Registration is now open for the fifth Certified in Public Health (CPH) exam, which will be administered across the world between February 3 and 27, 2012. Students and graduates from CEPH-accredited schools and programs of public health are encouraged to sit for the exam, which is the result of a multi-decade effort to heighten the visibility of the public health profession and to standardize core public health knowledge across core disciplines.

Deans from ASPH member schools of public health have put together a recommended Summer of Public Health reading and viewing list. From a day-to-day account of the eradication of smallpox to the adventures of a “guilty liberal” trying to save the planet, the diverse list of novels and films will help those looking to enrich their minds while enjoying the summer months.

A study led by University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health researcher Dr. Saundra H. Glover concludes that aggressive interventions are needed to reduce an epidemic of obesity among rural African American children. The study, “Dietary, Physical Activity, and Lifestyle Behaviors of Rural African-American Children,” is in the Journal of the National Medical Association.

According to a study led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whether a person believes the keys to combating childhood obesity are personal factors, such as individual behavior changes, or system-level factors, such as marketing and the environment, may depend on their primary news source. Researchers examined the news media’s framing of childhood obesity and found that television news was more likely than other news sources to focus on individual behavior change as a solution, while newspapers were more likely to identify system-level solutions. The results are featured in the June 20 issue of Pediatrics.

A significant number of female sex workers in India may have originally entered sex work via trafficking and are likely to face more safety and health risks than other women involved in the sex trade, according to new research by the Yale School of Public Health. A team of researchers led by Dr. Jhumka Gupta analyzed whether women who originally entered sex work via trafficking were subjected to greater levels of recent violence and were more likely to be exposed to behaviors that may increase their vulnerability to HIV infection.

Despite increased regulations on municipal solid waste since 1990, many landfill neighbors continue to report health problems associated with foul odors, pests, polluted water and traffic. A new study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, published online this month in Environmental Research, finds that potentially hazardous foul odors are commonly reported by neighbors of the Orange County, NC regional landfill.

Efforts to adapt tobacco cessation efforts to the unique needs of South Asians living in the United States may receive a boost from what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind study. The research, conducted by investigators at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Public Health and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ), closely examined tobacco- and smokeless tobacco-use patterns by South Asians in New Jersey and the Northeast. The findings appear in the special Cigarette Smoke and Cancer edition of the Journal of Oncology.

Researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health have been awarded nearly $1 million to investigate Adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) infection as a novel risk factor for obesity. The project is awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters grant program. The study will examine the relationship of Ad-36 to obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and will provide information to design health and wellness strategies specifically for firefighters, who are more likely to be overweight or obese than the general population.

Young adults with serious psychological problems are more than twice as likely as peers to use hospital emergency department services, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health researchers. The study, published online in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, found that “serious psychological distress” was significantly associated with emergency department utilization among young adults.

One in 10 women experiences depression during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth. Although the problem has received increased attention in recent years, little is known about the causes or early warning signs of pregnancy-related depression. In a study published in the June 2011 issue of Journal of Women’s Health, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offer new clues to help doctors identify at-risk patients and refer them for early treatment.

Dr. Jill Litt, author and associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Public Health and University of Colorado Boulder has been studying neighborhoods and health over the past decade. Dr. Litt's research has shown that places such as community gardens matter in terms of neighborhood quality and people's health.

Dr. Michael Morrisey, director of University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health’s Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, found that a ten-cent sustained increase in gas prices reduced motor-vehicle fatalities per capita by a total of 2.3 percent over two years. The finding is part of a new study with the UAB Injury Control Research Center.

Dr. José A. Pagán, chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy at the UNT Health Science Center’s (UNTHSC) School of Public Health, is co-author of an article, titled “Cross-Border Utilization of Health Care: Evidence from a Population-Based Study in South Texas,” published in the June 2011 issue of Health Services Research (HSR). The objective of the study was to assess the prevalence and contributing factors of cross-border health care utilization in Mexico by Texas border residents. 

