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School Prepares You For The Skills, Skills Get You The Job!!

School Prepares You For The Skills, Skills Get You The Job!!

by | Feb 12, 2023 | Blog

Many of my mentees and followers have asked: “Dr. Romey, I have all this education with all these degrees, why am I not landing jobs as fast as I would like to?” This is a question that I know is in the minds of many young graduates or others desirous of landing their first jobs upon graduation.

In my response, I always use the above tag line. And I believe every letter in that statement. This tag line succinctly summarizes what school (call it college or university and the attendant degrees) does and what it does not. Understanding what school does and does not do is the foundation for saving yourself the melancholy of school-bashing and unrealistic expectations.

The reason why people graduate from school and do not land a job immediately can be attributed to school versus employment (SvE) gap. This refers to the gap between one’s academic qualifications and competencies / skills for entry-level job readiness. SvE gap is the secret sauce between what an individual gets from attending school and what they need to actually be successful in employment.

In a fiercely competitive labor market, it is because of this that folks make such misguided statements like: “education is overestimated, universities are scam, or education is fraud.” Don’t believe them. Rather than go derogatory about school or college, step back and ask yourself, what does school give me and how am I using what school gave me to land me a job? Where is my SvE gap and how can I fill it?

Managers, supervisors, and employers of labor will tell you about SvE gap. Schools generally arm you with the foundation to ingest skills—this includes the foundation to learn new skills fast, the foundation for broader mindset to work in a team, the preparedness to go the extra mile to fill a gap in your knowledge without prompting, etc. However, employers are looking for skills to be applied in a job position, right now. This inherent gap must be filled in order for the new graduate to land their first job and rise from there.  It is the difference between attitude and altitude.

Every potential college graduate needs to fill their SvE gap while they are in school or work hard immediately upon graduation to fill them in roles for which employment expectations are not raised. These may include internships, practicums, volunteer-experiences, paid or unpaid fellowship.

It is OK if those are free, for example through volunteer opportunities. It is also OK if those are paid short-term programs where for the tuition you get an intensive hands-on competency that will propel you to the next job by filling the gap between school and employment. Fortunately, many remote platforms make it easy for graduates to gain meaningful experiences covering their SvE gap and get them better ready to land their first roles in public health or other fields.

How Should I Make My Public Health Resume Stand Out?

How Should I Make My Public Health Resume Stand Out?

by | Feb 12, 2023 | Blog

One of the questions that I often get asked by my mentees, students, and fellows is “What should I have on my resume to make it stand out?” Folks are always curious about what employers look for in a resume that makes them give you that initial screening call or email.

In my years of screening, hiring, and serving in recruitment panels, I have distilled the answer to this question to one thing—let your resume tell your story. The most important way to distinguish your resume from the pack is the story that you tell. From the jobs that you’ve done, through the school(s) you attended, and down to the short courses that you’ve completed, your resume should tell the story of your interest, your passion, and demonstrate where your heart is in public health.

Individuals seeking to work in the field of public health have an undue advantage over other fields. Why do I say this? It is because unlike other fields, public health students do not need to go far to gain valuable hands-on experience in public health. Public health is everywhere. If public health is everywhere, then what might be your excuse not to gain valuable experience to distinguish your resume from the pack?

I bet you that there is an average of 10 non-profit organizations within each 30 miles or single zip code in the United States. In fact, it is estimated that there are about 10 million non-profits worldwide and over 1.5 million non-profits in the United States alone. It could be a local diaper program, a tree planting event, a health fair, a health career fair, a homeless shelter, or an afterschool program that supports youths in your community. It could be your local faith-based organization—church, synagogue, mosque, temple, etc. Seek them out and get your hands wet and dirty. There is an abundance of places to gain the skills.

In conclusion, there are 8 questions that you can pose to tease out actual skills for your experience. Finding answers to these questions, writing them down and rehearsing them will get you ready for that next initial screening call from a prospective employer.

  1. What did I do?
  2. Where did I do it?
  3. How did you do it?
  4. What skills did you use or learn from this activity?
  5. What was the impact?
  6. What lessons did you learn?
  7. What worked, what did not work?

How is this relevant to the position you are seeking?

