The toll of HIV/AIDS and drug abuse on economically disadvantaged women of color in the United States is a public health problem of epidemic proportions. Malnutrition, believed to be pervasive in this population, exacerbates the devastating health effects of addiction and HIV. This study documented dietary deficiencies in this population and…

This manuscript describes faculty and student experiences and future activities of a multidisciplinary group of university faculty who are implementing inquiry-based learning (IBL) in their classrooms for the first time. This opportunity to implement the IBL instructional method was provided to the faculty through a grant from the university's…

The Strengthening Families in Canada Family Violence Prevention Project was aimed at engaging immigrant and refugee communities in family violence prevention. The project, which received support from the Community Mobilization Program, National Crime Prevention Strategy, involved a partnership of four community health and education organizations.…

Dance, as a way to create meaning, was included in a week-long cancer education course for community health workers in Alaska. The eight course participants were Alaska Native women from throughout Alaska, including those of Yup'ik, Inupiaq, Aleut, Tlingit, and Athabascan heritage. As reported by participants on end-of-course written evaluations…

This article presents a review of literature pertaining to disease and stigma. Specifically, a definition of stigma is provided along with an historical overview of disease and stigma and research trends related to three public health perils-AIDS, mental illness, and obesity.

Sixty-six percent of American adults are overweight or obese, and a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says it is only going to get worse. They predict the figure will be 75 percent by 2015. A report last year by the Cities, Counties and Schools Partnership cited that nearly 30 percent of children and teens…

As the current H1N1 outbreak underscores, an influenza pandemic remains a real threat to our nation. Over the past 3 years, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a body of work, consisting of 12 reports and 4 testimonies, to help the nation better prepare for a possible pandemic. In February 2009, GAO synthesized the results of…

The document provides a transcript of a conference call moderated by Bill Modzeleski, Director of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. The focus of the call was the recent outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the United States. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) actions and recommendations to the education community were discussed. A comparison…

Do people realize that chemistry plays a key role in helping solve some of the most serious problems facing the world today? Chemists want to find the building blocks of the chemical universe--the molecules that form materials, living cells and whole organisms. Many chemists are medical explorers looking for new ways to maintain and improve…

The challenges facing public health today are too vast, complex, and urgent to be met by public health professionals alone. To improve the health and wellbeing of diverse communities around the globe, public health leaders are developing tools that engage communities in research and action, most particularly community-based participatory research…

At the beginning of each school year, the school-nurse coordinator for the 3,000-student Ashland, Oregon, district plans a "parent's night" around the topic of vaccinations for the safety and health of children. That is only the beginning of the school-nurse coordinator's contact with parents who are skeptical about the necessity of…

Environmental and health risks caused by chemical substances have been intensively debated in various arenas of science and policy, and in news media. The impacts of risk debates on the public have been widely studied, while less attention has been paid to expert views. We present results from a cross-national survey charting expert views on the…

Despite the dangers of smoking, tobacco companies continue to impede tobacco control efforts through deceptive marketing practices. Media campaigns that expose these practices have been effective in advancing anti-industry attitudes and reducing smoking initiation among young people, yet the association between knowledge of industry practices and…

The fact that today's children are projected to be the first generation in centuries to live sicker and shorter lives than their parents, due to the obesity epidemic, makes it imperative to identify early warning signs in children who may need a more comprehensive health evaluation. The CDC has been tracking the progress of the nation with regard…

Recent public health research has consistently reported that self-identified multiracial adolescents tend to display more problem behaviors and psychological difficulties than monoracial adolescents. Relying on insights from qualitative analyses using small or clinical samples to interpret these empirical patterns, these studies implicitly assume…