, professor and chair of music education in the UW School of Music, has been given a by Seattle public television station KCTS for her work on the musical education of children. The annual awards honor successful teaching models and programs in Washington state.

Campbell, also a professor of ethnomusicology, is the author and editor of several books, and most recently edited a seven-book series, “World Music Pedagogy,” for Routledge.

In February, Campbell delivered a virtual series of four keynote presentations on world music pedagogy for the National Association for Music Education. She will deliver the keynote address for the virtual 12th聽annual conference of the Pan African Society for Musical Arts Education in July.

at the School of Music website, and watch a of Campbell talking about teaching “the beauty of music” to children, produced by KCTS.

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Society of Behavioral Medicine gives Barbara Baquero a 2021 Leading the Narrative Award

The Society of Behavioral Medicine has given , UW associate professor in the School of Public Health’s Department of Health Services, one of its 2021 .

The award, one of two given each year by the society, recognizes community engagement and successfully communicating behavioral science to the general public.

Baquero researches the design and implementation of community-based interventions to reduce health disparities and advance health equity among underserved populations.

Read a co-authored by Baquero for the journal Health Education & Behavior noting that the coronavirus has disproportionately affected the Latinx population of Washington state.

Fewer than half of inmates in jails and prisons surveyed in a study by the CDC and 天美影视传媒 said they would accept a COVID-19 vaccine, while the majority either said they wanted to wait before getting the vaccine or would refuse one.

鈥淭his is a population already at risk for COVID-19, and outbreaks among incarcerated people can worsen inequities in COVID-19 outcomes as well as contribute to spread in the surrounding community,鈥� said lead author , affiliate assistant professor of health services in the UW School of Public Health. 鈥淪o culturally and health-literacy informed interventions are needed to help them feel more confident about getting vaccinated.鈥�

The study conducted by CDC researchers and led by Stern was published Wednesday on the CDC鈥檚 . The researchers surveyed more than 5,000 inmates, men and women, in late 2020 from three prisons and 13 jails in Washington, California, Florida and Texas.

Among those asked about their willingness to receive a vaccine, only 45% said they were willing. More than 45% said they would refuse, and nearly 10% said they might or weren鈥檛 sure they would receive it.

The most common reasons the participants gave for vaccine hesitancy fell into the response categories of waiting for more information or to see others take it first, and efficacy or safety concerns. The most common reason for given for refusal was distrust of the health care system, correctional or government personnel and institutions.

The survey was conducted before vaccines were available, but at the time Black and younger respondents were the least willing to get the vaccine. The researchers added that a lower willingness to receive a vaccine among Black participants was 鈥渘ot unexpected given historical mistreatment and higher rates of distrust鈥� of these institutions.

鈥淧eople of color are subject to a 鈥榙ouble whammy鈥� 鈥� they are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 and they are disproportionately incarcerated, living in facilities where they are more likely to become infected,鈥� Stern said.

鈥淚 hope this study sheds light on the need to find ways of assuring high levels of vaccination of incarcerated individuals,鈥� Stern added, 鈥渘ot just for their own health, but for the health of the community. Vaccinating incarcerated individuals not only decreases the risk that officers and other staff will bring COVID-19 home to their family, friends and community, it is also an efficient way to vaccinate a large number of people who are otherwise hard for public health providers to reach once they return to their communities.鈥�

Co-authors include Alexandra Piasecki, Priti Patel, Rena Fukunaga and Nathan Furukawa from the CDC COVID-19 Response Team; Poornima Rajeshwar, Erika Tyagi and Sharon Dolovich from University of California, Los Angeles; and k, at the UW and the Washington State Department of Corrections.

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For more information, contact Stern at mfstern@uw.edu.

With Latinos 1.5 times to have dementia than non-Latino whites, among other health , researchers at the 天美影视传媒 are hoping to better understand Latino family caregivers and adapt the training available to those caregivers.

To do that, the UW Department of Health Services is seeking to interview Latino caregivers for a study to increase the cultural relevance of聽training 鈥� a non-pharmacological intervention endorsed by the that trains caregivers to manage the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.

鈥淥ur study will improve our understanding of how to adapt an evidence-based intervention for family caregivers of people with dementia. The culturally-adapted intervention is expected to reflect the values and preferences of Latino families,鈥� said , the study鈥檚 principal investigator and an assistant professor of health services in the UW School of Public Health.