Chatbots, ChatGPT, and Scholarly Manuscripts

Chatbots, ChatGPT, and Scholarly Manuscripts

by | Jan 23, 2023 | Blog, Blog & News, News

Chatbots, ChatGPT, and Scholarly Manuscripts
WAME Recommendations on ChatGPT and Chatbots in Relation to Scholarly Publications

 

January 20, 2023

 

Chris Zielinski1; Margaret Winker2; Rakesh Aggarwal3; Lorraine Ferris4; Markus Heinemann5; Jose Florencio Lapeña, Jr.6; Sanjay Pai7; Edsel Ing8; Leslie Citrome9; on behalf of the WAME Board

 

1Vice President, WAME; Centre for Global Health, University of Winchester, UK; 2Trustee, WAME; 3President, WAME; Associate Editor, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Director, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India; 4Trustee, WAME; Professor, Dalla Lana School of  Public Health, University of Toronto; 5Treasurer, WAME; Editor-in-Chief, The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon; 6Secretary, WAME; Editor, Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery; 7Director, WAME; Working Committee, The National Medical Journal of India; 8Director, WAME; Section Editor, Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology; Professor, University of Toronto; 9Director, WAME; Editor-in-Chief, Current Medical Research, and Opinion; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, New York Medical College

Journals have begun to publish papers in which chatbots such as ChatGPT are shown as co-authors. The following WAME recommendations are intended to inform editors and help them develop policies regarding chatbots for their journals, to help authors understand how the use of chatbots might be attributed to their work, and address the need for all journal editors to have access to manuscript screening tools. In this rapidly evolving field, we expect these recommendations to evolve as well. 

A chatbot is a tool “[d]riven by [artificial intelligence], automated rules, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML)…[to] process data to deliver responses to requests of all kinds.”1 Artificial intelligence (AI) “broadly refers to the idea of computers that can learn and make decisions in a human-like way.”2 Chatbots have been used in recent years by many companies, including those in healthcare, for providing customer service, routing requests, or gathering information.

ChatGPT is a recently-released chatbot that “is an example of generative AI because it can create something completely new that has never existed before,”3 in the sense that it can use existing information organized in new ways. ChatGPT has many potential uses, including “summarising long articles, for example, or producing a first draft of a presentation that can then be tweaked.”4 It may help researchers, students, and educators generate ideas,5 and even write essays of reasonable quality on a particular topic.6 Universities are having to revamp how they teach as a result.7

ChatGPT has many limitations, as recognized by its own creators: “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers…Ideally, the model would ask clarifying questions when the user provided an ambiguous query. Instead, our current models usually guess what the user intended… While we’ve made efforts to make the model refuse inappropriate requests, it will sometimes respond to harmful instructions or exhibit biased behavior.”8 And, “[u]nlike Google, ChatGPT doesn’t crawl the web for information on current events, and its knowledge is restricted to things it learned before 2021, making some of its answers feel stale.”9 OpenAI is currently working on an improved version that is “better at generating text than previous versions” and several other companies are creating their own “generative AI tools.”7

Chatbots are “trained” using libraries of existing texts. Consequently, in response to specific input from the human operator (a “question” or “seed text”), chatbots respond with an “answer” or other output. Ultimately, this output comprises a selection of the training materials adapted according to the algorithms. Since chatbots are not conscious,10 they can only repeat and rearrange existing material. No new thought goes into their statements: they can only be original by accident. Since chatbots draw on the library of existing texts on which they were trained, there is a risk that they might repeat them verbatim in some circumstances, without revealing their source. According to a recent preprint that used ChatGPT to generate text, “The percentage of correct references in the preliminary text, obtained directly from ChatGPT, was just 6%.”11 Thus, if chatbot output is to be published in an academic journal, to avoid plagiarism, the human author and editor must ensure that the text includes full correct references, to exactly the same degree as is required of human authors.

More alarmingly, ChatGPT may actually be capable of lying intentionally – “the intentionality is important, as the liar knows the statement they are making is false but does it anyway to fulfill some purpose…” as demonstrated by Davis.12  Of course, ChatGPT is not sentient and does not “know” it is lying, but its programming enables it to fabricate “facts.”

