Addressing global health through the marriage of public health and medicine: developing the University of Washington department of global health.

Widespread interest in global health issues is a common characteristic of students and faculty in schools of public health and schools of medicine. Building on strong university-based and community-based programs in global health, the University of Washington has created a unique Department of Global Health that is housed jointly in its School of Public Health and Community Medicine and its School of Medicine. The creation of this department has generated significant enthusiasm throughout the university and the Seattle community as a new paradigm for addressing global health education, research, and service. Placing the new Department of Global Health in two university schools and finding the appropriate niche for the department among the university's many global health initiatives presented challenges, as well as opportunities. This article describes the goals of the department, the process by which it was created, and what it expects to accomplish.

Baseline dietary intake and physical activity of Japanese American men in relation to glucose tolerance at 5-year follow-up.

Japanese American men (n = 124), with normal glucose tolerance (NGT, n = 69) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, n = 55) at baseline, were studied for effects of baseline dietary intake and physical activity on glucose tolerance at baseline and at 5-year follow-up. At baseline, both NGT and IGT men with positive family history of diabetes (FH) showed high intakes of animal fat and protein, but only the NGT men countered this with high levels of energy expenditure. In the total sample at 5-year follow-up, 2-hour plasma glucose was significantly related to intake of animal fat (AF), partial correlation r = 0.32, P < 0.001, adjusted for total energy intake, age, self-reported health, body mass index, FH, and baseline glucose tolerance category. Energy expenditure (EE) was not related to 5-year 2-hour plasma glucose in the total sample, but displayed a relationship with 5-year 2-hour plasma glucose in those IGT (r = -0.27, P < 0.05), but not in those NGT at baseline, and in those with positive FH (r = -0.33, P < 0.05), but not in those with negative FH. Additionally, AF showed a relationship to 5-year 2-hour plasma glucose only for those in the lowest (r = 0.37, P < 0.05) and middle (r = 0.33, P < 0.05) tertiles, but not in the highest tertile of EE. For baseline IGT men, 5-year 2-hour plasma glucose was related to "high vs. low risk" categories of AF intake and EE, but only in men with a positive FH (AF ≥ 25 vs. < 25 g/day: 180.1 ± 38.6 vs. 143.6 ± 39.7 mg/dl, P = 0.048; EE ≤ 2,000 kcal/week vs. > 2,000 kcal/week, 189.9 ± 39.2 vs. 150.8 ± 37.4 mg/dl, P = 0.028; with risk categories combined, i.e., both high, mixed, both low: 192.0 ± 41.3, 165.4 ± 28.4, 139.4 ± 40.9 mg/dl, P = 0.045, linear trend, P = 0.014). Thus, high AF intake and low EE may have long-range detrimental effects on glucose tolerance, especially for those with IGT and positive FH. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.