Teryn McDermott
Fairbanks School of Public Health
PBHL-S349 Research Poster
Discussing the Association between STI Transmission & SUD
PBHL-S349, Research Methods in Public Health, was a course I took during the spring of my junior year of undergraduate education. This course gave me key insight into how research is conducted with a more focused lens on public health and related policies.
STIs and general substance use have similar overlapping risk factors. Understanding how these risk factors interact and fit together can be a breakthrough in prevention for both cases.
A better understanding of both of these topics has drastic public health implications. Most notably, identifying and understanding the association allows public health professionals to better allocate resources to communities and individuals who may be at risk to prevent long term health impacts.
What I learned
I chose to feature this project for many reasons. Most notably, this poroject was my first experience doing a formal research poster. I learned a lot about the research needed for a study of this calaber as well as the data and other aspects needed to appropriately share findings to an audience. This experience was incredibly rewarding and taught me a lot about how a true research study would be conducted. I also feel that the subject is incredible interesting and important to dissect and discuss. I am extremely interested in the social behavioral aspects relating to public health and felt that this area of research allowed me to explore part of this in depth and think critically as well as creatively.