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Childhood Obesity and Disparities in Obesity Care
The prevalence of obesity has surged in the setting of the obesity epidemic. Among U.S. children and adolescents 2-19 years old, over the ten years... -
Considerations for the Role and Treatment of Emotional Eating
Obesity is a challenging and increasingly prevalent medical concern worldwide. The relationship between obesity and numerous other medical conditions... -
Update in weight management within primary care in the era of GLP-1
Note: this piece is an update to the 2024 article Integrating Weight Management in Primary Care, published in this journal, which outlined practical...
Archive
Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.
Child Care and Early Education is a Social Determinant of Health—For Children and Adults
More than six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, child care solutions for families remain scarce. A high-stakes problem typically confined to parents with children younger than five, lack of child care has now become a near-universal challenge, with remote K-12 learning upending care infrastructure for families with school-aged children as well. Consistent failure to provide public funding to the child care and early education sector—both traditionally and in this moment of crisis—is taking a heavy toll:
Don Berwick's Moral Determinants of Health
Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, is President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), an organization that Dr. Berwick co-founded and led as President and CEO for 19 years. He is one of the nation’s leading authorities on healthcare quality and improvement. In July 2010, President Obama appointed Dr. Berwick to the position of Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which he held until December 2011. A pediatrician by training, ...
Food Access via Small Stores on Navajo Nation: COVID-19 & Beyond
It’s a calm sunny day as I sit with John McCulloch in front of his store in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. The store has served his community since 1905. The English name Teec Nos Pos is derived from the Navajo T'iisnasbas, a name inspired by a grove of trees growing in a circle in the area. As we sit and talk, community members file in and out of the store. They’re greeted with large florescent posters asking customers to wear a mask while in the store, to stay home if they feel sick, and to respect the maximum occupancy level of eight people in the store at one time. ...
African Americans Are Disproportionately Exposed to Extreme Heat
Climate change is a threat multiplier. This is a fact I know to be true. I also know that our most vulnerable populations, particularly environmental justice communities—people of color and/or low socioeconomic status—are suffering and will continue to suffer first and worst from the adverse effects of climate change. Case in point? Extreme heat. After reading the Killer Heat Report, most people probably used ...
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in COVID-19 Mortality Among Children and Teens
Due to early misconceptions that COVID-19 didn’t lead to severe disease or death in children, US state surveillance dashboards were not set up to track the course of the pandemic among age-specific groups. Over time, state reporting for children has gradually improved, and The COVKID Project has been synthesizing and sharing data for children and teens since late April 2020. Although 49 of 50 states now report COVID-19 case counts by age (with New York being the exception), only 2 ...
COVID: He Didn’t Have to Die
He’s young. Just 49 years old. A long life ahead of him. He was hospitalized a week ago and doing okay initially on the medical floor. After his saturations were consistently in the 80s on the highest level of supplemental oxygen, he needed to be intubated. We asked him if he wanted to call his family before intubation, just like we do with all our COVID patients… because we know it might be the last time. He declined, said he’s not in touch with his family and has no friends to call. He was adamant that he didn’t want his estranged parents or brother contacted for updates while ...