Feb. 3, 2021
After starting at Hampton University, Amber Wynne quickly realized that many of her fellow students had trouble acquiring basic menstrual products. But she didn’t know just how profound the issue was until the coronavirus hit.
Wynne, a 21-year-old studying health-science policy administration at the historically Black university in Virginia, had been spearheading a proposal to increase access to menstrual products at the school, where she said availability was limited. But as widespread stay-at-home orders depleted supplies of basic necessities from store shelves when the coronavirus hit, Wynne’s peers began reaching out to her for help.
Wynne began distributing menstrual products through an emergency reproductive health hotline, a student-driven initiative which offers
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IMAGE: Dr. Kenneth Griffin led the study that found that this prevention program effectively reduced unwanted sexual contact among Air Force Cadets. view more
Credit: George Mason University
Sexual assault and sexual harassment are significant problems in the U.S. military and military service academies in the United States. In 2018, 15.8% of female and 2.4% of male cadets and midshipmen across the military service academies reported unwanted sexual contact in the past year. This unwanted behavior can contribute to a variety of negative mental and behavioral health outcomes.
While the military service academies have implemented multiple sexual assault prevention programs and social marketing campaigns to improve awareness of and response to sexual assault, prevention initiatives have been hindered by an absence of evidence from rigorous research about what works.
Period poverty, a lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, and other unmet menstrual health needs can have far-reaching consequences for women and girls in the United States and globally.
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IMAGE: Dr. Jhumka Gupta, an associate professor at George Mason University s College of Health and Human Services, was the senior author on the study. view more
Credit: George Mason University
Period poverty, a lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, and other unmet menstrual health needs can have far-reaching consequences for women and girls in the United States and globally.
New research led by George Mason University s College of Health and Human Services found that more than 14% of college women experienced period poverty in the past year, and 10% experienced period poverty every month. Women who experienced period poverty every month (68%) or in the past year (61.2%) were more likely to experience moderate or severe depression than those who did not experience period poverty (43%).
Previous studies have found that e-cigarette use is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, and adverse health outcomes. Also, smokers with disabilities are less likely to receive advice from their physicians to stop smoking, explains Gimm. Our study shows that adults with disabilities are a high-risk group for e-cigarette use and therefore at greater risk for adverse health outcomes.
Gimm and colleagues assessed e-cigarette use among 560,858 working age adults (18-64 years) with and without disabilities by using data from the 2017-2018 Behavioral Risk Factor and Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. With a nationally representative sample, they estimated the prevalence of e-cigarette use among adults by type of disability.