We are Generation Public Health

By now, you’ve likely heard about Generation Public Health, APHA’s new movement to create the healthiest nation in one generation. You’ve also likely heard all the reasons to join and sign our pledge too, such as America’s poor showing in health outcomes and life expectancy when compared to many other high-income nations. But we’d like to offer a few more reasons you might not have heard just yet.

First, social justice. There’s lots of efforts and activities going on around the country that focus on improving people’s health. But there’s no cohesive health movement that outspokenly elevates the tenets of social justice as key determinants in improving U.S. health outcomes. At APHA, we know that we can’t achieve our healthiest nation goal without speaking out on social issues such as income inequality, discrimination and human rights. When you join Generation Public Health, you’re joining a movement of people who know that good health is built on a foundation of equality.

Second, prevention. With the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, policymakers and health care systems are zeroing in on how to deliver the highest-quality care and reduce costly hospital re-admissions. This is fantastic and desperately needed. But we simply can’t improve health in the long term and in a sustainable fashion without an equal amount of attention and support for community-based prevention efforts that utilize proven public health approaches. Generation Public Health is dedicated to educating the public about the power of prevention (both health wise and economically) and rallying diverse support to make prevention a priority in our health care system.

Third, health in all policies. For all of us in public health, considering the health implications of policy decisions across sectors just makes sense. Health is everywhere and so everyone must consider health. It’s a no-brainer. But a health-in-all-policies framework is still very much an emerging trend – in other words, it’s not being used nearly as much as it should be and there’s plenty of stakeholders who have no idea that they can affect positive health change. Elevating and educating about a health-in-all-policies approach is a Generation Public Health priority and we need your help to spread the word. In fact, a health-in-all-policies approach is the perfect tool to engage nontraditional partners in our goal to create the healthiest nation in one generation.

So, have we convinced you yet? Join Generation Public Health today and sign APHA’s pledge to do your part in creating a healthier nation for all.

Our communities, our sexual health

Though it hardly seems that far in the past, the HIV/AIDS epidemic first gripped the nation more than 30 years ago. In the time since, communities have worked together to fight the diseases’ deadly impacts.

It’s that history that inspired the stories in “Our Communities Our Sexual Health: Awareness and Prevention for African Americans.” Edited by Madeline Sutton, Jo A. Valentine and William C. Jenkins, the book explores the struggles and successes in the black community, from public health workers and advocates to lay people.

It’s those many stories that make the book special, says Jenkins, who was signing copies of the book with Sutton on Sunday at the APHA Press booth in the Public Health Expo hall.

“For me, it was...a journey of reflection of some great people in public health,” he says. “I’m hoping that it will describe different journeys, different views, different experiences people might have, so they can think through their journey in public health.”

Pulling from many experts in sexual and public health, the editors found that their stories, while they came from all walks of life and health, touched on similar points.

“I went into it with a very open view of what people might say, and I was pleased with this sense that there were connections in the journeys,” Jenkins adds.

It was clear that the editors themselves had made connections as well. During their book signing, many people approached both Sutton and Jenkins to thank them for their work on the book, their mentorship and their friendship over the years. Many worked in sexual health, as advocates for black health or both, but some were laypeople. That’s just the mix the editors hope to reach, says Sutton.

“A couple of people said they already read it and were using it in their classes that are ongoing,” Sutton says. “That’s nice to hear. It means we’re hitting the right communities. Ultimately, I would like for it to resonate with the lay person, that they would find some nugget in there for them.”

“Our Communities Our Sexual Health” is available at the APHA Press booth, #941, and online.

— L.W.

Above, an Annual Meeting attendee poses with authors Madeline Sutton and William Jenkins, who signed copies of their book yesterday at the Public Health Expo. Photo by Lindsey Wahowiak

Addressing life expectancy at APHA’s codeathon

From apps that count steps to devices that monitor blood sugar, electronic gadgets have become an everyday part of health for many people.

