When rural women face barriers to receiving Pap smears and HPV screening, can a program utilizing self-collected samples help? A group of University of Kentucky College of Public Health investigators collaborated with partners in Louisiana to study the of feasibility self-collected vaginal swab testing to screen poor, rural women of color for HPV and associated cancer risk. Results appear in the September 2017 issue of Preventive Medicine Reports.
News
Posted: September 14, 2017
Posted: September 14, 2017
Program with Less Than One Percent Acceptance Rate Offers Recent Graduates Unique Health Innovation Opportunity
Posted: August 31, 2017
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, and intimate partner problems are among the top precipitating circumstances of suicide. A team of University of Kentucky College of Public Health researchers conducted an investigation with the aim of determining circumstantial associations of intimate partner problem-related suicides in suicide decedents in Kentucky. The resulting article appears in the journal Injury & Violence.
Posted: August 31, 2017
With a $1.16 million cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Appalachian Regional Commission, Dr. April Young, assistant professor of Epidemiology at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and a researcher at the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, along with Dr. Hannah Cooper, co-principal investigator at Emory University, will partner with communities to conduct research to address the opioid epidemic in 12 Eastern Kentucky counties.
Posted: August 30, 2017
Personal social networks have a profound impact on health, but collecting personal network data for use in health communication, behavior change, or translation and dissemination interventions has proven to be challenging. Recent advances in social network data collection software have reduced the burden of network studies on researchers and respondents alike, but little testing has occurred to discover whether these methods are: (1) acceptable to a variety of target populations, including those who may have limited experience with technology or limited literacy; and (2) practical in the field, specifically in areas that are geographically and technologically disconnected, such as rural Appalachian Kentucky.
Posted: August 2, 2017
Does legislation have a tangible effect on the rate of child maltreatment fatalities? A group of Kentucky investigators reviewed the data to seek answers to this question. Their conclusions appear in the June 2017 issue of Current Trauma Reports.
Posted: July 27, 2017
Investigators from the University of Kentucky College of Public Health collaborated with colleagues in clinical oncology and the Kentucky Department for Public Health to better understand the incidence of ovarian cancer in Kentucky. Their findings appear in the journal Diagnostics.
Posted: July 19, 2017
In Kentucky, a state at the heart of the opioid crisis, investigators at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health joined with Kentucky state officials to link death certificates, postmortem toxicology, and prescription history data to better identify populations at increased risk of overdose deaths. Their results appear in the June 2017 issue of Pharmaceutical Medicine.
Posted: July 19, 2017
Do fatalistic cultural attitudes toward health contribute to low rates of cancer screening in Appalachian? Investigators from the University of Kentucky College of Public Health set out to find answers to this under-researched question. Their findings are reported in the Journal of Rural Health.
The purpose of the study was to identify correlates of ever having endoscopy screenings for CRC and to determine whether fatalism plays a unique role. Because evidence suggests that cancer-associated fatalistic beliefs may be particularly common among rural Americans, the study was conducted in a medically underserved area of rural Appalachia.
Posted: July 12, 2017
With the summer heat predicted to peak this week, issues like overexertion, heat stroke and dehydration have become important public health concerns.
“When temperatures rise to the 90s or even higher, there are some real risks of heat-related illness or ailments,” said Hiram Polk, M.D., Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) commissioner. Following some simple precautions can help keep you safe in the heat.”
According to DPH, following these precautions can make the difference between just being hot or being seriously ill: