This month’s episode tackles a fascinating combination of topics involving the impact of biological and social factors on chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, and the prevention and treatment efforts for those chronic diseases through state and local government programs.

We spoke to Lindsay Fernández-Rhodes, Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health and the Director of Epidemiology and Genetics across Populations & Societies Laboratory at Penn State, and Amy Flaherty, Director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Bureau of Health Promotion and Risk Reduction in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Department of Health, about public health, epidemiology, prevention work, and the influence of genetics and our environment on our health. 

Resources and Additional Information

• Amy mentions the Chronic Disease Burden Report that her Bureau released earlier in 2021.
• Additionally, Amy discusses the National Diabetes Program, which has been in effect since 2010. For more information about obesity related programs, check out the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s website and Center on Disease Control’s website.
• Amy talks about the State Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) grant, which is a five-year state investment that improve nutrition and support safe and accessible physical activity. She discusses the Healthy Pantry Initiative, a partnership with Feeding Pennsylvania, which helps to increase healthier options at food pantries across Pennsylvania, and WalkWorks, an initiative between the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center that supports the development and adoption of active transportation plans or related policies.
• “Much of Lindsay’s work focuses on Latino communities and community-based cohorts. She mentions the article ‘Demographic and sociocultural risk factors for adulthood weight gain in Hispanic/Latinos: results from the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)’ as a particular example of her work in this space. This website provides a longer description of the public health parable and how going ‘upstream’ can address health inequities.”

The transcript is available here.