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“All Health Is Not Created Equal: Where You Live Matters"

| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
On behalf of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), I am pleased to invite you to attend “All Health Is Not Created Equal: Where You Live Matters” presented by Dr. Shannon N. Zenk, Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research, from noon to 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, December 9, 2020. This presentation is the 2020 Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies which honors NCCIH’s founding director.

Maybe the saying shouldn’t be “you are what you eat,” but rather “you are where you eat.” Social and economic factors, such as where someone lives, have powerful influences on people’s health. This association holds true not only for access to healthy food but also for other things such as housing conditions and green space availability. Such factors impact risk of exposure and susceptibility to many diseases and conditions, including COVID-19.

Dr. Shannon Zenk, Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), NIH, will deliver the 2020 Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies. She will explore the science behind social determinants of health and demonstrate how vital effective integrative or multilevel approaches are when addressing health and health inequities. Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, and otherwise spend their time. They affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Dr. Zenk will share how to better understand what affects people’s health and drives health disparities, and ultimately how to develop effective interventions to improve the public’s health and eliminate inequities.

Dr. Zenk brings a unique perspective as a nurse, a population health scientist, and, since September 2020, the Director of NINR. The lecture is supported by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health with a generous gift from Bernard and Barbro Osher. NCCIH’s annual Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies honors the founding director of NCCIH, Stephen E. Straus. M.D. (1946–2007).
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