SPH Stories Archive

Featured stories about SPH people, research and impact.

Read new stories on the SPH Blog 

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Higher spending on food safety measures correlated to lower rates of foodborne illness, according to researchers from the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Nursing.

Thursday, March 5, 2015
Jo Robinson is a bestselling, investigative journalist who has spent the past 20 years scouring scientific articles for insights on how to restore vital nutrients to the American diet. Looking beyond the nutrient loss that has taken place over the past 75 years, she traces the beginning of our unhealthy diet to the very first gardens created 12,000 years ago.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Food bank. Hospice. Hospital. Nursing home. School of Public Health student Ashley Bobman volunteers at all of these places for up to 10 hours a week while maintaining a 3.96 grade point average. She also finds time to write and translate a dying Sephardic language.

Monday, February 23, 2015

People injured by gunshot wounds in Washington state were at far greater risk of returning to the hospital with ensuing firearm-related injuries, according to a new study by the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Experience in preparing, writing, and critiquing scientific research proposals, following NIH and AHRQ guidelines. Includes weekly assignments and didactic exercises, leading to final research proposal. All students participate in mock study section to review and critique proposals. The instructors recommend that students have a research mentor for their project who is a subject matter expert to assist I creating the final student proposal. Prerequisite: second-year graduate student (PhD recommended) or PhD/MD in health related field. EPI and HSERV students have enrollment priority.

Thursday, February 19, 2015
Come watch a screening of Nova's "Ebola: The Plague Fighters" hosted by UW Partners in Health Engage and participate in a discussion afterwards led by Health Alliance International executive director and UW Anthropology/Global Health professor, James Pfeiffer.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Greater access to green space is associated with less depression, according to a new study of twins from the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

While health-conscious individuals understand the benefits of eating fresh fruits and veggies, they may not be aware of the volume of pesticides they could be ingesting with their vitamin C and fiber. A study from the University of Washington School of Public Health is among the first to predict a person’s pesticide exposure based on information about their usual diet.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Seth Holmes, a physician and anthropologist, picked strawberries with farmworkers in Washington State and couldn't meet the minimum requirements to keep this low-paying job. Yet he is considered a skilled worker, and those farmworkers who spend all day hunched over, kneeling and filling buckets of berries faster than most people, are considered unskilled workers.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Binge drinking among Latino men was a common and culturally accepted way to help relieve immigration-related stress, said the researchers, led by India Ornelas, assistant professor of health services. Men had limited knowledge about how to change their behavior, but were open to receiving brief interventions in community settings.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Dr. Mary Travis Bassett (MPH, Health Services, 1985) has been named the UW School of Public Health's 2015 Distinguished Alumna, the highest award given by the School.

Monday, February 2, 2015

The Tobacco Studies Program Journal Club will meet on Monday, February 9th from 12-1PM in South Campus Center Room 222. Vasundhara Sridharan, a third year doctoral student in psychology, will serve as the discussant.

The journal articles to be discussed are below (also attached):

Friday, January 16, 2015

Adopting a more uniform research approach could lead to greater and faster progress for preventing and treating low-back pain, concluded a University of Washington-led task force of the National Institutes of Health.

Friday, January 16, 2015

David C. Grossman, professor of health services at the University of Washington School of Public Health, was appointed vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the expert panel that makes evidence-based recommendations about services such as health screenings.

Grossman, a pediatrician, is senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute and medical director for preventive care and population strategy at the Group Health medical cooperative in Seattle. He is also an adjunct professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine. His term begins March 2015.

Friday, January 9, 2015

More than 40 percent of American teenagers who lived in a home with a gun had easy access to it, according to a University of Washington School of Public Health study published in JAMA Psychiatry. Surprisingly, the percentage was the same among teens with mental health problems and suicidal tendencies, the study found.

Friday, January 9, 2015

A group of first-year MPH students honed their community development skills by working with the city council in Hoquiam (Grays Harbor County) to analyze ways to convert a former section of rail line into a bicycle path.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The State of Washington has just received a four-year, $65 million grant to support its transformative Healthier Washington project, and it is anticipated that the University of Washington School of Public Health will play a key role in monitoring and evaluating its success. The grant was awarded by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

UW Law Professor Seeks a Different Approach to Crime Prevention

Can crime be studied – and prevented – like a disease?

UW Law Professor Mary D. Fan thinks so. Fan, who worked as a federal prosecutor, is earning a PhD at the UW School of Public Health to better understand how to prevent harm before the damage reaches the criminal justice system.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

An interactive "Polio Eradication Game," played on a carpeted grid like a life-size chess board, may increase public interest in global health, according to a new study from the University of Washington School of Public Health and collaborators.

Researchers led by former MPH student Toluwalose Okitika, set up the game at a free global health fair in Seattle during the summer of 2012. It featured different-colored squares to represent geographic features of Pakistan, one of three nations where polio remains endemic.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Employees at worksites with higher property values tended to do more walking, according to a study from the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Nursing and the College of Built Environment. The study, conducted in the Seattle area, also found that employees walked more and ate more fruits and vegetables if they worked in neighborhoods with a greater density of residential units.