JOURNAL OF FAMILY VIOLENCE - Pallatino C, Morrison P, Miller E, Burke J, Cluss P, Fleming R, Hawker L, George D, Bicehouse T, Chang J. found that in order to have a sustainable impact on IPV perpetration, stakeholders across the Social Ecological Model will need to utilize crucial intervention periods using a standardized response to improve outcomes for IPV survivors, perpetrators, families and communities.
PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES - Kinsky S, Creasy S, Hawk M find that representative payee services are largely beneficial or neutral in terms of health and behavior outcomes. Negative findings mainly involved the client-payee relationship. Given that more than five million individuals have a representative payee, assessing the impact of these services with more rigorous research designs is worthwhile
AIDS AND BEHAVIOR - Friedman, MR, Sang, JM, Bukowski, LA, Chandler, CJ, Egan, JE, Eaton, LA, Matthews, DD, Ho, K, Raymond, HF, & Stall, R. found that PrEP awareness campaigns tailored for black men who have sex with men and women (MSMW), concomitant with STI-to-PrEP interventions, will facilitate greater PrEP uptake in this population.
JOURNAL OF URBAN HEALTH - Bukowski LA, Hampton M, Escobar C, Sang JM, Creasy SL, Chandler CJ, Stall, R. find there was a 20% lower likelihood of increased depressive symptomatology for every 1-unit increase in perceived social support reported by participants. These findings perceived social support may be an important intervention point for helping to improve the mental health and wellbeing of black transgender women.
THE PITT NEWS - The pad and tampon dispensers in women’s bathrooms across campus have sat empty for years. But check again. Pitt is stocking a number of bathrooms with menstrual products, and there’s no payment required. Kathleen Koesarie (MMPH '21), said “it’s important that students who need menstrual products have access to them without leaving school. It’s a period equity issue, it’s an equality issue, and it’s a public health issue.”
Faculty members Dara Mendez (EPI) and Tiffany Gary-Webb (EPI/BCHS) shared some thoughtful criticisms of the “Inequality Across Gender and Race ” report recently issued by the city. These two Pitt Public Health faculty members were co-signers of a letter responding to the report and challenging city leadership to take this issue seriously. Find out more...
HEALTHLINE - Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram have put in safeguards to help combat health misinformation online, which is important because such misinformation can affect public health. For example, misinformation about vaccines has helped lead to the ongoing spike of measles cases. "Those opposed to vaccinations often misrepresent data, knowingly or unknowingly, which can skew others' perception of risk," says BCHS's Elizabeth Felter.
BCHS's Robert Coulter (BCHS '17) will serve as co-investigator on a newly-funded NIH supplement grant to expand a text messaging intervention to reduce alcohol use and sexual violence among sexual and gender minority college students.
WESA - New research from BCHS's Alison Culyba shows that adult support both reduces violence and increases positive behaviors among teen boys in low-income urban neighborhoods. “What we were really interested in with this particular study was looking at patterns of violence with a lot more detail than what had been done in previous research … so we could best understand how to leverage those relationships to protect young men from multiple types...
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE - The cost of being poor can include decades of life. A just-launched partnership between a Homewood-based community group and a University of Pittsburgh research team intends to explore that grim price tag, and to create a corps of "citizen scientists" who could lead the charge to close the life expectancy gap. The team includes BCHS's Noble Maseru, director of the Center for Health Equity and EOH's Jim Fabisiak, directo...
Lauren Risser (BCHS '20), Kathleen Koesarie (MMPH '18), and BCHS's Martha Ann Terry table at the Women's Health Activist Movement (WHAMglobal) Birthing a Movement art and activism event. The event addressed issues of maternal mortality and women's health. Risser co-founded the Pitt Public Health chapter of Period, a non-profit which aims to reduce the stigma of mensuration and provide hygiene products to those in need.
In case you missed it - head into the new academic year by catching up with the highlights from BCHS faculty, students, and staff with the 2019 newsletter.
Alex Nowalk (BCHS '16), program director at Pitt's Program Evaluation and Research Unit, recently co-authored a chapter in an upcoming book, A Public Health Guide to Ending the Opioid Epidemic. Nowalk's chapter presents screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment as a public health and prevention strategy to address substance use and addiction. The book will be published through Oxford University Press and co-published with the Amer...
UNIVERSITY TIMES - After spending 2002-09 at Pitt as project director and community health coordinator for the Center for Minority Health (now the Center for Health Equity), Mario Browne (BCHS '05) returned in 2011 as the director of diversity for the Schools of the Health Sciences and now aims to bring diversity to the faculty and staff. “It’s not just about knowing each other, it’s about knowing yourself,” he adds, “the way that we service our...
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BCHS's Jessie Burke was among 25 exceptional women leaders in health who met in Pittsburgh this month to explore their career and life goals and learn to address organizational and cultural barriers and meet life-stage challenges. The training was sponsored by Women of Impact, a group of women representing various sectors of the health care industry.