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The article presents the 2013 winners of the periodical's Paper of the Year awards, including reports on topics such as aging and climate change, infant mortality, and housing insecurity, as well as 2013 Reviewers of the Year jimi adams and Janet Golden.

In response to rapidly changing societal conditions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, we summarize data sources with potential to produce timely and spatially granular measures of physical, economic, and social conditions relevant to public health surveillance, and we briefly describe emerging analytic methods to improve small-area estimation. To inform this article, we reviewed published systematic review articles set in the United States from 2015 to 2020 and conducted unstructured interviews with senior content experts in public heath practice, academia, and industry. We identified a modest number of data sources with high potential for generating timely and spatially granular measures of physical, economic, and social determinants of health. We also summarized modeling and machine-learning techniques useful to support development of time-sensitive surveillance measures that may be critical for responding to future major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(10):1436–1445. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306917) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To understand how stay-at-home orders changed mobility patterns and influenced the spread of COVID-19. Methods. I merged 2020 data from the Virginia Department of Health, Google Mobility Reports, and the US Census to estimate a series of 2-way fixed-effect event-study regression models. Results. A stay-at-home order caused people to increase the amount of time spent at home by 12 percentage points and decrease the time the spent at work by 30 percentage points, retail and recreation venues by 40 percentage points, and grocery stores and pharmacies by 10 percentage points. People did not sustain changes in mobility and gradually returned to prepandemic levels before the stay-at-home order was lifted. In areas where people spent the most time at indoor locations, there was a large increase in COVID-19. Conclusions. A more robust and stricter policy response coordinated at the national level combined with a strong economic response from policymakers could have increased the effectiveness of the stay-at-home order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will likely have adverse human health effects that require federal agency involvement in adaptation activities. In 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance. The order required federal agencies to develop and implement climate change adaptation plans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of a larger Department of Health and Human Services response to climate change, is developing such plans. We provide background on Executive Orders, outline tenets of climate change adaptation, discuss public health adaptation planning at both the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC, and outline possible future CDC efforts. We also consider how these activities may be better integrated with other adaptation activities that manage emerging health threats posed by climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the social, economic, and political dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been studied in considerable depth, the relationship between HIV/AIDS and its environmental causes and consequences remains largely unexplored. We reviewed the evidence of interactions between ecosystem health and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We hypothesized a syndemic between environmental degradation and HIV/AIDS; they exhibit bidirectional, self-reinforcing interactions. We have presented a syndemic framework detailing multiple synergistic relationships. This framework hinges on the vulnerability of populations as the linchpin between the pandemic and environmental health. A coherent research and practice agenda for addressing the syndemic that focuses on the 2 issues as not only concurrent but also intertwined phenomena is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a complex, long-term public health challenge. Older people are especially susceptible to certain climate change impacts, such as heat waves. We suggest that older people may be a resource for addressing climate change because of their concern for legacy--for leaving behind values, attitudes, and an intact world to their children and grandchildren. We review the theoretical basis for "legacy thinking" among older people. We offer suggestions for research on this phenomenon, and for action to strengthen the sense of legacy. At a time when older populations are growing, understanding and promoting legacy thinking may offer an important strategy for addressing climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous populations have been identified as vulnerable to climate change. This framing, however, is detached from the diverse geographies of how people experience, understand, and respond to climate-related health outcomes, and overlooks nonclimatic determinants. I reviewed research on indigenous health and climate change to capture place-based dimensions of vulnerability and broader determining factors. Studies focused primarily on Australia and the Arctic, and indicated significant adaptive capacity, with active responses to climate-related health risks. However, nonclimatic stresses including poverty,land dispossession, globalization, and associated sociocultural transitions challenge this adaptability. Addressing geographic gaps in existing studies alongside greater focus on indigenous conceptualizations on and approaches to health, examination of global-local interactions shaping local vulnerability, enhanced surveillance, and an evaluation of policy support opportunities are key foci for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States and Canada, pine forest ecosystems are being dramatically affected by an unprecedented pine beetle infestation attributed to climate change. Both decreased frequency of extremely cold days and warmer winter temperature averages have led to an enphytotic devastating millions of acres of pine forest. The associated ecosystem disruption has the potential to cause significant health impacts from a range of exposures, including increased runoff and water turbidity, forest fires, and loss of ecosystem services. We review direct and indirect health impacts and possible prevention strategies. The pine beetle infestation highlights the need for public health to adopt an ecological, systems-oriented view to anticipate the full range of potential health impacts from climate change and facilitate effective planned adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change presents the biggest threat to human health in the 21st century. However, many public health leaders feel ill equipped to face the challenges of climate change and have been unable to make climate change a priority in service development. I explore how to achieve a regionally responsive whole-of-systems approach to climate change in the key operational areas of a health service: service governance and culture, service delivery, workforce development, asset management, and financing. The relative neglect of implementation science means that policymakers need to be proactive about sourcing and developing models and processes to make health services ready for climate change. Health research funding agencies should urgently prioritize applied, regionally responsive health services research for a future of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on trends in social and environmental health and the challenges that public health professionals face when responding to health hazards. He suggests that in addition to public health threats, several trends, including budget constraints, a lack of health professionals and increasing health and security issues, are challenging public health's ability to respond to hazardous events. He argues that public health needs to make changes to be able to respond to hazardous events.

The author reflects on climate change and on the impact that climate change has on the built environment and public health. She suggests that the effects of climate change are experienced in the built environments which surround most individuals. She argues that as the effects of climate change become more apparent greater attention and approaches to increase awareness and reduce climate change are necessary to protect public health.

The Indus River is the major source of water for the more than 180 million people of Pakistan. A rapidly increasing population over the past 60 years has created new pressures on water that was once a plentiful resource for the health and development of the country. Rising tensions between India and Pakistan, which share the Indus flow, may lead to violent confrontation in an already volatile part of the globe. The recent flooding, which affected more than 20 million people, drew attention to poor management of the rivers of Pakistan. Public health has the scientific knowledge and professional capacity to help develop water management practices that could improve population health in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]