Master of Public Health in Health Equity and Criminal Justice: Student and Alumni Feedback on the Development of a New Master of Public Health Concentration.

Purpose: To describe Master of Public Health (MPH) student and alumni interest in a new Health Equity and Criminal Justice (HECJ) concentration, highlight their personal experiences with mass incarceration, and summarize their input on developing the concentration. Methods: From July to October 2017 current MPH students and alumni at Touro University California (Vallejo, CA) were electronically surveyed. Results: The 152 respondents included those who had focused exclusively on public health, and those who concurrently obtained clinical degrees in osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, or physician assistant studies. Approximately 90% of the current and former students surveyed believed HECJ to be an integral part of public health, and one in three respondents described being personally impacted by incarceration. More than half (64%) were interested in the HECJ concentration, and 81% of those respondents were interested in completing their field study internship at a correctional facility. Conclusion: The HECJ concentration will fill an educational gap and may provide a pedagogical model for training a future generation of public health professionals to mitigate the health impacts of the U.S. mass incarceration epidemic.

Developing a Health Equity and Criminal Justice Concentration for a Master of Public Health (MPH) Program: Results From a Needs Assessment Among Community Partners and Potential Employers.

The United States has experienced a 4-fold increase in jail and prison populations over the last 40 years, disproportionately burdening African American and Hispanic/Latinx communities. Mass incarceration threatens the health of individuals, families, and communities, and requires a public health response. The Master of Public Health (MPH) Program at Touro University California (TUC) trains students to become skillful, socially-conscious public health professionals. We are developing a concentration focused on the public health impacts of incarceration. Along with the core public health curriculum, students of this new "Health Equity and Criminal Justice (HECJ)" concentration will receive training in criminal justice, reentry, reintegration, recidivism, restorative justice, structural racism, and social and community impacts of incarceration. Our study gauges interest in an HECJ concentration in our local community, including potential employers. We surveyed a cross-section of community partners including public health departments, other governmental agencies, California correctional facilities, county jails, community groups, health clinics, and hospitals. A majority (89%) of respondents consider mass incarceration a public health problem and 86% believe specialized training would make graduates employable by criminal justice related organizations. The HECJ track will fill a gap in the field and train a future generation of public health professionals to address the epidemic of mass incarceration.

Pilot Survey of Physician Assistants Regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Providers Suggests Role for Workplace Nondiscrimination Policies.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) medical providers in the United States have historically faced discrimination from their peers. To assess current workplace culture and attitudes, and to evaluate awareness of workplace and professional policies regarding LGBT discrimination, we sent a cross-sectional survey to 163 PAs (Physician Assistants). Respondents had an overall positive attitude towards LGBT providers, yet the majority was not aware of relevant policy statements (>60%). A significant association existed between policy awareness and LGBT inclusivity (P<.025) and confidence reporting anti-gay harassment (P=.017). Despite improved societal attitudes toward LGBT providers, non-discriminatory work environments for LGBT physician assistants may relate to greater awareness of specific workplace policy standards.

Promoting health: media advocacy opportunities in English- and Spanish-language masthead editorials.

PURPOSE: This study examines two newspapers' editorial coverage of issues related to the Healthy People 2010 focus areas and compares the two newspapers. DESIGN: A qualitative study. SETTING: Two Los Angeles, California, newspapers. SUBJECTS: The masthead editorials of the Los Angeles Times and La Opinión in the year following the release of Healthy People 2010. MEASURES: A structured data abstraction instrument was used for descriptive coding. Correspondence to 1 of the 28 Healthy People 2010 focus areas determined whether domestic editorials were about health. ANALYSIS: An ethnographic content analysis. RESULTS: There were 1075 editorials from the Los Angeles Times and 361 from La Opinión; 17% were focused on domestic health issues. Three Healthy People 2010 focus areas dominated: Environmental Health, Injury and Violence Prevention, and Access to Quality Health Services. Ten focus areas did not receive a single mention in the Los Angeles Times, and 19 focus areas lacked editorials in La Opinión. CONCLUSION: Editorial writers regularly tackled issues related to a Healthy People 2010 focus area. Public health practitioners can meet with their local newspaper editorial board and discuss the nation's health objectives as manifested by Healthy People 2020 and the National Prevention Strategy, thereby promoting policies that support individual and population health.

Patterns of electronic cigarette use and user beliefs about their safety and benefits: an internet survey.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: As the popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) increases, it is becoming important to find out more about the characteristics of e-cigarette users, why and how they use the product and whether e-cigarettes are used exclusively or in combination with conventional cigarettes. The objective of this study was to investigate patterns and effects of e-cigarette use and user beliefs about e-cigarette safety and benefits. DESIGN AND METHODS: E-cigarette users in Poland were recruited online and asked to participate in a web-based survey. The participants provided information on their smoking history, patterns of e-cigarette use, beliefs and attitudes regarding the product and information on concurrent use of conventional cigarettes. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 179 e-cigarette users. Almost all participants used e-cigarettes daily. E-cigarettes were primarily used to quit smoking or to reduce the harm associated with smoking (both 41%), and were successful in helping the surveyed users to achieve these goals with 66% not smoking conventional cigarettes at all and 25% smoking under five cigarettes a day. Most participants (82%) did not think that e-cigarettes were completely safe, but thought that they were less dangerous than conventional cigarettes. Sixty percent believed that e-cigarettes were addictive, but less so than conventional cigarettes. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The participants primarily used e-cigarettes as a stop-smoking aid or as an alternative to conventional cigarettes, and the majority reported that they successfully stopped smoking. More data on e-cigarette safety and its efficacy in harm-reduction and smoking cessation are needed.

The role of pharmacists in smoking cessation in Poland.

In Poland, 38.0% of men and 25.6% of women smoke daily. One method for expanding access to smoking cessation services is through community-based pharmacists. Surveys were administered in 2007-2008 to (a) current smokers, (b) members of a pharmacy association, and (c) pharmacy students in their final year of training. Pharmacists were the highest ranked health professionals to whom Polish smokers reported they would turn for information about pharmacological support for smoking cessation. Most pharmacists (79%) reported their knowledge allowed them to provide basic smoking cessation information to their patients. Pharmacy students reported being more able to provide information about the health consequences of tobacco smoking than to help patients quit smoking (85% vs. 61%). In Poland, community-based pharmacists are positioned to provide smoking cessation interventions to all segments of the population. To extend and promote smoking cessation efforts, comprehensive tobacco cessation training should be a required component of the pharmacy school curriculum.

Nutrition content of food and beverage products on Web sites popular with children.

We assessed the nutritional quality of branded food and beverage products advertised on 28 Web sites popular with children. Of the 77 advertised products for which nutritional information was available, 49 met Institute of Medicine criteria for foods to avoid, 23 met criteria for foods to neither avoid nor encourage, and 5 met criteria for foods to encourage. There is a need for further research on the nature and extent of food and beverage advertising online to aid policymakers as they assess the impact of this marketing on children.

Contamination of drinking - water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency

This paper describes the history of the discovery of arsenic in drinking-water inBangladesh, recommends intervention strategies, and suggests guidelines for responding when a population is exposed to arsenic. Document in pdf format; Acrobat Reader required.