Researchers at the Center for Health Equity at UCSF led the production of the Centering Black Mothers in California report with guidance and collaboration from the Report Advisory Group, Black Women for Wellness, CDPH Center for Family Health (CFH) and MCAH leadership and staff, and the following expert advisors and co-authors. The purpose of this report is to establish a current evidence base that describes the health status of Black birthing people and infants in California and highlights the links between health inequities for this population and both racism and social determinants of health.

Produce a series of reports for wide dissemination to non-technical audiences, linking different social determinants of health with health equity. The first report (2017) provides a definition of health equity and a framework for action. Subsequent reports have focused on: early childhood and health equity (2018); wealth and health equity (2018); mass incarceration and health equity (2019); and what the health care sector can do to advance health equity (2019). 

BIH is a statewide, county-based program aiming to improve maternal and infant health among African Americans. CSDH assessed the statewide BIH Program and recommended revisions in light of current knowledge. Collaborate with CA Dept of Public Health Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Division (MCAH) and local staff to revise the program and design and implement the evaluation.

This study proposes to conduct the first follow-up survey of Maternal and Infant Health Assessment (MIHA) respondents who were interviewed during 2003-2007 (5,800 mother/child dyads) in six California counties. Follow-up MIHA data will be geocoded and linked with measures of neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES)--based on poverty, educational quality, and employment opportunities data collected over time beginning in 1990--and with characteristics of the built environment--based on tobacco outlets, food sources; physical activity resources; transportation characteristics; and retail opportunities. We will examine how a dynamic measure of neighborhood SES and characteristics of the built environment jointly operate to predict tobacco exposure and obesity among nonelderly adult women and their children aged 3-8 years.

This 5-year project is developing and testing an innovative approach targeting social determinants of infant and maternal health; it takes advantage of a unique opportunity in California to build on BIH, the nation’s largest statewide community-based program addressing infant mortality disparities, through a collaborative effort of CSDH, MCAH, and local and state-level stakeholders. The project aims to build women’s skills in managing money, recognizing the adverse effects of economic instability on the health of the women themselves and their children. The effort also will address leadership development.

Provide scientific leadership for the RWJF Commission for a Healthier America, launched in March 2008 and re-convened in June 2013, focusing on the social determinants of health. Conduct data analyses, reviews, and syntheses to build a knowledge base on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in health and promising approaches to reducing them.  Collaborate with partners to draft briefing documents and reports used by the Commission to inform, draw attention to and stimulate a public dialogue about the causes of and solutions to the wide and persistent social disparities in health in the U.S. The ultimate goal of this effort is to lead to changes in national, state, and local policies and promote private sector initiatives that will reduce disparities in health among Americans in different socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups, by focusing on the social factors that so powerfully shape health.

CSDH researchers have collaborated with researchers at the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative to analyze two California population-based secondary data sets to study racial/ethnic disparities in cesarean rates, taking into account an array of clinical indications, maternal characteristics including pre-pregnancy BMI, and hospital-level factors. Interviews with key informants at selected hospitals statewide will be conducted to guide interpretation of the quantitative results.

This project brings together a collaborative team of researchers from CSDH, MCAH and the CDC to produce a Surveillance Summary that will provide previously unavailable information for policy makers and program planners seeking to maximize the impact of the USDA Women, Infants and Children Supplementary Food Program (WIC) at the national level.

This project reviewed the literature to examine ways in which differences in exposure and treatment across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups could lead to disparities in illness or death resulting from an influenza pandemic, and recommended approaches to reducing inequities and adverse health outcomes.