John S. Luque

In late 2013, I attended and presented at APHA in Boston and AACR-Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Atlanta. At APHA, I presented our work to review barber-based health promotion, which is an Epub ahead of print in the Journal of Community Health. At AACR, we had two posters presenting our work on the Salud es Vida project funded by NCI to test the efficacy of a promotora program to increase Pap tests among Latina farmworker women in SE Georgia. At both conferences, the work was well received, and we were able to identify and network with colleagues doing similar work. At APHA, the Cancer Forum is going strong, and I will continue to work with the forum for the 2014 New Orleans APHA conference.

On a sad note, one of our promotoras passed away from cancer, Rosalina Mendes, pictured here receiving her training certificate. She will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with her friends and family.

A collaborative study including Dr. John Luque, Dr. Levi Ross at Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health Georgia Southern University and Dr. Clement Gwede at Moffitt Cancer Center authored a Qualitative Systematic Review of Barber-Administered Health Education, Promotion, Screening and Outreach Programs in African-American Communities in the Journal of Community Health. The barbershop has been portrayed as a culturally appropriate venue for reaching Black men with health information and preventive health screenings to overcome institutional and socio-cultural barriers.

Full story here

Two professors from Georgia Southern University are on campus at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)  in Bethesda, Md., for two weeks at the NIH National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Translational Health Disparities course. Simone Charles, Ph.D., professor of environmental health sciences and John Luque, Ph.D., professor of community health from the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health were accepted as scholars for the research program. Only 20 percent of national applicants were invited to attend the NIH course.

The course will provide specialized instruction on the concepts, principles, methods and applications of health disparities science, evidence-based practice, community-engagement and policy. “To participate in this prestigious course and be recognized as a researcher with the potential and deep commitment to addressing health disparities is indeed an honor,” explained Charles. “The course offers fresh perspectives and opportunities for collaborations around championing public health as an issue of social justice.”

See full GSU News Story

Dr. Juan Luque, assistant professor at Georgia Southern University Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, and the Communication for Change class partner annually with the Southeast Georgia Communities Project, East Georgia Healthcare Center, Magnolia Coastlands Area Health Education, and the local community to provide much needed quality of life items to Vidalia onion farmworkers. These small items have a substantial impact on the daily life of a farmworker in Southeast Georgia such as shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, socks, and other much needed items. Recently, the class donated an all-time high of 2,760 items in addition to $315.00 in cash donations from students, faculty, staff, community members, and businesses of Bulloch County. The annual drive is a simple way to make a significant difference in the lives of those who have a huge impact on the economy of Bulloch County and to contribute to the mission of the college.

http://fridayletter.asph.org/article_view.cfm?fl_index=1771&fle_index=20608

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Given the recent national debates on immigration, some might be interested in our recent publication in the February 2013 issue of Human Organization. Even though the Georgia newspapers were slanted against the anti-immigration law, the measure passed anyway. We examined arguments for and against the 2011 law using content analysis. We identified interesting similarities and differences with the newspaper coverage in Arizona earlier.

https://www.sfaa.net/ho/

2012 was another productive year for publications. I was able to present my research on onion farmworkers at APHA and AAA this year, so there was a lot of East Coast/West Coast travel. I saw research presentations at both conferences on farmworker health and cancer health disparities. 2013 will be a busy year for grant funded research activities.

Researchers from Georgia Southern University’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health and Georgia Health Sciences University Gynecological Cancer Prevention Center have been awarded a $143,912 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate a large cervical cancer screening initiative in Cusco, Peru.

The researchers will use the formative evaluation findings to design and pilot a brief social marketing intervention to increase cervical cancer screening. The two-year project, funded by the National Cancer Institute, is titled, “Implementation Evaluation of a Cervical Cancer Screening Initiative in Cusco, Peru.” The Principal Investigator is John S. Luque, Ph.D., MPH, a faculty member in community health in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health.

“A better understanding of knowledge, risk perceptions, and cultural attitudes among indigenous Quechua women toward cervical cancer screening will assist in developing more effective social marketing efforts and impacting cervical cancer disparities in groups suffering the greatest burden of the disease, thereby improving public health in Peru,” said Luque.  “This initiative is one of several externally funded projects to improve cervical cancer outcomes for underserved women in Cusco, Peru.”

The idea for the project came following a 2011 initiative by the National Cancer Coalition (NCC) and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company, to implement a cervical cancer early detection program for the benefit of 75,000 underserved women in Peru.

Cervical cancer continues to be the second most common cancer among women worldwide. In Peru, rough estimates place screening coverage between seven and 43 percent of the eligible population. With a goal to reduce the high cervical cancer mortality levels in the mountainous region surrounding Cusco, this extensive program conducts liquid-based cytology exams utilizing the BD SurePath™ Liquid-based Pap Test System.  This program was implemented by NCC in partnership with its local partner in Cusco – the CerviCusco Clinic.

CerviCusco was founded and is led by Daron G. Ferris, MD, an internationally respected expert in cervical cancer prevention and detection and Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Georgia Health Sciences University.

GSNews

Georgia Southern University’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health has been awarded a $297,185 federal grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to refine and test a cervical cancer education program in the Hispanic/Latino community.

The two-year project, which is funded by the NIH Office of the Director, is titled, “Salud es Vida (Health is Life): Reducing Access Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening among Underserved Hispanic Women.” John Luque, Ph.D., assistant professor of community health, is the principal investigator of the new grant.

As a part of the grant, Georgia Southern researchers are partnering with Georgia Health Sciences University’s Gynecological Cancer Prevention Center and Department of Medical Illustration.  In a previous NIH pilot grant, Luque’s team developed a Spanish language cervical cancer screening toolkit that helps community health workers to encourage women to receive Pap tests and also provides information about the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer. This new grant will test the efficacy of this intervention approach.

Luque says the study may help community health programs and clinics realize the value of community health workers as they plan cervical cancer outreach programs for Hispanic women.

Read full story here

This summer, I attended the CCL Conference again. I presented a poster on our long-time collaboration work with Catholic Mobile Medical Services (CMMS) in Hillsborough County, Florida and the more recent cervical cancer navigation program. Dr. Kristi Wells from USF Health is leading that effort and the first publication is due out this fall in the Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved. My Georgia research group also has a “Report from the Field” to be published in the same journal about our Salud es Vida cervical cancer prevention lay health advisor training program. Our article on the previous work with CMMS still hasn’t come out in hardcopy in Health Promotion Practice, but the Epub has been available for awhile. Here is a photo of the Clearwater sunset courtesy of Dr. Zhao from NIH CRCHD.

I presented a paper and helped to organize a panel with Alayne Unterberger and Martha Rees titled, “Arizonafication of the South: New Laws and Old Divisions across AL, GA, FL and MS.” My individual paper was titled, “Who Will Pick Georgia’s Vidalia Onions? Impacts of Georgia’s Immigration Law.” My co-author on the paper was Angel Bowers, my graduate assistant and current MPH Community Health student. A manuscript based on this paper is under review for publication in an applied anthropology journal.

Moreover, I attended a full-day workshop on Digital Storytelling with Marty Otanez and Aline Gubrium which featured innovative research methods.  One of the examples I brought to my health communication class was to show them some examples of digital storytelling videos as part of interventions which are being funded by the National Institutes of Health. Here is Marty’s website: http://www.sidewalkradio.net/