Students are choosing healthier school lunches, thanks to a federal program that updated nutrition standards, a University of Washington School of Public Health study has found.

The study, published online Jan. 4 in JAMA Pediatrics, evaluated the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, passed by Congress to foster a healthy school environment and promote lifelong healthy eating behaviors. The new standards took effect in 2012 and increased access to whole grains, vegetables and fruits.

The number of people age 65 and older is expected to increase to one out of every five by the year 2030. Will Washington State have enough properly trained health care providers?

Two peer-reviewed fact sheets from the University of Washington School of Public Health and the William D. Ruckelshaus Center shed light on that question by addressing the eldercare workforce and policies that would allow older adults to remain in their homes for as long as possible.

The public health community at the University of Washington and around the world was saddened by the loss of Norman E. Breslow on Dec. 9, 2015. Dr. Breslow, 74, died in Seattle after a long illness.

The School of Public Health and the College of Built Environments are part of a University of Washington interdisciplinary team selected to join a consortium seeking to further research and recognition of the strong influence of design on public health.

Over a three-year period, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Architects Foundation will provide institutional support for the new members of the AIA Design & Health Research Consortium, promoting local and national partnerships and knowledge-sharing.

 Want to know how many healthy years you have left if you are 65 or older? Faculty at the University of Washington School of Public Health have created an online calculator to help you figure it out. 

A new University of Washington initiative is thinking “upstream” when it comes to creating safer, healthier and more livable cities.

Urban@UW aims to bring together UW faculty, staff and students from different disciplines with city decision-makers and citizens to wrestle with urban issues such as housing and poverty, growth and transportation, and food and economic disparity. The program is funded by the UW Office of Research.

A new report by the University of Washington projects dramatic changes in the Puget Sound region due to climate change; an entire chapter is devoted to the potential effect on human health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $2.56 million to the School's Health Promotion Research Center to fund three special interest projects.

HPV Vaccine Impact among Men who have Sex with Men

The University of Washington will help measure a new effort to improve veterans’ timely access to health care.

It’s as if Lake Wobegon issued all the drivers’ licenses – nearly everyone thinks he or she is an “above-average” motorist.

But statistics show that with increasing age, some drivers fail to grasp when they slip from “above” to below or even well-below-average, says PhD student Laura Fraade-Blanar of the University of Washington School of Public Health.

There’s nothing new about infographics. William Playfair, an 18^th-century Scottish engineer and political economist, invented the line chart, bar graph and pie chart.

What has changed is the broad range of data and digital tools and the amount of information directed toward policymakers. That creates a need for researchers and visual designers to work together to create infographics that convey complex scientific information in powerful ways, says a new University of Washington paper.

Two recent studies from the University of Washington School of Public Health highlight the challenges of meeting the mental health care needs in Mozambique, which was recently estimated to have Africa’s highest suicide rate.

Ten SPH students from Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Environmental Health are current ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Scholars.

African-American and Hispanic women were more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer than non-Hispanic Whites and were at higher risk of not receiving recommended treatment across breast cancer subtypes, according to a new study led by a PhD student in epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Staff in the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences were honored Oct. 27 with a “Safer Chemistry Champion” award presented by the Washington Department of Ecology.

The annual awards honor Washington businesses and organizations for their leadership in reducing the use of toxic chemicals and finding safer alternatives. Four organizations were recognized this year.

By 2050, an estimated 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas.  Especially in cities, issues such as walkability, public transportation, housing, access to healthy food, injury prevention, air and water quality, sanitation, social connectedness, health disparities, and environmental justice dramatically affect population health.

Many a parent knows this routine: Child comes home from school hungry and tired. Parent opens lunch box. Parent finds half-eaten or hardly touched meal.

“I ask him why?” Seattle parent Jana Robbins says of her second-grade son, a Leschi Elementary School student. “He says, ‘We don’t have enough time.’”

It’s not every day that an Environmental Health undergraduate determines his next career step is dental school, but in the case of Dr. Russell Castner, that’s precisely what happened. The 1971 graduate in Environmental Health surveyed the landscape of career opportunities and decided dentistry was a better option.

Undergraduate Student Assistance Fund

The School of Public Health has launched an Undergraduate Student Assistance Fund to aid students from diverse backgrounds. The awards support students who have overcome economic and educational disadvantages or personal adversity in their pursuit of higher education.