During the APHA Public Health Codeathon in Chicago this weekend, teams of public health professionals worked with technology builders to create tools that can help people have lives that are not only healthier, but also longer.

Held in conjunction with APHA’s 143rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, the two-and-a-half day codeathon challenged teams to create tools centered around the theme of “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Addressing Life Expectancy.”

Four teams rose to the challenge, creating apps and programs that can help people estimate how long they will live, choose healthier food, manage their diabetes and make other behavioral health decisions.

The winning app, Text4Health, was designed to help people understand risky lifestyle choices and get insights on how to make changes. Users of the app would be able to enter personal data to see how long they would live based on their lifestyle and other factors, then get tips on how to improve their health.

“We all know that making change at the behavioral level is very difficult,” said Junaed Siddiqui, a member of the winning team, during the team’s presentation to judges. “People who want to make behavior changes don’t always have access to the resources that they need, and they don’t know how to go about finding out more.”

The first-place app was created by a team called Terps Care, with members hailing from the University of Maryland. This is not the first year a team from the school earned honors at an APHA codeathon. In fact, University of Maryland teams earned top honors at APHA’s past two codeathons as well.

Other tools created during the codeathon include Yumme, an app that would help parents shop for and prepare healthy food with their children, and Tinder Healthbot, which would allow users to receive information on sexual health while using dating apps. Another tool, AHRx, would help people with diabetes better manage their disease by monitoring electronic health information.

Codeathon judge Jay Bhatt, chief health officer at the Illinois Hospital Association, encouraged teams to continue developing their tools, noting that “the work, engagement and fun does not stop after this weekend.”

— M.L. 

Above, the Terps Care team from the University of Maryland took home this year's top prize at the Public Health Codeathon. Photo courtesy APHA Flickr

APHA Storify: Getting energized at the Opening Session

Today's Storify brings you all the passionate highlights from yesterday's Opening General Session.

Monday's Have You Heard

Get social: Stop by the APHA Social Media Lab at McCormick Place West Central Concourse and get some expert advice on using social media to improve health in your community. Things get going at noon and run through 5 p.m. The lab is also open Tuesday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Racism and public health: Hear from one of APHA’s most dynamic speakers during session 3009, “Racism and Public Health,” on Monday from 8:30-10 a.m. in MPCC W178b. Former APHA President Linda Rae Murray, who knows how to shake up a room, will speak on ending structural racism. Philip Tegeler, executive director of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, is slated to talk about the health implications of new developments in civil rights and federal housing policy, and another former APHA president, Cheryl E. Easley, will speak on racism and human rights.

Climate changes health: Stop by Everything APHA at the Public Health Expo to meet George Luber, author of “Global Climate Change and Human Health: From Science to Practice.” Luber will be signing copies of his book starting at noon.

Advocacy and the law: Learn the legal ins and outs of public health advocacy and lobbying at session 3230, “The Who, What and How of Advocacy,” at 12:30 p.m. in MPCC W175b. Speakers include Marice Ashe of ChangeLab Solutions.

Catch of the day: Concerned about how to consume sustainable seafood and the health of our oceans? Then check out session 3352, “Health in All Seafood Policies: From Net or Fish Farm to Plate,” at 2:30 p.m. in MPCC S104a. You’ll learn about sustainable seafood production that positively impacts human health, fisheries and food security in China, wasted seafood in the U.S., and eating seafood while pregnant.

The power of prevention: The National Prevention Council is known as one of the crown jewels of the Affordable Care Act, and during the Monday General Session, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will tell us some of the reasons why. The session also features U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson and APHA’s dynamic President Shiriki Kumanyika. Check out the action in the McCormick Place Skyline Ballroom W375b-e on Monday at 4:30 p.m.

APHA Annual Meeting Opening Session: ‘This is how we will change the world together’

When Freeman Hrabowski was a 12-year-old boy living in Birmingham, Alabama, his parents made him go to church in the middle of the week. Like any little kid, he didn’t want to go. So his parents placated him with peanut M&Ms and his favorite activity — math.

