Health Impact Statement

Download full statement (including references) HERE

June 3, 2010.

Boston-- The relationship between community health and library closings may seem unlikely; the best available evidence, however, strongly suggests that closing branch libraries would be very harmful to Bostonians’ health, and extremely costly to the public health care purse. These damages would endure for many years. Boston Public Library (BPL) branches provide access to health information; improve literacy and overall educational prospects; and decrease social isolation. As you will read in the attached expert testimony, these contributions are highly beneficial to individual and public health.

Nineteen local leaders in medicine, public health, public policy, and community wellness have signed the attached “Health Impact Assessment of Boston Public Library Branches.” They believe that closing any branch could significantly contribute to illness and/or premature death among children, adolescents, young adults, and senior citizens. They are especially concerned that the people whose health and wellness most likely to be harmed by branch library closings are among the poorest and least advantaged in the city. Closing branch libraries would be unjust, unhealthy, and fiscally short-sighted.

For The People of Boston Branches,

Sam Zager

617-939-6651

samzager [at] gmail {dot} com

Brandon Abbs

617-942-1692

peopleofboston [at] gmail {dot} com

Health Impact Assessment of Boston Public Library Branches

June 2010

Boston Public Library (BPL) branches provide services and resources that are believed to be beneficial to individual and public health; conversely, closing any library branch could contribute to illness or premature death in that neighborhood.

  1. Libraries are integral to literacy and education; and lower education level is strongly linked with disease and premature death.

    2. The education level of a population is an important measure of overall societal function. Many public library branches are the only libraries in their communities because school libraries have closed due to funding shortages.

    Libraries and the opportunities they provide for reading are considered fundamental to educational achievement. Reading to young children is crucial for literacy development and love of reading.

    Less educated segments of the population tend to have less knowledge about health issues, lower-paying jobs, and riskier health habits -- all of which are linked to worse health.

    Libraries are local points of access to health information and literacy, and lower literacy is associated with worse self-care and/or health outcomes. Low literacy levels also are associated with higher health care costs, perhaps costing as much as $73 billion per year in avoidable spending. The American Medical Association calls attention to the likely ill effects of having approximately one-quarter of the American adult population with limited literacy and difficulty understanding health care information.

  2. Libraries can decrease social isolation; and social isolation is associated with disease and premature death.

    3. BPL branches are embedded in their respective neighborhoods. They are uniquely suited to decrease social isolation by being physical places of secular community meetings, access to social networks, and community cohesiveness. Branch libraries provide safe spaces for children and adolescents; computer/internet access; literacy and homework tutoring; English-language instruction; performing arts venues; meeting rooms; and conventional print resources.

    Social disengagement contributes to the decline of thinking/memory in elderly persons. Worse thinking/memory increases risk of hospitalization and death. Also, pre-existing social ties may aid thinking/memory after stroke.

    Social isolation tends to sicken senior citizens through inadequate nutrition.

    Children and adolescents who are socially isolated are at increased risk of developing risk factors in their twenties for heart attack and stroke.

    Social isolation among adolescents is significantly linked to suicide.

    Socially isolated adults suffer diminished job prospects and overall economic disadvantage, which has been strongly linked to poor health outcomes.

    Social isolation is associated with increased risk of death; this relationship is separate from any effects of socioeconomic status, self-reported baseline health status, substance abuse, and utilization of preventive health services.

Signatories (in alphabetical order)

Brandon Abbs, PhD

Director, People of Boston Branches

Marilyn Augustyn, MD

Medical Director, Massachusetts Coalition of Reach Out and Read

Director, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

Boston Medical Center / Boston University School of Medicine

Lisa Berkman, PhD

Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population

Harvard School of Public Health

Joan Fitzgerald, PhD

Director, Law, Policy, and Society Program

Northeastern University

Donna Haig Friedman, PhD

Director, Center for Social Policy

McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Helene Glaser, RN

Head Nurse, Lown Cardiovascular Group, Brookline

Thomas C. Hines, MD

Family Physician, Boston

Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD

Chair, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health

Harvard School of Public Health

Leonard S. Lilly, MD

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Bernard Lown, MD

Professor Emeritus, Harvard School of Public Health

Co-recipient, Nobel Peace Prize (1985)

Wilfred Mamuya, MD, PhD

Staff Cardiologist, Lown Cardiovascular Center, Brookline

Emily Mann, MSSW, PhD

Associate Academic Specialist, Human Services Program

Northeastern University

Julie Moran, DO

Director, Geriatric Medicine Consult Service, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Staff physician, BIDMC Division of Gerontology

Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Alvin F. Poussaint, MD

Professor of Psychiatry

Harvard Medical School

Rima E. Rudd, ScD, MSPH

Senior Lecturer, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health

Harvard School of Public Health

Joyce A. Sackey, MD, FACP

Dean for Multicultural Affairs and Global Health

Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and

Department of Public Health and Community Medicine

Tufts University School of Medicine

Vikas Saini, MD, FACC

President, Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation, Brookline

Co-Director, Lown Cardiovascular Group, Brookline

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Harvard Medical School

Harvard School of Public Health

David Urion, MD

Charles F. Barlow Chair in Neurology, Children’s Hospital Boston

Director, Division of Service Learning, Harvard Medical School

William Julius Wilson, PhD

Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor

John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Recipient, National Medal of Science (1998)

Top

Last Updated June 3, 2010