Post-COVID-19, is education losing its special status as a policy domain more insulated from partisan politics than other policy areas? Indeed, a community's political makeup influenced its schools' pandemic learning modality, but did it predict other aspects of educational operations? We studied the role of Republican vote share, race, markets,…

Background: We undertook a systematic review to evaluate the health benefits of environmental enhancement and conservation activities. We were concerned that a conventional process of study identification, focusing on exhaustive searches of bibliographic databases as the primary search method, would be ineffective, offering limited value. The…

Though the prevalence of smoking continues to decline overall each year, in segments of the population, such as those with low income or low education levels, the prevalence of smoking is almost double that of the general population. The slower rates of decline in these groups are possibly due to the unexpected ways that public health messages are…

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Iowa State University administration to impose face coverings and other safety regulations across the university campus. To comply with these safety measures, several changes to the English Placement Test of Oral Communication (EPT OC) had to be made. This paper discusses how the EPT OC was adapted to comply with…

In the wake of COVID-19, online physical education (OLPE) has become essential to the sustainability of school physical education programs. The purpose of this article is to consider factors that may be influential in efforts to deliver OLPE to students. The comprehensive school physical activity program model is used to frame a multicomponent…

The current COVID-19 pandemic shows how little many people know about viruses. Yet apart from COVID-19, the world has observed epidemic spread of another SARS virus, of the Ebola virus, and of the Zika virus during the last two decades. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is still one of the most dangerous viruses worldwide. Some types of the…

Background: Research suggests that home visiting interventions can promote breastfeeding initiation, though their effects on breastfeeding continuation are unclear. No known studies have assessed the impact of home visiting on bedsharing. Aims: To test the effects of home visiting on breastfeeding and bedsharing in a low-income, urban sample in…

Service learning connects theoretical knowledge to community settings. Reflective journals were used to document student service-learning experiences in a Community Nutrition course component. Reflective journal data obtained from students (n=137) during different semesters were analyzed qualitatively. The service-learning partners included…

This paper examines the effect of fall 2020 school reopenings in Texas on county-level COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Previous evidence suggests that schools can be reopened safely if community spread is low and public health guidelines are followed. However, in Texas, reopenings often occurred alongside high community spread and at near capacity,…

Public health is the place where science, policy, politics, and activism converge. Each public health issue is a snapshot where we can see the unfolding of the collective processes that define who we are, what we believe, and what we value as a society. Our professional strength is our commitment to community and social justice values, but we are…

This issue, "On Counting What Matters: Finding Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Population Health Data," presents an overview of health surveillance research for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in the United States. Although public health now conducts surveillance of people with…

Student engagement is widely recognised as being influential on learning and achievement in higher education. What is less clear is how the knowledge transfers, i.e., the process of engagement by the student with any new forms of teaching demonstrated by the teacher. Aim: To investigate the effect of small group tutors on student engagement in the…

Disaster debris management is critical to the success of disaster recovery systems. While there are multiple disaster mitigation strategies and post-disaster debris management plans, it is hard to implement because of: (i) the uniqueness of disaster incidents and randomness of its impacts; (ii) complexity of disaster debris removal operations,…

Background: Infectious disease outbreaks require decision makers to make rapid decisions under time pressure and situations of scientific uncertainty, and yet the role of evidence usage in these contexts is poorly understood. Aims and objectives: To define and contextualise the role of scientific evidence in the governance of infectious disease…

The NIEHS-sponsored "Appalachian Health & Well-Being Community Forum" held in Eastern Kentucky brought various community members together to communicate and establish better coordination of efforts to improve health and address regional environmental issues. The 2-hour forum discussion provided bi-directional feedback about the needs…