Brown School

The Institute for Public Health will host its inaugural symposium on Friday, Sept. 5, at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Medical Campus. The overall goal of the event is to raise awareness of public-health research and service activities currently conducted at the University.

The new Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis will host its inaugural symposium on Sept. 5 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Medical Campus. The conference symposium will begin at 8:30 a.m. with an overview of the Institute. The overall goal of the event is to raise awareness of public health research and service activities currently conducted at the University.

“We are headed into a time when a confluence of changes are going to lead to a perfect storm, making us finally realize that our health care system needs a major overhaul,” says Timothy D. McBride, Ph.D., leading health economist and professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. “As the elderly population doubles between now and about 2030, projections are that we will see at least a doubling of the costs of the federal and state health and retirement programs,” he says. “That will likely be when the perfect storm hits. But if we miss it then, we will likely have missed all the storm clouds for the foreseeable future.”

Timothy McBride, Ph.D., professor, has been named the first associate dean for public health at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

Therapies, rehabilitation and specialty medical care are just a few of the extra costs parents face when raising children with special needs. In a new study published in Pediatrics, Paul T. Shattuck, Ph.D., professor of social work, found that families with similar demographics and nature of their children’s special needs have different out-of-pocket health expenditures depending on the state in which they live.

Providing fruits for snacks and serving vegetables at dinner can shape a preschooler’s eating patterns for his or her lifetime. To combat the increasing problem of childhood obesity, researchers are studying how to get preschoolers to eat more fruits and vegetables. According to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, one way is early home interventions — teaching parents how to create an environment where children reach for a banana instead of potato chips.

Providing fruits for snacks and serving vegetables at dinner can shape a preschooler’s eating patterns for his or her lifetime. To combat the increasing problem of childhood obesity, researchers are studying how to get preschoolers to eat more fruits and vegetables. According to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, one way is early home interventions — teaching parents how to create an environment where children reach for a banana instead of potato chips.

For the first time, doctoral students on both the Danforth and School of Medicine campuses may apply for subsidies to help defray the cost of child day care.

In a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, Paul T. Shattuck, Ph.D., professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, found that families with similar demographics and nature of their children’s special needs have different out-of-pocket health expenditures depending on the state in which they live. “This is one of the few studies that focuses on families’ costs when caring for children with special needs, rather than the overall cost for society as a whole,” he says. Shattuck notes that wealthier states tend to have a lower average extra cost for caring for a child with special needs. “At the low end, families in Massachusetts paid an average of $560 for out-of-pocket medical expenses,” he says. “At the high end, families in Georgia shouldered an average of $970 in additional care expenses.” Editor’s note: Video and a complete rankings table are available.

More than 1,000 Oklahoma babies have received a $1,000 jump-start on saving for college, thanks to SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK), a seven-year study designed to determine the economic and educational impact of “seeding” a college savings account for children at birth. SEED OK is a collaboration between the Oklahoma State Treasurer and the Center for Social Development at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.