Background: Opioid use has reached epidemic proportions in rural communities in the United States and injection of drugs is commonly used. As a result of shared or reusing needles and syringes, the risk for contracting blood-borne diseases is significantly increased. Rural areas face many social and attitudinal barriers regarding syringe exchange…

Nearly all lifelong smokers start as children or young adults, and the tobacco industry targets these specific age groups. A key public health effort to limit the use of tobacco products by people under the age of 21 years is the promotion of the "Tobacco 21" initiative. This initiative promotes and supports efforts to establish bills…

Being overweight or obese (overweight/obesity) or physically aggressive in childhood and adolescence can have lifelong consequences, hence are important public health problems. Identifying a relationship between these problems would assist in understanding their developmental origins. The present paper sought to review previous studies and use…

Even with the well-recognized benefits of exercise, levels of physical activity are on the decline, while weight gain levels are increasing. The purpose of this evidence-based literature review was to investigate the relationship between physical fitness, sexual functioning and overall health. There is too little information about these…

Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service has developed and is implementing a statewide population health management model aimed at leveraging key partnerships in South Carolina. The model delineates roles of key partners needed to operationalize statewide initiatives and drive the delivery of health extension in the state. Clemson…

While 'public health medicine' is a specialised field, most medical practitioners practice 'public health' to some extent, e.g., undertaking preventative screening tests or advising individuals about lifestyle interventions. While requirements to demonstrate capability in public health are common to medical education around the world, medical…

The body of evidence supporting a relationship between the social determinants of health and adolescent sexual and reproductive health is vast. To advance health and have a greater impact on adolescent health outcomes, sexual and reproductive health practitioners need to take into account the relationships, community, and society within which…

Objective: This article describes a university course that aimed to create public health champions and its evaluation. The course attracted 92 participants, over three cohorts. Participants included healthcare professionals, fitness instructors, a belly dancer, housing officers, community workers and those who worked in public health policy.…

This study investigated public health nurses' perceptions regarding an information management training program at a for-profit nursing agency in South Florida. Despite mandates from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, HIPAA, and the Institute of Medicine to incorporate informatics in healthcare, research on its impact on…

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed, and intensified, health inequities faced by Latinx in the United States. Washington was one of the first U.S. states to report cases of COVID-19. Public health surveillance shows that 31% of Washington cases are Latinx, despite being only 13% of the state population. Unjust policies related to immigration, labor,…

As colleges and universities respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, many in the media call it "unprecedented." This is not the first time that institutions of higher education have had to respond to an epidemic, however. A historical review of college and university reactions to illnesses such as yellow fever and the 1918 influenza pandemic…

The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated long-standing educational inequities associated with technology access, learner agency, and participation in online learning. How were preservice and inservice educators supported in their pursuit of interest-driven professional learning that critically examined the unfolding impact of these inequities? This…

Instructional design and training skills have become a key competency that is expected of public health professionals. However, the research on educating public health students as instructional designers (ID) is lacking. The purpose of this study is to better understand how novice IDs design trainings using their design judgment in an authentic…

This is the seventh report in the "School District Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic" series, covering how schools reopened for the 2020-21 school year. This report focuses on the new school year using the seventh wave of COVID-19 Educational Response Longitudinal Survey (C-ERLS) data, gathered between August 3 and September 17 from the…

This report evaluates the COVID-19 situation after the release of the report, "A Blueprint for Back to School," which offered a framework for safely reopening schools in the fall. The report reflected the insights from 20 former federal officials, state school chiefs, and superintendents, many drawing on their experiences leading…