Local Public Health System Capabilities and COVID-19 Death Rates.

OBJECTIVES: Efforts to contain the health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have achieved less success in the United States than in many comparable countries. Previous research documented wide variability in the capabilities of local public health systems to carry out core disease prevention and control activities, but it is unclear how this variability relates to COVID-19 control. Our study explored this relationship by using a nationally representative sample of 725 US communities. METHODS: We used data collected from the National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems to classify each community into 1 of 3 ordinal categories indicating limited, intermediate, or comprehensive public health system capabilities. We used 2-part generalized linear models to estimate the relationship between public health system capabilities and COVID-19 death rates while controlling population and community characteristics associated with COVID-19 risk. RESULTS: Across 3 waves of the pandemic in 2020, we found a significant negative association between COVID-19 mortality and public health system capabilities. Compared with comprehensive public health systems, intermediate public health systems had an average of 4.97 to 19.02 more COVID-19 deaths per 100 000 residents, while limited public health systems had an average of 5.95 to 18.10 more COVID-19 deaths per 100 000 residents. CONCLUSION: Overall, communities with stronger public health capabilities had significantly fewer deaths. Future initiatives to strengthen pandemic preparedness and reduce health disparities in the United States should focus on local public health system capabilities.

Modelling the impact of menthol sales restrictions and retailer density reduction policies: insights from tobacco town Minnesota.

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco control policies focused on the retail environment have the potential to reduce tobacco use and tobacco-related health disparities through increasing direct and indirect costs. Recently, national and subnational governments have begun to restrict the sale of menthol products and reduce tobacco retailer density. METHODS: We developed an agent-based model to project the impact of menthol cigarette sales restrictions and retailer density reduction policies for six types of communities and three priority populations. During each simulated day, agents smoke cigarettes, travel in the community and make purchase decisions-whether, where and which product type to purchase-based on a combination of their own properties and the current retail environment. RESULTS: Of the policies tested, restricting all cigarette sales or menthol cigarette sales to tobacco specialty shops may have the largest effect on the total (direct and indirect) costs of purchasing cigarettes. Coupling one of these policies with one that establishes a minimum distance between tobacco retailers may enhance the impact. Combining these policies could also make the costs of acquiring cigarettes more equal across communities and populations. DISCUSSION: Our simulations revealed the importance of context, for example, lower income communities in urban areas begin with higher retailer density and may need stronger policies to show impact, as well as the need to focus on differential effects for priority populations, for example, combinations of policies may equalise the average distance travelled to purchase. Adapting and combining policies could enhance the sustainability of policy effects and reduce tobacco use.

Local Retail Tobacco Environment Regulation: Early Adoption in the United States.

Objectives: To identify sociodemographic and policy environment characteristics of early adopters of retail tobacco control policies in U.S. localities. Methods: We interviewed a sample of local tobacco control programs on policy progress for 33 specific policies, along with other program characteristics. We combine these results with secondary data in logistic regression analysis. Results: Eighty (82% of 97) county tobacco control programs from 24 states were interviewed. Localities with lower smoking rates (OR: 0.7; 95%: 0.6-0.9) or higher excise taxes (OR: 6.0; 95%: 1.4-26.0) were more likely to have adopted a retail policy by late 2015. Early adopters were less likely to have voted majority Republican in the 2012 election (OR: 0.03; 95%: 0.00-0.34) or to have higher percentages of African American population (OR: 0.9; 95%: 0.8-0.99). Conclusions: While localities with more resources, eg, program capacity, political will or policy options, were more likely to adopt policies by 2015, those with higher smoking rates and proportions of priority populations were less likely to do so. As local retail policy work becomes more commonplace, only time will tell if this "rich-get-richer" trend continues, or if the contexts in which retail policies are adopted diversify.