VCU Center on Society and Health partners to help U.S. cities close life expectancy gaps

By Maggie Christ

Virginia Commonwealth University's Center on Society and Health, the Big Cities Health Coalition and the Boston Public Health Commission announced an award of $1.5 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create a national network focused on equitable health outcomes.

The project, "CitiesLEAD: Increasing Life Expectancy through Collective Action and Data," will ensure that member cities in the Big Cities Health Coalition can not only access appropriate life expectancy data, but also transform the data into action. In some U.S. cities, lifespans can vary by more than 30 years between neighborhoods, a disparity driven by structural racism, residential segregation, disinvestment and inequities in economic opportunity, housing, employment and community assets.

"The length of your life shouldn't depend on your ZIP code or the color of your skin," said Derek Chapman, Ph.D., director of the VCU Center on Society and Health and lead investigator for the center's work on the project. "CitiesLEAD will provide cities the tools and partnerships they need to take measurable action on health inequities."

Cities that participate in the project will receive technical assistance, data analysis and peer-learning opportunities. The project's partners will design a new "Health Equity Barometer" that cities can use to track progress and share insights.

"This project is a great example of how an initiative in one place can seed work in cities across the country," said Chrissie Juliano, executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition. "Following the data can lead us to healthier outcomes for all - and that means safer, more prosperous communities, something we can all get behind. We are very grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for sharing that vision and supporting this work."

Through a subaward from the Big Cities Health Coalition, VCU's Center on Society and Health will serve as the data and analytics backbone for the initiative. The center will compute life expectancy and premature mortality rates by race, ethnicity and neighborhood; identify leading contributors to early death; and create tools to help cities visualize and track progress.

The project builds on nearly two decades of work by the Center on Society and Health to map and analyze life expectancy across U.S. neighborhoods. The center's researchers, including Chapman and Steven Woolf, M.D., director emeritus and senior advisor of the center, have long documented the social and economic factors driving differences in health outcomes and have helped cities nationwide translate data into meaningful policy and practice.

The Boston Public Health Commission - whose Live Long and Well population health equity agenda is the national model for CitiesLEAD and other initiatives to address life expectancy gaps - will serve as the founding health department and implementation partner.

"In Boston, life expectancy differs by as much as 23 years between neighborhoods due to long-standing inequities in social determinants of health and access to care. Our city is committed to closing these gaps and advancing health equity for all residents," said Bisola Ojikutu, M.D., commissioner of public health for the city of Boston. "As the founding health department for CitiesLEAD, we look forward to working with other cities across the nation as they launch their own initiatives. Thank you to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for investing in this critical effort."

"I am honored to partner with the Big Cities Health Coalition, the Boston Public Health Commission and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on this important initiative," Chapman said. "CitiesLEAD represents the next step in turning data into action for healthier, more equitable communities."

CitiesLEAD's strategy rests on three interconnected pillars:

• Data: Supporting city leaders to calculate, interpret and visualize life expectancy and premature mortality data at the neighborhood level.
• Communication: Using data to challenge harmful narratives about inequities and share transformative, justice-centered stories of progress.
• Community Action: Most importantly, supporting local partnerships and interventions that address structural inequities and the root causes of poor health outcomes.

This story was originally published on the School of Public Health's website.