REACH Detroit

While progressing through this week’s reading about Health Promotion, a very important study came to mind. The study, Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH Detroit), sought to use evidence-based approaches which took into consideration more than just the individual factors and disease causation alone (Jacqueline, 2005.)

The REACH Detroit study consisted of one hundred and fifty-one (151) adults over the age of 18 living in the Detroit, Michigan area. The study population was quite low on the socioeconomic ladder and hence had very little income to afford education, proper nutrition, housing to mention but a few. The REACH Detroit Program made use of a community style approach to successfully implement health promotion efforts. The importance of considering other factors such as psychological, social and even neighborhood factors in disease onset and propagation rather than just biological factors alone is gradually gaining traction in Public Health and cannot be underestimated as discussed by McLeroy and colleagues (1988.) By making free diabetes education available and giving vouchers for proper dietary choices, the participants were able to overcome the exosystemic factors that mediated in the health of the participants – racism, unemployment et cetera (McLeroy et al., 1988); not only that but also macrosystemic factors (McLeroy et al., 1988) such as food choices made up mostly of unhealthy food choices.

The findings by Landsbergis (2010) stood out to me greatly as well. The commentary about childhood socioeconomic position and later cardiovascular disease onset (Landsbergis 2010) was particularly interesting to me. If the Finnish study referenced in Landsbergis (2010) is anything to go by then it calls for a replication of the study to see its effects here in the United States, perhaps with children of asbestos factory workers in the 1980s or later. It would help assess the effects of parents’ socioeconomic position, work-related stress and psychosocial health in general on their children’s later cardiovascular health.