Chatbots are not legal entities and do not have a legal personality. One cannot sue, arraign in court, or punish a chatbot in any way. The terms of use and accepted responsibilities for the results of using the software are set out in the license documentation issued by the company making the software available. Such documentation is similar to that produced for other writing tools, such as Word, PowerPoint, etc. Just as Microsoft accepts no responsibility for whatever one writes with Word, ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI accepts no responsibility for any text produced using their product: their terms of use include indemnity, disclaimers, and limitations of liability.13 Only ChatGPT’s users would be potentially liable for any errors it makes. Thus, listing ChatGPT as an author, which is already happening14,15 and even being encouraged,16 may be misdirected and not legally defensible.

While ChatGPT may prove to be a useful tool for researchers, it represents a threat to scholarly journals because ChatGPT-generated articles may introduce false or plagiarized content into the published literature. Peer review may not detect ChatGPT-generated content: researchers can have a difficult time distinguishing ChatGPT-generated abstracts from those written by authors.17 Those most knowledgeable about the tool are wary: a large AI conference banned the use of ChatGPT and other AI language tools for conference papers.17

Looked at in another way, chatbots help produce fraudulent papers; such an act goes against the very philosophy of science. It may be argued that the use of chatbots resembles papermills albeit with a small difference — though the latter clearly has the intention to deceive, this may not always be true for the use of chatbots. However, the mere fact that AI is capable of helping generate erroneous ideas makes it unscientific and unreliable, and hence should have editors worried.

On a related note, the year 2022 also saw the release of DALE-E 2,18 another ML-based system that can create realistic images and art from a description submitted to it as natural language text, by OpenAI, the same company that has made ChatGPT. More recently, Google has also released a similar product named Imagen.19 These tools too have raised concerns somewhat similar to those with ChatGPT. Interestingly, each image generated using DALE-E 2 includes a signature in the lower right corner, to indicate the image’s provenance20; however, it can be easily removed using one of several simple methods that are a web search away.

With the advent of ChatGPT and DALE-E 2, and with more tools on the anvil, editors need to establish journal policies on the use of such technology and require the tools to be able to detect content it generates. Scholarly publishing guidelines for authors should be developed with input from diverse groups including researchers whose first language is not English. This may take some time. In the meantime, we offer the following recommendations for editors and authors.

WAME Recommendations:

  1. Chatbots cannot be authors. Chatbots cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot understand the role of authors or take responsibility for the paper. Chatbots cannot meet ICMJE authorship criteria, particularly “Final approval of the version to be published” and “Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”21A chatbot cannot understand a conflict of interest statement or have the legal standing to sign a statement. Chatbots have no affiliation independent of their creators. They cannot hold copyright. Authors submitting a manuscript must ensure that all those named as authors meet the authorship criteria, which clearly means that chatbots should not be included as authors.
  2. Authors should be transparent when chatbots are used and provide information about how they were used. Since the field is evolving quickly at present, authors using a chatbot to help them write a paper should declare this fact and provide full technical specifications of the chatbot used (name, version, model, source) and method of application in the paper they are submitting (query structure, syntax). This is consistent with the ICMJE recommendation of acknowledging writing assistance.22
  3. Authors are responsible for the work performed by a chatbot in their paper (including the accuracy of what is presented, and the absence of plagiarism) and for appropriate attribution of all sources (including for material produced by the chatbot). Human authors of articles written with the help of a chatbot are responsible for the contributions made by chatbots, including their accuracy. They must be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in-text produced by the chatbot. Human authors must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations. They should declare the specific query function used with the chatbot. Authors will need to seek and cite the sources that support the chatbot’s statements. Since a chatbot may be designed to omit sources that oppose viewpoints expressed in its output, it is the authors’ duty to find, review and include such counterviews in their articles.
  4. Editors need appropriate tools to help them detect content generated or altered by AI and these tools must be available regardless of their ability to pay. Many medical journal editors use manuscript evaluation approaches from the 20thcentury but now find themselves face-to-face with AI innovations and industries from the 21stcentury, including manipulated plagiarized text and images and paper mill-generated documents. They have already been at a disadvantage when trying to sort the legitimate from the fabricated, and chatbots such as ChatGPT take this challenge to a new level. Editors need access to tools that will help them evaluate content efficiently and accurately. Publishers working through STM are already developing such tools.23 Such tools should be made available to editors regardless of ability to pay for them, for the good of science and the public. Facilitating their use through incorporation into open-source publishing software such as Public Knowledge Project’s Open Journal Systems,24 and education about the use and interpretation of screening outputs, would make automated screening of manuscript submissions a much-needed reality for many editors.

