News (all)

  • Inequities in asthma health for Native Hawaiian keiki

    Posted Sep 23, 2021 at 8:53am

    New public health research shows that emergency department (ED) visits by Native Hawaiian children with asthma account for the largest proportion of the total statewide costs for potentially preventable visits for children’s asthma. Native Hawaiian children have higher rates of asthma, which usually requires daily medications and regular follow-up care.

  • One's connection to nature examined in public health research

    Posted Sep 7, 2021 at 2:51pm

    Feeling connected to nature or the environment is important for health, and new public health research from the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa examines how these feelings of connection can be measured.

  • $1.4M to address health disparities in communities most impacted by COVID-19

    Posted Sep 3, 2021 at 6:25am

    The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies will receive more than $1.4 million in new funding to help fight the health disparities in Hawaiʻi highlighted or worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is part of a $25 million grant awarded to the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (DOH) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The funding will support efforts to build knowledge and take action to address these health disparities affecting the state’s most impacted communities.

  • Tribute to Haunani-Kay Trask

    Posted Aug 27, 2021 at 9:07am

    Over the summer we lost a towering leader in Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask who had an immense impact on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and our larger communities, and the Office of Public Health Studies (OPHS) in particular. She was a foundational inspiration and example for our Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Health program, whose faculty and students composed a beautiful tribute which we  proudly share with our OPHS 'ohana

  • New Policy Brief Makes the Case for Deeper Investments in Chronic Disease Prevention in Hawai‘i

    Posted Jul 9, 2021 at 9:30am

    As Hawaiʻi emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is critical that funding is maintained and expanded for chronic disease prevention to improve health, address disparities, and reduce costs. This policy brief provides evidence and arguments for why chronic disease prevention investments are more critical than ever in Hawaiʻi. 

  • Mosquito-breeding potential campus areas revealed in study

    Posted Jun 17, 2021 at 6:40am

    The highest number of potential mosquito breeding sites on campus are located in the student residential areas of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, according to research out of the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health. The study, published in the Hawaiʻi Journal of Health & Social Welfare (PDF), advised practical strategies to reduce mosquito breeding.

  • UH Regent Michelle Tagorda honored for years of service, advocacy

    Posted Jun 10, 2021 at 12:33pm

    University of Hawaiʻi Regent Michelle Tagorda was honored by the Board of Regents for her seven years of service to the university with a proclamation of appreciation. Tagorda’s term ends June 30, 2021.

  • Suicide-prevention effort targets 60K underserved Hawai‘i youth

    Posted Apr 13, 2021 at 3:42pm

    Rural, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth and communities have greater needs with respect to suicide prevention and mental health support. Now, with a new $3.5-million grant, University of Hawaiʻiat Mānoa researchers in public health and psychiatry will aim to reach at least 60,000 of these young people in Hawaiʻi with suicide prevention efforts.

    Researchers Jeanelle Sugimoto-Matsuda of the Office of Public Health Studies in the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health and Deborah Goebert of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, along with their colleagues, were awarded the federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant will fund the Hawaiʻi‘s Caring Systems Initiative for Youth Suicide Prevention.

    “Our approach is to offer hope, help and healing to youth in Hawaiʻi‘s rural and underserved areas,” Sugimoto-Matsuda said. “This grant will fund our efforts to reach youth in their schools, communities and health care facilities, and to also improve the effectiveness of these systems.”

    This effort is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020. 

    Fostering collaboration across systems

    The initiative uses a strengths-based approach, meaning it will work to enhance existing programs and tap into the resiliency and relationships in Hawaiʻi families and communities. The researchers selected four best practice programs that will be involved: 

    • The Connect Suicide Prevention and Postvention Curriculum
    • Sources of Strength
    • The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Suicide Bereavement Support Group Facilitator Training 
    • Zero Suicide (including Continuity of Care)

    Sugimoto-Matsuda and Goebert’s initiative will foster collaboration across these various systems and communities, and integrate their work so that more youth can be reached. The initiative will impact teens, young adults, parents and families, healthcare and education providers, community members and professionals who work with youth.

    “We want to work across all of the systems that serve the youth in our state—education, health care, and other social services systems—in partnership with our communities,” Goebert said.

