A series published in The Lancet recently investigated the effect of income inequality on the health of Americans. While incomes for those in the top have grown, extreme poverty has also grown in the US. In fact, more than 1.6 million households in the US survive on less than $2 per day; a number double that of the 1990s. The cycle is not likely to be broken either, barring major social change. Differences in aspects ranging from zoning laws, access and quality of education, and inheritance laws continue these inequalities through generations, making it more difficult to rise out of poverty.
By Leonard Bentley from Iden, East Sussex, UK – Iden, CC BY-SA 2.0
When someone has a heart attack, every minute counts. The American Heart Institute guidelines say that for every minute, the chances of a victim surviving decrease by 7 to 10 percent. To help save lives, Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) have become more and more ubiquitous, and now can be found in many different locations, including coffee shops, banks, malls, and sports complexes. When placing these devices though, a few issues need to be considered, including hours of operation, proximity of other AEDs, and being in high-traffic areas. To help inform these decisions, researchers from the University of Toronto recently conducted a very interesting study.
Using data on cardiac arrests that occurred outside of hospitals in Toronto from January 2007 to December 2015, they were able to place them on a map. They then identified businesses and municipal offices with at least 20 locations from sources such as the Yellow Pages, along with their hours of operation and geographic coordinates. For each site, they mapped the number of cardiac arrests that occurred within 100 m to identify which locations would be able to save the most lives. As a final test of these locations, they then looked at how the locations fared over time; determining if the locations relatively stable or if the AEDs have to be moved every year to continue to be effective.
Mr Epidemiology 