 

References

  1. What is a chatbot? Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.oracle.com/chatbots/what-is-a-chatbot/
  2. Newman J. ChatGPT? Stable diffusion? Generative AI jargon, explained. Fast Company. December 26, 2022.Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.fastcompany.com/90826308/chatgpt-stable-diffusion-generative-ai-jargon-explained
  3. Marr B. How Will ChatGPT affect your job if you work in advertising and marketing? Forbes. January 17, 2023. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/01/17/how-will-chatgpt-affect-your-job-if-you-work-in-advertising-and-marketing/?sh=241ef86c39a3
  4. Naughton J. The ChatGPT bot is causing panic now – but it’ll soon be as mundane a tool as Excel. The Guardian. January 7, 2023. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/07/chatgpt-bot-excel-ai-chatbot-tech
  5. Roose K. Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It. NYTimes. January 12, 2023. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html
  6. Hern A. AI bot ChatGPT stuns academics with essay-writing skills and usability. The Guardian. December 4, 2022. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/04/ai-bot-chatgpt-stuns-academics-with-essay-writing-skills-and-usability
  7. Huang K. Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach. NYTimes. January 16, 2023.Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/technology/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-universities.html
  8. ChatGPT. Open AI. Accessed January 18, 2022.https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
  9. Roose K. The Brilliance and Weirdness of ChatGPT. NYTImes. December 5, 2022. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/technology/chatgpt-ai-twitter.html
  10. Vallance C. Google engineer says Lamda AI system may have its own feelings. BBC News. June 13, 2022. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61784011
  11. Blanco-Gonzalez A, Cabezon A, Seco-Gonzalez A, et al. The role of AI in drug discovery: challenges, opportunities, and strategies. arXiv 2022. Accessed January 18, 2023.[preprint]. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2212.08104. https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.08104
  12. Davis P. Did ChatGPT Just Lie To Me? The Scholarly Kitchen. January 13, 2023. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/01/13/did-chatgpt-just-lie-to-me/
  13. Terms of use. OpenAI. December 13, 2022. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://openai.com/terms/
  14. O’Connor S, ChatGPT. Open artificial intelligence platforms in nursing education: tools for academic progress or abuse? Nurse Educ Pract. 2023;66:103537. doi: 10.1016/j.nepr.2022.103537
  15. ChatGPT Generative Pre-trained Transformer; Zhavoronkov A. Rapamycin in the context of Pascal’s Wager: generative pre-trained transformer perspective. Oncoscience. 2022;9:82-84. doi: 10.18632/oncoscience.571
  16. Call for case reports contest written with the assistance of chatGPT. Cureus. January 17, 2023. Accessed January 20, 2023. https://www.cureus.com/newsroom/news/164
  17. Else H. Abstracts written by ChatGPT fool scientists. Nature 613, 423 (2023). Accessed January 18, 2023.https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00056-7
  18. DALL-E 2. OpenAI. Accessed January 20, 2023. https://openai.com/dall-e-2/
  19. Imagen. Google. Accessed January 20, 2023. https://imagen.research.google/
  20. Mishkin P, Ahmad L, Brundage M, Krueger G, Sastry G. DALL·E 2 preview – risks and limitations. Github. 2022. Accessed January 20, 2023. https://github.com/openai/dalle-2-preview/blob/main/system-card.md
  21. Who is an author? Defining the role of authors and contributors. ICMJE. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
  22. Non-author contributors, defining the role of authors and contributors. ICMJE. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
  23. STM integrity hub. STM. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.stm-assoc.org/stm-integrity-hub/.
  24. Open Journal Systems. Public Knowledge Project. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://pkp.sfu.ca/software/ojs/

 

Source: Zielinski C, Winker M, Aggarwal R, Ferris L, Heinemann M, Lapeña JF, Pai S, Ing E, Citrome L for the WAME Board. Chatbots, ChatGPT, and Scholarly Manuscripts: WAME Recommendations on ChatGPT and Chatbots in Relation to Scholarly Publications. WAME. January 20, 2023. https://wame.org/page3.php?id=106

Staying Healthy on Halloween

Staying Healthy on Halloween

by | Oct 18, 2022 | Blog

In the United States, October 31st is celebrated as Halloween. Halloween is a holiday where children and other celebrants participate in marking the entrance of spooky creatures into the real world either by seeking candy for the kids or parties for the young adults. It is a time when introverted adults will indulge in silly plotlines and adrenaline-pumping moments of terror via horror movies, while the more extroverted may dance at parties. People of all ages wear flamboyant costumes and share a certain degree of flair frowned upon elsewhere, either at the office or after hours. Finally, kids request candy at neighborhood homes or apartments via calling “trick or treat” in costume and receive candy at nearly every home, bringing home a bucketful. The holiday is thus a source of great delight and entertainment. During this period, we want to celebrate Halloween with the children and young at heart.

