Tulane Center of Excellence in Maternal & Child Health renewed for another five years
The Tulane Center of Excellence in Maternal & Child Health (CEMCH) has received a grant renewal from the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau to strengthen public health workforce training in the field of maternal and child health (MCH) and improve outcomes for families of all kinds. Since its initial award 20 years ago, CEMCH has been at the forefront of MCH workforce development, with impacts locally, across the state, and beyond. Through this renewed funding, the center will sustain and expand its high-impact training programs, ensuring students and professionals remain equipped with essential public health and MCH skills. Keep reading >>
Study: As temperatures and humidity rise, so do emergency room visits for heart conditions
Extreme heat can be hard on your heart. As temperatures rise, the heart pumps faster to move blood toward the skin to cool the body. This added strain on the cardiovascular system can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, especially for those with existing heart conditions. The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, analyzed more than 340,000 emergency room visits for heart-related issues in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a city characterized by intense heat and humidity, from 2014 to 2019. Researchers modeled these visits against historical temperature and humidity data. While heat alone increased the risk of a heart-related emergency by 4.4% on low-humidity days, the risk jumped to 26.7% on the most humid days when relative humidity topped 82 percent. Keep reading >>
Extreme heat linked to spike in domestic violence calls in New Orleans, study finds
Prolonged extreme heat in New Orleans was linked to a measurable increase in domestic violence-related emergency calls, according to new research in JAMA Network Open co-authored by Tulane University’s Newcomb Institute. The study analyzed more than 150,000 domestic violence calls made to the New Orleans Police Department from 2011 to 2021. Researchers found that when “feels-like” temperatures, factoring in heat and humidity, stayed in the city’s top 10% for at least five straight days, domestic violence calls rose by 7%. In New Orleans, those conditions typically mean sustained feels-like temperatures of 93 to 100 degrees or higher. Keep reading>>
