HPIO brief highlights health gaps in Ohio

The Health Policy Institute of Ohio this week released a new policy brief titled “Closing Ohio’s Health Gaps: Moving Toward Equity,” which highlights the more than 30 years difference in life expectancy among the healthiest communities in Ohio and those with the poorest health (Source: “Report: Two Columbus neighborhoods among lowest in Ohio for life expectancy rates,” Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 16, 2018).

The brief found that those with lower incomes, African Americans, people with disabilities and people without high school degrees are among those who are hardest hit by the health-related disparities.

“This troubling disparity is attributed to the fact that not all Ohioans have the same opportunity to live a healthy life based on geography, race and ethnicity, income, education or other social, economic or demographic factors,” says the report released Monday. A person’s social, economic and physical environments also account for half of the modifiable factors that influence health, the report concludes.