• Home
  • Bio
  • Blog
  • Articles
  • Books
  • Speaking
  • Media Room
  • Contact

Suzanne Bohan

Journalist Author Speaker

Access to credit and savings plays a key role in promoting health

July 18, 2018 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

When Jennifer Bui, a resident of the low-income San Diego neighborhood of City Heights, turned 18, she started concentrating on her financial future. “I was really interested in building my credit and building my financial power, in a way,” said Bui, now 19 and studying engineering and physics at Brown University in Rhode Island. After … READ MORE

Filed Under: Blog, Health disparities, Health equity

Dishing out nutrition lessons during soccer practice

February 24, 2018 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

“Who can tell me what is a grain?” asked a coach at a “Soccer for Success” session with young children last summer on a South Los Angeles playing field. “Wheat!” a young boy called out. “Who knows the difference between a good wheat and a bad wheat?” she asked next. “One is a brown one … READ MORE

Filed Under: Health, Health disparities, South Los Angeles Tagged With: healthy lifestyles, physical activity, Soccer for Success, South LA

A new community garden springs up after land group adopts health perspective

October 24, 2017 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

Alina Bokde, executive director the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, wasn’t quite sure how a new push to view her organization’s work through a public health lens would work. She’s been acquiring open space in urban areas for years, with an eye toward conserving land, providing recreation and helping to mitigate climate change. But having … READ MORE

Filed Under: Health, Health disparities, South Los Angeles Tagged With: Buidling Healthy Communities, California Endowment, Clinica Romero, community gardens, Health Happens Here, Kaiser Family Foundation, Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust

Controlled burns spark hope on Yurok reservation

August 24, 2015 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

The forests on the Yurok tribal lands in Northern California look like weed-choked, overgrown gardens, as one tribal member described it.1 After years of fire suppression – in an ecosystem that needs fire to regenerate – the forest is filled with underbrush that crowds out desirable plants used for basket making, medicines and food. And … READ MORE

Filed Under: Del Norte County, Health, Health disparities Tagged With: California Endowment, community health, controlled burns, Del Norte County, Yurok

Life Expectancy in Las Vegas

March 6, 2015 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

The Las Vegas Review-Journal ran a story on life expectancy by neighborhood in the glittering city. Like most every other community, it varies dramatically by neighborhood, with the gap as much as 16 years at either end of the nine-mile stretch between the downtown Strip and suburban Henderson. The study was funded in part with … READ MORE

Filed Under: Blog, Health disparities

Low-crime neighborhoods promote mental health in older Latinos

December 9, 2014 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

This is from a new study out of the University of Illinois. It’s long known that bad neighborhoods raise stress, but this one quantifies the effect, and in terms of depression. It’s not hard to understand that staying cooped up inside, and feeling fearful leaving your house, would bring on depression. Next step, as the … READ MORE

Filed Under: Blog, Health, Health disparities

Feeling in control? It could add years to your life.

February 17, 2014 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

I’ve long wondered if outlook could change one’s life expectancy odds, since part of what accounts for discrepancies in life spans relates to a sense of control. That’s why those higher on the social ladder live longer, even if those just below them on the rung have safe homes, good food, medical care, etc. More … READ MORE

Filed Under: Blog, Health disparities Tagged With: life expectancy, Sense of control

Deadly Discrimination

February 9, 2014 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

Beware of the small slights in life. Over a lifetime they add up to major loss of health, physical and mental, warns David R. Williams, a professor of public health, sociology and African and African-American studies at Harvard University. For decades Williams has studied the connection between racism and diminished health. Recently his work percolated … READ MORE

Filed Under: Blog, Health disparities, Health equity Tagged With: discrimination, health disparities, health equity, life expectancy, racism

Lifespans for Rural Americans Lagging Behind Urban Counterparts

February 1, 2014 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

Living in a bucolic rural area may seem like a good prescription for health, but new data shows that rural Americans are paying a price in shortened life expectancy for living in America’s hinterlands. In part it’s because only 17 percent of Americans live in rural areas, and they don’t have quite the advocacy voice … READ MORE

Filed Under: Blog, Health disparities Tagged With: Rural health disparities

Sleep patterns and social disparities

November 1, 2013 by Suzanne Bohan Leave a Comment

Only those living in neighborhoods that are part of gang territory can understand the challenge of getting a good night’s sleep. Gun shots going off at all hours aren’t uncommon, residents have told me, and after sundown road racing and squealing tires break the quiet.  For many, anxiety never fully recedes that a stray bullet … READ MORE

Filed Under: Health disparities

Next Page »
 RSS

Resources on health disparities work in the U.S.
READ MORE

Recent Posts

  • Type in a ZIP code in this new atlas, and see how place shapes health
  • Access to credit and savings plays a key role in promoting health
  • Childhood hunger linked to violent behavior later in life
  • Dishing out nutrition lessons during soccer practice
  • A new community garden springs up after land group adopts health perspective

Archives

  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • August 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • February 2013

Copyright © 2021 Suzanne Bohan
Terms of Service & Privacy Policy | Data Access Request