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Public Health and Social Policy Formulation and Implementation during Public Health Crises

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Public Health Statistics and Risk Assessment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 14622

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sarah Moreland-Russell

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
Interests: public health policy; policy implementation; dissemination; program sustainability; child and youth well-being; federally assisted food programs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Shelley Golden

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599 NC, USA
Interests: Understanding the role of economic and social welfare public policies on health-related behaviors, with a particular emphasis on smoking and alcohol use, how state-level public policies and other contextual factors influence individual health behaviors; state and policymaker characteristics that impact the adoption and dissemination of health-related laws; and the influence of changing labor market conditions on health behaviors and policies.
Dr. Allison Myers

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
Interests: public health policy, integrating social needs care within health care systems, creating healthy neighborhoods and environments, and promoting mental health and preventing substance use

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Public health events including pandemics, environmental destruction and climate change events, vector borne illness, political unrest, and even mass shootings have greatly affected humans across the globe—often exposing breaks in our social safety net and policy structures.

As professionals dedicated to social equity, health, and wellbeing, it is important to understand not only the impact and negative consequences of public health crises on individuals and communities. But also the role of clinical, public health, and social policies in exacerbating or ameliorating those consequences. Understanding the ways our systems contribute and respond to public health crises can inform decision-making and policy planning at national and international levels and lead to a better preparedness and coordinated response.

This Special Issue will be focused on understanding, developing and implementing public health and social policies to mitigate the negative impact of public health crises among individuals and communities.

Possible topics included as part of this Special Issue are listed below:

  • Reviewing characteristics of, and variation in, public health infrastructure and response systems;
  • Understanding the structural and systemic forces that cause disproportionate impact of public health crises on populations based on race, age, gender, social status, income, religion, rurality, etc.;
  • Identifying gaps in the social safety net system during public health crises, and policy strategies for mitigation;
  • Using rapid response systems to collect real-time data during public health crises to develop proactive and responsive policy;
  • Reviewing the implementation process, effectiveness and unintended consequences of policy responses to public health crises;
  • Identifying and engaging cross-sector partnerships and populations most affected by he policy planning process;
  • Understanding cultural dimensions of public health crises that influence how individuals and communities understand, react, and organize in response to them;
  • Defining the role of international relations and global coordination in public health crisis response.

Keywords

policy planning; policy evaluation; public health crises; public health response; policy systems; coordination; public health infrastructure

