School Notes: School of Public Health
November/December 2012

Health and social networks

To better understand the relationship between social networks and health, researchers at the School of Public Health are turning to modern technology—in the form of smartphones—to monitor the flow of information among dozens of people and discover how this influences health outcomes such as substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.

The study will focus on existing social networks in three New Haven neighborhoods—consisting of a total of 120 men ranging in age from 18 to 25 years old—and follow their cell phone activity over a period of several months. Each participant’s physical location will be tracked through global positioning, and a computer program that interfaces with the phones will register all incoming and outgoing calls and text messages.

Fieldwork for state educators

Ten Connecticut middle- and high-school science teachers slogged through area woodlands and wetlands earlier this year in search of tiny quarry: mosquito larvae. The educators were part of a weeklong summer institute studying insect-borne diseases that are expanding into the United States, including dengue fever, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis, and how their ranges are being affected by climate variables, particularly temperature and precipitation. Drawing upon their experiences in the field and the lab, the teachers are now collaborating on the development of a science curriculum that immerses students in the dynamics of disease transmission and generates interest in the biological sciences. The program, led by YSPH senior research scientist Leonard E. Munstermann, is funded by a five-year National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Award.

Low birth weight, discrimination linked

New research from the Yale School of Public Health finds that chronic, everyday instances of discrimination against pregnant, urban women of color may play a significant role in contributing to babies with low birth weight. Twice as many black women give birth to low birth weight babies than white or Latina women in the United States. While the reasons for this disparity remain unclear, initial evidence suggests a link may exist between discrimination experienced while pregnant and the incidence of low birth weight. In addition, experiences of discrimination have also been linked to depression, which causes physiological changes that can have a negative effect on a pregnancy.