To reenergize the community and encourage walkability, Live HealthSmart Alabama – in partnership with Brasfield & Gorrie and subcontracted through AG Gaston – knew sidewalks in Kingston needed to be either repaved or built from scratch. To contribute toward this initiative, Kirkpatrick Concrete donated all the concrete used to make these improvements.

Other partners that contributed to the accomplishments in Kingston include O’Neal Steel, Coca-Cola United, the city of Birmingham, Alabama Power, Steward Machine, Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority MAX, Goodwyn Mills Cawood, Blank Space Bham, NAFCO, Birmingham Parks and Recreation, and Watkins Trucking Company.

“It has been a great and rewarding experience working with the city of Birmingham and Alabama corporations to accomplish the built environment improvements in Kingston,” said Fouad Fouad, Ph.D., director of the UAB Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center. “I believe these strong partnerships between academia and industry are built to last forever.”

Food deserts: A mobile solution

While each community’s needs are unique, a consistent issue Live HealthSmart Alabama has found in underserved areas is that these neighborhoods fall within areas that either have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables or are food deserts.

According to the USDA, a food desert is a place where one-third of residents live more than one mile from the nearest grocery store. Using this definition and census tracts, the USDA estimates that roughly 19 million people (or 6.2 percent of the U.S. population) live in a food desert.

To bring healthy and affordable food to Birmingham residents, Live HealthSmart Alabama introduced its new Mobile Market at the Kingston ribbon-cutting – which will run in partnership with Promoting Empowerment and Enrichment Resources (P.E.E.R.) and East Lake Market. Each week, the Mobile Market will visit communities in Birmingham, starting with their demonstration areas (Kingston, East Lake, Bush Hills and Titusville). Shoppers can purchase proteins, fruits, vegetables, grains and a variety of other healthy food options using cash, card, EBT or Double-Up Bucks.

“Currently, Alabama has some of the worst health outcomes in the nation,” said Mona Fouad. “The goal of Live HealthSmart Alabama is to move our state out of the bottom 10 in national health rankings. To do this, community members have to have access to healthy food options and the tools to be successful. The Live HealthSmart Alabama Mobile Market helps to provide that.”

In addition to its weekly route, the Live HealthSmart Alabama Mobile Market will also host monthly evening events in June and July where community members can shop and watch chef Chris Hastings of Hot & Hot Fish Club conduct a demonstration using food pulled directly from the market.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, UAB President Ray L. Watts, Myla Calhoun of Alabama Power and other UAB and community leaders also attended the event.

(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)

“While addressing the social determinants of health, such as income, education and medical trust, would be an effective path by which to diminish health disparities related to COVID-19, this of course takes time, and there is an urgent need to mitigate the spread and severity of COVID-19 in vulnerable populations,” Bateman said. “Interventions should focus on downstream determinants, such as obstacles to prevention and care emerging from our study.”

Participants described barriers that may intensify health disparities. Barriers to prevention of COVID-19 included apathy, difficulty with social distancing, lack of information, mixed messages from authority figures and lack of personal protective equipment.

Barriers to coping with COVID-19 were food insecurity, mental health issues, isolation, economic hardships, lack of health care access, and issues with virtual schooling and church services, which were exacerbated by inability to connect to the internet.

Testing barriers included misunderstanding, fear, mistrust, testing restrictions and location of testing sites.

“These focus groups allowed residents to share their fears and concerns during the frightening and confusing early days of the pandemic,” Schoenberger said.

The study concluded that COVID-19 prevention and care programs should consider:

• The need for access to clear, accurate, targeted and visible educational materials.
• Access to testing by walk-up or drive-through venues within the most vulnerable communities.
• Individuals trusted by the community, to guide residents through the process of identifying symptoms, accessing testing, explaining results and connecting those with positive test results to a health care provider for follow-up care.

“It is vital that we as researchers listen closely to what our communities are telling us,” said Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH, principal investigator for the Obesity Health Disparities Research Center. “What we learned from this research shaped our COVID-19 education efforts and contributed to the creation of the Live HealthSmart Alabama mobile testing initiatives in underserved communities.”

(Courtesy of UAB)