For the past three years, Viacheslav “Slava” Fofanov and other Northern Arizona University researchers have been studying tooth decay in 350 preschoolers in northern Arizona to see if they are affected by the acidic bacteria in their oral “microbiome.” They will soon begin working both in southern Arizona in Yuma County… Read more
CHER Director, Julie Baldwin, is a member of the Committee on Accelerating Progress to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities. The committee authored the Consensus Study Report Getting to Zero Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities: A Comprehensive Approach to a Persistent Problem, which was the topic of KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny’s interview with Julie Baldwin. The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report calls for stricter blood alcohol concentration laws in an effort to reduce impaired driving injuries and fatalities.
KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny’s interview with… Read more
PINE, the Alumni Magazine of Northern Arizona University has featured the Center for Health Equity Research in the Fall 2017 edition. The article reflects the center’s objective of addressing health disparities unique to Arizona’s rural and minority populations through research. This research emphasizes factors that contribute to health inequities like social, economic, and cultural factors. Public health based projects established during the center’s first year include an assessment of well-being in northern Arizona, a study of Arizona’s Health Start… Read more
CHER Director, Julie Baldwin, is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers awarded a grant from the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission to investigate why Arizona preschoolers suffer from tooth decay at a much higher rate than the national average. Rural northern Arizona, in particular, has a troublingly high rate of tooth decay among preschoolers aged 2 to 5 years. The team will collaborate with SMART Smiles and First Things First to sequence the genomes of bacteria collected from plaque samples… Read more
New Research shows teenagers are less likely to become parents before the age of 18 if they have strong family and community ties. CHER Director Julie Baldwin, coauthor of this study, says, “Feeling close to others in school, living in a two-parent home, and participation in volunteering or community service were all associated with a reduced chance of pregnancy.” These social factors are often overlooked in programs designed to prevent teen pregnancy.
