Approximately 450,000 Veterans are living with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD), and the high prevalence of ADRD represents a major public health challenge for the Veterans Health Administration. While advancing age and genetic predisposition are well-established ADRD risk factors, growing evidence suggests that additional modifiable factors may also play an important role. This study leveraged data from the VA Million Veteran Program (MVP) to (1) estimate 10-year incidence of ADRD and (2) evaluate associations between a broad range of individual-level risk and resilience factors and incident ADRD in a large, nationally representative sample of Veterans. This retrospective cohort study included Veterans aged ≥65 years at MVP enrollment who completed the MVP Baseline Survey and had VA electronic health record (EHR) data available. Individual-level variables including sociodemographic factors, military-specific characteristics, military environmental exposures (MEEs), health conditions, and health behaviors were characterized using MVP Baseline Survey data and supplemented with EHR data as available. The primary outcome was ADRD, which was determined using a validated algorithm based on International Classification of Diseases diagnosis codes extracted from the EHR. Associations between each risk/resilience factor and incident ADRD were examined using separate Cox regression models adjusted for age, sex, and education. The sample included 245,949 Veterans (age: mean 73.16, SD 6.84 years; 2.59% female). Approximately 4.56% (n = 11,216) of the sample developed ADRD over 10 years. History of traumatic brain injury (TBI; hazard ratio [HR] 2.96, 95% CI 2.76-3.17), depression (HR 2.93, 95% CI 2.82-3.04), and alcohol use disorder (AUD; HR 2.35, 95% CI 2.19-2.53) were the health factors most strongly associated with ADRD. ADRD risk was also elevated among Veterans with a history of exposure to Agent Orange (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.03-1.14), chemical/biological warfare agents (HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.23-1.39), and pyridostigmine bromide tablets (HR 1.67, 95% CI 1.44-1.93). Findings identified TBI, depression, AUD, and MEEs as key variables associated with ADRD in Veterans. These factors may represent important targets for prevention and intervention efforts aimed at improving the long-term health of aging Veterans. Additional work is needed to clarify the mechanisms through which these factors influence ADRD risk and to establish whether observed associations are causal.

Toward anti-bluing shift: A rationally designed photo-induced electron transfer-based polarity responsive lipid droplets-targeting fluorescent probe for real-time monitoring of drug-induced liver injury.

A novel Mn-MOF-HBT based fluorescent sensor for selective and sensitive detection of acrylamide in food products.

Despite the critical role of advocacy in health promotion and public health practice, there is limited inclusion of this competency in public health curricula. This may leave graduates underprepared for advocacy work and contribute to a workforce ill-equipped to engage in advocacy efforts. This research explores reasons for the limited inclusion of advocacy education within Australian tertiary public health curricula and examines educators' perspectives on public health advocacy. This study used a semi-structured exploratory approach. Fourteen individuals participated in two focus groups. The participants were attendees of a national public health educators teaching and learning forum. Data analysis involved reflexive thematic analysis. The majority of participants were female (91%) and employed at universities in various academic roles across diverse fields of public health. Two primary themes were identified: perceptions of public health advocacy and teaching public health advocacy. Participants attributed the inconsistent inclusion of advocacy curricula to ambiguities in definition, conceptualisation, scope and interpretation and emphasised the need for explicit integration of advocacy within curricula. They reported lacking self-efficacy and discipline-specific knowledge in teaching this material and expressed uncertainty regarding effective pedagogical approaches for teaching advocacy. Participants proposed a comprehensive framework for advocacy practice could facilitate its understanding and instruction. Findings highlight the need for consensus on public health advocacy core competencies and a structured framework to guide its definition and instruction. Additionally, there is a need for professional development, evidence of effective advocacy pedagogy, and the explicit integration of advocacy within public health curricula. SO WHAT?: Addressing these challenges is crucial for developing a public health workforce capable of skilled advocacy in order to effectively influence policy and improve population health outcomes. This study demonstrates the imperative to strengthen both the conceptual understanding of public health advocacy and the provision of advocacy training within tertiary public health education.

Introduction: This article discusses social inclusion as a very important factor in public health that affects well-being and health equity. Objective: Analyze the role of social inclusion in public health and its relationship with social determinants and living conditions. Methodology: A literature review was conducted using the terms “social integration AND public health” and “social inclusion AND public health.” Results: Low social integration increases health inequalities by up to three times, while community participation improves well-being by 26%. Vulnerable groups experience more than 60% exclusion, confirming its impact as a critical determinant in public health. Conclusion; This study shows that social inclusion allows us to understand and address health inequalities, promoting more equitable systems. Further research is recommended to ensure inclusion and justice in healthcare. KEY WORDS: Social adjustment, social change, public health, health equity.

