To (1) compare responses to 2 survey questions designed to measure sexual orientation and (2) understand how variation in responses is associated with mental health. Data were from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity, Socioeconomic Status, and Health Across the Life Course (SOGI-SES) study (2020-2021) in the United States. We used the adjusted Wald test to compare proportions of respondents who were (1) categorized as heterosexual or straight and sexual minorities using the sexual orientation questions designed for the Add Health study and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and (2) diagnosed with depression or anxiety or panic disorder. The Add Health question detected more than twice as many sexual minority respondents as the NHIS question. Those who responded as sexual minorities to the Add Health question but as heterosexual or straight to the NHIS question, primarily "mostly heterosexuals," had mental health outcomes that were more like those who were consistently classified as sexual minorities versus those consistently classified as heterosexual or straight. Current measures of sexual orientation in national-level surveys may underestimate the sexual minority population and sexual orientation‒related health disparities. Results illustrate the need for further research to expand measurement of sexual orientation on population-based health surveys. (. 2024;114(12):1375-1383. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307839).

To describe progression, content, and stringency of state legislation regulating indoor tanning and association with state government political party leadership. Trained research assistants used legal mapping methods to code legislative bills on indoor tanning introduced in US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. We calculated composite scores on the stringency of age restrictions and of warnings, operator requirements, and enforcement. We evaluated associations of the political party of the legislative sponsor and legislature majority. Between 1992 and 2023, 184 bills were introduced in 49 of 50 states and DC (56 laws were enacted, and 126 bills failed). An under-18 ban was enacted in 22 states and DC. Party affiliation of the bill sponsor and legislature majority combined to affect bill passage and age restrictions. In many states, it took several years and proposed bills before a law on indoor tanning was enacted. Enacted bills were more stringent than failed bills. Increasing support for stringent regulations on indoor tanning is evident and may motivate other states or the federal government to prohibit minors from using indoor tanning facilities. (. Published online ahead of print November 21, 2024:e1-e10. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307894).

To provide a legal epidemiology review of state-level policies that regulate the direct delivery of recreational and medical cannabis in the United States. We conducted a comprehensive review to identify all relevant policies as of July 1, 2024. Specifically, we developed a coding scheme to capture laws governing (1) direct delivery of recreational cannabis, (2) licensing for direct delivery of recreational cannabis, (3) direct delivery of medical cannabis to qualifying patients, and (4) medical cannabis delivery solely from caregivers to qualified patients. Fourteen states authorized the direct delivery of recreational cannabis to adults. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia permitted the direct delivery of medical cannabis to qualifying patients. Twelve states allowed the delivery of medical cannabis to patients exclusively through caregivers. There were numerous variations in the licensing and authorization of recreational and medical cannabis delivery. States varied in how the delivery of cannabis was regulated. A comprehensive review of state-level policies on cannabis delivery highlights the diverse approaches and their implications for recreational and medical cannabis access. (. Published online ahead of print November 14, 2024:e1-e13. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307874).

Without perspectives of low-wage workers in studies of worker health and well-being, researchers cannot comprehensively assess occupational health and health equity impacts of workplace exposures and interventions. Researchers and practitioners have noted particular challenges in engaging low-wage workers in worksite-based health survey research, yet little scholarship has described strategies for improving their engagement and response rates. To fill this gap, we present case examples from 5 occupational studies conducted between 2020 and 2024 in industries including health care, food service, and fulfillment centers. For each case, we describe how we identified barriers to worker engagement in surveys, explain specific strategies we used to address those barriers, and assess the effectiveness of these actions. Then, summarizing across case examples, we offer practical recommendations to researchers surveying low-wage populations, highlighting that high-touch recruitment, building trust with workers and managers, and obtaining manager support to take surveys during work time (for worksite-based studies) are critical for obtaining reliable, representative data. Our work contributes to broader discussions on improving survey response rates in vulnerable worker populations and aims to support future researchers undertaking similar efforts. (. Published online ahead of print November 14, 2024:e1-e8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307875).

