Center in the News
Health disparities in California, including in oral health care, disproportionately affect historically underserved communities due to systemic, social and economic inequities. According to the California Health Interview Survey in 2017-18 from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, 27% of California adults reported their oral health as poor while 21% reported their overall health as poor. Looking deeper, 21% of white adult Californians reported their oral health as poor compared to 30% of Black Californians and 34% of Latinx Californians.
“Our findings show that more people are experiencing serious psychological distress, more people are in need of professional help and more people are reporting moderate or severe impairment in their work, social lives, relationships and daily activities,” Ponce said.
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Fielding School of Public Health researchers have been awarded $3 million to study the sexual and reproductive health of Asian immigrant women in the United States, the university announced on Monday.
“California has some of the toughest gun laws in the country,” said Sean Tan, a senior public administration analyst at the research center. “Yet our findings still suggest there is a need for improvements to our laws given continuing concerns over gun violence in the state.”
“Our findings show that more people are experiencing serious psychological distress, more people are in need of professional help and more people are reporting moderate or severe impairment in their work, social lives, relationships and daily activities,” Ponce said.
Researchers from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health have been awarded a federal grant for a multi-year study focused on the sexual and reproductive health of Asian immigrant women in the United States, it was announced Monday.
Proposition 31 on the Nov. 8 ballot would uphold legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 that would ban the retail sale of nearly all flavored tobacco products in California. 2019 California Health Interview Survey data show that 57 percent of adult tobacco users used flavored tobacco products, and 79 percent of adults who vape used flavored varieties.
“The level of unmet need is pretty staggering,” Kathryn G. Kietzman, the lead study author, said in an interview. “There’s a big void in what is available to folks.”
“UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research shows 94% of Californians have health insurance and 6% are uninsured. Of the uninsured, 54% are eligible for subsidized health insurance but have waived coverage.”
Data disaggregation is important to truly understand the needs of the many communities under the umbrella term: AAPI, said Riti Shimkhada, a senior research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “You can take that information and start to drive community action or interventions to address those very specific needs,” she said.