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  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 342 KiB  
Article
At Home and on the Brink: U.S. Parents’ Mental Health during COVID-19
by Sarah Moreland-Russell, Jason Jabbari, Dan Ferris and Stephen Roll
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5586; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095586 - 4 May 2022
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4595
Abstract
Though the COVID-19 pandemic required significant changes and adaptations for most Americans, parents faced acute challenges as they had to navigate rapidly changing schooling and child care policies requiring their children to spend more time at home. This study examines the effects of [...] Read more.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic required significant changes and adaptations for most Americans, parents faced acute challenges as they had to navigate rapidly changing schooling and child care policies requiring their children to spend more time at home. This study examines the effects of COVID-19 school and workplace policies as well as environmental and economic characteristics on parental mental health, worry, hopelessness, and anxiety. Using data from four waves of the Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey and regression analysis, we explore associations between parents’ mental health, worry, hopelessness, and anxiety and school learning environment, child grade and learning disability, employment characteristics, and sociodemographic factors. We find that having a child attend a private school or school with above average instructional quality was associated with better mental health of parents. Hybrid schooling options offering both in-person and online learning was associated with poor parental mental health, as was working from home. Being female or experiencing job or income loss were associated with worse mental health while having older children, a bachelor’s degree, or high income were associated with better mental health. Results can help inform school and workplace family supports as well as opportunities to reduce mental health strains at home from various policy options. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health and Social Policy Formulation and Implementation during Public Health Crises)
13 pages, 755 KiB  
Article
Public Compliance Matters in Evidence-Based Public Health Policy: Evidence from Evaluating Social Distancing in the First Wave of COVID-19
by Caixia Wang and Huijie Li
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(7), 4033; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074033 - 29 Mar 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2095
Abstract
When the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic first spread, governments could implement a wide range of measures to tackle the outbreaks. Conventional wisdom holds that public health policy should be made on the basis of empirical demonstrations, while little research has probed on how to [...] Read more.
When the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic first spread, governments could implement a wide range of measures to tackle the outbreaks. Conventional wisdom holds that public health policy should be made on the basis of empirical demonstrations, while little research has probed on how to safeguard the expected policy utility in the case of evidence shortage on novel contagious diseases. In particular, the fight against COVID-19 cannot succeed without public compliance as well as the support of people who have not tested positive. Based on the data from the first wave of COVID-19, by using a random effect estimator, fixed effect method, and hierarchical technique, we specified the efficiency of particular social distancing policies by contextualizing multiple factors. We found that adopting gathering restrictions decreased new case growth but were conditional on its interaction with population density, while mitigation effects constantly corresponded to policy magnitude in a given time; for which the effective patterns varied from three days to sixty days. Overall, policies encouraging social distancing exerted a positive effect on mitigating the first wave of COVID-19. Both the enforcing duration and public compliance constrained the expected impact of nonpharmaceutical intervention according to degrees of policy level. These findings suggest that, when evidence is incomplete, the effectiveness of public health crisis management depends on the combination of policy appropriateness and, accordingly, public compliance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health and Social Policy Formulation and Implementation during Public Health Crises)
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17 pages, 8418 KiB  
Article
How Did School Meal Access Change during the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Two-Step Floating Catchment Area Analysis of a Large Metropolitan Area
by Jason Jabbari, Yung Chun, Pranav Nandan, Laura McDermott, Tyler Frank, Sarah Moreland-Russell, Dan Ferris and Stephen Roll
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(21), 11350; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111350 - 28 Oct 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3375
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) resulted in school closures and contingencies across the U.S. that limited access to school meals for students. While some schools attempted to provide alternative meal access points where students or parents could pick up meals, many students—especially those in low-income households—lacked [...] Read more.
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) resulted in school closures and contingencies across the U.S. that limited access to school meals for students. While some schools attempted to provide alternative meal access points where students or parents could pick up meals, many students—especially those in low-income households—lacked adequate transportation to these access points. Thus, physical proximity to meal access points was particularly important during the pandemic. In this study, we explore how school meal access changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as it relates to race/ethnicity and socio-economic status. Taking into account both the “supply” (meal access points) and the “demand” (low-income students) for free meals, we employed a two-step floating catchment area analysis to compare meal accessibility in St. Louis, Missouri before and during the pandemic in the spring and summer of 2019 and 2020. Overall, while school meal access decreased during the spring of 2020 during the early months of the pandemic, it increased during the summer of 2020. Moreover, increased access was greatest in low-income areas and areas with a higher proportion of Black residents. Thus, continuing new policies that expanded access to school meals—especially for summer meal programs—could lead to positive long-term impacts on children’s health and well-being. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health and Social Policy Formulation and Implementation during Public Health Crises)
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23 pages, 892 KiB  
Article
Validation of the COVID-19 Transmission Misinformation Scale and Conditional Indirect Negative Effects on Wearing a Mask in Public
by Stephen Bok, Daniel E. Martin, Erik Acosta, Maria Lee and James Shum
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(21), 11319; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111319 - 28 Oct 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3737
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic devastated the world economy. Global infections and deaths altered the behaviors of generations. The Internet acted as an incredible vehicle for communication but was also a source of unfounded rumors. Unfortunately, this freedom of information sharing and fear of [...] Read more.
The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic devastated the world economy. Global infections and deaths altered the behaviors of generations. The Internet acted as an incredible vehicle for communication but was also a source of unfounded rumors. Unfortunately, this freedom of information sharing and fear of COVID-19 fostered unfounded claims about transmission (e.g., 5G networks spread the disease). With negligible enforcement to stop the spread of rumors and government officials spouting unfounded claims, falsities became ubiquitous. Organizations, public health officials, researchers, and businesses spent limited resources addressing rumors instead of implementing policies to overcome challenges (e.g., speaking to defiant mask wearers versus safe reopening actions). The researchers defined COVID-19 transmission misinformation as false beliefs about the spread and prevention of contracting the disease. Design and validation of the 12-item COVID-19 Transmission Misinformation Scale (CTMS) provides a measure to identify transmission misinformation believers. Indirect COVID-19 transmission misinformation beliefs with a fear of COVID-19 decreased wearing a mask in public intentions. Callousness exacerbated COVID-19 transmission misinformation beliefs as a moderator. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health and Social Policy Formulation and Implementation during Public Health Crises)
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