Students to present at national public health conference

Research posters by students at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health (SRPH) were selected for the Delta Omega National Honorary Society research poster presentation at the American Public Health Association annual meeting, Nov. 2-6, 2013 in Boston.

A total of 19 research posters were chosen nationwide for this distinction, three of which will be presented by TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health students.

“Each spring, our school hosts a student research poster contest from which the winners of the top three posters are invited to submit their abstracts for consideration at the Delta Omega National Honorary Society poster session,” said Jean Brender, Ph.D., R.N., associate dean for research. “We are really excited that all three poster submissions were accepted to this national poster session, a ‘first’ for our school.”

The posters selected for the APHA annual meeting include “Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior Following a Pesticide Education Intervention in Webb County, Texas” by Jennifer Ross, M.S., which discusses how pesticide related health education interventions may lead to lasting knowledge increases among participants. It also highlights how these interventions can have a persistent impact on the attitudes and behaviors of participants.

In addition, Niel Dalal, M.B.B.S., will present “Sex Related Differences in Cigarette Smoking Disclosure and Serum Cotinine Levels.” His study details why cigarette smoking is not an accurate measure of tobacco exposure. Dalal finds that nondisclosure of the smoking status was significantly higher in male smokers than female smokers. He also reports that sex related differences exist in serum cotinine levels among smokers suggesting that self-reports may overestimate the tobacco exposure and risk of associated diseases in women compared with men.

The final presenter, Chinedum Ojinnaka, M.B.B.S., in “Factors associated with self-reported barriers to colonoscopy among low-income/underserved patients in a family medicine setting,” will report how patients receiving colonoscopy at the Texas A&M Family Medicine Clinic through Texas C-STEP, a CPRIT-funded colorectal cancer prevention program, identified barriers that prevented them from obtaining a colorectal cancer screening. She highlights that embarrassment, lack of knowledge, and fear of finding cancer may contribute to inadequate colorectal cancer screening rates.