Office of Minority Health  and Health Disparities (MHHD)
MHHD August 2018 Newsletter Highlights
MHHD Director's Corner
August is World Breastfeeding Month
Article Series: MHHD Priority Focus Areas
MHHD Director's Corner 
Becoming a FY 2019 Partner

A goal for the Office of MHHD in this new fiscal year is to expand our partnership reach and strengthen our existing partnerships.

Since the office's inception in 2004, MHHD has recognized the value of focused partnerships as a key component in its plan to eliminate health disparities and advance health equity. This resolve has resulted in collaborative relationships with agencies within the Maryland Department of Health, local health departments, and numerous community and faith-based organizations.

Expanding this rich history of collaboration, we have recently focused efforts to strengthen our partnership with Maryland Medicaid. As of April 2018, Maryland has enrolled 1,316,677 individuals in Medicaid and CHIP - a net increase of 53.76 percent since the first Marketplace Open Enrollment Period and related Medicaid program changes in October 2013 (source).  

The goals for our partnerships are to leverage resources and influence direction, resulting in measurable reductions of health disparities. Recently I met with the Maryland Faith Health Network where our discussion centered around a proposed two-year plan to engage faith-based organizations in setting objectives related to disparity reduction and wellness promotion. I also recently met with the Community Health Resources Commission to discuss grant opportunities for community-based organizations. Additionally, I took part in a telephone conversation to discuss partnership opportunities with the Maryland Rural Health Association.

 By growing our partnership base, we can leverage our collective resources to identify solutions that will transform health and reduce cost of care. We invite you to join our growing list of partners in 2019 and help us move closer to eliminating health disparities and advance health equity in Maryland.

MHHD Director, Noel Brathwaite, PhD, MSPH  
August is World Breastfeeding Month 

Written by:  Taylor Sabol,  MHHD Summer  Intern
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August is World Breastfeeding month. While we focus on breastfeeding this August, it  is important to address maternal and child health during every month of the year. Here at MHHD, we would like to bring awareness to the racial and ethnic disparities surrounding maternal and child health outcomes, particularly with  breastfeeding. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby's life and continued breastfeeding with complementary foods until one year of age or longer. 

Maternal and child health is important because good health in the early stages of life acts as a building block for a continued healthy life. Breastfeeding has many positive health impacts, including providing proper nutrition to newborns, preventing diseases like childhood obesity, protecting against the development of allergies, and ensures better health outcomes in the future. 

Mothers who breastfeed also experience an increased bond with their child and are at a lowered risk for breast cancer and diabetes. Minority women are disproportionately affected by negative health outcomes and breastfeeding is one way to potentially improve on those outcomes. 

Among racial and ethnic minorities, the disparities in breastfeeding rates are staggering.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's 2015 National Immunization Survey reports that non-Hispanic blacks' breastfeeding initiation rate in Maryland was 75.4 percent, compared to 85.4 percent among non-Hispanic white residents. Additionally, in Maryland. non-Hispanic blacks' breastfeeding continuation rate through 12 months was 21.4 percent, compared to 37.6 percent among non-Hispanic whites. 

Minority women face significant barriers to breastfeeding initiation, including lack of overall knowledge about breastfeeding and access to professional breastfeeding support and information. Cultural and social barriers can also be a challenge.   Many minority women also express work as a barrier to continuing breastfeeding, such as lack of time to breastfeed and unsupportive work environments for breastfeeding. 

There are many ways public health professionals can work to improve the disparities in breastfeeding among racial and ethnic minorities. Group prenatal education, peer counseling sessions, breastfeeding-specific physicians' appointments, and participation in Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) programming have all been linked to positive outcomes for breastfeeding.

Support from family, healthcare professionals, and the community is also key to helping mothers continue breastfeeding. As a society, we can work to educate women about proper breastfeeding practices to reduce the health inequities among racial and ethnic minorities and promote work cultures that accept breastfeeding practices. 
Listed below are some resources and support for breastfeeding services:
Article Series:  MHHD Priority Focus Areas

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Beginning in June, we began a series of articles highlighting MHHD's Priority Focus Areas. Articles in this series include background on the focus areas, current data, and information detailing MHHD's activities to help eliminate health disparities in these areas.  In June we highlighted infant mortality , in July  prediabetes  was highlighted, and this August we are highlighting asthma. 

Stay tuned nex t month as we begin our highlight series on the four social determinant of health focus areas: housing, food access, transportation, and educational attainment.

August MHHD Priority Focus Area:  Asthma

Article by: Min Kim, MS, CHES
Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities
Maryland Department of Health

What is Asthma? Asthma is an inflammatory condition of the bronchial airways, which are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. This inflammation causes the normal function of the airways to become excessive and over-reactive. These changes produce airway obstruction, chest tightness, coughing and wheezing. If the symptoms are serious, this can cause severe shortness of breath and low blood oxygen.

What Causes an Asthma Attack? Inflammation of the airways is the common finding in all asthma patients. This inflammation is produced by allergy, viral respiratory infections, and airborne irritants among others.

Read Min's full article here including information on how the Maryland Department of Health and MHHD are addressing asthma.