a mother kisses her smiling child

New protocol cuts mothers' smoking to improve child health

A five-year study from the College of Public Health has shown the effectiveness of an intervention designed to reduce cigarette smoking by mothers that can expose children to health risks. Mothers who participated in the program, called Babies Living Safe and Smokefree (BLiSS), were 9.55 times more likely to abstain from smoking than a control group. Results from the study were published in the March 2022 issue of The American Journal of Public Health, co-authored by Bradley Collins, professor and PhD program director in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Stephen...
Smoking cessation
Research
Social and Behavioral Sciences
a woman works in a classroom with two children

Better early intervention needed for children with developmental disabilities

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) can face extraordinary challenges, and poor early diagnosis and inappropriate treatment with medication is a growing problem, writes Yaara Zisman-Ilani, assistant professor of Social and Behavioral Science, in a recent issue of Psychiatric Services.   “This is an urgent wake-up call,” she writes in the “Taking Issue” essay. Factors including poorly trained caregivers, economic disparities and bias, and the reduction of in-person social interactions due to COVID-19 pandemic may lead to an unprecedented wa...
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Research
a hand holding a transgender pride flag

Study highlights importance of access to gender-affirming procedures

New findings from a College of Public Health study add to the growing body of literature that gender-affirming procedures, such as hormone therapy or surgery, have positive psychosocial benefits for transgender people who undergo such procedures. The study also finds that barriers to accessing healthcare providers raise expectations of future discrimination, potentially leading individuals to forego these procedures and the quality-of-life benefits they can bring. “These findings come at a time when state legislatures are advancing bills that aim to restrict access to, and i...
Research
LGBTQ Health
Social and Behavioral Sciences
a pregnant woman looking out of a window

Pregnant women faced more economic abuse during COVID

A survey of pregnant women across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic has found that they experienced ”economic abuse” from partners, regardless of their household income level. “The percentage of women who experienced at least one form of economic abuse was quite high [approximately 65%], given that it was a general community sample and not a survey of survivors in domestic violence organizations,” says Laura Johnson, assistant professor of social work, who conducted the study. Johnson’s report, “Exploring factors associated with pregnant women’s exper...
Coronavirus
Research
School of Social Work
a scale

Named among world's leaders, CPH researchers explore obesity causes and treatments

A new ranking establishes Temple University as one of the world’s leading research institutions addressing a truly endemic public health crisis—the ongoing rise of obesity in the United States. Driven by research at the Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE) in the College of Public Health, the university ranks third in the world in the number of papers published in one of the field’s premier journals, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, the flagship journal of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.  “Prior to 2015, we had almost no w...
Research
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Health Services Administration and Policy
Kinesiology
illustration of a head with the depiction of a coronavirus bursting from the brain

Three COVID studies receive 'Catalytic Collaborative' seed funding

Three College of Public Health studies focusing on COVID-19 have been awarded funding under a universitywide program designed to spark innovative interdisciplinary research. The Catalytic Collaborative Funding Initiative, administered by Temple’s Office of the Vice President for Research, provides seed funding to studies that allow researchers from different parts of the university to combine their expertise in investigating cutting-edge areas of technology, energy, biology and health. The internal funding serves as a kick-starter for promising investigations, allowing Temple...
Research
Coronavirus
School of Social Work
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
philadelphia skyline

College researchers among top 2% of scientists worldwide

Seven faculty members from Temple’s College of Public Health rank in the top 2% of scientists worldwide, in a new analysis of research impact from journal publisher Elsevier and Stanford University. The global ranking, which considers research in 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields, is based on a composite score that incorporates factors such as the number of research papers published and the count of citations those papers receive.   “This ranking is just one indication of what we’re continuing to build in the College of Public Health: an interdisciplinary hub of re...
College of Public Health
Faculty
Research
Change the World
a soccer ball on a field with a group of soccer players out of focus in the distance

Collaborations connect Kinesiology students with researchers in Nigeria and South Africa

At a time when student opportunities to study abroad are curtailed by pandemic travel restrictions, the College of Public Health’s Department of Kinesiology has formed partnerships with institutions in Africa to collaborate virtually on public health research projects. “Physical activity and nutrition are important around the world—and different around the world,” says Mark Stoutenberg, chair of the department. “The more we can expose our students to the issues that people face in different populations, the better equipped they’ll be to put it into practice, wherev...
Research
Students
Global health
Kinesiology
a closeup of a woman in the military

Women military veterans at greater suicide risk, study indicates

Suicide rates among military veterans in the United States are higher, and have been increasing more quickly, than those for non-veterans. At the same time, women represent the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. military veteran population, currently about 14%. Now, a first-of-its-kind study led by Melissa Dichter, associate professor in the School of Social Work, has examined how men and women veterans might face different ongoing mental health issues. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) granted the research team access to more than a million records from calls place...
Research
School of Social Work
the covid photo gallery that is part of a research project by nursing assistant professor Laura Sinko

Photo study documents COVID experience for immune-compromised people

What does it feel like to live in an immune-compromised body, in a world facing a global pandemic? A newly published study, led by nursing assistant professor Laura Sinko, offers a glimpse. In the spring of 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sinko and co-researchers solicited photos from people living across America with severely compromised immune systems.  “Photo elicitation is a research method that's underutilized, but it really lets you see the world through the eyes of someone else,” Sinko says. “That can be really powerful when we're trying to understand d...
Coronavirus
Research
Nursing

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