As he sat in the back of the church eating candy and solving math problems, he began to feel inspired by the words of that night’s speaker — Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, a young Hrabowski was so inspired, he decided he wanted to join King’s Children’s Crusade march for civil rights. At first his parents said no — they were too worried for his safety. Young Hrabowski called them “hypocrites” and was promptly sent to his room. The next morning, his parents, after praying on the issue throughout the night, had changed their mind and let their son join the march. Unfortunately, Hrabowski was swept up in a mass arrest, but he gained an “empowering and painful” experience, he said. As Hrabowski stood before thousands of public health practitioners at today’s Opening General Session in Chicago, he said he realized all those years ago that each of us could shape our futures.

“Children can have an impact on their own destiny,” he said.

That idea of destiny was a common theme at today’s opening session, especially in light of APHA’s goal to create the healthiest nation in one generation and its new movement to make that goal a reality — a movement we call Generation Public Health. (But more on that in a minute.) Unfortunately, many people feel like their “health is less and less in their hands, and this has to change,” said opening session speaker U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy said there are three elements central to our work as public health leaders: information, inspiration and equality.

“In these three elements lies the key to fulfilling the ultimate mission of public health,” he said.

For instance, in an era when half-truths and misinformation can spread halfway around the world with just a keystroke, “what we communicate matters,” Murthy told attendees. With so many questions about electronic cigarettes, healthy diets, how to protect kids from drugs and so much more, public health must modernize its approach to sharing information. And, Murthy said, we can no longer rely on running public service announcements in traditional media — we have to be creative, find new messengers and take information to where people are. Of course, good communication is just one piece of the puzzle.

“Health has to be woven into every strand of public policy,” Murthy said.

Murthy called on attendees to better understand what transforms someone from feeling powerless over their health to someone who feels empowered to make a difference for themselves and others. The real conundrum, he said, is moving people from “pessimism to possibility.” When we in public health can inform and inspire others to improve health, that’s when we can create a new movement, Murthy told attendees.

“This is about something bigger than health,” he said. “This is about equality. …As public health leaders, we must not only be technical experts, but moral leaders who ensure this ethic of equality is part of our policies, our institutions and our culture. This is how we will change the world together.”

Public health workers in Illinois and Chicago are certainly working hard to transform the health of their own communities. Nirav Shah, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, joined the opening session stage to welcome Annual Meeting attendees to the Windy City and encourage folks to take advantage of the city’s great walking trails and restaurants. Looking out at the audience, he concluded that “public health is alive and well in this country.” In public health, he said, there are no insiders or outsiders. Just a community of people who care and advocate constantly to redefine what is unacceptable in our society.

Unfortunately, not all is rosy in the Land of Lincoln. Miriam Link-Mullison, president of the Illinois Public Health Association, told attendees the state is in fiscal crisis, with budget cuts to public health for more than five years. In fact, Link-Mullison said she and her colleagues are now 123 days into a fiscal year without a state budget, with no continuing resolutions. Without a state budget, the entire public health system is in jeopardy — since July, 36 percent of local public health agencies have cut staff, services or hours that they’re open to the public. She said the hardest hit agencies are those with limited local support, those serving rural communities and those in communities with high rates of poverty.

That’s why she asked attendees for their crucial support. Link-Mullison encouraged the audience to stop by the IPHA booth at the Public Health Expo and pick up an “I Support Illinois Public Health. Pass a Budget Now” sticker and sign their petition calling for a responsible budget that protects public health. There’s no doubt that many local public health practitioners out in the audience could identify with her experience and call to action.

“Working together is what this conference is all about,” she said.

Working together was a central message from APHA President Shiriki Kumanyika, too. She called on audience members to engage in the Generation Public Health movement and sign the Generation Public Health pledge. Go beyond the practice of public health and leverage the passions that brought us to the field to build a movement and keep it moving forward, she said. No matter your age, whether millennial or baby boomer, “let’s all be in the same generation,” Kumanyika said.

