We are happy to announce the winner of our recent call for paper on Market-driven forces and Public Health.

Congratulations to the first author Adriana Ardila-Sierra and her co-author César Abadía-Barrero for their paper “Medical labour under neoliberalism: an ethnographic study in Colombia” and you can access it for free here.

Adriana Ardila-Sierra was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a Medical Doctor and Master and Ph.D. degrees in Public Health from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. You can read more information about her here.

The runner up of the competition is the paper entitled “Attitudes and practices of public health academics towards research funding from for-profit” organizations: cross-sectional survey” by Rima Nakkash and colleagues (also available free of charge here)

Interested in learning more? Have a look at the table of contents of the special issue resulting from this call, which was edited by Yadira Borrero Ramírez, Janeth Mosquera Becerra and Lyda Osorio. More information about the competition and the voting process can be found here.

The special issue is related to the 4th LATAM PH meeting which was postponed to 2021.

The post We have a winner! Best article award on “Market-driven forces and public health” appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

The news is already out since May 1st…but we are excited to reshare it!

What changes?

As you might have read, we will be transitioning to a Gold Open Access model from 1st January 2021. That means that all IJPH published articles will be immediately free to access, read and download for all. Yay!

At the same time, we will be moving from Springer Nature to Frontiers.

More information on dates, fees and processes will follow soon!

What stays the same?

The Swiss School of Public Health + is still the owner of IJPH and we will be proudly be celebrating together! SSPH+ is celebrating their 15 year anniversary and IJPH will soon become 100 years old! (we look younger, I know, everyone keeps saying that! )

We will still have a blog, although the address will change! More on that soon!

Of course our Editors in Chief and fantastic Editorial Board will remain the same….and most importantly, our mission to “provide a thoughtful forum for contemporary issues and challenges in global public health research and practice” will always be the main driver of IJPH!

Thank you to all the authors, reviewers and readers who have been supporting us and we look forward to continuing having you on board during and after this transition!

The post IJPH to soon become open access! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

“Social distancing” is a term that most of us have not used or given it a second thought until recently. Nowadays, it seems every second phrase we use or hear is that. Social distancing during shopping. Social distancing while we stroll through a forest. Social distancing in everything. It has become such a common term to use that many of us might not even given a second thought about what exactly the “social” part of the phrase means or refers to.

We recently published an editorial by Thomas Abel and David McQueen on the need to emphasise spatial instead of social distancing and to promote social closeness.

Thomas Abel summarises the idea behind it as follows:

“Our short text published today in IJPH (Abel and McQueen, IJPH 2020) was meant to raise awareness the way we choose to use words in our public health efforts. While there is growing discontent with the notion of “social distancing” the search for more appropriate terms has just started. What in the end will be the best term may need more thinking and discussion. What matters is that “words matter”! We might expect all experts to understand that. And, in particular, those communicating with the public need to be even more careful with the words they choose.

Just as epidemiologists try to be careful, precise and systematic in choosing and naming the variables for their models, those writing or talking about what to do to stop the COVID-19 virus need to be careful and systematic in choosing the words for their messages!  Common sense is not enough – public health and linguistic communication skills are needed.”

Inspired from this editorial, we asked our followers in twitter the following question:

We got a few interesting replies. Some users informed us about different terms used in different countries, for instance Finland…

…and Italy

A follower expressed concern about the nature of the term “social distancing”

While others raised issues about what the term might means for people in different situations

or raised concerns about consequences for health outcomes

We also got a useful suggestion!

Let’s keep the discussion going! How is “social distancing” interpreted where you are? Are there any other terms used locally? How can we promote social closeness?

The post Words matter! Social versus spatial distancing appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

We are happy to host an interview with Vasilis Nittas, the new Editor in Chief of our Young Researcher Editorials (YRE) series! Any comments? Share them below or directly with Vasilis on twitter ( @vasilis_nittas)

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am Vasilis; Greek, or German (depending on the context and my mood), but mostly a healthy Greek-German mix. I am a (very) keen traveler, often solo and with a respectable level of sensation (I have been to North Korea), and passionate advocate social equity and LGBTQ+ rights. I love writing; academically or not – and even more so while traveling. I studied European Public Health in Maastricht and Evidence-Based Health Policy Evaluation in Oxford. I’ve spent part of my studies in Turkey and India – working on human rights and digital disease surveillance systems. I am currently in the third and final year of my PhD at the Epidemiology, Biostatics and Prevention Institute of the University of Zurich. My research has always been evolving around digital public health, the conceptualization and evaluation of digital health interventions, as well as their broader ethical implications. I enjoy dancing, I usually wear black (or dark blue), never leave the house without my sunglasses and could eat Sushi every single day. If academia wouldn’t have won my heart, I’d certainly be a Pilot.

