SPH Launches Center for Trauma and Mental Health

Launched in advance of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, the center will research and develop public health strategies to address the health consequences of stress and trauma. Jaimie Gradus will lead the center, which envisions a future where mental health achieves parity with physical health in terms of cultural acceptance and accessibility of services. Learn more.

RESEARCH

Hair Relaxer Use May Affect Ability to Conceive

A new study led by Lauren Wise shows that chemical hair straighteners were associated with a slight reduction in the likelihood of pregnancy. Black and Hispanic individuals were more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to use these products early in life, more frequently, and for longer durations, as they face societal pressures to conform to Eurocentric beauty norms. Learn more.

RESEARCH

Exposure to Airplane Noise Increases Risk of Sleeping Fewer than 7 Hours Per Night

A new study led by Junenette Peters has found that people who were exposed to even moderate levels of aircraft noise were less likely to receive the minimum recommended amount of sleep each night. Learn more.

PUBLIC HEALTH POST

Staging Mental Health

Since 2016, DE-CRUIT has used Shakespeare to help military veterans work through their war trauma and adjustment back to civilian life, writes PHP fellow Bethany Hallenborg in the first of a four-part series examining art’s role in the treatment of mental illness and the promotion of public health. Read more.

PUBLIC HEALTH POST

Students of Color are Disproportionately Bullied and Harassed at School

Despite making up only 15 percent of the US K-12 population, 37 percent of Black students report being bullied at school, write Yukun Yung, data scientist at Boston University Center for Antiracist Research (CAR), and Jessica McKnight, communications & marketing manager for CAR, in a new databyte that is part of a partnership between PHP and CAR. Read more.

ALUMNI NEWS

Opening Doors

Esther Kisaghu (SPH’06), is founder of the Rose Foundation, a Nairobi-based domestic violence nonprofit. Read more.

SPH SNAPSHOT

SPH Snapshot: April 2023

Scenes from this month on campus, including a memorial for beloved colleague and scholar Michael Grodin, a campus visit from the BU mascot, an Alumni & Friends Giving Day reception, a Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence event, the L. Adrienne Cupples Award Reception, and the arrival of spring. View the gallery.

Kudos.

Sophie Godley, clinical associate professor of community health sciences, was appointed to the Editorial Board of Pedagogy in Health Promotion by the Society of Public Health Education.

Matthew Fox, professor of epidemiology and global health, was chosen to join the Methodology Committee of Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and delivered the Annual Leon Gordis Lectureship at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on March 31, 2023.

Matt Motta, assistant professor of health law, policy & management, won the World Association for Public Opinion Research's Robert M. Worcester Prize, along with Kristin Lunz Trujillo, for best article published in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research. The article examined how Internet access facilitates cross-national vaccine hesitancy.

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