News from campus and beyond

Health gap widens between Greenville and rest of the U.S.

Shaniece Criss, associate professor of health sciences.

Last updated September 8, 2017

By Tina Underwood

People who live in rural Appalachia, which includes six South Carolina counties, generally suffer from poorer health than other Americans, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, and Appalachian Regional Commission. The report shows people who live in the 13-state region are more likely than the rest of the country to die of  seven of the 10 leading causes of death including heart disease and cancer. Furman Health Sciences professor Shaniece Criss unpacks the reasons why in a Greenville Journal article.

At Furman, Criss’s research focuses on promoting health equity through health communication and policy. She teams with Furman’s Institute for the Advancement of Community Health (IACH) as an academic lead on projects with Greenville Health System (GHS) and LiveWell Greenville.

Contact Us
Clinton Colmenares
Director of News and Media Strategy