Promote Healthy People, Healthy Planet and Improve Care for All

Secret pacts between tobacco companies and retailers are a bad bargain for public health

February 22, 2022
Clandestine agreements between tobacco companies and retailers around the world are heavily incentivizing the sale and promotion of tobacco products and undermining public health efforts to decrease tobacco use.

Experiences of racism in adolescence raise risk of depression for Black women

February 22, 2022
Black women who frequently experience racism before age 20 are at higher risk of reporting depressive symptoms in adulthood than those who had fewer experiences of racism in early life, according to research from Gillings School epidemiologists.

Women in urban Senegal seek less biased contraceptive access

February 21, 2022
Women in urban Senegal seeking family planning services tend to avoid providers with a bias that would prevent them from acquiring their preferred method of contraception, according to new research from Dr. Ilene Speizer.

Evidence suggests COVID-19 is not transmitted through wastewater

Feburary 16, 2022
There is no proof that people can contract COVID-19 from wastewater, according to a report by Dr. Mark Sobsey published in the Journal of Water & Health.

Gillings students tackle maternal mental health in two equity-focused publications

February 15, 2022
Developing equitable policies to support mental health during the perinatal period — the months/years before and after birth — requires addressing the intersecting effects of racism, poverty, lack of childcare and inadequate postpartum support.

COVID-19 vaccination higher in LGBT communities, CDC reports

February 4, 2022
Gay and lesbian adults are more likely to be vaccinated for COVID-19 and have confidence in the safety of vaccines than heterosexuals, according to a CDC report that features research from Dr. Noel Brewer. The data can help public health officials tailor education and outreach to further overcome barriers that prevent LGBT people from getting vaccinated.

Picture warnings on sodas? A promising tool to fight childhood obesity

February 1, 2022
A study in PLOS Medicine is the first to examine in a realistic setting whether pictorial health warnings on sugary drinks influence which beverages parents buy for their children. The findings are promising: The warnings reduced parental purchases of sugary drinks for their kids by 17 percentage points.

Woods brings science to N.C. communities’ fight against environmental hazards

January 31, 2022
For more than a decade, Dr. Courtney Woods has focused on participatory research – a method that allows her to tap local expertise to support communities experiencing environmental racism. With funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, she created the Environmental Justice Action Research Clinic. It will function like a legal clinic to provide timely technical support to local responses to critical environmental health concerns.

UNC researchers to lead 2 centers for $170M NIH Nutrition for Precision Health Consortium

January 31, 2022
Understanding how people differ in both their metabolism and their bodily response to what they eat and drink is critical to tailoring diets for an individual’s optimal health. To that end, Gillings School researchers will direct both a $13 million Nutrition Precision Health Clinical Center and a $19 million Metabolomics and Clinical Assay Center.

COVID-19’s indirect effects are claiming more lives than we realize

January 26, 2022
Social isolation, economic insecurity, barriers to health care access – Gillings epidemiologists have found that these indirect consequences of the pandemic are claiming lives that are not being reported in COVID-19 surveillance data, especially among populations of color and young people.