为少数族裔吸烟不平等问题发出全球声音

自1965年以来，美国的吸烟率下降了50%. 但是一组来自哈佛大学的学生和教师研究人员 吉林斯全球公共卫生学院 at UNC-Chapel Hill has uncovered factors that show why this progress isn’t evenly distributed and how racial and ethnic minorities and low socioeconomic groups still suffer health disparities in tobacco control.

该团队的ag真人娱乐为其赢得了最后一轮全球比赛的一席之地 绘制系统竞争图 牛津大学主办, 卡罗莱纳大学的学生和教职员工在全球排名第三,来自其他顶尖学术机构的500个团队.

有这样一个突出的平台在竞争, the student-led team was able to give voice on a global stage to a public health problem that still disproportionally plagues minorities, 很大程度上是由于复杂的结构性和系统性因素.

“We examined smoking inequities while considering underlying structures and mental models,佩吉·洛根说, a recently public health graduate student who worked as part of the health equity and tobacco control team and served as a lead presenter during the competition’s final round. “我们认为资源和权力的不平衡, 以及歧视和边缘化, 导致了这些差异.”

过去的一周, the Carolina team – whose presentation is called “Using Systems Science to Advance 健康 Equity in Tobacco Control” – capped a successful run by placing high in the finals of the 绘制系统竞争图, which Oxford University’s Saïd School of Business hosts as a way to challenge students to use 系统思考 理解复杂的社会或环境挑战.

虽然牛津大学已经举办了五年的比赛, 这是ag真人娱乐参与的第一年. 在卡罗莱纳, 40支队伍报名参加, and the top five teams on campus competed in April to represent the University at the global finals. 的 公共卫生小组赢得了ag真人娱乐的第一名 然后继续在全球半决赛中与31支队伍竞争. 然后，该队进入了前六名，进入了最后一轮, 最终获得第三名，赢得2英镑,000, 换算成2美元左右,500美元.S. 货币.

“We are extremely proud of the students and faculty on our Mapping the System team who not only emerged from a very strong set of contenders at UNC-Chapel Hill to represent the University on an international stage but more importantly, brought to light factors involved in an important problem that has a disproportionate effect on minorities,梅丽莎·开利说, 的主管 卡罗莱纳的创新 社会创新办公室, 是谁第一次把比赛带进了大学. “This competition is an excellent way for students and faculty to use problem mapping and 系统思考 to uncover new and often surprising insights about pressing social issues. 通过这样做, we can identify opportunities to think and act differently to make critical changes in how we approach public health, 环境, 社会正义和其他全球关注的领域.”

UNC-Chapel Hill’s Map the System campus competition is supported by the UNC-Chapel Hill 社会创新办公室 and Carolina Honors. It is open to all Carolina students and asks participants to create systems maps about problems they have a passion for solving. Members of this year’s winning team include the following students and faculty from the 吉林斯全球公共卫生学院:

• 佩吉·洛根，刚毕业的公共卫生硕士生
• 公共卫生博士生Meghan O 'Leary说
• 谢莉·戈尔登，健康行为助理教授
• Kristen Hassmiller Lich，卫生政策与管理副教授
• 莎拉·米尔斯，健康行为助理教授

“我们考虑的一个例子是无烟公共住房,奥利里说, 引用2018年美国政府发布的一项政策变化.S. 住房和城市发展部要求所有美国.S. 公共房屋单位全面禁烟.

奥利里注意到了这一点 while the policy had some success with residents self-reporting higher quit rates, 一半的居民违反了这项政策, 反过来, 增加了他们住房状况的压力和不确定性. “违反这一政策的居民增加了住房的不稳定性, 这增加了财务压力，降低了控制感,奥利里说. “So, this policy has the unintended consequence of increasing smoking and leaving low-income residents at further risk of housing instability.”

的 team’s work involved creating a new systems map that identifies root causes of smoking or disparity factors, 解释了洛根. “这张新地图可以证明, 例如, 低工资工作与保险范围有什么关系, 在获得戒烟服务之前是什么,”她说。. “我们ag真人娱乐的其他因素包括边缘化, 歧视与社会资本, 使用传统方法可能不考虑哪些问题.”

奥利里注意到了这一点, 通过这个过程, the team learned that it is important to use an iterative process for refining systems maps that identify new relationships between variables as well as new stakeholders.

“通过应用系统科学方法和健康公平视角来解决我们的问题, we found that disproportionally high smoking rates in priority populations are a product of traditional smoking risk factors as well as unequal power and resources,”她说。. “Our updated conceptual model revealed that even policies designed to promote equity in tobacco control can have unintended consequences. 的 perspectives of a broader range of stakeholders is needed to ensure equitable outcomes.”

O’Leary also sees the competition as an avenue that students can use to extend insights they learn in the classroom and enhance their reag真人娱乐官方.

“个人, I have particularly enjoyed my coursework related to 系统思考 while at Gillings, 我计划在我的论文中使用系统映射方法. I was initially interested in participating in Map the System to gain hands-on experience using the 系统思考 tools I had learned in the classroom,奥利里说. “通过我的比赛经验以及与评委和其他团队的互动, I took away much more – such as how to visually convey information about these types of complex issues to diverse audiences – that will be incredibly helpful as I begin my dissertation.”

While finalist teams normally travel to Oxford University for an in-person final round, COVID-19大流行改变了格式. 幸运的是, 奥利里和他的团队ag真人娱乐，今年的在线课程结构仍然允许学生, reag真人娱乐官方ers and other leaders to convene around important topics and prove that they are primed to collaborate on solving problems at a global scale.

今年的比赛是在COVID-19大流行期间进行的, it was really encouraging to see students and leaders within public health still finding effective ways to come together to share ideas and think critically about systemic issues,”她说。. “的se types of conversations and collective action at the global level are especially critical now and will be needed to address the pandemic.”