How unprecedented is the current backlash against the public health enterprise? In this article, the author explores previous attacks against public health practice in three exemplary domains: mass vaccination programs, air pollution control, and occupational safety. The author argues that in all three, public health was remarkably durable throughout the 20th century, and that most controversies over its powers—or even direct onslaughts from hostile elected officials—have failed to overturn long-standing practices or institutions, even if implementation may be altered for the worse. Once public health traditions and the infrastructure that erects them become entrenched, they have remained difficult to fully eliminate. There are signs, however, that the second Trump administration's assault on public health is different, both in the ferocity and velocity of its actions and in the new 21st-century context it inhabits, with different legal precedents, cultural beliefs, communication practices, and political norms. Throughout, the author also identifies historical seeds of public health's current crisis in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Assessing public health training in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom: A comparison of competency development for delivering the Essential Public Health Functions.

Objectives. To characterize the national landscape of student loan debt for state and local public health staff and consider the potential roles of loan forgiveness and repayment in workforce development. Methods. This study analyzed data from the nationally representative 2024 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey, which had 57 000 respondents in the United States. We calculated descriptive statistics and performed an interval regression to assess correlates of student loan balance. Results. More than 40% of the workforce has a student loan balance: $48 000 on average, among those with any debt. Differences are observed by age, race/ethnicity, and level of academic degree. Conclusions. As in other fields, governmental public health is experiencing high rates of turnover while having difficulty with recruitment. Lack of competitive pay and benefits makes it difficult to find and retain staff who may have a public service inclination but also have bills to pay. High on that list of bills, for many, are student loans. Public Health Implications. Loan forgiveness and repayment represent important policy tools to address the ongoing workforce shortage and may be adversely affected by recent federal legislation. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(4):485-491. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308290).

Public health has long grappled with moral and epistemic disagreement-conflicts over values and facts that shape decisions about how best to protect population health. While these forms of disagreement are not new, recent years have seen a shift toward a more entangled and intractable form, which we term "wicked" disagreement. This wicked disagreement, adapted from the concept of wicked problem, sees political identity as shaping both factual beliefs and moral commitments, rendering traditional tools of public health persuasion-such as appeals to evidence or shared values-ineffective. Wicked disagreement is not defined by what is disputed but by the polarized context in which facts, values, and identity are deeply fused. In this essay, we argue that public health must develop new strategies for navigating this terrain, including sustained engagement with a wide range of communities, transparent communication about uncertainty, and a willingness to revise guidance publicly. Navigating wicked disagreement is not about achieving consensus. It is about finding trustworthy ways to protect life and advance health in a fractured public sphere. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(4):544-551. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308350).

We describe a novel curriculum designed to build capacity for public health and primary care collaboration. Since the Northwest Public Health & Primary Care Leadership Institute began in 2020, 119 participants have completed the seven-month hybrid curriculum. Application of knowledge and skills learned to workplace or community projects was reported by 84% of participants. Case-based learning and the critical friends group were valued learning methodologies. A cross-sectoral leadership curriculum can promote public health and primary care integration. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(4):443-446. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308377).

During the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945), China faced severe public health crises amid military and political upheaval, making hygiene and epidemic prevention critical to safeguarding public health and national survival. While the Communist Party of China (CPC) newspapers' role in wartime political culture is recognized, systematic research on how their hygiene discourse shaped national identity is scarce. This study adopted qualitative discourse analysis of 586 hygiene-related reports from New China Daily (1937-1941) and Liberation Daily (1941-1945), sourced from databases such as the National Newspaper Index, to explore their identity-construction mechanisms. It found that the newspapers adopted three interrelated strategies: popularizing scientific hygiene knowledge to reshape public perceptions, politicizing health campaigns to turn private practices into patriotic obligations, and embedding hygiene into daily life via education and institutions to consolidate collective consciousness. These narratives not only mobilized public support for the war but also localized Foucault's biopolitics and Douglas's purity and danger theory, redefining hygiene as a patriotic duty and collective resistance, illustrating how public health discourse shapes collective identity and drives public health practice in crises and broadening Western theories' applicability in the Chinese context.

Deaths in jails and prisons are rising, yet the federal government lacks a reliable system to track or prevent them. This essay examines the Department of Justice's failure to implement the Death in Custody Reporting Act and produce accurate and timely data on deaths behind bars. We call for transferring responsibility for carceral mortality monitoring to public health systems with capacity to identify multilevel drivers of death and support interventions that promote prevention and accountability. Shifting this responsibility affirms the value of lives lost and moves surveillance from error-prone, passive recordkeeping to epidemiological systems better equipped to account for how carceral institutions contribute to premature death and population health disparities. Amid political interference and instability in public health, independent scholars must help lead this transition. We outline a path forward focused on strengthening data integrity, improving timely public data access, expanding oversight, and building sustained research infrastructure rooted in public health. Until public health systems are fully empowered, independent scholars, advocates, and journalists remain essential to resisting the erasure of, and holding systems accountable for, preventable deaths behind bars. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(4):552-560. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308360).

