Michele Polacsek gives two presentations at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting

Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.H.S., associate professor of public health in the School of Community and Population Health, conducted oral presentations on two of her current projects at the 141st American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Expo in Boston, on November 6, 2013.

The first presentation demonstrated the results of a follow-up study of the Maine Youth Overweight Collaborative (MYOC) performed in 2012. Co-authors on the study include Liam O’Brien, Ph.D. of Colby College; Jonathan Fanburg, M.D., M.P.H., of MaineHealth; Victoria Rogers, M.D., of Maine Medical Center; and Steven Gortmaker, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The second study presented focused on Polacsek’s work leading efforts to conduct a Health Impact Assessment for a sugar sweetened beverage excise tax for the state of Maine. Her co-authors on the study included Karen O’Rourke, M.P.H., of UNE’s School of Community and Population Health, and Michael Long, Sc.D., a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health Prevention Research Center.