REUTERS - "You really want to see people be independent and able to manage without help from their families or from paid services," said BCHS's Steve Albert. "Presumably if you can improve function with the activities of daily life, you reduce the risk of nursing home placement."
MARCH OF DIMES - BCHS's Noble Maseru co-authored "Birth Equity for Moms and Babies Concensus Statement" to advance social determinants pathways for research, policy, and practice. Among the recommendations: improve maternal death surveillance, expand research, engage in health system reform, empower communities through inclusion, and change social and economic conditions.
STARTS AT 60 - EPI and BCHS's Richard Schulz led a 2008 study on life after bereavement and found that 10 to 15% of carers would experience chronic depression after the death of the person they cared for. Interestingly, this percentage doubled for carers of people affected by dementia. The reason for this is because the more stressful the care-giving experience, the more challenging the recovery after bereavement.
THE GERONTOLOGIST - Tramujas Vasconcellos Neumann and Albert give a brief overview of aging in Brazil by presenting some of the demographics and characteristics of the older adult population, the principles and innovative processes used in developing the main legislation for the rights of older people, a bit of the history and current research agenda on aging, and finally some of the key policy issues in the country.
ASPPH FRIDAY LETTER - As part of her master’s thesis work, Stephanie Creasy (BCHS '17) performed a mixed-methods analysis that involved in-depth interviews with transgender women living in Allegheny County who had been previously incarcerated for nonviolent crimes, coupled with geospatial mapping of the county’s trans-inclusive resources, public transportation, probation offices, and mental health services.
UPMC - For the first time since 1964, APHA has a policy specifically dedicated to health equity, giving its members key facts so they can push their legislators for policies to eliminate health disparities in the United States. Development of the policy was led by Tiffany Gary-Webb (BCHS). “Although health equity is an APHA priority and core value, until now there was no comprehensive, up-to-date policy to achieve that.”
APHA - Professor Thistle Elias (and alumna, BCHS '12) and doctoral student Yuae Park (BCHS '20) share their research examining the barriers preventing some participants in the WISEWOMAN (WW) program from implementing healthy lifestyle changes at APHA's 2018 annual meeting. The researchers interviewed 9 WW clients that perceived as many as seven barriers to participating in lifestyle programs.
Post-doctoral researcher Robert Coulter (BCHS '17), BCHS's Jessica Burke, and Sara Baumann (BCHS '19) tried using a video approach to share highlights of Coulter's recent research on how welcoming school environments reduce drinking among both LGBT+ -identified students and their heterosexual counterparts.
UPMC - When BCHS's Tiffany Gary-Webb helped develop the “Health Equity Now” theme for this year's APHA annual meeting, she realized that Pitt Public Health had something special to contribute. She organized a session titled “Health Equity for African American Populations across the Lifespan" to share the breadth of groundbreaking research and partnerships the school has formed in the past several years.
U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT - Pitt researchers analyzed the results of a 2014 survey of just over 1,600 teens, aged 14 to 19, in Allegheny County and found that 13 percent said a friend or family member had been murdered. Teens who lose a family member or friend to murder have an increased risk of suicide, and black teens are most likely to face this kind of heartbreak. Authors on the study include BCHS's ELIZABETH MILLER and ALISON CULYBA.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE ADVISOR - Chronic pain is a frequent comorbidity in people living with HIV and may adversely affect antiretroviral therapy adherence and retention in care. A recent study provided useful insights into the complex interaction. When asked about the main takeaways, BCHS's JESSICA MERLIN said "I hope that this means that HIV providers and researchers will pay more attention to this important problem."
MEDICAL XPRESS - Previously incarcerated transgender women can find themselves caught in a cycle that leads to repeat jail time. A new analysis of Allegheny County identifies potential solutions that could lead to transgender women being more successfully reintegrated into society. "I think we are having a moment right now where the needs of transgender people are more visible," said STEPHANIE CREASY (BCHS '17).
REUTERS - The vast majority of violent injuries seen by doctors in emergency rooms are not reported to police, a new report suggests. “The brilliance of this article is it shows that if we do not link these two kinds of data we’re never going to have a full and accurate account of the level of violence in a community,” said BCHS's STEVE ALBERT.
REUTERS - Health care providers and parents should begin talking to adolescents in middle school about healthy romantic and sexual relationships and mutual respect for others, a doctors’ group urges. “Without intentionally talking to them about respectful, equitable relationships, we’re leaving them to fend for themselves,” said BCHS's ELIZABETH MILLER.