If you’re interested in taking a community engaged scholarship course to take this semester, look no further than HSCI 2195: Applied Health Equity. This 1-credit public health course taught by Nashman Affiliate Dr. Maranda Ward will be held on Thursdays from 5pm-6pm. In this course, students will learn about historical health disparities affecting Black residents in wards 7 and 8 here in DC. Find out more information here
“Increases in physical and mental health are related to increases in civic engagement, whether through voting or through such activities as volunteering and membership in civic organizations.”
A new study has found that there may be a link between civic engagement and health and well-being. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation believes that approaching civic-engagement with a health mindset could help to improve the overall health conditions, services, and systems.
The key findings that resulted show that there may be a reinforcing feedback loop, in that poor health early in life leads to lower levels of civic-engagement while more civic-engagement at a young age is associated with less depression later in life.
Since the health-civic engagement link has not been studies extensively, the researchers recommend that more data be collected through longitudinal data sets and more research be done on the causal relationship between these two variables.
To read the full study, click on this link here.