Young people who identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, experience same-sex attractions or engage in same-sex sexual behaviors are more likely to experience sexual abuse, parental physical abuse and bullying from peers than other youth, according to a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health study.

New research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Breast Cancer Research has found that two-thirds of women with breast cancer died from other causes and that over the length of the research study, cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death.

ASPH staff member Mr. John E. McElligott spoke on Monday, June 20, at the United States Public Health Service Scientific and Training Symposium, held in New Orleans, LA. Mr. McElligott presented details about Dr. John Maynard Woodworth’s rise to become the nation’s first Surgeon General and how Dr. Woodworth’s experiences relate to today’s Public Health Service and Commissioned Corps.

ASPH is pleased to welcome three interns to our office this summer. The new interns will work closely with ASPH staff on various projects that will allow them to apply their public health knowledge in a practical setting. 

Public Health Reports is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed journal offering articles in public health practice and research, as well as viewpoints/commentaries. The journal is distributed to ASPH member schools, the research community, academic libraries, government agencies and many health related industries. Advertising in the journal is an excellent way to connect with practitioners, scholars and students of public health. Click here for more information on placing an ad for the September/October 2011 issue.

CDC: Public Prevention Health Fund: National Dissemination and Support for Community Transformation Funding Opportunity– Closing Date: July 22, 2011. The purpose of this cooperative agreement program is to support the efforts of the Community Transformation Grant (CTG) program by funding national network(s) of community-based organizations, to support, disseminate and amplify successful program models and activities. For more information, click here.

On May 28 nine students had the distinction of being the first graduates of the University of Florida’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine/Master of Public Health joint degree program. Offered through the colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health and Health Professions, the joint degree program reflects the concept of “one health” – the recognition that human health and animal health are closely intertwined. With their expertise in domestic animal and wildlife health, veterinarians are uniquely qualified to work alongside other health professionals in infectious disease investigation, food production and protection, health education and policy and global health.

The University of Michigan School of Public Health and Michigan’s School of Information will jointly offer a health informatics certificate program, which will be offered beginning the fall of 2011, and a master’s-degree program, which will enroll students in the fall of 2012. The graduate-certificate and two-year master’s program will prepare students for leadership roles in the fast-growing area of health informatics – an interdisciplinary field encompassing computer, information, and social and behavioral sciences, as well as health-application domains.

Dr. Kristine Lykens, associate professor of health management and policy at the University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, and Ms. Susan N. Jackson, Doctor of Public Health student and Public Health Student Association president at North Texas, recently attended the ONE Summit in Washington, DC, as volunteer congressional district leaders for the ONE campaign. 

The University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) has received three grants totaling $1.25 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research that will expand opportunities to conduct community-based clinical research in Florida, offer personalized medicine to patients and improve clinical trial design. The three projects involve teams of researchers from multiple colleges at the University of Florida (Florida) as well as other universities, including Florida State University (FSU).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will fund a research project from East Tennessee State University aimed at curbing obesity among young people. The highly interdisciplinary grant will use public health students as facilitators in a peer-based health education program for area high school students. The grant is funded at almost one million dollars over three years.

In what University of Michigan School of Public Health’s (Michigan) associate dean Dr. Nancy Janz calls a “unique option for individuals living in Michigan,” current and future public health professionals can now further their careers with a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan–Flint (UM-Flint). The Department of Public Health and Health Services, based at UM–Flint, is collaborating with Michigan to offer the MPH by combining the School of Public Health–based Certificate in Foundations of Public Health (CFPH) program with additional UM–Flint coursework. Some courses, including all of the CFPH courses, may be completed online.

The University of Texas Prevention Research Center (UTPRC) at the University of Texas School of Public Health is home to the Teen Scene Investigators (TSI), an active group of middle and high school students in Aldine, TX who encourage advocacy about the prevention of teen pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in the Houston area.

