Department of Social and Behavioral Health News
Housed in the UNLV School of Public Health, the Department of Social and Behavioral Health consists of faculty who engage in research and develop and evaluate community-based programs that promote health and disease prevention. Our students learn to identify high-risk behaviors or trends in specific populations, as well as propose solutions that aim to improve overall public health in communities.
Current Social and Behavioral Health News
News highlights featuring UNLV students and staff who made (refreshing) waves in the headlines.
A collection of news stories highlighting UNLV’s dedication to community and research.
The Outstanding Faculty Award winner has spent over 40 years helping us understand health behavior.
The research expert recently received a $3.5M grant to conduct a study on LGBTQIA+ caregivers of dementia patients and their experiences.
Manoj Sharma receives Community Engagement Award for his work to provide access and delivery of health care to marginalized groups.
A roundup of news stories highlighting UNLV faculty and students who made headlines locally, nationally, and globally.
Social and Behavioral Health In The News
Recent news reports point to the rising cases of whooping cough or pertussis in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pertussis cases were lower than usual during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, as of week 39, reported on September 28, 2024, more than five times as many cases have been reported, compared to the same time in 2023. Several states have issued warnings about this trend on their websites. This summer, there was a pertussis outbreak among college students in the Lynchburg area of Virginia.
American scientists have suggested that people identifying as a sexual or gender minority (LGBTQ+) have a higher likelihood of adverse brain health outcomes, according to cross-sectional data.
People who identified as a sexual or gender minority (LGBTQ+) had a higher likelihood of adverse brain health outcomes, cross-sectional data showed.
A recent news story in the media claimed that frequent coffee drinkers may be risking their hearts. Is that true? Is caffeine, the active ingredient in coffee, injurious to health? What is the current evidence regarding caffeine on health? We examine some of these questions closely.
In Eastern philosophy, all entities in nature, including human beings, are made of three qualities or gunas: rajas (passion, activity, change, creation), sattva (goodness, harmony, purity, preservation), and tamas (darkness, chaos, inertia, destruction). In an apple tree, there are three kinds of fruits that denote these three gunas: there are ripening fruits (rajas), there are ripe fruits (sattva) and there are overripe fruits (tamas). In human beings, also there are people full of passion and energy (domination of rajas), people in harmony and purity (domination of sattva) and people who are lazy and full of inertia (domination of tamas).
Mpox (previously known as monkeypox but later determined to be a misnomer) is a serious disease that has recently been causing concern around the world. What is Mpox? It is an infectious viral disease that can exhibit mild symptoms but can also become fatal. The typical symptoms are rash all over the body (like chicken pox showing small bumps), fever with chills, headache, body ache, swollen lymph nodes, and general malaise.