Evidence-based public health leadership development: A systematic review and urgent call to include psychological theory.

Infectious disease prioritization exercises have been part of national and international health surveillance. They typically use multi-criteria approaches and generally involve expert groups composed of physicians and public health specialists from various disciplines. However, little is known about the impact of multidisciplinarity composition itself. This paper builds on the 2023 infectious disease prioritization exercise conducted by the French High Council of Public health (HCSP) which employed a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method; a model-based re-analysis of the initial prioritization is provided. Using multilevel modelling methods, we evaluated the impact of the contributions of non-infectious diseases physicians by testing two hypotheses: i) significant differences exist in risks ratings across specialties for several criteria; ii) these differences impact the final disease ranking. Using pediatricians as a case study and comparing them to infectious disease specialists (IDS), we found that pediatricians' ratings differed significantly for six out of eight criteria. Counterfactual analyses demonstrated that excluding pediatricians' responses or simulating a panel composed entirely of pediatricians altered the final disease classification. Our findings underscore that a multidisciplinary approach to disease risk assessment facilitates a broader -and likely more accurate- consideration of population needs.

The Trump administration is restructuring federal health agencies to implement a new policy agenda. Central to this agenda is the Make America Healthy Again movement, which prioritizes individual solutions to broader public health problems, disregards science and scientific institutions, and aligns closely with the “wellness” industry. While it is normal for each administration to establish its own public health priorities, previous administrations did not dismantle existing institutions to do so. In contrast, this administration is consolidating power and actively politicizing the federal health bureaucracy, undermining scientific expertise and agency independence in the process. These changes are likely to have lasting impacts on both federal health agencies and public health that will extend well beyond the current administration.

People and communities in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC) have been profoundly impacted by the toxic drug crisis, which has driven a province-wide public health emergency since 2016. In 2023, BC implemented a "Decriminalization Pilot," which temporarily removed criminal sanctions for the possession of small amounts of certain substances. In May 2024, the Decriminalization Pilot was amended to exclude its application in almost any urban outdoor space; a reform colloquially referred to as "Recriminalization." This study sought to address gaps in understanding how law enforcement practices towards people who use criminalized drugs may have changed during the Decriminalization Pilot and subsequent Recriminalization periods. We undertook a community-based, qualitative study. We conducted 21 interviews with people who use criminalized drugs and who interacted with law enforcement in Vancouver between January and May 2025. We employed combined reflexive thematic and interpretative phenomenological analyses. We derived five main themes: 1) confusion over the Decriminalization Pilot; 2) selective enforcement and pervasiveness of policing; 3) police interference with overdose response and other public health interventions; 4) seizures of belongings, including government-supplied resources; and 5) displacement from public space. Our findings illustrate how harmful law enforcement practices that target people who use criminalized drugs, particularly those relying on public spaces for survival, persisted during the evolving drug policy periods. Together, these law enforcement practices along with the lack of understanding regarding the shifting Decriminalization Pilot, may have undermined the potential success of a policy dedicated to decriminalizing drug possession in BC.

Renal cell carcinoma incidence and mortality in California: a population-based study of sociodemographic patterns and temporal trends from 1988 through 2019.

Co-evolution of virulence and drug resistance of transmissible multidrug-resistant hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae in pre-cooked chicken and food-borne health risks.

Commercialising human milk-based products (HMBPs) poses complex public health, ethical, and regulatory challenges for governments around the world. This study investigates the corporate strategies of the HMBP industry through a qualitative analysis of industry documents obtained from the University of California, San Francisco's Industry Documents Library. The analysis identifies how HMBP companies construct markets by positioning their products as essential to neonatal care and leveraging scientific narratives and professional networks to expand market dominance. These practices include embedding corporate interests in public health messaging and knowingly competing with non-profit milk donation systems. The findings reveal tensions between profit-driven innovation and equitable access to healthcare. The study highlights parallels with other health-related industries, where intellectual property (IP) and market control can deepen inequity. To address these issues, the study emphasises the need for stronger regulatory oversight, enhanced transparency in corporate practices, and support for public milk banking systems. By situating HMBPs within the Commercial Determinants of Health framework, this research provides policymakers and public health advocates with critical insights to safeguard equity in maternal-infant healthcare.

Routine Restaurant Inspections: An Underutilized Data Source for Foodborne Illness Prevention.