How did you become involved with IJPH and the YRE?

I got to know the YRE series through SSPH+, which I am part of through my doctoral studies. I remember instantly loving the fact that a well-established journal decided to dedicate its resources to strengthen the voice of young researchers. I decided to write an editorial and a few months later I decided to apply for an editor position. One thing led to the next and I am now stepping up as the Editor in Chief and I do have big shoes to fill. I strongly believe that the scientific publishing world needs more “YRE-like” initiatives; which makes me very grateful for the chance to be a part of the process. 

What will your priorities be as an Editor in Chief of the YRE?

My main priority is to continue the great work of the previous Editor in Chief, Apolline Saucy, and keep improving the review experience for our prospective authors and the editorial team. Our focus will remain on transparency, prompt communication and shorter turnaround times. My second priority is the promotion of YRE outside of Europe, hoping to attract a larger quota of submissions by PhD students from low-income settings. Considering that they often are on the front-line of pressing and emerging public health issues, I believe that their contributions will be of great value to our series and all of us. I aim to achieve that with calls targeting low-income settings and stronger YRE advertisements among research institutions in the developing world. Finally, my third priority will be to foster a stronger balance tradition and innovation, with calls on topics such as digital public health (or “e-public health”), personalized public health and public health ethics. Our field is facing multiple “small revolutions”, and I am convinced that early stage researchers have much to say about it.

Why should someone submit an editorial to the YRE series?

There are many reasons to submit an editorial with us, including:

1. increased visibility 
2. experience in expressing your opinion and expertise concisely
3. exposure to scientific publishing 

And all that with professional support, copy editing services and absolutely no fees. 

The most important reason of all is the opportunity to share your views (and ideally passion) with the world!

Apart from submitting an Editorial, how could someone get involved in the YRE?

A great way to get involved in the YRE is by joining the editorial team and get the first-hand experience of being an editor. We currently are a dynamic team of 6 PhD students; looking to be expanded by one more team member. If you interested in joining us, please send us an E-Mail to vasileios.nittas@uzh.ch, adding an updated CV and a short motivation letter (half page). 

The post Meet the (new) Editor: Vasilis Nittas! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

This post is written by Apolline Saucy. Apolline is a PhD candidate in environmental epidemiology at SwissTPH. Her research focuses on the health effects of aircraft noise in Switzerland. In parallel, she contributes to the creation of new air pollution models in Switzerland. This research area allows her to work with many different data sources and to look at health issues from a geographical perspective.

Two years ago, the IJPH “Young Researcher Editorials” (YRE) series was born from a concept imagined by Mahmoud Hassan, first Editor in Chief. I was lucky enough to be part of this journey from its creation, first as editor for a year, then succeeding Hassan as Editor in Chief since January 2019.

My time at the YRE has been quite an adventure. During this period, we published seven editorials. Doing so, we interacted and exchanged with young, motivated authors from various continents and areas of expertise. I developed new skills, both social and technical, and became familiar with the world of editing, which was new to me. I also learned that it is far more difficult to reject a manuscript than to publish it!

Although the process of editing can sometimes be long and challenging, I experienced great pleasure in reading my peers’ manuscripts. It allowed me to look at public health topics from all sorts of new angles, different from my own research. I realized that I am part of a large community of young, dedicated scientists, who are full of innovative ideas but do not always have the opportunity to share their experience and to make their opinions heard. I strongly believe that the YRE actively contributes to Public Health research by offering a platform where we can exchange on a scientifically rigorous, yet safe environment.

With these sentiments, I have come to the end of my own adventure with YRE and it is my great pleasure to introduce Vasileios Nittas, our new Editor in Chief since February. He joined our editorial board several months ago and impressed us with his energy and dedication to the YRE. I wish him the best luck for this new chapter of the YRE. I also address a special thank you to all editors, who contributed with their great work and expertise to shape the YRE as it is today.

If want to learn how to be an editor as well, you may register for this course or contact us directly.

The post A journey of the Young Researcher Editorials appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

We are happy to announce a call for papers (and an award* for the best one!) on market-driven forces and public health.

