Working to ‘Spread the Word & Not the Disease’ - Heather Gainforth

During the course of my Master’s and undergraduate degree, I have focused on educating the public about the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the word and it is estimated that 75% of Canadians will get an HPV infection in their lifetime. HPV is contracted by skin-to-skin contact and it is the cause of cervical cancer and genital warts. In fact, during the past decade, studies have shown a firm causal link between cervical cancer and HPV (Bosch, Lorincz, Munoz, Meijer, & Shah, 2002) and HPV RNA has been identified in all investigated specimens of invasive cervical cancer (Bosch & Sanjose, 2007). Yet, despite this strong scientific evidence, public knowledge regarding HPV is lacking (Friedman & Shepeard, 2007).

In June 2006, Merck pharmaceuticals released a prophylactic vaccination that provides protection against HPV strains 16 and 18, which are classified as the top two of the fifteen cancer causing high risk types of HPV, and types 6 and 11 which cause genital warts (Munoz et al., 2003). Yet, given the lack of knowledge about HPV, many individuals are still unaware of how to prevent and protect themselves against HPV (Friedman & Shepeard, 2007). It is therefore necessary to investigate techniques to disseminate information about HPV and the vaccine.
As many other graduate students in the department can attest to, I am dedicated to educating the public about how to protect themselves against HPV. My undergraduate thesis and independent project have focused on how to disseminate information about HPV to young adults using a technique called message framing. In short, message framing refers to how messages are conveyed (Rothman & Salovey, 1997). I plan to continue to apply message framing to promote the HPV vaccine in my Master’s thesis.

It is my hope that one day my research may lead to improved health messages regarding HPV and the HPV vaccination. While I cannot offer concrete results yet, I continue to stand on my soap box telling everyone I know about HPV and asking everyone to pass on my message (and not HPV)!

Stay safe,
Heather

Want to know more?
http://www.hpvinfo.ca/

ECSEPS 2009- Jaymi Edwards

Participating in a conference is not only a great way to gain experience in presenting work, but a conference is also an excellent way to develop networks by meeting colleagues from other schools.

I recently attended the Eastern Canadian Sport & Exercise Symposium. I was able to present a study in which I am currently involved as a research assistant. Throughout my academic life I have only had experience working on studies that are quantitative in nature. However, this study is qualitative and so presenting the proposal for this study was a challenge. I had to develop expertise in the analysis of a topic with which I was not familiar. It was a very good opportunity to expand my horizons and increase my analytical knowledge.

Also at this conference I had the opportunity to listen to a professor discuss the publishing process. This was helpful to me as I am currently in the midst of preparing my undergraduate thesis and hope to have it published. It was also interesting listening to this professor because he taught me in two classes during my undergraduate time at Queen’s. I had the chance to speak with him briefly after his talk to find out where he is now and what he is currently studying.

Overall conferences are a fantastic experience. Not only are they educational in nature, but they provide a chance to socialize with colleagues in a more relaxed environment and get to know people beyond their research.

What does the function of your penis tell you about your cardiovascular health? - Peter Janiszewski

More than you might think.

Since the focus of my PhD project is on the effects of exercise on erectile dysfunction in abdominally obese and sedentary men, I have been doing much reading about the condition while writing the grant for my study which was thankfully funded and is now underway.
More that anything else I have previously done research on, the topic of erectile dysfunction catches many peoples’ attention, and for the first time since starting grad school – some non-academics are actually interested to hear about my work.

The most intriguing thing about erectile dysfunction is that is appears to foreshadow future cardiovascular disease risk (i.e. heart attack), as men who seek medical attention for cardiovascular disease symptoms often report that their penis stopped working long before they had any signs of heart problems. Thus, it is now believed that the exact same disease process which leads to erectile dysfunction also leads to cardiovascular disease. Symptoms of erectile dysfunction become apparent earlier on in the disease process due to the very small size of the arteries supplying the penis in contrast to those supplying the heart – it takes longer to plug up a water hose than a drinking straw.

So there you have it: if your penis stops working today, there is an excellent chance you may have greater problems on the horizon. Thus, seek the advice of your physician, and demand that more be done that just a prescription for Viagra.

Revved Up! - Sam Hetz

Over the past year I’ve had the unique opportunity with Dr. Amy Latimer to help develop and facilitate a really interesting exercise program called Revved Up. As a collaborative effort between Queen’s and Saint Mary’s of the Lake Hospital, Revved Up was designed to help promote physical activity in individuals with mobility impairments including as spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative conditions, spina bifida, and cerebral palsy. Revved Up also fills an important niche, as Kingston has a lack of accessible fitness facilities with qualified individuals to assist those with mobility impairments.

Participants attend Revved Up twice per week, where they are accompanied by a volunteer personal trainer through there individualized workout plan. Just speaking to the participants individually, it is clear that the program is having a positive affect on a multitude of factors.

We will be presenting some initial findings next month at the 4th International State-of-the-art Congress “Rehabilitation: Mobility, Exercise & Sports” in Amsterdam (Kasperavicius, M. L., Latimer, A. E., Hetz, S. P., McColl, M. A., McGuire, M., Smith, K. A preliminary evaluation of a community‐based exercise program for people with mobility impairments) and hope to have a manuscript addressing efficacy of the program submitted within the next few months.




Check out the Revved Up wedsite for more info... http://www.skhs.queensu.ca/revvedup/

Birthplace effects in the development of expertise – Dany MacDonald

In the first year of my master’s (which was in 2003) I became involved in a project that my advisor (Dr. Jean Côté) was working on. It investigated the effects of city size on the probability of becoming an elite athlete. Interesting findings began to emerge and we discovered that smaller cities were in fact more favorable to elite athlete development. More recently, Jared King, an undergrad student became interested in this topic and joined our research team. With the help of Dr. Côté and a researcher in Hong Kong, Dr. Bruce Abernethy, we wrote a follow-up of paper investigating this effect in groups of female athletes. It finally made it to print in the beginning of this calendar year and has begun receiving media attention. It was selected as a promotional article to “sell” the journal in which it was published and a media release is being sent to multiple sources. Although unexpected, this is a nice perk that has come from this research…

For an article related to this topic, click here…
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/03/05/2506315.htm?site=science&topic=latest