The final day at the APHA annual meeting featured speakers addressing long-acting reversible contraceptives, examining news coverage of health, and connecting farmers’ markets to people receiving food assistance.
APHA Annual Meeting
Public health researchers, activists gather for 143rd annual meeting: Highlights from Day 2
As “the water cooler for the public health crowd,” The Pump Handle is in Chicago reporting from the 143rd annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. Here are some highlights from yesterday’s events, including new policy statements adopted by the Association.
Family-friendly workplace policies can have unintended consequences for women; building owner charged with murder in collapse of garment factory in Bangladesh; new standing recommendations proposed for office workers; and a famous food journalist calls for improved working conditions for food workers.
Education
Study: Self-affirmation targets the brain in way that makes us receptive to health messaging
It’s a persistent conundrum in the field of public health — how can we open people’s minds to positively receiving and acting on health information? Previous research has found that combining health tips with messages of self-affirmation may be a particularly effective strategy, but researchers weren’t entirely sure how self-affirmation worked at the neurological level. Now, a new study has found that self-affirmation’s effects on a particular region of the brain may be a major key to behavior change.
It’s not unusual for studies on community walkability to face the perplexing question of self-selection. In other words, people who already like to walk end up moving to walkable communities and so those communities naturally have higher physical activity rates. In even simpler terms, it’s about the person, not the environment. However, a new study finds that walkable community design does influence healthy behavior — even among people with no preference for walking in the first place.
Evidence has been accumulating about the toll of prolonged sitting, and a new systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows just how harmful sedentary habits can be.
Environmental Health
Study: Safe Routes to School investments save millions and improve quality of life
Building safe ways for children to bike and walk to school is more than just a way of encouraging kids to go outside and get active. According to a new study, it’s also an investment that reaps millions of dollars in societal gains. In other words, smart walking and biking infrastructures for kids make good economic sense.
When Brian Castrucci sees signs up at local retailers offering discounts to police officers and firefighters, he thinks: Why not public health too?
Addiction & Substance Abuse
How healthy is your county? This year’s County Health Rankings underscore that place matters
This year’s County Health Rankings once again illustrate why geography and good health go hand-in-hand. They’re also a poignant reminder that there may be no better way to improve health for all than by focusing on the social determinants of health.
Daylight saving time policies data back more than 100 years. What do we know about their effect on health?