News | College of Public Health

College announces contact tracing certificate program

Responding to the pressing need to contain the COVID-19 virus as facilities re-open, Temple's College of Public Health has created a certificate program in contact tracing. The program, offered starting in mid-June, will train students to immediately begin working with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by reaching out to individuals who have been in contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19. "In order for us to re-open, in addition to mass testing, we need to have contact tracing, so when people are identified as positive, we can find their contacts," said Resa...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Coronavirus

School of Social Work

Can Coronavirus spread through defective bathroom sewage pipes?

As part of the college's coverage of the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we're reprinting a recent article written for the Water Quality & Health Council by Heather Murphy, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Barbara Soule, an infection preventionist consultant, that discusses the potential spread of COVID-19 through improperly connected bathroom sewage pipes. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 coronavirus epidemic, COVID-1...

Coronavirus

Water

Environment

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

WET Trial explores rates of illness from drinking untreated private well water

Nationwide, approximately 48 million people use private wells, including nearly 3 million in Pennsylvania. The water quality from these largely untreated wells is not federally regulated, and there have been few studies on both the extent and the source of microbial contamination in private wells. In a new randomized controlled trial, Heather Murphy, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, will research the effects of drinking untreated well water on children ages three or under—effects that include gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms from norovirus, Gi...

Water

Environment

Community

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

NCI-funded study looks at impact of mobile devices on collecting treatment data

Are there better ways to evaluate how prescribed therapies are working while patients are living their everyday lives, when doctors aren’t there to check? New answers may come from the digital devices we carry and wear, says Donna Coffman, a biostatistician in the College of Public Health. Coffman is leading a National Cancer Institute-funded study of smoking cessation treatments as a way to develop models that could help researchers improve patient responses to all sorts of ongoing therapies, from managing addictive behaviors to compliance with medication-taking. “We n...

Smoking cessation

Data

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

College to study local PFAS contamination, cancer data

Temple University’s College of Public Health will examine possible associations between PFAS-contaminated drinking water and cancer as part of a federally funded multisite health study to understand the health effects of exposure to PFAS chemicals in drinking water. Temple’s study of PFAS and cancer expands upon its participation in a broader study that is in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and RTI International and focused in Bucks and Montgomery counties. This work is part of a national effort newly announced by the Centers for Disease Control an...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Water

Social relationships could be key to overdose prevention in rural areas

As the opioid epidemic has widened, some of the most heavily impacted areas have been in rural Appalachia, a region of the country stretching from parts of New York to northern Alabama and Georgia. Opioid use in this region has grown disproportionately, driven in part by the higher prevalence of people using prescription opioids non-medically, the transition from prescription opioids to heroin, and the more recent increased availability of Fentanyl. This has presented a potentially overwhelming public health challenge in rural areas, where facilities offering treatment for subst...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Opioids

On the news: Complications from a rising premature birth rate

Premature birth, when a mother gives birth before the 37th week of pregnancy, is a leading cause of infant mortality and can have significant, long-term health consequences for the newborn infant. Between the years 2007 and 2014, the rate of premature or “preterm” birth in the United States steadily declined. However, according to recent statistics, the United States’ premature birth rate increased to 9.93 percent of all births in 2017, marking the third year in a row the national premature birth rate has risen. According to research from the Centers for Disease Control...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Maternal health

Resa Jones, alumna receive Water Foundation grant to study contamination in local communities

Resa M. Jones, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, was awarded a grant from the California-based Water Foundation to study the effects of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) water contamination in partnership with the Buxmont Coalition for Safer Water. The coalition’s vision is for residents of Buck and Montgomery Counties to have clean and safe drinking water and for residents affected by local water contamination to have access to preventive health care, including blood testing and biomonitoring. The coalition is a grassroots community organi...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Cancer Health Literacy Test also effective for individuals without cancer, study finds

In an initial meeting with a patient, it can be difficult for oncologists to discern how much the patient knows about their cancer. And the same is true of that patient’s family, who may be present at the appointment. Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Levent Dumenci and his co-investigators created a cancer health literacy test to help oncologists and other healthcare providers understand their patients’ level of cancer health literacy. Now, after conducting further research, Dumenci and his colleagues have found that the same test can be used to successfully ga...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

On the News: The importance—and challenge—of flu vaccination

Last winter saw one of the most severe flu seasons in recent memory. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 million were hospitalized due to influenza-related symptoms and an estimated 80,000 people died — making the 2017–2018 season the deadliest in over a decade. CDC reports found that only 37 percent of Americans got vaccinated in 2017, a six percent drop from the previous year. With peak flu season approaching, two faculty members from the College of Public Health share insights from their research experience and weigh in on the import...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Social and Behavioral Sciences

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