John Lumpkin, senior vice president and director of Targeted Teams at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also called on the audience to help elevate health as an “esteemed social value.” In fact, just today, the foundation launched its new Culture of Health website, which calls on stakeholders to improve the health and well-being of everyone in America.

On to one of the most pressing public health issues of our time: climate change. Actor Ed Begley Jr., who’s on the board of ecoAmerica, told session attendees about his life as an environmental advocate, from driving an electric car in 1970 (which he said was more like a golf cart with windshield wipers and horn) to bicycling and composting. Begley emphasized that the “environment is a public health issue,” noting that actions that reduce climate change are not only good for our health, but often benefit our pocketbooks as well.

In honor of the 70th anniversary of community water fluoridation, APHA Oral Health Section Chair Kathy Lituri noted that the oral health benefits of fluoridation have promoted health equity. But in the face of continuing misinformation about fluoridation, Lituri called on audience members to take three action steps: every local and state health department should offer credible fluoridation information on its website; every school of public health, medicine, nursing and social work should provide credible fluoride info to its students; and all of us should strive to educate our neighbors, community leaders and policymakers on the great benefits of fluoridation.

Following the call to action on fluoridation, the session’s keynote speaker, Hrabowski, stepped onto the stage to great applause. (Indeed, APHA’s own Georges Benjamin described him as a “rock star.”) Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and a leading advocate for engaging minority populations in the science, math, engineering and technology fields, looked out at the audience and said: “You are all educators.”

“You are all leaders,” he said. “You’re experts in your field, and I would argue that you and I together — we have the responsibility of helping the general public, families and children and people in other professions understand that this notion of public health is not a concept for a few, but it must be all-pervasive.”

In talking about the need for collaboration between public health and education and the coming 50th anniversary of the Higher Education Act of 1965, Hrabowski asked the audience a few questions about college graduation rates in the U.S. (Good to note here that education is a key determinant of health, well-being and life expectancy.) Did you know, he asked, that in the early 1960s, only about 10 percent of Americans had a college degree, including just 11 percent of whites and 3 percent of blacks. Fast forward to today and 30 percent of Americans have a college degree, including 37 percent of whites, 19 percent of blacks and 14 percent of Hispanics. However, one group that hasn’t seen a lot of progress, he said, are people living in the lowest-income households. To that end, Hrabowski said we must do more to help children living at the bottom of society to achieve academic success.

Hrabowski called on the audience to ask this transformative question: Who would you be if you hadn’t been fortunate enough to get an education? Think about that question, he compelled us, and then ask yourself: Who am I, and what responsibility do I have to other people?

He ended his keynote speech with a story about his mom at a time when she began to struggle with dementia. Though her mind may have been foggy, she imparted this lesson that Hrabowski shared with the audience: “I now understand that teachers touch eternity through their students,” she told him.

Hrabowski faced the public health audience and smiled: “I challenge you to touch the lives of other people.”

Visit APHA’s YouTube channel for video of Hrabowski’s keynote speech.

— K.K.

Above from top to bottom: Keynote speaker Freeman Hrabowski; U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; environmental activist Ed Begley Jr.; and APHA President Shiriki Kumanyika. Photos by Jim Ezell, courtesy EZ Event Photography

Passion and pens at the Public Health Expo

Undergraduate students taking a class called “Solutions to Environmental Problems” came up with a way to turn the school cafeteria’s used cooking oil into fuel that powers Chicago city buses. And the byproduct, glycerin, is the main ingredient in the adorable travel-sized bottles of soap at the Loyola University Chicago booth (#759) at the Public Health Expo.

Those bottles of “Biodiesel Hand Soap” courtesy of the school’s Institute of Environmental Sustainability are just one of the thousands of Expo giveaways that range from water bottles to ballpoint pens to squeezable stress relievers in the shape of hearts, bears, chili peppers and bears.

