PRCHN researchers publish three papers examining public health concerns

Researchers from the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods (PRCHN) recently published three papers examining how produce prescriptions can alleviate hypertension, challenges of lung cancer screening in federal health centers and community-school fitness programs’ effect on obesity.

“Implementing a produce prescription program for hypertensive patients in safety net clinics”

Kakul Joshi, REACH strategy coordinator and foodNEST project coordinator, and Erika S. Trapl, associate director of PRCHN and associate professor for the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, co-wrote a paper. It was published in Health Promotion Practice and titled “Implementing a produce prescription program for hypertensive patients in safety net clinics.” Read their paper in Health Promotion Practice.

“Challenges implementing lung cancer screening in federally qualified health centers”

Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “Challenges implementing lung cancer screening in federally qualified health centers” studies how to conduct lung cancer screenings in public health centers, which can have few resources to support a large, fairly unhealthy community. Sue Flock, associate director of PRCHN and professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, co-wrote the paper. Read the paper in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“We Run This City: impact of a community–school fitness program on obesity, health, and fitness”

Trapl co-authored another paper, this time with Elaine Borawski, the director and principal investigator of PRCHN and the Angela Bowen Williamson Professor of Community Nutrition. Published in Preventing Chronic Disease, the work is titled “We run this city: impact of a community–school fitness program on obesity, health, and fitness” and chronicles the effects of the We Run This City Youth Marathon program on the community’s level of physical activity and resulting fitness. This journal is published by the Center for Disease Control. Read the paper in Preventing Chronic Disease.