Individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) are disproportionately affected by disparities in the United States (U.S.) healthcare system due to medical miscommunications, misdiagnoses, and treatment errors. The purpose of this commentary is to provide an overarching social-ecological perspective on how to enhance patient-centered…

Introduction: Competency-based approaches have been developed in health promotion over the past four decades but, to date, there has been limited focus on the evaluation of their use and impact. In 2016, 5 years after publication of the CompHP Core Competencies Framework for Health Promotion, an evaluation of their use and impact across the health…

Purpose: Program planning and evaluation is an essential course for undergraduate and graduate students in health education/public health programs. The purpose of this study was to three-fold: 1) identify students' attitudes and behaviors towards civic engagement, 2) measure the importance of undergraduate collaboration with community partners,…

This dissertation is comprised of three separate manuscripts. Each manuscript concerns questions of social structure in relation to health, morbidity, and mortality. The first examines the epidemiologic theories taught most frequently in core master of public health coursework and proposes curricular changes to better engage with the structural…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to distinguish pedagogies supporting critical health literacy development in adolescent populations. Specifically, for sun safety education in schools. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on an exploratory intrinsic case study design to qualitatively examine the learning conditions that Pre-Service…

Purpose: A primary responsibility in health education is to assess community health needs, which is often a difficult skill to master for the entry level health educator. This article outlines the outcomes of a long-term study of an undergraduate needs assessment course where students completed a real-world assessment with a community partner…

Objective: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a critical public health challenge and disproportionately affects young adults, racial minorities, and residents of the Southern United States. This study aimed to investigate HIV knowledge, risk perception, and testing behaviors among a sample of college students in South Carolina (SC).…

Bed bugs are on the rise and are increasingly perceived as harmful parasites. Because individuals affected by bed bugs often feel disgust and shame and are stigmatized, bed bugs are an important public health and environmental justice concern and therefore a health education issue as well. In this quasi-experimental study, we examine how different…

This Innovative Practices piece details the design of a scaffolded project in a public health course that paired a narrative inquiry assignment with an empirical health literature review assignment to highlight both the positivist and constructivist epistemologies of critical health research in public health. The authors discuss and reflect on the…

Lassa fever is a zoonotic disease characterized by acute viral hemorrhagic fever, endemic in West Africa including Nigeria. The study assessed the knowledge and sources of information on Lassa fever infection among the undergraduate students of Ebonyi State University, Nigeria. This was a descriptive cross-sectional survey conducted among a sample…

This study is the first to analyze public response to a drug take-back program, the American Medicine Chest Challenge, in a single state over a period of 3 years (2010-2012). The study utilized a three-wave repeated cross-sectional design and an annual phone survey conducted with a representative sample of adults (N = 906 in 2010, N = 907 in 2011,…

In Australia, where high temperatures, excessive ultraviolet (UV) radiation and an outdoors lifestyle is commonplace, adherence to sun protection by adolescents is poor. As a group of sun-seekers, adolescents have the highest incidences of sunburns and repeat sunburns. This health-compromising behaviour occurs despite the knowledge that simple…

Purpose: This study presents a novel methodology/process for assessing inclusion of theoretically-based implementation factors within available adoption-ready health promotion programs. Methods: Classroom-based physical activity (CBPA) programs were used as an example to describe the process. Our team selected an implementation science framework…

Drug overdose, especially from opioids, is a global problem which has stretched across all racial, generational, and socio-economical groups. Millions of people have been affected on a personal or professional basis by the emotional, physical, and financial impacts of this crisis. There is a critical need to provide support for public health…

Partnerships linking researchers to the policymaking process can be effective in increasing communication and supporting health policy. However, these policy partnerships rarely conduct process evaluation. The Policy Working Group (Policy WG) was the policy-level intervention of the multilevel B'More Healthy Communities for Kids (BHCK) trial. The…