When it comes to public health, it’s no longer a secret that Indiana ranks near the bottom of nearly every statistic. The primary culprits are the obvious:
- Tobacco use – Indianapolis has highest smoking rate of the nation’s 30 largest cities,
- Opioid abuse – 1,700 Hoosiers died of fatal overdose in 2017
- Obesity -12th highest adult obesity rate in the nation, and the 11th highest obesity rate for youth ages 10 to 17.
The not so obvious contributor – your zip code! According to Healthy People 2020, social determinants of health are conditions in the environment that affect a broad range of health and quality of life outcomes. In other words, access to safe housing, nutritious food, transportation and an environment free of toxins can be more of a health predictor than genetic code. In our next Frameworx, Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana State Health Commissioner, will deliver a keynote presentation on the challenges we face as a state and the possibility of developing novel partnerships and solutions to raise the bar for Hoosiers.
Her keynote will be followed by a panel discussion of experts who are working in the trenches gathering data and developing solutions that will have lasting impact:
- Joshua R. Vest, PhD, MPH, Research Scientist, Center for Biomedical Informatics, Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
- Sarah Wiehe, MD, MPH, Director of Community Health Partnerships and the Patient Engagement, Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute
- Lisa Staten, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair, Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health
Moderator: Vanessa Barth, PhD, Eli Lilly and Company loaned Executive, Chief Scientific Officer, BioCrossroads