On Tuesday, June 21 Yale President Richard C. Levin on formally announced the reappointment of Dr. Paul D. Cleary as dean of the Yale School of Public Health. Dean Cleary’s second five-year term begins July 1, 2011 and will run through 2016.

Dr. Philip A. May was appointed research professor at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health on April 1 and will work with the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI). The nutrition professor will expand the institute’s expertise and research in the field of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).  Dr. May’s work and experience will introduce a new facet to the research at the NRI and highlight the importance of epidemiological work in conjunction with established lab work.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health’s Dr. Ian Lipkin, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, and Dr. Mady Hornig, associate professor of epidemiology, have been selected for the 2011 Charles C. Shepard Science Awards. As co-authors of the publication "Epidemiologic Investigation of Immune-Mediated Polyradiculoneuropathy among Abattoir Workers Exposed to Porcine Brain," they were cited for having the best manuscript on original research published in a peer-reviewed journal by scientists working at CDC or Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

University at Albany SUNY School of Public Health associate professor Dr. Diane M. Dewar was recently awarded a $54,973 grant from the Vietnam Educational Foundation to teach Introduction to Public Health to students at the Hanoi Medical University in Vietnam.  The graduate course, Introduction to Public Health, will be taught simultaneously in Vietnam and at SUNY Albany during the fall 2011 semester.  

Dr. Matthew Lee Smith and Regents Professor Marcia G. Ory of the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health were recognized by the editors and editorial board of Women’s Health Issues for their published article, “Older Women in a State-Wide, Evidence-Based Falls Prevention Program: Who Enrolls and What Benefits Are Obtained?” The article, which they co-authored with Mr. Ross Larsen, received honorable mention for the Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize for Best Paper Published in 2010. 

Dr. Swann Arp Adams has been named one of the University of South Carolina’s “Rising Stars.” An article about her research to eliminate health disparities in breast cancer is featured in the current issue of South Carolina’s magazine Breakthrough, which profiles 18 assistant and associate professors “whose scholarly pursuits, scientific inquiry, and passion for learning would make them the envy of any university's faculty.”

An Iranian doctoral student in the University at Albany SUNY School of Public Health, along with his imprisoned brother, were honored on Thursday, June 16 as recipients of the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights for their decade-long work establishing HIV/AIDS centers and prison health programs in Iran. In receiving the award from the Global Health Council, Dr. Kamiar Alaei appealed for the freedom of his brother.

Ms. MaAdwoa Asamoah grew up in Ghana and still visits regularly for holidays, but going to the country as a first-year student in the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences changed her life’s direction. Ms. Asamoah and three other students traveled to Ghana in May with assistant professor Dr. Muriel Harris to conduct a feasibility study on improving maternal health.

AcademyHealth and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have awarded 10 scholarships to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding potential to contribute to the field of public health systems research (PHSR). Scholarship recipients each received $1,000 for registration and travel to attend AcademyHealth's Annual Research Meeting and the PHSR Interest Group Annual Meeting, to be held June 12-15 in Seattle, WA.

Warnings about global climate change from the environmental community have largely gone unheeded, but public health professionals have the ability to reframe the debate and move the issue into public’s consciousness. Public health workers are listened to, but so far they have been largely silent on the topic, Dr. Edward W. Maibach told a gathering at the Yale School of Public Health’s annual Alumni Day.

More than 175 Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health alumni gathered for the school’s 3rd Annual Alumni Summit on June 16, along with faculty, staff, and students. The summit’s theme was the 30th anniversary of the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. To mark the occasion, a panel of scientists and research leaders in the field explored the latest medical breakthroughs and achievements in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and addressed how education and scaled-up prevention can help stop the spread of this disease in the U.S. and globally.

This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled the nine graphic health warnings required to appear on every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States and in every cigarette advertisement. This bold measure will help prevent children from smoking, encourage adults who do to quit, and ensure every American understands the dangers of smoking.

Dr. Gregory S. Holzman and Mr. Matthew Penn have joined the leadership team of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS). Dr. Hozman will be acting as associate deputy director of OSTLTS and Mr. Penn as director of the Public Health Law Program (PHLP).