鈥淐ulturally adapted interventions improve reach, engagement, effectiveness and sustainability. In the long term, the goal of our research is to help eliminate health inequities among Latino families impacted by dementia,鈥� Ramirez said.

Improved training will focus on helping family caregivers manage some of the challenging behaviors experienced by people with dementia, such as crying, arguing, refusing to accept help and waking family members up at night.

The UW researchers would like to spread the word that they are looking for study participants.

This study would be a good fit for caregivers who:

• Identify as Hispanic/Latino
• Take care of a family member or close friend diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease or other dementia or
• Have a family member or close friend who is experiencing behavior issues

Study participants will complete a 10-minute survey and a one-hour interview by phone or Zoom and will receive $45 as a thank you for participating.

To learn more about the study or to volunteer, contact research coordinator Miriana Duran at聽mdp19@uw.edu聽or 206-221-6206.

This research is being supported by a grant from the nonprofit Alzheimer鈥檚 Association.

Older adults throughout Washington are increasingly isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenged by the even greater reliance on technology and often neglecting chronic health conditions, according to new research from the 天美影视传媒.

And though senior-services agencies are adapting and innovating to meet the needs, researchers say a lack of consistent funding, coupled with the general uncertainty of the pandemic, could destabilize the care system for the state鈥檚 older adults.

鈥淭he web of services in the aging network is so critical and during the pandemic a lot of nonprofits are struggling. But the people they serve are at particular risk, because we already had a growing crisis of isolation among older adults,鈥� said , assistant professor of social work at the UW and the study鈥檚 lead author.

The , funded by a UW Population Health Initiative grant, is the result of interviews with leaders of nearly four dozen organizations around the state during July and August 鈥� just as COVID-19 cases spiked, many lockdown restrictions remained in place, and the social and physical effects of the first few months of quarantines became apparent.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eight in 10 deaths from COVID-19 occur in people ages 65 and older. Berridge and her team, all UW faculty and doctoral students who study aging from health and policy-related fields, wanted to examine how Washington鈥檚 older adults were faring through the lens of the agencies that serve them, so as to inform future policy and budget decisions around social services.

Washington is home to an estimated 1.7 million people over age 60, and a variety of public and private entities that serve them, from regional Area Agencies on Aging to smaller community-level organizations and senior centers that offer meals, case management and social activities. UW researchers sought a geographically and demographically diverse sampling of organizations in order to get a broad scope of the needs and how they鈥檙e being addressed.

Among the findings:

• The COVID-19 pandemic has increased social isolation among older adults, primarily due to their higher susceptibility to the disease and the restrictions that encourage them to stay put, with few, if any visitors.
• Not going out also may mean not going to the doctor, affecting physical health. Agency representatives report new or worsening health conditions among older adults.
• Many communities 鈥� low-income older adults; Black, Indigenous and people of color; those with limited English proficiency; and those experiencing homelessness 鈥� are at risk of being overlooked and underserved.
• With so many of life鈥檚 routines moved online during the pandemic 鈥� including medical appointments 鈥� the 鈥渄igital divide,鈥� or lack of Internet access or devices such as phones and laptops, has widened among older adults. And many may not have the resources, or ability or interest to learn, especially among those with dementia or sensory loss.

鈥淭he digital divide has always been there. It just matters so much more now, because everything depends on being online,鈥� Berridge said.

The agencies, in turn, are struggling mainly due to higher costs, falling revenues and an uncertain future. Not every service can be seamlessly transitioned to remote operations; several organizations reported laying off staff, while the volunteer corps has shrunk due to quarantine restrictions and infection risks. Many organizations realized they needed to acquire more resources quickly, whether additional PPE for employees or refrigerators to store meals for delivery. Agencies and their clients in rural areas have been particularly vulnerable to resource shortages and technology gaps.

At the same time, the nature and purpose of these organizations 鈥� knowing and serving their clients 鈥� has been their greatest strength, Berridge said. The sudden shift to remote operations propelled many agencies to collaborate with local businesses or other organizations and come up with creative ways to try to meet the need. Popular innovations included meal delivery in partnership with restaurants and with transit agencies and offering activities such as games and mindfulness exercises over Zoom, Berridge said.

