Through receipt of a Safe States Alliance Seed Grant, the Society for Public Health Education has adopted an in-person Safe Me & Empowering Us Training into an online asynchronous training session. Through the collaboration with the Black Women’s Health Imperative’s My Sister's Keeper program and rooted in the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Framework, this training is for women of color ages 18-25. It will explore what makes a healthy relationship; what sexual violence is and how we identify it; and, how to be an advocate in your community.

SOPHE Webinar:  Taking Your Evidence-Based Programs Remote: Needs Assessment for Success  
In partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association.  

SOPHE, in partnership with the Arthritis Foundation, created this webinar to understand the burden of arthritis and the need for evidence-based programs. This webinar focuses specifically on the Walk With Ease program, how to choose the best program format for your organization, and how to budget and sustain the program.

Fifty million Americans live with arthritis pain. Arthritis-Appropriate, Evidence-Based Interventions (AAEBIs) have been shown to decrease arthritis and disability and improve quality of life and are offered in communities and health departments in every state reaching more than 50,000 people a year. Despite their availability – and many having remote delivery options – such programs are currently under-used.

Previous research indicates that the disproportionate distribution of income within society is associated with aggression and violence. Although research has been conducted identifying the relationship between income inequality and bullying victimization and perpetration, little is known about possible mediators. We investigated the association between income inequality and bullying perpetration and victimization among adolescents participating in the Cannabis, Obesity, Mental health, Physical activity, Alcohol use, Smoking, and Sedentary behavior (COMPASS) study. We identified whether school connectedness and psychosocial well-being mediated the relationship between income inequality and bullying behavior. This study used pooled cross-sectional data from 147,748 adolescents aged 13 to 18 from three waves (2015–2016, 2016–2017, 2017–2018) of the COMPASS study from 157 secondary schools in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec (Canada). The Gini coefficient was calculated based on the school Census Divisions (CD) using the Canada 2016 Census and linked with student data. We used multilevel modeling to investigate the relationship between income inequality and self-reported bullying victimization and perpetration, while controlling for individual-, school-, and CD-level characteristics. A standard deviation increase in Gini coefficient was associated with increased odds for bullying victimization and perpetration. Findings were observed among girls; however, inequality was only associated with perpetration among boys. We identified social cohesion and psychosocial well-being as potential mediators. To counter the adverse effects of income inequality, school-based interventions designed to increase school connectedness and student psychosocial well-being should be implemented to protect against bullying.

Background. Implementing health improvement is often perceived as diverting resource away from schools’ core business, reflecting an assumption of a “zero-sum game” between health and education. There is some evidence that health behaviors may affect young people’s educational outcomes. However, associations between implementation of school health improvement and educational outcomes remains underinvestigated. Methods. The study linked school-level data on free school meal (FSM) entitlement, educational outcomes, and school attendance, obtained from government websites, with data from the School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ) on health improvement activity collected in Wales (2015/2016). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and linear regression models tested the extent of association between health improvement activity and attendance and educational outcomes. Results. SEQ data were provided by 100/115 network schools (87%), of whom data on educational performance were obtained from 97. The percentage of pupils entitled to FSM predicted most of the between-school variance in achievement and attendance. Linear regression models demonstrated significant positive associations of all measures of health improvement activity with attainment at Key Stage (KS) 3, apart from mental health education in the curriculum and organizational commitment to health. Student and parent involvement in planning health activities were associated with improved school attendance. There were no significant associations between health improvement and KS4 attainment. Conclusion. Implementing health improvement activity does not have a detrimental effect on schools’ educational performance. There is tentative evidence of the reverse, with better educational outcomes in schools with more extensive health improvement policies and practices. Further research should investigate processes by which this occurs and variations by socioeconomic status.

Adolescents and young adults are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). This study examined the association of GYT: Get Yourself Tested (GYT), a sexual health social marketing campaign, with several sexual health behaviors on a nationally representative sample of high school (HS) and college students (n = 2,329) recruited through an online panel survey. Behaviors examined were STD testing, HIV testing, and whether students had communication with health care providers and their romantic partners about STDs and STD testing. Rao-Scott chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression models were conducted. The results indicated college students were more aware of GYT than HS students. Awareness of GYT was significantly associated with STD testing (p < .05), HIV testing (p < .01), and talking with romantic partners (p < .01) for college students but only with STD testing (p < .05) and talking to a provider (p < .05) for HS students. The differences between HS and college students provide insight for those developing and implementing interventions across such a broad age range of youth.

In this on-demand webinar, participants will be able to 

• Describe how health, health equity and inclusive democracy are connected. (5.1.1)
• Introduce the Healthy Democracy Healthy People (HDHP) Initiative and provide an overview of Health & Democracy Index. (5.2.5)
• Identify 3 practices HDHP is using to build power to advance health equity. (5.2.1)
• Describe actions we can take collectively to strengthen civic and voter participation. (5.3.2)

In this webinar, students will experience how they can boldly advocate for their career goals and dreams. It is up to each person to know they are their own best advocate and should have a toolkit of tried-and-true methods and ideas for promoting their aspirations.