Milam, Adam J

Abstract Medical researchers are increasingly prioritizing the inclusion of underserved communities in clinical studies. However, mere inclusion is not enough. People from underserved communities frequently experience chronic stress that may lead to accelerated biological aging and early morbidity and mortality. It is our hope and intent that the medical community come together to engineer improved health outcomes for vulnerable populations. Here, we introduce Health Equity Engineering (HEE), a comprehensive scientific framework to guide research on the development of tools to identify individuals at risk of poor health outcomes due to chronic stress, the integration of these tools within existing healthcare system infrastructures, and a robust assessment of their effectiveness and sustainability. HEE is anchored in the premise that strategic intervention at the individual level, tailored to the needs of the most at-risk people, can pave the way for achieving equitable health standards at a broader population level. HEE provides a scientific framework guiding health equity research to equip the medical community with a robust set of tools to enhance health equity for current and future generations.

Abstract Background Alcohol is consumed by an estimated 137.4 million people in the United States 12 years of age and older, and, as a result, is estimated to have caused about 140 thousand deaths among people 20 to 64 years of age each year from 2015 up to and including 2019. Methods The proposed proposed review of the evidence on alcohol’s impact to health aims to produce conclusions to inform the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2026–2030. A multi-method approach will be utilized to formulate conclusions on (i) weekly (i.e., average) thresholds to minimize long-term and short-term risks of morbidity and mortality, (ii) daily thresholds to minimize the short-term risk of injury or acute illness due to per occasion drinking, (iii) alcohol use among vulnerable populations (e.g., pregnant women), and (iv) situations and circumstances that are hazardous for alcohol use. To inform expert discussions, this project will also include a systematic review of existing low-risk drinking guidelines, a systematic review of meta-analyses which examine alcohol’s impact on key attributable disease and mortality outcomes, and of estimates of the lifetime absolute risk of alcohol-attributable mortality and morbidity based on a person’s sex and average level of alcohol use. The preliminary conclusions produced as a result of this project will undergo public consultation, and data from these consultations will be analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results of the public consultations will be used to further revise and refine the project’s conclusions. Discussion This project will establish a scientific consensus concerning alcohol’s impact on health. This consensus is imperative for informing the upcoming Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2026–2030, and for better informing individuals about the health risks associated with alcohol use.