The call relates to the 4th Latin American Public Health Meeting that will be held from 5th to 7th August 2020 in Cali, Colombia.

Successful submissions will be published online by the start of the meeting. The best submission will receive USD 500 as well as permanent free online access. You can find all the information and related deadlines here

Please send your abstracts as soon as possible and no later than October 31st 2019!

On behalf of our Editor Lyda Osorio and the guest editors Janeth Mosquera Becerra, Daniel Cuartas and Yadira Borrero, we look forward to receiving your submissions!

*for past awards and winners see here and here, here , here and here!

The post Call for papers – submit for your chance to win an award! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

We are happy to host an interview with our new Editor in Chief, Professor Dr. Olaf von dem Knesebeck. If you have any messages for him, comment below and we’ll make sure he gets them!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background

I am a sociologist and the director of the Institute of Medical Sociology at the University Medical Center Hamburg, Germany. My research interests are social determinants of health and health care (especially socioeconomic position, social relations, gender, migration), stigma, prevention, evaluation research, international comparisons, and survey research.

What was your relationship to IJPH prior to becoming Editor in Chief?

I was an Associate Editor of IJPH for a couple of years and I regularly publish in IJPH.
[note from IJPH: for instance this paper and this paper]

What will be your main focus as an Editor in Chief of IJPH?

I will try to continue the successful work of Thomas Kohlmann. It is my aim to advocate high methodological standards and conceptual clarity. I think international comparisons in public health research are important and I would like to strengthen this perspective in IJPH.

What do you think the main challenges will be?

As there are many papers submitted to IJPH, one challenge will be to select papers for review and to be fair and reasonable in this regard. Another challenge will be to transfer IJPH into an open access journal.

What are the strong points of IJPH? Why should people try to publish in this journal?

IJPH is a truly international journal. Reviewers, senior and associate editors come from all over the world and it publishes high quality articles on important public health issues from different countries and cultures.

Any messages for our readers?

Please stay with us!

The post Meet the Editor! Interview with Olaf von dem Knesebeck appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

Coming back to work after 8 months can be challenging but I had the best welcome from the IJPH team!

Ok, our Editorial Board Meeting is held annually and serves way more important purposes but it was a good coincidence we held it in August this year so I could see (almost) everyone shortly after my return!

We have held our previous editorial board meetings in very nice places: Bruges, Napoli, Kosice, Berlin to name a few…so it was not a surprise that this year we found another beautiful place to host our meeting: Winterthur, Switzerland. Winterthur is a middle size town (or even big for swiss standards) near Zürich, with a lively medieval centre and interesting museums.

Our host this year was the Zürich University of Applied Sciences (Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, ZHAW). ZHAW became one of the foundation partners of the Swiss School of Public Health+ (SSPH+), (which happens to be the owner of our Journal) in January 2019. All this, coupled with the fact that ZHAW also hosted the Swiss Public Health Conference with a focus on child and adolescent public health (one of our journal’s main interests) made it the perfect choice for our editorial board meeting! It was the first time that a board of editors of an international journal met there, so it was pretty exciting for all involved!

We had a fantastic 2 day meeting full of lively discussions about the present and future of our journal.

Strategic decisions were taken, welcomes and goodbyes to new and old editors were shared, and a great social programme was followed!

Looking forward to another year of creative work…and to the next meeting of course!

The post Best meeting of the year, aka IJPH Editorial Board Meeting appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

As a social media junkie enthusiast, “taking a break from social media” is not an expression I ever imagined using for myself! No, I’m not fired (phew) nor am I taking a social media free month ! I will just be on maternity leave the next few months, so our journal’s blog, twitter and facebook will not be regularly updated (but there might be the occasional surprise!). However, as we love social media, we will be back! Stay tuned! Till then, have a look at the table of contents of our latest issue . If you get inspired and would like to submit a paper in our journal, have a look at our website where our aims and scope is indicated, as well as the instructions to authors. For tweets related to IJPH and other public health related papers, have a look at the Springer Public Health twitter account!

In the meantime I wish you all the best and see you soon!

Thomy Tonia

Social Media Editor

International Journal of Public Health

The post IJPH is taking a short break from social media- but we’ll be back! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

Growing urbanization and social inequality increases the risk of violence and is preventing urban areas reaching their full potential. So, what can be done to build trust and common ground between historically adversarial civil society and law enforcement sectors in the Global South?

