Citation

D'Agostino EM. Prev. Med. 2019; 121: 105-108.

Affiliation

Miami-Dade County Department of Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces, Miami, FL, USA. Electronic address: Emily.Dagostino@miamidade.gov.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.02.014

PMID

30753859

Abstract

Adolescents are at a unique developmental stage that is well-primed for epidemiology instruction. Although a handful of pioneers have focused on expanding epidemiology instruction to teen audiences, there are still no systematic efforts in the United States to attain this goal. In this paper I posit that epidemiologists and other public health professionals are critical to this effort. Epidemiologists from public health agencies, academia and non-profit organizations can engage in partnerships with schools, such as by offering internships and pairing graduate students/mentees with teachers and adolescent learners. Through these efforts, we can leverage teens' natural interests in risk taking, health and wellness, and community change to learn population-level thinking. I posit that these measures can enhance the future of public health disciplines, and also encourage widespread understanding of epidemiologic findings by the population at large.

Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescent; Curriculum; Epidemiologists; Schools; Students