Community is important to Gabriel Cortez. A member of the Navajo Nation, he has deep connections to his people, the reservation and his home state of New Mexico.

Raised in Aztec, a town 40 minutes away from the Navajo reservation, Cortez is the first of four siblings to finish college and go to graduate school.

What causes someone to live on the streets?

Consider a story about one man who was unable to work because he had severe arthritis in both hips. The man couldn’t pay rent and had nowhere to go. A hip replacement would have put him back to work, but the surgeon would only operate if the man had a place where he could recover.

How implementation science is improving health worldwide

Anemia. Weakness. Malaise. Intestinal discomfort. Interrupted cognitive and physical development.

For nearly two billion people across the planet, these symptoms are part of daily life. They’re part of living with soil-transmitted helminths — more commonly known as intestinal worms — inhabiting victims’ bellies, sapping their nutrients and stunting their physical and cognitive development.

The Health Promotion Research Center (HPRC) at the University of Washington School of Public Health has been awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Foundation, as part of its initiative to study and scale up evidence-based solutions for vulnerable older adults.

The grant will fund research to evaluate the financial and social benefits of HPRC’s Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives – or PEARLS program, a national depression treatment program for older adults.

Air pollution has routinely been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but some groups are more affected than others, according to research from the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Studies examining the association between air pollution and cardiovascular disease commonly include individual-level socioeconomic status measures, such as education or income, but few incorporate neighborhood-level socioeconomic status measures.

Hosting an organized tent city at the University of Washington has helped to transform the way students, faculty and staff understand and approach the challenge of homelessness, while providing people without shelter a safe place to live.

As the nearly 60 residents of Tent City 3 packed up this week to move to Skyway, graduate students from the UW School of Public Health shared this insight and other results from an evaluation of the tent city’s stay on campus.

Researchers from the University of Washington School of Public Health have been peeking into kitchens – via interviews – for years now and they’ve just published results showing people who cook at home more often are likely to eat a healthier overall diet. Just in time for National Nutrition Month – but they don’t want you to feel guilty.

Aims to Reduce Health Disparities in Two New Mexico Communities

A University of Washington School of Public Health collaboration in two Navajo Nation communities is inspiring families to grow and eat more fruit and vegetables – setting them on a path to better health.

Most children in the United States spend about 33 hours a week in early child care and education settings, where they receive up to two-thirds of their daily nutrition. A new study from the University of Washington School of Public Health suggests these environments provide a valuable opportunity to improve young children’s diet and support long-term child health.

Natalia Kanem, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and deputy executive director of the UN Population Fund, will speak at the UW School of Public Health’s graduation celebration on June 11.

A low-calorie, low-fat diet, with or without exercise, could reduce the risk of cancer in women by lowering levels of oxidative stress, according to researchers from the University of Washington School of Public Health and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Women who changed their diets to reduced calorie and reduced fat—with a goal of losing 10 percent of their starting weight over one year—significantly reduced markers of oxidative stress, an imbalance in the body’s ability to defend itself against the damaging action of free radicals.

In 2014, Caleb Chamberlain was like many 20-somethings: Healthy. He was living at home with his parents in Olympia, working two jobs and trying to find direction in his life. The last thing on his mind was the need for health insurance. “When you’re young, you basically think you’re invincible,” he says. Then pneumonia struck his lungs in two places. Chamberlain was so sick he couldn’t stand up, and his mom called for an ambulance.

In 1918, when the Spanish flu struck millions across the world and thousands here in Washington, the University led the local response, training registered nurses to alleviate the health crisis. Over the next century, the school increased its public health efforts, educating generations of medical providers, social workers and health scientists.

Health care system spending on patients in the United States with giant cell arteritis—a little-known chronic disease of the blood vessels affecting 230,000 Americans—is $16,400 more in the first year following diagnosis compared to similar patients without the disease, according to a new study from the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Liberia was in the midst of a devastating Ebola outbreak when Bernice Dahn, the country's chief medical officer, went to visit her ailing special assistant at his home on Sept. 20, 2014. When the 55-year-old father of eight died from the disease less than a week later, Dahn put herself into quarantine for 21 days. She kept her constituency aware of her situation, as well as many from her cohort at the University of Washington. Dahn, now Liberia's minister of health, has been fulfilling her vision to build a resilient health system by deploying thousands more community health workers.

Joel Kaufman, interim dean of the UW School of Public Health, recently endorsed the King County Heroin and Opioid Addiction Task Force recommendations, including the development of so-called safe injection sites to reduce overdose deaths.

The task force, chaired by Jeffrey Duchin, health officer at Public Health – Seattle & King County and adjunct professor of epidemiology at the School, issued its final report in September 2016.

Growing up in Mount Olive, Mississippi, Shelly Johnston recalls receiving the customary overview of her state’s history, which emphasized its intimate involvement with slavery and the civil rights movement.

“Possessing a strong vein of altruism, I was troubled by this history, but felt a disconnect between my reality and the daunting stories of violence and injustice,” Johnston said. “In time, I cultivated a sense of personal responsibility to better understand that history through the voices of activists and communities of color, both past and present.”

An investigation into a concern of elevated cancer in Washington State soccer players found less cancers reported than what was expected, given rates of cancer for similar age groups in Washington residents.

More than 50 percent of adults with high blood pressure in suburban Nepal don’t know they have it, according to researchers from the University of Washington School of Public Health and the Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences.

A new research working group at the University of Washington School of Public Health, formed by Jesse Jones-Smith, associate professor of health services, aims to identify innovative solutions to prevent obesity and promote healthy eating and active living.

The Obesity, Food and Physical Activity Working Group will convene researchers from across the UW and at partner organizations who work on related complex issues. The group provides an opportunity for researchers to network around developing grant ideas and submitting grant proposals.