To keep pace with emerging public health challenges and to address the leading causes of death and disability, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiated an effort to achieve measurable impact quickly in a few targeted areas. CDC's Winnable Battles are public health priorities with large-scale impact on health and with known, effective strategies to address them.

Recent survey findings illustrate the uphill battle that local public health departments (LHD) are fighting nationwide as they struggle to provide Americans with basic disease prevention and emergency preparedness services in the face of budget cuts. The preliminary survey results, first released by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) in March, found that from 2008 to 2010, local health departments lost 29,000 jobs to layoffs and attrition, roughly 19 percent of the entire 2008 LHD workforce.

The National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures has released the “Addressing Public Health and Chemical Exposures: An Action Agenda.” After months of work groups, web dialogues, community conversations and public comment opportunities, the action agenda, authored by the National Conversation Leadership Council, includes clear, achievable recommendations to help government agencies and other organizations strengthen their efforts to protect the public from harmful chemical exposures.

The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has formally launched MedlinePlus Connect. This free service allows health organizations and health information technology (HIT) providers to link patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to MedlinePlus.gov, a trusted source of authoritative, up-to-date health information for patients, families and health care providers.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health & Society Scholars program has announced the selection of 12 new scholars who will enter a two-year, postdoctoral research program to engage in interdisciplinary approaches that investigate the broad social factors affecting the nation’s health.

A new topic page on obesity is now available on the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce (PHPartners.org) website. The topic page links to obesity information and resources including government, professional and research organizations that focus obesity issues; reports, publications and guidelines; obesity programs and campaigns; child obesity information; data and statistics; legislation and policy issues; grants and funding opportunities; training and continuing education; and upcoming conferences and events.

ASPH regularly provides members and Friday Letter readers with links to other electronic newsletters that may be of interest to the public health community. Links to e-newsletters will be added to a web page found at www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=924. This week’s additions include:

The Campaign for Public Health Foundation (CPH Foundation) is collecting nominations for its second annual Unsung Heroes of Public Health Awards. These awards are excellent opportunity for public health leaders to showcase their successful prevention programs in Washington, DC. The Unsung Heroes of Public Health Awards not only recognize the efforts of the nation’s public health workforce, they also help highlight the overlooked value of our nation’s behind-the-scenes disease control and prevention efforts. Nominations will close Sunday, July 31.

The aim of the International Conference Public Health in the 21^st Century is to highlight the state of the system of public health in Slovenia, European Union and in the rest of the world in this century. International academics and practitioners of public health and related sciences are invited to submit their abstracts for oral presentation by August 15. The date for the submission of the full paper is September 15.

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Gorgas Memorial Institute Research Award will begin accepting applications on Wednesday, July 13. The award funds collaborative investigations, as well as short-term visits of young investigators between research institutions in the United States and within the broader Americas. The last day to submit an application is August 17.

The Commonwealth Fund's 2012–13 Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice are now open to applicants from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The fellowships provide a unique opportunity for mid-career professionals (academic researchers, government policymakers, clinicians, managers, and journalists) to spend up to 12 months in the United States conducting a policy-oriented research study. The deadline for receipt of applications is September 12.

The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Office of Communications and Education will present a free, four-part webinar education series, Cancer Classroom, for early career public health professionals or those new to the field of oncology. The third webinar in this series is titled “Clinical Trials 101” and will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. (Eastern) on Tuesday, June 28.

New!
Volume 126
Issue 3
May/June 2011

Public Health Reports (PHR) is an informative and accessible resource for practitioners, teachers and students of public health. The journal provides important research and key discussions on the major issues confronting the public health community. Subscribe Today! Click here to advertise in the journal.

New!
Volume 126
Supplement 1
Healthy People in a Healthy Environment

This supplement of Public Health Reports (PHR) revisits the 10-year history of the Centers for Public Health Preparedness (CPHPs). Subscribe to PHR today! Click here to advertise in the journal.