To avoid stress fractures, runners often guard against running too fast or too long or accelerating their training too quickly. But according to a new study from the University of Maryland School of Public Health, running fast doesn’t cause any more strain on a person’s shin bones than running at a slower pace does.

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.

“No TV or internet for a week!”

“Don’t touch the phone until your homework is done.”

“Wouldn’t you rather talk to your friends in person instead of over text?”

Ever heard, or said, any of these things?

Too often, reducing screen time is the go-to solution in families battling media overuse. But another approach might be needed as it gets harder for any of us to escape screens, according to a University of Maryland expert.

Six years ago, the University of Maryland enacted a campus-wide smoking ban, but the policy wasn’t quite 100% smoke and tobacco-free. 

The 2013 ban allowed four designated smoking areas on campus and the policy did not include language that explicitly restricts the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (known often as vapes, vape pens and e-cigarettes), which have recently surged in popularity with teens and young adults. 

This story was originally published in Maryland Today on Thursday, Oct. 17, and written by Sala Levin.

Deanna Barath, a doctoral student in health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, published her first first-author publication with the help of her advisor Dr.

Despite the ever-increasing reach of the web, less minority and low-income individuals are represented in internet and mobile-based research than in more traditional research. 

Research led by the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health sought ways to diversify survey participants. The study was published in Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications.

Social media presents a promising opportunity for promoting public health, but as bots and trolls become an increasingly large part of the online landscape, public health researchers, practitioners and communicators need to have the right knowledge and tools to combat the spread of misinformation by these malicious actors online.

Concerns about safety can discourage youth of color, particularly girls and those in low-income neighborhoods, from engaging in “active transportation,” like walking, biking or taking public transportation, according to new research from the University of Maryland School of Public Health published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

New research from the University of Maryland School of Public Health estimates that Hurricane Maria led to 1,205 "excess deaths" in Puerto Rico in September and October 2017.