    Despite the adversity faced by today’s youth, most do not develop suicidality or self-harm behaviors, she noted. The team’s long-term partnerships with community organizations, including the Prevent Suicide Hawaiʻi Taskforce, will help them to strengthen the capacity of the systems and improve prevention of youth suicide deaths and attempts.

    “When we strengthen the systems that serve our youth to better prevent suicide and build resiliency, we strengthen all of Hawaiʻi,” Sugimoto-Matsuda said.

    Help is available

    If you are having thoughts of suicide, or you are worried about a friend or loved one, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK), or text “ALOHA” to the national Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Additional resources are available online.

    Story originally posted at UH News.

  • Prestigious national maternal, child health award for UH professor emerita

    Posted Apr 13, 2021 at 3:36pm

    A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa public health professor emerita has won a national award for her lifelong work in maternal and child health. Gigliola Baruffi was awarded the Maternal and Child Health Lifetime Achievement Award by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration for her impact in the field.

    Baruffi joined UH in 1984 and became lead of the maternal and child health training grant at the School of Public Health. She served as a professor, researcher, mentor and role model for 21 years at the university.

  • Local restaurants offer few options for healthy kids' beverages

    Posted Apr 12, 2021 at 1:42pm

    Children are particularly vulnerable to the negative health effects of sugary drinks, yet prior to a recent law aimed at improving healthy options for Hawaiʻi’s keiki, it was rare to find healthy beverages as a “default” option with kids’ meals in Hawaiʻi restaurants.

    University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa public health researchers researchers found that among a random sample of 64 restaurants across the state that offered kids’ meals, just two restaurants listed only healthy drinks such as water, low-fat milk or 100% juice as a default beverage option with the meal. The researchers conducted their study prior to the enactment of a law requiring restaurants to offer a healthy drink as the default choice.

    “The hope is that Hawaiʻi‘s new law will nudge customers into healthier choices by making the healthy choice the easy choice,” said Meghan McGurk, who led the study and works as a researcher with the Office of Public Health Studies in the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health. The paper is published in the Journal of Healthy Eating and Active Living (JHEAL).

    Pandemic challenges 

    McGurk and her co-authors focused on restaurants that offered children’s meals in which the food is bundled together with a drink. Since January 1, 2020, Hawaiʻi restaurants offering such meals have been subject to the new law. The researchers conducted their study during November and December 2019 because they wanted to know how many restaurants were complying with the law before they were required to do so.

    “Shockingly, sugar-sweetened beverages were offered as a default option for keiki by more than 60% of restaurants in the sample,” McGurk said. “This makes the success of this law more important.” Unfortunately, however, the pandemic has created challenges for the new law’s implementation. McGurk and her co-authors discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on the new law, and other health promotion efforts, in a separate paper also published recently in Global Health Promotion.

    “There are many reasons it’s become more difficult during the pandemic for restaurants to offer healthy drink options,” McGurk said. “In order to even remain open, restaurants have had to spread out their tables and change employee procedures. They may be reluctant to change children’s items because kids’ meals do not generate much revenue and many restaurants are currently struggling due to the pandemic.”

    In addition, many restaurants have turned to third-party delivery services to maintain their business, which adds fees that cut into restaurant profits. It is also unclear whether the menus posted on third-party sites fall under the scope of healthy beverage law.

    Positive effects of pandemic

    “However, the pandemic may also have positive effects on health promotion efforts,” McGurk said. Self-service beverage stations, which allow customers to refill cups with sugary drinks many times, are being discouraged to prevent viral spread. Also, new technology being used to social distance, such as tableside ordering apps, could help ensure healthy options are consistently offered as the default beverage for keiki.

    “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of policies that improve access to healthy foods to prevent and manage chronic disease,” McGurk said. “We now have a great opportunity to improve restaurant and menu design and promote healthy food environments.”

    McGurkʻs co-authors on the JHEAL paper include: Stephanie L. CacalUyen VuTetine Sentell and Catherine M. Pirkle of the Office of Public Health Studies, and Toby Beckelman, Jessica Lee and Alyssa Yang of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (DOH). Her co-authors on the commentary include Pirkle, Beckelman, Lee, Yang, Sentell and Katherine Inoue and Heidi Hansen-Smith of DOH.

    This research is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.

    Story originally posted at UH News

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