As the nation grapples with the ongoing opioid crisis, the public health community had been working to expand access to much-needed treatment.

But when opioid abuse coincides with mental illness -- as it often does -- less is known about the effect the dual diagnosis has on outcomes and what specialized treatment it might require.

Exercise training alters brain blood flow and improves cognitive performance in older adults, though not in the way you might think.

A new study published by the University of Maryland School of Public Health researchers in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease showed that exercise was associated with improved brain function in a group of adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and a decrease in the blood flow in key brain regions.

Exercise training alters brain blood flow and improves cognitive performance in older adults, though not in the way you might think. A new study published by the University of Maryland School of Public Health researchers in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease showed that exercise was associated with improved brain function in a group of adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and a decrease in the blood flow in key brain regions.

Dr. Jie Chen, an associate professor of health services administration at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, has received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Aging for a study titled, “Effect of Hospital and Community Care Coordination on Health Care Access, Quality and Equity among Individuals with Risk Factors or Diagnosis of ADRD.” 

Young women in sub-Saharan Africa are at a disproportionately high risk for HIV infection.

Engagement in transactional sex may contribute to this increased HIV prevalence according to a new report published by UNAIDS with STRIVE, a research partner consortium, which addresses the Structural Drivers of HIV/AIDS.

The Maryland Center for Health Equity (M-CHE) has been selected as the APHA Public Health Education and Health Promotion (PHEHP) Section’s 2018 Health Equity Award recipient. The award honors individuals or organizations that have worked to eliminate health disparities and improve health equity through advances in health education or communication. Dr. Stephen B. Thomas, professor of Health Services Administration and M-CHE director, will accept the award on behalf of the center at the APHA annual meeting in San Diego during the PHEHP Awards Luncheon.

Assistant Professor Devon Payne-Sturges has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) K01 Career Development Award for a project focused on how combined exposure to environmental and social stressors affects child neurological development. The three-year grant from the NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences totals more than $400,000.

A group of six University of Maryland students, accompanied by Behavioral and Community Health Research Professor Dina Borzekowski and UMD affiliate and master educator Tina Lipscomb, traveled to Sierra Leone in June to continue the work that the UMD Public Health Without Borders group began back in 2014. The ten-day trip was the fourth visit of UMD students to Calaba Town, a community on the Western coast near the country’s capital of Freetown.

New research published in the journal Medical Care by Associate Professor Jie Chen (Health Services Administration) looks at the roles of local health departments in promoting mental health in reducing 30-day re-admission rates in Maryland. Thirty-day re-admission rates are  a statistic considered as a quality measure under Medicare’s Readmissions Reduction Program. When hospitals exceed their targeted re-admission rate, they receive a financial penalty from Medicare.