APHA’s Georges Benjamin shares his thoughts on the impact of fellow public health colleague and UCLA scientist, Dr. Richard Jackson in the field of urban design; U.S. Surgeon General discusses the National Prevention Strategy in Raleigh; plus, find out why being diagnosed as obese may depend on whether your doctor is overweight or obese, too. Those stories and more are topping public health headlines today, Friday, January 27, 2012.
News and Observer – Surgeon General talks about preventing illness in N.C.
U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin spoke about the first nationwide health prevention plan at a gathering of public health workers in Raleigh today. The National Prevention Strategy, a part of the Affordable Care Act, focuses on stopping illness and diseases before they start, primarily through curbing unhealthy habits such as poor diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and alcohol misuse.
The Chronicle of Higher Education – America’s Health Threat: Poor Urban Design
Researchers can have revelatory moments in remarkable places—the African savannah, an ancient library, or the ruins of a lost civilization. But Richard J. Jackson’s epiphany occurred in 1999 in a banal American landscape: a dismal stretch of the car-choked Buford Highway, near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The Democrat and Chronicle – Rochester City School District OKs condoms in schools
City high school students will soon be able to get condoms at their schools with a new policy approved by the school board on Thursday. In a 4-3 vote, the board approved the new policy roughly a year after local health officials first asked the district to make condoms available to students, citing high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among young people.
LATimes – Are you obese? Might depend on whether your doctor is, too
Turns out obesity is in the eye of the beholder. Whether you’re diagnosed as obese is supposed to depend on your own body-mass index — but a new study shows that it can also depend on your doctor’s.
Yale Daily News – Food deserts remain in New Haven
Yale students may no longer be hungry for a grocery store with the recent openings of Stop & Shop and Elm City Market, but concerns about the availability of healthy food options in New Haven persist.
