MI-Healthy City Tool helps communities promote health equity across Michigan

Map of the state of Michigan.

The pathway to improving the health of hundreds of thousands of residents in Michigan’s largest cities is laid out in a new information hub that provides a panoramic look at the major factors impacting the wellbeing of these individuals.

The MI-Healthy City Tool is a groundbreaking collection of data organized on an innovative dashboard that pinpoints health equity gaps in two dozen cities across Michigan and provides researchers, policymakers, and community organizations a single-stop clearinghouse of data. 

The tool examines many serious health issues, including asthma, obesity, life expectancy, depression, and binge drinking. Home ownership rates, transportation costs, the level of poverty, and unemployment figures are also included.

The MI-Healthy City Tool, based on the framework of the Urban HEART Health Equity Assessment and Response (HEART) tool from the World Health Organization, has been created by a team at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health and is part of the school’s Public Health IDEAS for Creating Healthy and Equitable Cities initiative.

LEARN MORE: Public Health IDEAS

“This tool is a roadmap that people can use to better understand what health or health inequity issues people in these cities are facing,” said Roshanak Mehdipanah, faculty co-lead of Public Health IDEAS for Creating Healthy and Equitable Cities and an associate professor of Health Behavior & Health Equity at Michigan Public Health.“It will also allow the leadership in these cities to use the data to identify the social issues that are impacting their community.”

Mehdipanah’s research has focused on the inequities that are found in urban health environments, with a special emphasis on studying the health impacts of housing policies. She is the director of the Housing Solutions for Health Equity initiative at Michigan Public Health.

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“We expect this to be a valuable tool for researchers who want to take a deeper look,” Mehdipanah said. “If a community wants to do an assessment of what challenges are present, they can also take the data from the dashboard and examine different factors and intersecting issues.” 

She added that possible connections between air pollution in a community and higher incidence of blood pressure-related health issues could be illustrated, along with links between housing availability and affordability and mental health issues.

The tool’s research team, which includes Lu Wang, a professor Biostatistics and faculty co-lead of Public Health IDEAS for Creating Healthy and Equitable Cities, and Melika Belhaj, the program manager for both Public Health IDEAS for Creating Healthy and Equitable Cities and Housing Solutions For Health Equity, expects to see many communities utilize the data they have assembled on the dashboard.

Wang said the tool is intended to highlight disparities and provide actionable insights that can drive targeted public health initiatives and policies.

“I hope that the MI-Healthy City Tool will provide a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the health challenges and needs across the 24 cities,” she said. “We aim to identify specific areas where interventions can make the most impact. Ultimately, I envision this tool enabling each community to make data-driven decisions that will lead to tangible improvements in health outcomes, equity, and quality of life.”

Wang said the group’s work is vital as health inequity is a profound and pressing issue in many of Michigan's largest cities. She said this is evident in not just the significant disparities in access to healthcare, but also the quality of available care and health outcomes among different populations and demographics.

“These inequities often correlate with socioeconomic factors such as income, education, and race, leading to a cycle of disadvantage for marginalized communities,” she said. “Addressing these disparities is crucial for ensuring that all residents have equal opportunities for health and well-being.”

The team’s mission includes aiming a spotlight on these inequities and providing the data necessary to develop effective strategies for reducing disparities and promoting health equity across Michigan’s urban areas.

Belhaj’s role as program manager includes managing data requests and developing research products that utilize the tool. 

“The goal of creating this tool was to do the complicated work of compiling, organizing, and making sense of large datasets across different domains—from housing to health—and to provide communities with more organized information that they can use to better understand the data behind what is going on in their communities,” she said.

She added that the data will also provide advocates of health equity and various urban health issues with insight into areas where the greatest inequities exist in the represented cities.

Mehdipanah said the team plans to continue tweaking and fine-tuning the tool, while also making updates as new census data becomes available. She wants to see the dashboard evolve and integrated with other existing similarly targeted tools across Michigan.

“We are clearly finding stark differences across the state in certain health outcomes, and we want to be that point where people come to get that data,” she said. “Our main goal is to identify those gaps and then hopefully be able to address those gaps.”

Written by Matt Markey

Media Contact

Destiny Cook

Senior Public Relations Specialist
University of Michigan School of Public Health
734-647-8650

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