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