Rob Worrall (right) and Finn Kjaerulf (left)

*This is a guest blog post by Rob Worrall, PhD and Finn Kjaerulf. Rob is the lead author of a recently published IJPH paper on how a leadership development programme has enabled trust building between civil society and law enforcement leaders as part of an Intersectoral Urban Violence Prevention (IUVP) programme in Kenya. Rob has just taken up a new role as a Leadership and Management Specialist for the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Dublin, Ireland.

The co-author of this article Finn Kjaerulf is a social scientist with more than twenty years’ experience of working with local partner organizations on urban violence, security, protection and prevention  especially in Central America and East Africa.

Much has been written about the causes and complexity of urban violence and there is an increasing acceptance that reducing it requires effective collaboration between opposing sectors. However, much less has been written about how to work with local partner organizations to build this collaborative capability.

After completing my PhD in Place-Based Leadership Development (P-BLD), I was keen to ensure that the product of my research would have a real-world impact. A chance meeting in a swimming pool with Finn Kjaerulf, Urban Violence Prevention Manager of DIGNITY (The Danish Institute Against Torture) has enabled me to fulfil this goal. Working with DIGNITY’s local Kenyan partner the MidRift Human Rights Network, and following successful pilot workshops in Nakuru (Oct 2016) and Naivasha (Dec 2016), our fruitful and ongoing collaboration has led to the development of a three-year (2017-2019) P-BLD programme for IUVP in both places. We are developing the capability of two cohorts of 25 leaders working together in intersectoral urban violence prevention and building trust between them. This shared journey of self-development, mutual learning and discovery is enabling these leader collaboratives to enact place-based violence reduction

The impact of our work has been recognised by the awarding of the Ruskin Medal for real world impact. Today we are very proud to present some of our key findings from the lived experience of the intersectoral leaders from the initial P-BLD programme sessions which took place in March 2017.

This paper provides an analysis of how a unique Place-Based Leadership Development programme has enabled leaders to surface and explicitly address the emotional, relational and structural tensions they face in working together.  This has built trust, mutual respect and common understanding as a firm foundation for combating urban violence in an evidence-based approach which is replicable within urban areas across the world.

Indeed, in 2018 we have been working with local partners delivering further pilot workshops within different cultural, social and geographical settings in municipalities in Uganda and Guatemala further building the evidence base. We are currently presenting the findings of this embedded implementation research at academic conferences, to be followed by submissions to appropriate academic journals.

The post Building Local Leadership Collaboratives to Reduce Urban Violence appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

A while ago we opened a call for papers called “Environmental and health equity” with the occasion of the EcoHealth Conference (which will be held on 15-18 August 2018 in Cali, Colombia).

We received a lot of submissions and some papers were finally accepted for publication, after peer review. Out of those, 3 were pre-selected for taking part in the voting process by experts in the field. This process is now completed and we are happy to announce the winner! Collecting 42% of the 71 anonymous votes, the winner is….

Kai Liu, from the Department of Social Security, School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China in Beijing, with the paper called “Health inequality and community-based health insurance: a case study of rural Rwanda with repeated cross-sectional data”. This paper is available to download (pdf here). You can also see the abstracts of the other award candidates by clicking here.

On behalf of our Editors in Chief, we would like to congratulate Kai Liou and co-authors (Benjamin Cook and Chunling Lu) for their contribution and their success! And of course thank you to everyone who submitted their work and the experts who voted!

Tell us what you think and don’t forget to follow the EcoHealth Conference on Facebook and Twitter!

The post We have a winner! Best paper on environmental and health equity appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

Are you an early-stage researcher, holding a Master’s degree and interested in conducting research in Public Health Sciences? The Swiss School of Public Health+ is offering a fantastic Global PhD Program in Public Health Sciences (GlobalP3HS) .

Could *you* be the recipient of one of the 50 doctoral fellowships [co-funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (Horizon 2020 – COFUND)] that will come to one of the eight Swiss founding universities of the Foundation Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+) to purse your PhD! Read all the information of this first call for applications here!

Deadline for applications is on October 12th 2018.

The post The SSPH+ Global PhD Program in Public Health Sciences is looking for candidates! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

When you read a scientific paper or when you write one yourself, have you ever wondered what happens on the other side? What exactly do reviewers and Editors do? How do they make their decisions? What constitutes a good peer-reviewer? And how does an Editor chose what will finally get published? Sometimes you might have thought that you would be a better reviewer or a better journal editor. But there might be skills required you are not aware of and challenges ahead you might not have imagined. Would you like to learn more?

