Contemporary challenges in public health

Dear Colleagues,

How Can the Wealthiest Industrialized Nation be the Sickest?

Although the United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, it is far from being the healthiest. Life expectancy and survival rates in the U.S. have improved dramatically over the past century, but Americans have shorter lifespans and experience more illness than people in other high-income countries. This is the main conclusion of a recently published report commissioned by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in which the National Research Council (2013) and the Institute of Medicine were asked to convene a panel of experts to investigate the U.S. health disadvantage and to assess its implications. Data from 17 industrial countries showed that the U.S. falls well behind other industrialized nations in life expectancy at birth; the life expectancy of American men ranked last at 75.6 years and American women ranked 16th at 80.7 (second to last). This is due partly to relatively high infant mortality rates and to violent deaths among young adults, but mostly to mortality above age 50.

Nine health domains were identified in which the U.S. fared worse than other comparable countries: adverse birth outcomes; injuries and homicide; adolescent pregnancy and STDs; HIV and AIDS; drug-related mortality; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and disability.

This “mortality gap” exists even though the U.S. spends far more per person on health care than any other nation, and the reasons for it are largely unknown. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be explained by health disparities existing among people who are uninsured or poor, since even wealthy Americans have worse health outcomes than similar people in other countries. It was concluded that shorter lives and poorer health will ultimately harm the economy; furthermore, national security could be adversely affected due to declining public health and increasing health care costs.

With this report as background, IJERPH is inviting papers for a Special Issue on Public Health, to be published in December 2013, exploring possible explanations and strategies for addressing the mortality gap between the U.S. and other comparable countries. FIVE papers will be selected as feature papers for publication in the Special Issue, one on each of the following FIVE general topics. Please note that besides feature papers, up to FOUR additional papers will be selected on each of the following topics:

1. Access to and Quality of Health Services in the U.S.
2. Reproductive health and the early origins of chronic disease.
3. Food, Nutrition, Diet and Health.
4. The Social and Physical Environment and Health.
5. Chronic Illness in Later Life.

The Guest Editor of the Special Issue on Public Health is Anthony R. Mawson, MA, DrPH, Visiting Professor, Behavioral and Environment Health, School of Health Sciences, College of Public Service, Jackson State University. Prospective authors should send an extended outline of their paper to Dr. Mawson by July 1. They will be notified by July 15 as to whether their paper has been selected for the Special Issue. Papers not selected for the Special issue can be automatically considered for publication in IJERPH, if desired. In its final form, each selected paper should: a) summarize the relevant statistics (e.g., on morbidity and mortality, extent and burden of the problem area or areas); b) review existing facts and theories; c) propose creative syntheses of the literature; and d) suggest general strategies or hypotheses for further research to understand and address the problem(s). Draft papers selected for the Special Issue should be prepared in the style of IJERPH and forwarded to Dr. Mawson by November 1, 2013 at [email protected].

Prof. Dr. Anthony R. Mawson
Prof. Dr. Mohammad Shahbazi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• access to and quality of health services in the U.S
• reproductive health and the early origins of chronic disease
• food, nutrition, diet and health
• the social and physical environment and health
• chronic illness in later life