Telemedicine appointments, for example, are helpful to reach isolated seniors but are limited in the scope of conditions that can be managed.

“Telemedicine is a great option for some, but there are certain conditions that cannot be evaluated adequately over a video visit,” said study co-author , an assistant professor of neurology in the UW School of Medicine.

But sustaining such innovations indefinitely, while meeting the health needs of the growing population of older adults, will require budgetary and policy commitments to the state鈥檚 aging network, Berridge said. With technology alone, communities need expanded WiFi access and distribution of devices and the means to instruct older adults in how to use laptops, tablets, phones and apps.

By 2030, in a majority of Washington counties. And while the state is recognized as a leader in elder care, inconsistent funding and the potential impact on health could jeopardize its aging social and health care services sectors鈥� ability to meet the growing need.

鈥淔unding stability is huge. Many of these organizations operate on a shoestring,鈥� Berridge said. 鈥淗aving the funds, knowing they鈥檙e going to be secure, would allow them to maintain their services and to act in more permanent, innovative ways.鈥�

Other co-authors of the study were of the Department of Health Services, of the School of Social Work, and and of the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.

For more information, contact Berridge at clarawb@uw.edu.

Even successful methods for diagnosing, treating and caring for people who are suffering from cancer are not enough without effective, practical tools and guidance for putting those methods into practice.

To bridge this gap between cancer interventions and their implementation within communities across the country, the National Institutes of Health鈥檚 is funding the creation of six implementation science centers focused on cancer control. The creation of these centers are part of NIH鈥檚 to make more therapies available and improve prevention and detection. One of the six centers will be at the UW Department of Health Services, part of the School of Public Health.

鈥淲e have proven health interventions that could significantly reduce the burden of cancer for the 15 million people in the United States who will be diagnosed with cancer over the next decade,鈥� said UW professor and project lead . 鈥淗owever, these interventions have to be implemented 鈥� and implemented well 鈥� for patients and community members to benefit from them. Unfortunately, health care delivery systems often underperform in implementation.鈥�

The UW鈥檚 center 鈥� titled the Optimizing Implementation in Cancer Control Center 鈥� was awarded a five-year, $4.78 million grant聽from the National Cancer Institute. The new center is a strategic collaboration of the UW, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The center will foster collaboration across the three participating institutions 鈥渢o develop the聽knowledge and tools to support optimal implementation of 鈥榳hat works鈥� in preventing, detecting, and treating cancer,鈥� said Weiner, a professor in the UW Department of Global Health.

鈥淥ne of the biggest opportunities in implementation science and cancer control is increasing and improving delivery of effective interventions in settings that include health care systems working in underserved communities,鈥� said co-principal investigator , a professor in the UW Department of Health Services, also in the School of Public Health. 鈥淎nd we are excited to serve those communities through the center鈥檚 research projects and other activities.鈥�

The researchers say the center鈥檚 shared resources and collaborations will more rapidly, efficiently and economically advance the science of implementing proven cancer interventions than a collection of independent studies conducted by researchers in isolation would permit. The center鈥檚 initial studies will focus on optimizing implementation of screening 鈥渆vidence-based interventions鈥� for cervical, colorectal, breast and ovarian cancer.

鈥淗owever, the methods for optimizing 鈥� implementation that the center will develop, test and refine can be applied broadly across the cancer care continuum, for a wide range of cancers,鈥� the researchers wrote in .

, associate investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, is a co-principal investigator in the project.聽, professor of family medicine at the UW School of Medicine, will co-lead the implementation science center.

Other institutions receiving 鈥溾�澛爂rants are the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Oregon Health & Science University, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Washington University in St. Louis.

For more information, contact Weiner at bjweiner@uw.edu or 206-221-7882

Differences in the health of rural residents compared to their urban neighbors are startling. In Washington, for instance, rural residents are one-third more likely to die from intentional self-harm or 13 percent more likely to die from heart disease.

However, while statistics like these help guide public health policy and spending, they can hide even greater health disparities within those rural communities, said , director of the UW School of Public Health’s and a professor in the .

