Achieving Multi-Generational Health Equity requires strategic partnership, community engagement, and collaborative stakeholder investment. Learn More about how we’re addressing Multi-Generational Health Equity in under-served communities.
Multi-Generational Health defined
Multi-generational health is the continuous cycle of positive health outcomes. Multi-generational health addresses how our health behaviors and outcomes influence the health behaviors and outcomes of the next generation.
Health Trends & Relationships
Health Factors.
A closer look at what influences multi-generational health behaviors and outcomes.
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Individual factors include age, gender, and genetics. Based on what we now understand about cardio-metabolic programming in-utero, we can deploy a preventive health strategy to buffer genetic predisposition to chronic conditions.
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Individual behaviors include exercise, diet, addiction, coping, and preventive health screenings. Lifestyle modification is the number one preventive treatment for chronic disease, but it is important to note that health-promoting behavior is influenced by many neurobiological, psychological, and social underpinnings, including knowledge, beliefs, skills, attitudes, access, policy, and other social determinants of health.
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Public services and infrastructure include parks, education, community centers, transportation, economic development, and health care.
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Living and working conditions include access to food, housing, social networks, segregation, working environment, wages and benefits, air, water, and soil quality, and noise.
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Social and political factors include racism, sexism, political participation, power, inequality, and poverty.
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This category encompasses economic and social conditions that influence health outcomes of people and communities.
According to the CDC, several factors include:
How a person develops during the first few years of life (early childhood development)
How much education a person obtains and the quality of that education
Being able to get and keep a job
What kind of work a person does
Having food or being able to get food (food security)
Having access to health services and the quality of those services
Living conditions such as housing status, public safety, clean water and pollution
How much money a person earns (individual income and household income)
Social norms and attitudes (discrimination, racism and distrust of government)
Residential segregation (physical separation of races/ethnicities into different neighborhoods)
Social support
Language and literacy
Incarceration
Culture (general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people)
Access to mass media and emerging technologies (cell phones, internet, and social media)
“Health disparities are differences in health that are closely linked to social determinants of health. Addressing health disparities is key to achieving health equity and realizing the Healthy People vision of improving the health and well-being of all.” - Healthy People 2030
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Economic Stability
Employment, Income, Expenses, Debt, Medical Bills, Support
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Neighborhood & Physical Environment
Housing, Transportation, Safety, Parks, Playgrounds, Walkability, Zip code/ geography
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Community & Social Context
Social Integration, Support Systems, Community Engagement, Discrimination, Stress
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Education
Literacy, Language, Early Childhood Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education
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Food
Hunger, Access to Healthy Options
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Health Care System
Health Coverage, Provider Availability, Provider linguistic and cultural competency, Quality of care
To achieve Health Equity, social determinants of health and health disparities must be addressed.
“Health equity is the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health. Achieving this requires focused and ongoing societal efforts to address historical and contemporary injustices; overcome economic, social, and other obstacles to health and healthcare; and eliminate preventable health disparities.” - CDC
“The latest data released by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) show significant increases in U.S. maternal mortality rates in 2021 and send a resounding message that maternal health and evidence-based efforts to eliminate racial health inequities need to be, and remain, a top public health priority.”
— The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)
Addressing Top Public Health Priorities
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Chronic/Preventable Disease
Mom’s Good Taste® directly addresses heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, three chronic conditions with significant influence on fertility, maternal, and child health status. Some of these conditions may be linked to or impacted by co-morbidities (other conditions) including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), high blood pressure, and depression.
According to the CDC:
Obesity affects 20% of children and 42% of adults, putting them at risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.
38.4 million people have diabetes (11.6% of the US population), while 97.6 million people aged 18 years or older have pre-diabetes (38.0% of the adult US population).
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.
Racial and ethnic minority populations have a higher burden of these chronic conditions and associated complications.
Modifiable Risk Factors:
Poor nutrition (Diet)
Physical inactivity (Exercise)
Excessive alcohol use
Tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke
Chronic Stress
Social Determinants of Health
Social Determinants of Health, Stress, Quality of Life, & Outcomes:
“The biological mechanism that emerges from chronic stress leads to increased and prolonged levels of exposure to stress hormones and oxidative stress at the cellular level. Prolonged exposure to stress hormones, such as cortisol, leads to inflammatory reactions that predispose individuals to chronic disease. As an example, racial disparities in the infant mortality rate remain, and the complications of low birth weight have been associated with perceived racial discrimination and maternal stress.” - The American Academy of Pediatrics
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Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
Mom’s Good Taste® aims to improve maternal and child health outcomes and reduce maternal morbidity and mortality by way of preconception and perinatal preventive care solutions.
Preconception and pregnancy-related co-morbidities, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes predispose women to severe maternal morbidity and mortality and long-term conditions, like type II diabetes. Additionally, maternal cardio-metabolic conditions and co-morbidities may increase the risk of suboptimal short and long-term health outcomes in infants (offspring), including low birth weight and the development of metabolic syndrome later in life.
Women of racial and ethnic minority populations have a higher burden of cardio-metabolic chronic conditions and associated maternal/ child health complications.
Leading causes of pregnancy-related death in the United States include hemorrhage, cardiovascular events (embolisms, preeclampsia, eclampsia, blood pressure disorders of pregnancy), uncontrolled diabetes, and sepsis/infection.
Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of NEW MOMS- up to one year postpartum.
According to the CDC, “Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias. Social determinants of health prevent many people from racial and ethnic minority groups from having fair opportunities for economic, physical, and emotional health.”
Visit Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Website to read the report: 2024 Medicaid & CHIP Beneficiaries at a Glance: Maternal Health
Maternal Mortality Risk Factors:
Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
Pre-pregnancy Weight (Obesity)
Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders
Poor preconception and prenatal care (PNC)
Intimate Partner Violence
Other Social Determinants of Health
Every child deserves the best start to life - It is time to end the cycle of disparity.
Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)
“The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) theory hypothesized that environmental exposures during early life (particularly the in-utero period) can permanently influence health and vulnerability to disease in later life. Obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers are just some examples of adult-onset conditions that may be linked to early life nutritional status and/or exposures to environmental chemicals, drugs, infections, lifestyles, or stress.”
— Yale School of Public Health
The Multi-Generational Health Equity Collaborative includes:
People (Our Community)
Medical & Ancillary Healthcare Providers
Health Plans & Organizations
Community Organizations (CBOs)
Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Research Institutions, Universities
Developers and City Planners
For-Profit Businesses
Government Entities & Regulators
Philanthropists and Donors
Achieving Multi-Generational Health Equity is a Collaborative Effort.
Mom’s Good Taste® is organized and operated exclusively to advance multi-generational health equity. By sharing evidence-based resources, convening stakeholders, and influencing integrated care models, Mom’s Good Taste® will change the trajectory of maternal health and chronic disease for generations to come. Join Us.