We are happy to announce the upcoming course called “Walking in the Editors’ shoes: Peer reviewing and journal editing for young researchers in health sciences”. This course is offered by the PhD Program in Health Sciences of the University of Basel and it is aimed at early career scientists (PhD students and postdocs) who might be involved in manuscript peer review as authors and reviewers. It offers both theoretical background and hands on training in evaluating manuscripts in all stages of peer review. From prescreen to final decision, the course offers the possibility to take the role of reviewer, handling editor and even editor in chief! The course participants will have the chance to get a glimpse of the insights of the work done by using real world examples from an interdisciplinary public health journal (ours!). One of our Editors in Chief, Nino Künzli and our Managing Editor, Anke Berger will be teaching in this course!

With this course you will:

• Learn about pre-screen and peer-review criteria
• Get trained to write useful reviews
• Learn how to evaluate revisions, take decisions on manuscripts and communicate them appropriately
• Learn best practice standards in scientific publishing
• Get familiar with tools to handle misconduct
• Understand editorial strategies to increase the impact of a journal
• Get informed about the latest trends in peer review and scholarly publishing
• Improve your reviewing skills
• Prepare for an appointment as associate editor

Want to have more details on this course? Then have a look at the course flyer! If you want to attend, make sure you register by 15 September 2018 following this link!

The post Walking in the editors’ shoes! Course on peer-reviewing and journal editing for young researchers in health sciences appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

*This is a guest blog post by Karimen León-Flández, MD, MPH, PhD. Karimen is the lead author of a recently published IJPH paper on marketing techniques in television advertisements of food and drinks directed at children in Spain. She is currently working at GSK Spain as Scientific Advisor in Paediatric Vaccines.

Food advertising in TV continues to be a threat for controlling weight problems in Spanish children. What can we do?

After finishing my medical degree, I always knew I wanted to dedicate myself to work for the well-being and health of children. That is how I found “Preventive Medicine and Public Health”. This specialty, commonly known as the “great unknown” go beyond traditional medicine that treat sick patients and cure diseases, as you investigate and intervene mostly on healthy populations in order to prevent disease. This could really impact children’s health for the better. In my case, it was the perfect pathway to follow!

Food advertising directed at children is a topic that I was passionate about from the beginning, due to its impact on childhood obesity and weight problems. Today I feel proud and happy to be able to share with readers some of the key findings of our study.

This paper, provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing techniques used in TV food advertising aimed at children, including the latest integrated TV-Internet marketing strategies. We recorded advertisements of food and drinks (AFDs) from 7 days a week on five Spanish TV channels with the highest child-audience ratings, from January to April 2012. Primary persuasive appeal used to draw children´s attention, persuasive, nutritional and Internet marketing techniques, among other AFDs characteristics were collected. Nutritional quality was also assessed, using two classification systems (International Food Based Coding System and the UK Nutrient Profiling Model). Our findings, showed that marketing techniques are used extensively to promote food and drinks products in television. Sadly, most products using these techniques were unhealthy.

For sure, we agree that it is fundamental to protect children, and provide them a healthy environment where they can grow and develop optimally. Nevertheless, food marketing advertised in Spanish TV channels is an important barrier to accomplish this purpose.

So what can we do?

In Spain, stronger leadership is required from governmental institutions to ensure the effectiveness of actual policies regulating food advertising directed at children. This includes to have a nutrient profiling model to restrict exposure to unhealthy products or a ban on all food advertising for children under 12 years old.

The post Food advertising in TV continues to be a threat for controlling weight problems in Spanish children. What can we do? appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

It has been a while since the last time we made an infographic…But we are back with one summarising a very interesting study that was recently published in our journal. See below, comment and share!

The post Is spirituality a protective health asset for adolescents? New infographic! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

* This is a guest blog post by Alexi Gugushvili who is a leading author of a recently published article on parental transmission of smoking. Alexi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention of the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at Nuffield College. He has earned PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Alexi’s current research focuses on social stratification and mobility, health inequalities, public attitudes and opinion, and causal inference in social science. For his latest research updates follow Alexi on Twitter: @AxGuli  

Is smoking transmitted from one generation to another and why should we care?