My go-to is the horror movie option. But for me, the scariest part of Halloween is not the horror films designed to commemorate the holiday, as much as I love a good B-movie or “jump scare” (a sudden surprise entrance of the villain or monster in the said genre). It’s the health effects of a sugary diet and our healthcare system’s difficulty in addressing them.

I’m not against candy per se–don’t get me wrong, I have a huge sweet tooth. But that has always gotten me into trouble. When I was a small kid–around six–I made a habit of secretly snacking on leftover Halloween candy while my parents weren’t looking and ended up getting four or more cavities. My mother knew I was afraid of the dentist, so she arranged for full anesthesia rather than topical numbing–so I wouldn’t experience anything particularly traumatic.

This isn’t particularly remarkable, is it? It is because of my family’s dental insurance. My mother was able to schedule surgery rather than put me in a frightening situation. It’s probable that some children would not have the ability to get surgery, or even possibly not have the cavities removed at all. Only 50.2% of Americans have dental insurance (CDC). Scary indeed. This means excruciating pain for millions despite living in the wealthiest country in the world.

As far as the normalization of a poor diet, the problem is not that tooth decay and diet-related diseases such as obesity are increasingly common alone. There’s no direct connection between Halloween candy and sugary diets in themselves. Many parents make candy a spectacle once a year (or near once-a-year), while others let children indulge at other points.

But normalizing the collection of candy while in costume, as fun as it is for children, is normalizing consuming vast amounts of processed carbohydrates. Its part of the well-dispersed impact sugar has on our eating habits. In fact, craving sweetness over nutritious diets is a national problem. In the U.S. alone, 40% of children are predicted to develop diabetes (Healthy Food America), often connected to socioeconomic disparities (CDC). In a related study on soda (another caloric good) Han and Powell demonstrated that socioeconomic status determined excess calorie consumption and thus obesity in children and adolescents. And this pattern of increasing obesity shows no sign of slowing across all groups, not just the most vulnerable.

After all this dire information, what can you do about it? You can opt-out of candy distribution and inculcate more healthy habits, such as giving out toys rather than treats. One example is glow-in-the-dark bracelets, which can help prevent pedestrian accidents as kids traverse neighborhoods after the sun sets (Berry and Beniaris). Another example is the traditionally suggested apples and raisins, which are sweet but guide young people towards healthier snacks rather than candies. Perhaps with your help, Halloween will be as wholesome, family-friendly, and fun as it absolutely should and can be.

 

Sources Cited

Berry E and Beniaris K. 26 Non-Candy Halloween Treats Kids Will Actually Want. Womansday.com. Updated October 5 2022. Accessed October 12 2022. https://www.womansday.com/life/a52496/non-candy-halloween-treats/

Han E and Powell  L. Consumption Patterns of Sugar Sweetened Beverages in the United States. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2013; 113(1): 43–53.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662243/. Accessed October 12 2022.

Healthy Food America. Sugar Advocacy Toolkit. Healthyfoodamerica.com. n.d. Accessed October 12 2022. https://www.healthyfoodamerica.org/sugartoolkit_overview#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20Americans,percent%20of%20their%20total%20calories.

Center for Disease Control  and Prevention. Regional Variation in Private Dental Coverage and Care Among Dentate Adults Aged 18–64 in the United States, 2014–2017. Published May 2019. Accessed October 17 2022. 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db336.htm

Steirman B et al.  National Health and Nutrition Survey 2017–March 2020 Prepandemic Data Files Development of Files and Prevalence Estimates for Selected Health Outcomes. Published June 14 2021. Accessed October 17 2022. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/106273

Celebrating Love in February: The Importance of Heart Health

Celebrating Love in February: The Importance of Heart Health

by | Mar 6, 2022 | Blog, Blog & News

February 14 is celebrated all over the world as Valentine’s day, which is the day to celebrate love in many forms. On this day, you will notice all the heart-shaped candies, gifts, and balloons. What many people may not know is that February is also Heart health awareness month. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC)

I did some research that heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States. According to CDC data, one person dies from heart disease every 36 seconds. Approximately 659,000 people in the United States die from heart disease each year. It is at least 1 in every 4 deaths. 

