Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Creating Healthy Community In The Postindustrial City, Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

Capitalizing On Distinctiveness: Creating Wv For A New Economy, Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

This article explores use of images and ideas of place to promote particular social and economic agendas within the regional context of Appalachia. Despite prevailing imageries of backwardness and isolation that adhere to the region, as well as recent history of often-bleak economic conditions, communities such as Huntington, West Virginia, are ideal places to observe inventive forms of community-building, place-making, and place-marketing that borrow from emerging cultural and economic models and stand in sharp contrast to a once dominant paradigm that encouraged capital investment by relying simply on tax breaks and the provision of cheap land and labor to attract …

Cultural Competency In New Jersey: Evolution From Planning To Law, Debbie Salas-Lopez, Linda Holmes, Dawne Mouzon, Maria Soto-Greene

Debbie Salas-Lopez MD, MPH

No abstract provided.

How Will Public Health And Primary Care Come Together In Massachusetts?

Javier Crespo

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims to place public health and prevention practice closer to the clinical care delivery system by mandating basic preventive services and creating a national prevention plan. The Massachusetts health care system has a number of elements that can help foster closer linking of public health practices in the primary care setting. This research set out to examine whether the current healthcare system in Massachusetts will enable public health and primary care integration as intimated upon by the Affordable Care Act. This study will assess the current connection between public health and primary care …

Evidence-Based Practice For Public Health Project: Final Report, E. Hatheway Simpson, Elaine R. Martin

E. Hatheway Simpson

There are numerous clinically based models for finding the “best evidence” for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. This process is called evidence-based medicine or EBM, which has been defined as "the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research”.¹ The need for improved access to high quality public health information has been echoed in various forums involving public health professionals, librarians, and information specialists since the mid 1990s. …

Improving Access To Credible And Relevant Information For Public Health Professionals: A Qualitative Study Of Information Needs In Communicable Disease Control, Nancy R. Lapelle, E. Hatheway Simpson, Roger S. Luckmann, Elaine Russo Martin

E. Hatheway Simpson

In order to understand the information needs and the current and ideal approaches to information access in one major area of public health, semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with 12 communicable disease control public health professionals in Massachusetts at their worksite. Examples of the types of information they commonly accessed and how it was accessed were solicited and/or observed where feasible. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Information needs ranged from breaking news (e.g. epidemiology of emerging disease outbreaks) and untested programmatic ideas (e.g. how to handle prevention and treatment of West Nile Virus and SARS) to the …

Evidence-Based Public Health: Findings From A Research Project And Resources For Practice, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

This presentation to the University of Massachusetts Medical School Preventive Medicine Residency Program presents an introduction to evidence-based public health (EBPH), and overview of the Lamar Soutter Library’s Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health (EBPPH) project and research findings, and selected examples of EBPH information resources available from the project’s website, http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph.

Providing Evidence-Based Public Health Resources: The Librarian’S Role, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

This presentation introduces the concepts of evidence-based public health (EBPH) and provides examples of EBPH information resources available online from the Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health website, http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph and the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce website, http://PHPartners.org. Health science librarians, as information specialists and knowledge managers, have the ability to search and find the best evidence to help public health practitioners make informed practice decisions. Presented at the North Atlantic Health Science Libraries Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, September 27, 2005.

Pre-Teen Alcohol Use As A Risk Factor For Victimization And Perpetration Of Bullying Among Middle And High School Students In Georgia, Monica Swahn, Volkan Topalli, Bina Ali, Sheryl Strasser, Jeffrey Ashby, Joel Meyers

Monica H. Swahn

Objective: We examined the association between pre-teen alcohol use initiation and the victimization and perpetration of bullying among middle and high school students in Georgia.

Methods: We computed analyses using data from the 2006 Georgia Student Health Survey (N=175,311) of students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12. The current analyses were limited to students in grades 8, 10 and 12 (n=122,434). We used multilogistic regression analyses to determine the associations between early alcohol use and reports of both victimization and perpetration of bullying, perpetration only, victimization only, and neither victimization or perpetration, while controlling for demographic characteristics, other substance …

How Far Do Low-Income Parents Travel To Shop For Food?, Amy Hillier, Carolyn Cannuscio, Allison Karpyn, Jacqueline Mclaughlin, Mariana Chilton, Karen Glanz

Amy Hillier

Research on the impact of the built environment on obesity and access to healthful foods often fails to incorporate information about how individuals interact with their environment. A sample of 198 low-income WIC recipients from two urban neighborhoods were interviewed about where they do their food shopping and surveys were conducted of food stores in their neighborhoods to assess the availability of healthful foods. Results indicate that participants rarely shop at the closest supermarket, traveling on average 1.58 miles for non-WIC food shopping and 1.07 miles for WIC shopping. Findings suggest that access to healthful foods is not synonymous with …

Moving Upstream: The Merits Of A Public Health Law Approach To Human Trafficking, Jonathan Todres

Jonathan Todres

Human trafficking, a gross violation of human rights and human dignity, has been identified by numerous government leaders as one of the priority issues of our time. Legislative efforts over the past decade have produced a patchwork of criminal laws and some assistance programs for victims. There is no evidence, however, that these efforts have reduced the incidence of trafficking. This lack of meaningful progress prompts questions as to what the best framework is for addressing human trafficking. This Article begins with a discussion of the limitations inherent in the current law-enforcement-centric approach to the problem. It then explores the …

Clustering Of Unhealthy Advertisements Around Child-Serving Institutions: A Three‐City, Amy Hillier

Amy Hillier

No abstract provided.

Policies Matter: The Case Of Outpatient Drug Treatment Program Practices, Jamie Chriqui, Yvonne Terry-Mcelrath, Duane C. Mcbride, D Eidson

Duane McBride

This study examined relationships between state policy requirements governing outpatient substance abuse treatment services and reported outpatient treatment program practices. State policies effective as of February 1, 2003, and February 1, 2004, were collected and analyzed via primary legal research; data were validated by state officials (88% response rate; > 90% validation rate). Treatment practice data were obtained from the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services for the years 2003 and 2004. Multivariate analyses clustered by state were conducted, controlling for state, program, and state-aggregated client admission characteristics. Results indicated that treatment programs located in states with requirements for comprehensive …

Does State Certification Or Licensure Influence Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Program Practices?, Jamie Chriqui, Yvonne Terry-Mcelrath, Duane C. Mcbride, S Eidson, Curtis Vanderwaal

Duane McBride

In the United States, state governments legally authorize outpatient substance abuse treatment programs. In some states, programs are certified or accredited (ideal standards). Other states license programs (minimal standards). Additionally, some states authorize programs through "deemed status", which is afforded to programs attaining accreditation from a national accrediting body. Primary legal research and the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services' (N-SSATS) data were used to examine the relationships between state authorization type (certification/accreditation vs licensure with and without deemed status) and outpatient treatment program practices. Programs in certification/accreditation (vs licensure) states had significantly higher odds of offering wrap-around and …