One of my primary research interests is the process of intergenerational transmission of advantages and disadvantages. If life chances depend on ascribed factors rather than achieved ones, they are inherently unjust. In relation to individuals’ wellbeing, I specifically study if there is any effect of intergenerational social mobility on health outcomes or whether a direct transmission of health-related behaviours takes place from one generation to another.

Smoking is one of the leading causes of mortality in industrialised nations. Previous scholarship has shown that intergenerational transmission of smoking takes place in various settings and populations. One major limitation of these studies is that they are almost exclusively concerned with intergenerational transmission of smoking to adolescents and individuals in their 20s and 30s, while the role of parental smoking later in life has been under-researched.

The levels of smoking are especially high in post-communist countries which have experienced aggressive campaigns by transnational tobacco corporations since the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Using novel PrivMort data-set, in our study, we estimated how parental smoking is associated with their middle-aged and older offspring’s smoking in Belarus and Russia. A methodological contribution of this paper is that it adequately accounts for social origin variables separately for fathers and mothers and does not overestimate the effect of parental smoking on their children’s smoking propensity by using multilevel Poisson regressions.

We find that paternal smoking significantly increases the chances of smoking among sons aged 42-65, while having a regularly smoking mother significantly increases the chances of smoking among daughters of similar age. In absolute terms, this equates to about 9–12 percentage points higher prevalence of smoking in Russia and Belarus among women with smoking mothers in comparison to women with never smoking mothers, which is remarkable, considering that in our sample of middle-aged and older women, the rate of smoking is less than 10%.

These results corroborate both psycho-analytic theory which claims that daughters tend to unconsciously internalise maternal behaviours as well as with social learning theory that suggests that girls are consistently and positively reinforced when they learn to be like their mothers and imitate maternal behaviour.

Our findings are relevant in interpreting trends and patterns of smoking among middle-aged and older Russian and Belarusian men and women, with implications for subsequent generations, an issue of importance given increasing smoking among women. if parents are aware of the implications of smoking and how much they can influence their sons and daughters’ propensity to smoke even in the later stages of their life course, some might have an extra reason not to start smoking or to quit after smoking initiation.

The post Is smoking transmitted from one generation to another and why should we care? appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

* This is a guest blogpost by Isabel Iguacel. Isabel is a psychologist, nurse, economist and PhD student at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. She is the lead author of our recently published paper “Social vulnerability as a predictor of physical activity and screen time in European children“. You can contact her directly on twitter! (@Isabel_Iguacel)

Does being socially vulnerable make our health more vulnerable?

It is difficult to answer when someone asks me what I have studied. Well… I studied Economics, and Nursing and Psychology and… well now I am studying Medicine… I know… it sounds weird, but I have always been interested in two areas (health and another area more related to social matters and the economy) that have more in common than it seems at first sight. So when I started my PhD I wanted to do something that mixed all of these fields. I had a simple image on my mind. In this image there is a doctor telling someone that looks ill. “I am sorry to tell you that you suffer from a fatal disease… you are poor”. This image could sum up the investigations that we carried out these years. Our research inquiry could be: Being socially vulnerable makes our health more vulnerable? People with low socioeconomic status (SES) are more prone to illnesses than people with high SES.  Education, occupation and income have been widely used as indicators of SES. However, other social vulnerability indicators such as lack of social support, migrant status, one-parent families or unemployment and the association with different health outcomes have been less explored in the literature.

Particularly we have assessed the association between social vulnerabilities with 1) psychosocial problems, 2) dietary patterns, 3) levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviours and 4) obesity and the accumulation of these vulnerabilities in health outcomes. The results included a cohort of more than 6,000 children of eight European countries. Particularly, children whose parents lacked a social network were at a higher risk of having psychosocial problems, unhealthy dietary patterns, higher levels of sedentarism and higher levels of obesity. Migrant children were also at higher risk of being overweight or obese, following an unhealthy dietary pattern and having higher levels of sedentarism. Children living in one-parent families are also at a higher risk of reporting psychosocial problems and finally, children with unemployed parents had also higher levels of screen time. All vulnerable groups were less likely to be sports club members. These associations remained significant after adjusting for occupation, education and income.

The results of our papers have showed that the lower an individual’s SES, the worse their health. Among all the social vulnerabilities that we have analysed, our findings suggest that the lack of a social support in parents contributes the most to unhealthy behaviours and poorer health.