The most common heart disease in the United States is coronary heart disease. In the year 2019, coronary heart disease killed 360,900 people. There have been 18.2 million adults of the age 20 years old and over who have coronary heart disease. In every 40 seconds in the United States, someone has a heart attack. In the United States, 805,000 people every year have a heart attack, and about 1 out 5 adults have a silent heart attack (CDC).

American adults who are at risk of heart disease are adults who have diabetes, overweight or obese, lack physical activity, and consume too much alcohol (CDC).

There are ways to prevent yourself from having heart disease. You need to choose to consume healthy food and drink, get physically active every day, keep a healthy weight, do not smoke, check your cholesterol, check your blood pressure, manage your diabetes, take your medication as directed by your doctor, and visit your doctor regularly (CDC).

The Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. provides one program that is focused on addressing heart health in the community. Called the Healthy Heart, this program is aimed at reducing the disparities in health outcomes caused by heart diseases. GHEP hopes that this program, for example, helps to create awareness of health diseases disparities and also gives people the opportunity to get to understand their risk factors for heart disease by offering community-based brief screening and interventions. You can read more about Healthy Heart on GHEP’s website. 

Personally, I had been overweight and had a poor diet most of my childhood and teen years. Ever since I switched to exercising at least 5 days out of the week and maintaining a healthy diet, I felt healthier than I did in my childhood and teen years. It is important to listen to your body and get the help that you need (CDC). This is to wish you a happy healthy heart month while also celebrating the month of love–Valentine’s Day.

Written By Chelsea Whittington is a volunteer with the Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. working under the mentorship of Kanisha Blake, BS, MPH.  

References

American Heart Month | NHLBI, NIH

Prevent Heart Disease | cdc.gov

How Much Do You Know About Stuttering as a Speech Disruption?

How Much Do You Know About Stuttering as a Speech Disruption?

by | Oct 23, 2021 | Archive, Blog, Blog & News

October is the month of harvest and the celebration of Halloween. It’s a month full of thrills, chills, and tricks or treats. There is also a special day, that is unknown to people, which is an international stuttering awareness day, which is October 22nd.

Stuttering is a speech disorder that repeats syllables, sounds, or words. There are even interruptions with words or sounds called blocks. It also can include behaviors such as eye blinking, tremors, or quivering lips. Unfortunately, this affects job interviews, socializing, and communications. It could affect the person immediately, which is to feel anxious when speaking to people, speaking in front of an audience, or speaking on the phone. (National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders).

I did some research and found out how many people have this issue growing up. Approximately, 3 million Americans have an issue with stuttering. It affects people in different age groups. It often occurs during the age of 2 to 6 years old, which is the age when children start to learn their language skills. About 5 percent to 10 percent of children will have the issue of stuttering throughout most of their life. About 75 percent of children can learn to control their issues with stuttering, while the other 25 percent will have the issue of stuttering for the rest of their lives. (NIH)

There are two types of stuttering, there are development stuttering and neurological stuttering. Developmental stuttering comes from the child’s language abilities and is unable to meet with the child’s verbal speech. While neurological stuttering occurs from a stroke, head trauma, or a head injury. There are many different ways to help with your issues of stuttering, these include therapy for children, stuttering therapy, drug therapy, electronic devices, and self-help groups. (NIH)

Understandably, that growing up with a speech issue is quite frustrating and it can even affect your self-confidence. I grew up with a stuttering issue, and I had been dealing with it for most of my life. It is mainly because of my anxiety that influences my way of speaking. What had helped me is seeing a speech therapist. I also resorted to seeing a counselor and seeking medication for my anxiety, which has helped my stuttering issue tremendously. What also helped me is to speak a little slower and more clearly to avoid stuttering. Do not let the issues with stuttering conflict with your socializing skills with others, it is quite normal, and affects everyone. (NIH)

Written By Chelsea Whittington is a volunteer with the Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. working under the mentorship of Kanisha Blake, BS, MPH.  

References

NIH, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Stuttering