College of Public Health Spotlights
There are few American imports more popular in China than the finger-lickin’ good mixture of KFC’s 11 secret herbs and spices. In fact, Colonel Sander’s image is a far more common sight in many Chinese cities than that of the country’s long-time communist leader, Mao Zedong.
And therein lies a problem, according to Linda Snetselaar, professor of epidemiology and endowed chair of preventive nutrition education in the College of Public Health.
“A traditional Chinese diet is very healthy and nutritious—lots of vegetables and fruit,” says Snetselaar, who also directs the college’s Nutrition Center. “But China’s youth are increasingly choosing Westernized foods, with fattier meats and larger portion sizes. Now, China is fighting an obesity epidemic, especially childhood obesity, just like the rest of the world.”
A Nutritional Boost
Linda Snetselaar (center in gray jacket) stands with officials and members of the International Public Health and Nutrition Symposium. Click to view photo full size.
Armed with this information, Snetselaar accepted an invitation from the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association to travel to Lanzhou in central China and collaborate with the Zhejiang University School of Public Health and the Peking University School of Public Health on an International Nutrition Center. The center will develop projects promoting proper nutrition and exercise to help fight obesity and related diseases such as diabetes.
It was her role as director of the Dietetics Practice Based Research Network that garnered Snetselaar an invitation from Dr. Cheng Yiyong, president of the Chinese Nutrition Society and vice director of the Committee of Nutrition Standards in China’s Ministry of Health. Yiyong hopes a collaboration will help train Chinese dietitians and make sure the quality of training in China mirrors that of the U.S.
Snetselaar also plans to lead a program to train and educate via web and video conferencing China’s “country doctors.” These health care workers—often trained only with basic medical knowledge—are typically the only options for rural residents to receive any medical assistance. Additional training in diabetes care would be of great value to these health care workers and their rural patient population.
“China is such an interesting country with which to partner,” concludes Snetselaar. “There is a rich opportunity to help correct the course of eating behaviors that are becoming more Westernized and introduce a healthier way of eating that includes a return to more traditional habits.”
Expanding Injury Prevention
Corinne Peek-Asa and Ginger Yang (both in center) at a ceremony for visiting professors.
Snetselaar isn’t the only member of the College of Public Health community who sees a chance to improve health in China. This summer, at the invitation of the country’s leading injury prevention researcher, Dr. Shenyong Wang, faculty members with the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) made their way across the globe to assess the country’s ongoing injury prevention efforts and explore possible collaborations of their own.
“Injury is the fourth leading cause of death in China,” says Ginger Yang, associate professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health and one of three faculty members associated with the IPRC, along with Dan McGehee and Corinne Peek-Asa, to make the trip. “But injury prevention is a relatively new field of study there. It’s a great opportunity for collaborations that can help the Chinese people and give us new, valuable insight into the field.”
Opening New Opportunities
“China provides us with many opportunities,” continues Peek-Asa, director of the IPRC and professor of occupational and environmental health. “Great facilities, researchers, and environments—from the busy urban centers of Hong Kong to the rural countryside of Lanzhou—in which to conduct research provide us with a wide range of possibilities for performing beneficial work.”
The center’s collaboration with Dr. Wang and his Center for Injury Prevention and Control at Jinan University has already produced one manuscript on pediatric road traffic injury in Guangzhou, China. Yang outlined several possible future partnerships as well, such as replicating the IPRC’s child occupant safety survey, disaster preparedness projects, campus violence manuscripts, and a study on interlock safety devices on motorcycles.
“The IPRC, and the entire College of Public Health for that matter, has been especially successful at encouraging collaborations between public researchers, engineers, and behavioral scientists,” concludes Peek-Asa, who also serves as associate dean for research in the College of Public Health. “As a college, it remains our goal to encourage and support investigators interested in public health research, whether that’s here in Iowa or in other countries around the world.”
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