The post Does being socially vulnerable make our health more vulnerable? appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

This is a guest blog post by Mahmoud Hassan, doctoral student of Epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Mahmoud is the Editor in Chief of the new IJPH “Young Researcher Editorial” series, to which he introduces us below. You can contact him directly at mahmoud.hassan@swisstph.ch  

Young Researcher Editorial: Open Space for Young Researchers!

Doctoral studies are milestones in every scientist’s career, not only because of career advancement but, also because of building science philosophy, visions, and expertise. I had the passion to undertake research that would advance science and improve peoples’ lives. This indeed necessitates solid thinking of research methods and scientific writing. My objective was to be able to develop reproducible research outcomes into concrete manuscripts that get great acceptance by diverse scientific journals. Nevertheless, the day came and I had started my doctoral studies at the University of Basel. In the first semester I had a course in science writing and, honestly, I got to learn that science writing is a well-defined area with much developments being achieved over-time. During the course, an idea jumped into my mind, it might be a question in fact! Why don’t young researchers step forward and express their ideas, challenges, and views towards their research topics? An answer to this question was hand drafted proposal for an initiative that creates a student-edited journal to help to make this question answerable!

Sometimes, ideas evolve at the right time! This is what I have realized when I got to know that the International Journal of Public Health went miles in the same avenue, they suggested the same concept as part of their continuing innovation and vision of involving, training, and capacitating young researchers.

Dear colleagues, with great blessing and admiration to my colleagues a, I am introducing Young Research Editorial (YRE), a student-edited editorial series of the International Journal of Public Health (IJPH)- where young researchers will contribute editorials reflecting their personal experience and views in various public health domains. The authors are doctoral students and first-year post-docs from all over the world.

Young Researcher Editorial series is managed by editorial board formed of doctoral students from the Swiss School of Public Health + (SSPH+). Authors are encouraged to get in touch and propose editorials and we will work together to create a fantastic piece of work. We are looking forward to hosting your contributions in our pages!

* You can find detailed information about this new series by clicking here! 

The post Introducing a new IJPH series! Young Researcher Editorial: Open Space for Young Researchers! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

Could you be the next Senior Editor of the International Journal of Public Health? We are recruiting and are looking for people based in Switzerland!

See the full details for this unique opportunity here and apply by October 15th, 2017!

The post Looking for candidates for the position of Senior Editor for IJPH! appeared first on International Journal of Public Health.

picture credit: Mark Reldy under Creative Commons Licence 

We are happy to post the press release for our recently published Supplement entitled “The state of health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990–2015”.”

Mental illness, suicide, and ‘intractable violence’ creating ‘lost generation’ in Middle East

Severe challenges at the nexus of health, environmental resilience, and social and economic equity

Need for funding and training of public health practitioners

SEATTLE (7 August 2017) – Suicide, homicide, and sexual assault are increasing much faster in the Eastern Mediterranean Region than any other region in the world, according to a new scientific study. These violent acts, as well as conflicts, accounted for more than 200,000 deaths in the region in 2015.

“Intractable and endemic violence is creating a lost generation of children and young adults,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, the study’s lead author and the Director for Middle Eastern Initiatives at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. “The future of the Middle East is grim unless we can find a way to bring stability to the region.”

In addition to violence in the region, there has been a sharp increase in non-communicable diseases and mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Depression and anxiety disorders were the most common mental conditions, according to the study, published today in the International Journal of Public Health. Both affect women more than men.

“With globalization and urbanization of most societies, women may be exposed to numerous stressors, which have repercussions on the entire household, and children in particular,” said Dr. Raghid Charara, of American University of Beirut and one of the study’s more than 500 collaborators.

Mental disorders contributed to nearly 11 million years lived in less than ideal health, also known as years lived with disability, or YLDs. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of both mental health practitioners and funding for services.

Throughout the region, the ratio of practitioners to 100,000 people was about seven on average and was as low as 0.5 psychiatrists per 100,000 people in countries such as Libya, Sudan, and Yemen. By comparison, among European nations the ratio ranges from nine per 100,000 to more than 40.

“There must be a comprehensive plan to build on existing expertise and projects addressing health challenges that exist at the nexus of human health, environmental resilience, and social and economic equity,” Dr. Mokdad said.

In 2015, nearly 30,000 people in the region committed suicide and another 35,000 died from interpersonal violence, representing increases of 100% and 152%, respectively, over the past 25 years. In other parts of the world during the same period, the number of deaths from suicide increased 19% and interpersonal violence by 12%.

