Journal of Public Health Management and Practice

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September/October 2023 - Volume 29 - Issue 5

  • Lloyd F. Novick, MD, MPH
    Associate Editor: Justin B. Moore, PhD, MS
  • 1078-4659
  • 1550-5022
  • 6 issues / year
  • Public, Environmental, and Occupational Health: 76/180
  • 3.3
Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey 2021 (PH WINS)
Published January/February 2023

The September issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice contains a variety of articles illustrating the current scope of public health activities in the United States including pandemic preparedness, health equity, healthy eating, tobacco control, diabetes management, and COVID-19. The issue also has a number of interesting articles on topics less frequently addressed in the journal such as community health promotion in Mexico, the use of a chatbot to educate mothers, and machine learning to correct self-report anthropometric measures.

If you're not a “cover to cover" journal reader, a few articles should rise to the top of your summer reading list. The first is by Brownson and colleagues entitled, “Understanding Health Equity in Public Health Practice in the United States." In this excellent article, Dr. Brownson and his co-authors present the findings of a mixed-methods study designed to understand the extent to which equity-focused work is occurring in public health departments. Their data suggest considerable room for enhancing health equity practices in the United States.

A second article worth a look is by Heran Mane and associates entitled, “Practical Guidance for the Development of Rosie, a Health Education Question-and-Answer Chatbot for New Mothers." Ms. Mane and her team describe their project in which they worked for more than three years to engage community members to create Rosie, a free question-answering chatbot available for pregnant and new mothers of color. The results suggest high levels of interest in the chatbot and its potential to address disparities in access to pregnancy-related health information.

Finally, I recommend reading, “Diabetes Self-management Education and Support Completion Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from Local Health Departments in North Carolina" by Huabin Luo. Dr. Luo and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of 2017-2021 diabetes self-management education and support data at two health departments in eastern North Carolina. They found that completion rates were very low but that the format which delivered the content through two 4-hour sessions had a higher completion rate than the four 2-hour sessions.



Lloyd F. Novick, MD, MPH                                                      Justin B. Moore, PhD, MS

Editor-in-Chief                                                                       Associate Editor


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