But the free public health swag isn’t the only reason the Expo rocks. Stop by San Jose State University booth (#735) and find out about the school’s online MPH program as well as how the campus recently went tobacco-free. Robert Rinck told me of a time before the tobacco-free status when a class of 24 students picked up 4,000 cigarette butts in the span of an hour from the area around the school’s library. He’ll gladly share his public health passion and offer you an organic lollipop.

The folks at the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability’s booth (#1111) will give you a water bottle with the center’s #HOWIWALK logo and tell you how they encourage people with disabilities to get and stay active. If you’re a fan of, say, the University of Florida, you’ll love learning about the school’s innovative Center for Arts in Medicine (#858). They offer an online graduate certificate in Arts in Public Health and a master of arts in Arts in Medicine. Class titles include “Arts and Design in the Environment of Care” and “The Art of Self-Care.”

Why is there a long line snaking its way to the Walden University booth (#729)? Because a guy with a brilliant mustache is serving up free bags of Garrett popcorn. Across the Expo, fun-size candy bars are everywhere. You’ve never seen so many differently styled ballpoint pens. Some booths have lip balm, hand sanitizer and first-aid kits. At the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future’s booth (#1436), a whiteboard beckons visitors to answer the question of the day (today’s is “What is a Food Citizen?”).

Stop by Everything APHA (#941) in the center of the Expo and get some snazzy ribbons for your badge, buy an ‘I Love Public Health’ T-shirt from APHA Press, and find out anything you ever wanted to know about the Association's member groups at the many APHA Section booths (booths #1429).

Luckily, many booths offer bags to hold your public health souvenirs. The tricky part will be fitting all the goodies into your suitcase.

— D.C.

Above from top to bottom: Opening General Session keynote speaker Freeman Hrabowski signs his book, "Holding Fast to Dreams: Empowering Youth from the Civil Rights Crusade to STEM Achievement," at the Public Health Expo; an Expo attendee stops by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future booth; and the University of Texas booth welcomes public health students. Photos by Donya Currie
 

Latest, greatest research awaits you at APHA poster sessions

Take a peek beyond the schools and programs of public health at the Public Health Expo and you’ll find a treasure trove of the latest research at the Annual Meeting’s many poster sessions.

For example, inspired by research on child summer camp preparedness, Alan Sielaff and his fellow researchers at the University of Michigan looked into how well such camps are equipped to handle disaster situations, such as hurricanes or mass shooting scenarios.

Out of the more than 160 camp staff members researchers surveyed across the U.S., 80 percent did not have emergency disaster plans available online for parents. Also, 25 percent of those camps did not discuss emergency plans with parents of campers, and 18 percent of camps were 20 miles or more away from the closest medical facility.

“There are lots of things we need to improve on to make sure they’re safe,” Sielaff said. “If you’re a parent sending your kid away for a week, you want to know how to get your kid in the event of a disaster. You want to know how they’re going to get the information to you.”

With two of their fellow researchers being self-confessed binge TV watchers, researchers Alaina Kramer and Jessica Kruger of the University of Toledo’s College of Health Sciences wanted to study the link between a love of Netflix and mental health.

Their team surveyed the TV-watching habits and mental health status of more than 400 people, among which 140 self-identified as binge watchers.

Participants who self-identified as binge TV watchers considered watching three to four-and-a-half hours in one sitting as binge watching, Kramer said. The level of watching was associated with a higher risk of anxiety, depression and stress, according to the research.

“When you’re binge watching, a lot of people might see it as a social event, but it’s really not,” Kramer said. “You’re really isolated. When you’re binge watching, you might be eating a lot more or doing other activities that are affecting your health.”

Check out all the fascinating poster sessions for yourself at the back of the Public Health Expo.

— N.M.

Above from top to bottom: Alaina Kramer and Jessica Kruger of the University of Toledo's College of Health Sciences present research on binge TV watching and its effects on mental health; and Alan Sielaff of the University of Michigan presents research on disaster preparedness in sleep-away camps. Photos by Natalie McGill