Patient having consultation with doctor in office

Shared decision making can help IBD patients feel at ease with treatment choices

Inflammatory bowel disease (either Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis) affects an estimated 3 million Americans. Evidence has shown that patients have better health outcomes when they begin intensive treatment early, in particular starting with a combination therapy that uses at least two drugs. But treatment may have serious risks, including life-threatening infections and an association with lymphoma. Fearing adverse effects from these strong medications, patients may be hesitant to begin using them and adhere to treatment guidelines until they believe their disease is se...
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research
belltower on temples main campus

Scholarly activities and accolades: November 2022

Every month, faculty in the College of Public Health take part in a range of scholarly activities; below are the activities for the month of Nov. 2022. For news on research publications and grants, please see the college's news feed for in-depth stories and reports. If you are a faculty member and would like your activities included, please contact Lisa Litzinger-Drayton, director of communications and marketing, at lisalitzinger@temple.edu. Presentations and Speaking Engagements David Sarwer presented “Mindfully Complicated Obesity” as part of the TOS/TOPS Joint Sym...
College of Public Health
Faculty
Research

How effective are gun restrictions in curbing intimate partner violence?

Lindsay K. Cloud, a College of Public Health doctoral candidate in health policy and health services research, is bringing a technique called legal epidemiology to an analysis of federal and state laws around intimate partner violence and firearms. The goal of her dissertation study is to identify what types of civil restraining-order restrictions on firearm access have made an impact in mitigating firearm-related morbidity and mortality in the United States. “Are the laws on the books working?  If not, why?” Cloud asks. “We’re creating legal data that can be used to a...
Health Services Administration and Policy
Students
Research
a woman points to a computer screen with 3d data models on it.

HIV education study seeks to reach transgender women via social media influencers

Transgender women are significantly more likely to have HIV than the general population, while studies show they are less likely to engage in HIV prevention strategies. The disconnect may exist because they receive insufficient information about prevention medicine, possibly due to systemic bias. Transgender women have reported challenges receiving support from healthcare providers. And pharmaceutical companies, though they devote large budgets to advertising Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs that can help prevent HIV, tend to leave transgender women out of their campaigns....
Social and Behavioral Sciences
LGBTQ Health
Research
a courtroom with a judge overseeing a case

CDC-funded study examines problem-solving court interventions for drug offenders

Some criminal offenders with drug and other charges may have an option that allows them to participate in a problem-solving court program—a pretrial diversionary program that treats the underlying problems that contribute to criminal behavior and improves outcomes for victims, litigants and communities. Although the mission of problem-solving courts is fairly uniform, the strategies they use to keep drug misusers alive and healthy vary tremendously. Elizabeth Van Nostrand, a legal epidemiologist and associate professor in the College of Public Health’s Department of Healt...
Health Services Administration and Policy
Research
a woman receives a covid-19 test

$8.7 million CDC-funded study will explore post COVID-19 conditions using hospitalization and testing data

The College of Public Health has been awarded $8.7 million by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor post COVID-19 conditions (PCCs), the new or persisting health effects that COVID-19 patients experience months or years after infection. Post COVID-19 conditions, also called long COVID, can include difficulty with thinking and concentration (“brain fog”), depression, muscle pain, headache, heart palpitations, and serious complications such as inflammation of the heart muscle, lung function abnormalities, and psychiatric issues. A recent study found one in...
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Coronavirus
Research
Resa Jones presents at a symposium for The Philadelphia Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research and Practice Collaborative

New collaboration unites epidemiology and biostatistics faculty from across Philadelphia

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics has co-founded a new collaboration bringing together epidemiologists and biostatisticians from multiple universities to partner on research and pursue opportunities to aid the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health. The Philadelphia Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research and Practice Collaborative, formed in the wake of COVID-19, includes epidemiology and biostatistics faculty at the College of Public Health, Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University, and the University of Pennsylvania. “We want to think abo...
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Research
Community
a doctor shows a patient information on a tablet

Patient study explores mental health stigma, trains students for community health data careers

Some healthcare studies produce not just new research—but also new researchers. For a study of healthcare patients that began in 2020, Yaara Zisman-Ilani, assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, enlisted the aid of two College of Public Health undergraduate students. Both students have graduated and now work in municipal health research roles, putting their training on that study to work as they begin their careers.  The study examined shared decision making perceptions among patients with depression in minority populations, as well as the a...
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research
Students
Mental Health
a blurred hospital waiting room

Training tool found to reduce racial bias among healthcare staff

A new online training tool has been shown to be effective in reducing racial bias among staff workers in primary care medical offices, in a study led by Gabriel Tajeu, assistant professor of Health Services Administration and Policy. “Our research group previously had discovered that front desk staff in the healthcare setting—who weren't physicians or registered nurses—were a fairly significant source of perceived discrimination,” Tajeu says. “That can be a barrier to healthcare. Patients who experience discrimination are less likely to follow treatment plans and les...
Health Services Administration and Policy
Research
Racism
a nurse enters data at a computer

How nurses can benefit from statistical knowledge

Nurses can benefit from continually strengthening their quantitative skills, whether they’re working in clinical settings or performing research, a new article by College Public Health researchers suggests. “When armed with appropriate statistical knowledge, nurses can play a unique role in using data to promote health and prevent disease among individuals, communities and populations,” the commentary, in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, concludes. The article is an interdepartmental collaboration by Krista Schroeder, assistant professor of nursing, Levent Dumenci, profes...
Nursing
Research

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