“Populations in rural areas already have suffered disproportionately from a lot of negative health outcomes,鈥� she said. “Then on top of that, they lack the data, capacity and infrastructure to understand and better address those problems.鈥�

Yet, some of the data rural public health officials need to better serve their communities exists but is hard to access and use. So, what gives?

To find out, Bekemeier and her colleagues at the Northwest Center embarked on the : a five-year effort to identify, gather and visualize data in four Northwest states to help rural communities more effectively address health disparities and achieve health equity.

“Rural communities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska face high poverty and are home to large populations of Alaska Native, Native American, Latino and other residents who are often marginalized and impacted by health disparities,鈥� explains the SHARE-NW .

The SHARE-NW project is currently in its third year. The results of the group鈥檚 in a of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

The UW researchers conducted phone interviews in 2018 with officials in the four Northwest states, including staff from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the聽Panhandle Health District in Idaho, the聽Crook County Health Department in Oregon, the聽Wahkiakum County Health Department in Washington and 21 other rural health organizations.

“In our study with rural public health system leaders, we identified barriers to using data, such as 1) lack of easy access to timely data, 2) data quality issues specific to rural and tribal communities, and 3) the inability for rural leaders to use those data,鈥� .

“You may have a very seemingly homogenous population on the face of it,鈥澛爏aid Bekemeier, the study鈥檚 lead author. 鈥淏ut you have small population groups that are very disproportionately impacted by certain issues, and leaders in those communities may not be aware that these problems exist, let alone how deeply individuals are affected.鈥�

For instance, one agency told the researchers: 鈥淲hat immediately comes to mind is our migrant farmworker community, especially with their language barriers and their temporary status in our community 鈥� It鈥檚 really hard to get the data to know who we鈥檙e looking at …鈥�

To address this problem, SHARE-NW is building a readily accessible database and the related visualizations so local health officials can more easily talk about the makeup of their communities, identify local needs and foster data-supported decisions.

“If you have data, you can talk about what the issues are that need to be prioritized,鈥� Bekemeier explained. 鈥淣ow, we鈥檙e focusing on community-specific data for six priority areas that were common across their community health assessments.”

Those areas are: obesity, including physical activity and nutrition/food access; diabetes; tobacco; mental health, including suicide and substance abuse; violence and injury; and oral health, including access to dental care.

“We鈥檙e doing this with them,鈥� she said of the rural health leaders. One of the key elements for creating this robust data and tool set is local participation in not only using the data, but also adding to it from their own local research.

Bekemeier added that the work done at SHARE-NW is also tied into UW’s , a university-wide effort to solve some of the most difficult problems facing communities around the world.

“SHARE-NW is all about building community capacity and bringing information to where it is so deeply needed so that data-driven and community-engaged decisions can be made that will directly affect population-level health disparities and build health equity,” she said.

Other co-authors are , Department of Psychosocial & Community Health, UW School of Nursing; , assistant professor of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership, UW Tacoma; and India Ornelas,聽assistant professor of health services and , professor of health services, both in the Department of Health Services, UW School of Public Health.

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For more information, contact聽Bekemeier at聽bettybek@uw.edu.

The research team analyzed responses collected in a 2010 Washington state survey of more than 24,000 public school students in grades eight through 12. The study found that 14 percent, 11 percent and 9 percent of male students in grades 8, 10, and 12 respectively reported being bullied because of perceived sexual orientation. For female students in those grades, the numbers were 11 percent, 10 percent and 6 percent respectively.

鈥淭hese findings underscore the need for early prevention efforts before 10^th grade,鈥� wrote the authors.

Being bullied because of perceived sexual orientation was linked to lower quality of life scores and increased the odds of depressed mood or consideration of suicide. Moreover, the size of these associations was greater than being bullied for other reasons

鈥漎outh at this age group are extremely vulnerable to the effects of bullying when they are perceived rightly or wrongly to be gay, lesbian or bisexual. The effects are profound for many youth struggling with issues of identity and self-esteem,鈥� said Patrick, principal investigator of the study.

鈥淏ully-prevention or harm-reduction programs must address bullying because of perceived sexual orientation. All youths are entitled to safe school environments and support is essential for those who are most vulnerable to being bullied because of perceived sexual orientation,鈥� the study concluded.

Read the in the American Journal of Public Health.

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