To estimate the effect of influenza vaccination disparities. We compared symptomatic influenza cases between Black and White races in 2 scenarios: (1) race- and age-specific vaccination coverage and (2) equal vaccination coverage. We also compared differences in household composition between races. We used the Framework for Reconstructing Epidemiological Dynamics, an agent-based model that assigns US Census‒based age, race, households, and geographic location to agents (individual people), in US counties of varying racial and age composition. Influenza cases were highest in counties with higher proportions of children. Cases were up to 30% higher in Black agents with both race-based and race-equal vaccination coverage. Compared with corresponding categories of White households, cases in Black households without children were lower and with children were higher. Racial disparities in influenza cases persisted after equalizing vaccination coverage. The proportion of children in the population contributed to the number of influenza cases regardless of race. Differences in household composition may provide insight into racial differences and offer an opportunity to improve vaccination coverage to reduce influenza burden for both races. (. Published online ahead of print November 14, 2024:e1-e8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307878).

For much of the 20th century, Black readers turned to Black newspapers for health information and advice. The messages reached hundreds of thousands across the United States during a period when the nation's racially separate and unequal health care system limited the ability of Black communities to access vital resources, including public health education. This article, based on an analysis of several hundred health columns published between the 1910s and 1970, traces the origins and evolving role Black newspapers played as trusted messengers of health information. In doing so, it details the strategic ways Black health professionals as well as readers leveraged this form of media to promote health knowledge, address the prevention needs in Black communities, and advocate for better care. (. Published online ahead of print November 21, 2024:e1-e7. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307897).

Chronic care management is effective. Barriers to program durability include dependence on the provider-nurse duo to carry out labor-intensive services and the lack of a fiscally sustainable model. Between January and October 2022, an expanded chronic care management team-consisting of a provider, nurse, community health worker, and pharmacist-conducted a four-month intervention in an ambulatory setting. This intervention, using a convenience sample of 134 Medicare patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes or hypertension, demonstrated statistically significant improvements in controlling type 2 diabetes ( < .01) and blood pressure ( < .001). Direct provider workload decreased, and the Medicare reimbursement rate was 85.5%. (. Published online ahead of print November 21, 2024:e1-e5. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307886).

To examine whether, through interactions with preexisting socioeconomic status vulnerabilities, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated exposure to firearm violence among communities with a legacy of redlining (i.e., grading the creditworthiness of neighborhoods based on their sociodemographic composition). We used an exogenous population threshold whereby the Home Owners Loan Corporation graded neighborhoods only in US cities with populations of more than 40 000 and used a difference-in-difference strategy to examine the evolution of fatal firearm incidents between 2017 and October 2022. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, fatal firearm violence increased significantly in low-graded neighborhoods that the Home Owners Loan Corporation had deemed risky for mortgage lending. The effect held consistently across various model specifications. Social and environmental constructs can interact in a complex manner to compound disadvantage and exacerbate the consequences of negative shocks for marginalized communities. Home Owners Loan Corporation policies contributed to widening racial disparities in firearm violence, highlighting the need for reinvestment in marginalized communities to keep future shocks from exacerbating vulnerability to adverse outcomes. (. Published online ahead of print November 7, 2024:e1-e9. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307891).

Stephen Smith launched a 40-year effort to bring trees to New York City streets in 1872, the year he founded the American Public Health Association (APHA). Smith argued that street trees would mitigate the adverse health effects of Manhattan's summer heat and help purify the air. The young APHA endorsed Smith's position and gave trees a prominent role in urban sanitation, but public health turned away from trees and urban reform movements as it adopted a biomedical public health model in the late 19th century. Nevertheless, Smith wrote and campaigned for a successful 1902 law requiring the New York City Parks Department to assume management of street trees in the name of public health. He then led a 1914 campaign to force the department to uphold his law. New York's street tree program has had an erratic trajectory, but it now generally follows Smith's vision. Public health could play a bigger role in creating greener cities and mitigating climate change with more field research and the health in all policies approach that Smith used to bring trees to Manhattan's streets in 1914. ( Published online ahead of print October 31, 2024:e1-e9. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307856).