The study found that hanging and poisoning are the most common methods of suicide in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The authors note that statistics on suicide likely are underestimated due to cultural and religious barriers, social stigma, and legal punishments that discourage victims, families, and governments from disclosing such information.

The 15 papers and three editorials that constitute the study are based on the most recent estimates from the annual Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study (GBD), a systematic, scientific effort to quantify the magnitude of health loss from all major diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and population. With more than 2,300 collaborators in 132 countries and 3 non-sovereign locations, GBD examines 300-plus diseases and injuries.

This is the first GBD study to examine trends of HIV/AIDS-related mortality comprehensively in the region between 1990 and 2015. There was a 10-fold increase in HIV/AIDS mortality rates, with most of the cases occurring in three nations – Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan.

“In this region, individuals infected with HIV are dying faster than the rest of the world,” said Dr. Charbel El Bcheraoui, an Assistant Professor at IHME. “This is a sign that that that that HIV patients are not receiving proper treatment in an era where HIV can be well controlled with the appropriate treatment regimens.”

In addition, this study was the first ever to report on transportation-related deaths and injuries in the region between 1990 and 2015. In 2015, these incidents comprised the eighth leading cause of death in the region overall, but were ranked second in Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The percentage of total deaths in Qatar was the highest at 20%, followed by Oman (16%) and UAE (14%), whereas the lowest rates were in Pakistan (1.9%), Lebanon (1.8%), and Somalia (1.5%). Death rates from this cause in the region have not fallen as quickly as they have globally, and, in fact, three countries – Libya, Pakistan, and Egypt – had increases in death rates.

“Transportation-related injuries and deaths are just as much a public health issue as HIV or diabetes,” said Dr. Mokdad. “And like HIV and diabetes, prevention measures, combined with education and treatment, are vital to mitigating this problem.”

Other highlights of the report include:

• Ischemic heart disease was the leading cause of death in the region followed by cerebrovascular disease. Changes in total deaths ranged from a reduction of 65% for diarrheal diseases to an increase of nearly 140% for diabetes and tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer.

• Progress on child survival remains uneven, and total deaths for children under the age of 5 decreased at a slower rate than globally, with about 80% of under-5 deaths occurring in six countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen. Three countries – Sudan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – are among the 10 countries with the highest child mortality in the world.

• The top five causes of under-5 mortality were: neonatal preterm birth complications, neonatal encephalopathy, lower respiratory tract infections (LRI), congenital defects, and diarrheal diseases.

• Communicable diseases and the health consequences of natural disasters reduced substantially between 1990 and 2015. However, these gains have been offset by the health effects of war mental health disorders and self-harm.

• Among adolescents, tobacco use and high body mass index were common health risks; many countries had high rates of adolescent pregnancy and unmet need for contraception.

• Poor diet is the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in the region. People in many countries are suffering from malnutrition and at the same time from poor diet that is leading to disease. In addition, tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are among the top causes of DALYs.

• The region also has wide variation in per capita gross national product (GNP), ranging from a high of $134,420 in Qatar to a low of $2,000 in Afghanistan.

• The proportion of the population living below the national poverty line, according to World Bank data, is more than 20% in seven EMR countries: Afghanistan (36%), Egypt (22%), Iraq (23%), Pakistan (22%), Palestine (22%), Sudan (47%), and Yemen (35%). In five of these countries, approximately one-third of the population is also food-insecure: Afghanistan (34%), Iraq (30%), Pakistan (30%), Sudan (33%), and Yemen (36%).

• Several countries in the region face significant environmental challenges due to lack of water, rising temperatures, and sand storms. The paper calls for renewed efforts to address problems associated with ambient air pollution.

“In recent years, many of the health gains for some countries have slowed and several health conditions that were under control are re-emerging, said Dr. Mokdad. “This study clearly indicates that the future health of the region is in danger.”

The Eastern Mediterranean Region is home to more than 600 million people, representing a diverse group of 22 countries: Afghanistan, Arab Republic of Egypt, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Republic of Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic (Syria), Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The complete set of papers and data visualizations are available at www.healthdata.org.

Media Contacts:

IHME

Dean R. Owen, +1-206-897-2858 (office); +1-206-434-5630 (cell); dean1227@uw.edu

Established in 2007, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center within UW Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. IHME provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world’s most important health problems and evaluates strategies to address them. IHME makes this information available so that policymakers, donors, practitioners, researchers, and local and global decision-makers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions about how to allocate resources to improve population health. For more information, visit www.healthdata.org.

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