Juárez, Griego, and Abrams Publish Research Brief on Social Determinants of Health in NM

Departmental News

Posted:  Jan 15, 2017 - 12:00am

Image courtesy of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy

Political Science graduate students Melina Juárez, Eric Griego, and Brooke Abrams, along with their co-authors Cirila Estela Vazquez Guzman and Kristina Piorkowski recently published a research brief that investigates the social determinants of health in New Mexico. The brief is a publication of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Center for Health Policy at UNM. Melina Juárez is an RWJF doctoral fellow. Eric Griego and Brooke Abrams are UNM Health Policy Fellows. 

Click here to read the full brief.

Executive Summary 

A new survey conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico explores how the places New Mexicans live, work, and play impact their health and wellbeing. The New Landscapes of a Majority-Minority State: Politics, Economy, Health, and Well-Being in New Mexico (NLMMS) study, broadly focuses on four major themes: health, wellbeing, civic engagement, and economic development. The NLMMS was tailored to capture information about New Mexicans’ lived experiences with an eye toward understanding inequalities across key social determinants of health. For example, while 53% of respondents said that their health was either excellent or very good, this varied amongst racial/ethnic groups from a high of 58% among white respondents to a low of 45% for Native American respondents. In regards to civic engagement, a concept scholars are finding to be linked with health outcomes, 28% of Native Americans said that they can never trust the state government to do what is right, a percentage much higher than that of their Hispanic (19%) and white (18%) counterparts. Finally, a majority of New Mexicans support job creation through the support and development of small business over attracting large out-of-state companies to New Mexico. This policy brief is the first in a series focused on the social determinants of health in New Mexico to be released over the next few months by the RWJF Center for Health Policy at UNM.