Center in the News

Two groups that have high rates of smoking and vaping — the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community and the LGBTQ community ­— have specific hurdles that prevent them from quitting: the cost of cessation therapies and a lack of culturally specific care, according to a pair of reports from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “Examining the smoking behaviors of specific communities is essential to understanding their unique needs,” said Sean Tan, a senior public administration analyst at the center and lead author of both reports. “We found that many NHPI and LGBTQ smokers who

The new state budget ... plans to expand Medi-Cal coverage to more undocumented Californians ages 26 to 49 no later than Jan. 1, 2024. Health advocates said about 700,000 more people will now qualify for the program – the largest group of undocumented residents in the state.

“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Health Interview Survey has released survey data early to help show the impact of COVID-19 on Californians,” said Todd Hughes, the survey director. “As mandates, guidelines and concerns have changed over the past two years, we have added new questions to CHIS to provide policymakers, community organizations, advocates and other stakeholders with data they can act on."

California will become the first state to provide undocumented residents over age 55 with state-subsidized food assistance benefits.

Data from the California Health Interview Survey and the American Community Survey highlight diversity and needs of California’s fastest growing population groups.

The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Data Policy Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles has collected and analyzed Covid-19 data from states that have made it available and found that case and death rates for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander were three times higher than those for Asians overall. "Our community has had the highest case and death rates than any other racial or ethnic group," program director 'Alisi Tulua said, and that gap has "widened by a lot" since this winter.

Approximately 45% of noncitizens without legal permanent resident status experience food insecurity, according to the report.

The report also breaks down percentages of people experiencing food insecurity by age group, with 42% of noncitizens without legal permanent resident status age 50 and older, 46% of those 27 to 49 years old, 36% of those 18 to 26 years old and 64% of children under 17 being affected.

Susan Babey, a senior research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, said while it is important to address food insecurity, it is also important to remember that a lack

Dr. Michael Rodriguez, a family physician and a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said child patients may require different types of medication, or different doses depending on their weights and heights, as well as different levels of fluids.

Dr. Rodriguez has been studying gun violence for more than 25 years. He and Ninez Ponce, Ph.D., director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, recently received a grant to explore the issue in California, where about 3,000 people died from gunfire in 2019 — 54% by suicide.

Nearly half of California's immigrant population impacted by food insecurity, according to policy brief. Exclusionary policies in California are exacerbating poverty and food insecurity for the state’s immigrant communities, including the undocumented, according to a recent policy brief authored by Nourish California and published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The brief presents findings from data from the 2017-2020 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).