Maura O'Fallon

Fellowship supports research into child behavior, early language learning

Before arriving at Temple’s College of Public Health to earn her doctoral degree, Maura O’Fallon worked as a speech-language pathologist in a school for children with behavioral issues. Now, the second-year doctoral student has received federal funding to explore connections between child behavior and language learning. O’Fallon has been awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship, or F31 grant, from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.  Designed to strengthen research skills in predocto...
Language and cognition
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Research
Students
a person's hands using a mobile app on a cell phone

Mobile health apps found to be more effective with 'supportive accountability'

High-tech tools such as mobile phone apps can help people follow through on health recommendations, offering daily reminders and gamelike progress-tracking to help their behavior stay on course between doctor visits. But it’s a mistake to believe that a totally automated solution works for everyone. A new study by Stephen Lepore, chair and professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Bradley Collins, professor of social and behavioral sciences, shows the benefit of a hybrid approach that combines a mobile health app for quitting smoking with targeted hu...
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research
Smoking cessation
a hospital waiting area

Patients hospitalized for influenza may have increased risk of heart attack and stroke

Patients hospitalized for influenza had increased odds of heart attack and stroke in the following weeks and months, according to a new study led by Temple College of Public Health epidemiologist and assistant professor Erin Kulick. Kulick and collaborators from Columbia University established the connection after analyzing the large New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) database, which includes about 98 percent of all hospitalizations in the state.  “In looking at trigger factors for stroke and heart attack, there’s been promising research i...
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Research
a woman wearing a face mask boards a public transit bus

The social impact of COVID-19 on people with ASD

Community social participation can be an important quality-of-life issue for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Community integration—taking part in work, school and recreational activities—is challenging even when there isn’t a pandemic. A new College of Public Health study shows that COVID-19 made it especially difficult for individuals with ASD, limiting their transportation options and ability to access needed services.    “This population has far more barriers already,” says Beth Pfeiffer, associate professor of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, wh...
Collaborative on Community Inclusion
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Research
a man pushes against his back, in pain

Recovery from job-loss injury is more than physical

When a person leaves a job due to a serious injury, the resulting mental health issues, like depression or post-traumatic stress, can endure longer than the physical ones. New research by Aimee Palumbo, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, finds a connection between returning to work and mental health outcomes in Black men in Philadelphia recovering from serious injuries.  The research, newly published in the journal Injury, finds not returning to work after injury to be strongly associated with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder...
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Research
vials of covid-19 vaccine

Psychographic factors contribute to vaccine hesitancy, study finds

Given the national goal that 70 percent of the adult population receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine by July 4, understanding who is most likely to be hesitant—and why—is important in developing community vaccine programs, says Sarah Bauerle Bass, associate professor of social and behavioral sciences and director of the College of Public Health's Risk Communication Laboratory. In a poll released May 17 by PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist, 59 percent of U.S. adults surveyed said they have been vaccinated, and 24 percent said they do not plan to. A key to closing the gap is getting...
Coronavirus
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research
a woman speaks to her young child in a park

To improve language learning, look beyond socioeconomic status

Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) households tend to show lower levels of language and communicative skills than those from higher SES homes at the group level. But these group-level findings provide limited information about the individual strengths and needs of families. A broad generalization suggesting low SES as a predictor of poor language learning can lead to stereotyping and obscure what parental interactions with children really do make a difference. A new study from the College of Public Health’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders seeks to...
Language and cognition
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Research
a woman looks at a piece of paper with her head down, holding her hand to her head

Could a better understanding of financial abuse help prevent IPV deaths?

Financial problems are a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV), which affects millions of people annually in the United States.  Financial dependence on a partner can be a barrier to leaving an abusive relationship. Abusers may also control a romantic partner by using strategies such as employment sabotage and economic control. IPV can lead to suicide ideation and homicide; approximately 1 in 5 homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner.  Laura Johnson, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, is leading a project to examine the indicators of financ...
Research
School of Social Work
IPV
cartoon of a man and a boy cooking with the text: Healthy Cooking at Home!

iByte4Health wins HRSA 'Preventing Childhood Obesity' challenge

“High-tech” solutions to broad public health issues don’t always need the most advanced technology. Sometimes a simple approach meets the community’s needs best. A team at the College of Public Health has won the grand prize in a competition aimed at using technology to combat childhood obesity. The winning project, iByte4Health, sends daily mobile-phone text messages and video links to parents. “We thought, people are on their phones all the time. Text messaging is a really easy way to reach people,” says Gina Tripicchio, assistant professor in the Department of S...
Obesity
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research
illustration of a man in a video chat window passing a yellow folder to a woman in another video chat window above him.

Researchers to build 'Collaboratory' for aphasia research

Communication Sciences and Disorders professor Nadine Martin has been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to build a cloud-based library of specialized information, access her Temple laboratory’s pioneering test battery for individuals with aphasia, and establish an online “Collaboratory” where aphasia researchers from different institutions can conduct studies together. “The aim is to advance aphasia research by helping researchers build better studies, increase numbers of participants, and share their findings and measurements,” says Martin, a Lau...
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Research

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