News from the School of Public Health

Infant mortality rates in Maryland are highest for African American and rural infants, and researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health are helping the state determine why.

Faculty from the Department of Family Science and the Maryland Center for Health Equity are embarking on a year-long study for the Maryland Health Care Commission analyzing risk factors for infant mortality, examining the use of community health workers and pregnancy navigators and cataloging what innovative health programs already exist.

One of the early acts of new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt was to reverse the 2015 federal ban on chlorpyrifos, a dangerous pesticide proven to harm children and developing fetuses. This reversal—challenged by Maryland and other states—was overruled last summer but a lift on the ban is currently being reconsidered in U.S. appeals court.

The Support Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment (SAFE) Center for Human Trafficking Survivors will become part of the School of Public Health this month.

After psychiatric hospitalization, follow-up appointments are key for helping patients re-acclimate to normal life, manage their medications and avoid readmission. But not all hospitals are successful at getting their patients to engage in follow-up treatment.

Associate Professor Jie Chen and doctoral student Ivy Benjenk examined two factors that can affect hospitals’ follow-up rates: the hospitals’ organizational structures and the neighborhoods they serve.

When children are exposed to air pollution, it can harm not just their lungs but the development of their brains, too.

Exposure to air pollutants related to combustion, which come primarily from burning fossil fuels, is linked to autism, ADHD, memory deficits and lowered intelligence in children, among other outcomes.

After psychiatric hospitalization, follow-up appointments are key for helping patients re-acclimate to normal life, manage their medications and avoid readmission. But not all hospitals are successful at getting their patients to engage in follow-up treatment.

Associate Professor Jie Chen and doctoral student Ivy Benjenk examined two factors that can affect hospitals’ follow-up rates: the hospitals’ organizational structures and the neighborhoods they serve.