May 31, 2026

People who attended preschool have better cognitive function at age 50 than those who did not, according to a study by Bursky School of Public Health Associate Professor Anusha Vable and collaborators at the University of California, San Francisco. The benefit seemed to be greatest for Black and Hispanic men and people from marginalized backgrounds. 

A Kansas City program that provides free legal representation to tenants facing eviction helps them remain in their homes, according to a study led by a Bursky School postdoctoral researcher. Eviction is associated with adverse health outcomes and higher mortality rates.

A physician, policy researcher and leader in global health research, Abdalla explores how social, economic, and political systems shape health, and why public health must learn to embrace complexity.

In a STAT First Opinion piece, the Bursky School's Lindsay Stark and Ilana Seff detail research findings on the relationship between outbreaks and violence against women and girls, and argue that strategies to protect them must be built into the Ebola response.

Media coverage of WashU Bursky Public Health's people, research, and other news.

The Bursky School's Lindsay Stark is interviewed on "Here and Now" about the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and why, without intervention, the outbreak may lead to increased violence against women and girls. (Source: NPR via WBUR)

In the aftermath of the May 16, 2025, St. Louis tornado, Arts & Sciences' Jeff Catalano, a Bursky School secondary faculty member, joined a team testing for lead contamination in the tornado's impact area. (Source: St. Louis Magazine)

A new paper co-authored by the Brown School’s Dan Ferris, also of the Bursky School secondary faculty, argues that centering community input, ethical decision-making and collaboration is essential for equitable and effective social sector data practice. (Source: The Record)

St. Louisans are still talking about the recent hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. Among adults surveyed in mid-May, 69% said they had talked about it with friends or family members. Women, compared with men, were especially likely to report talking about it (75% vs. 49%). Here’s what St. Louisans are saying.

iHeard is a listening project of the Health Communication Research Laboratory at Bursky Public Health. iHeard surveys about 200 people each week who live or work in St. Louis, to find out what they know, believe and care about in regard to health.

Susy Stark, a professor at the Bursky School, is the senior author on, “Feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a medication intervention for older adults,” published in Occupational Therapy Journal of Research. Co-authors include Brianna Holden and Rebecca Bollinger, occupational therapists in Stark’s lab.

The Brown School’s Kimberly Johnson, the Bursky School’s Derek Brown, and WashU Medicine’s Kenton Johnston co-authored, “SEER-Medicaid and SEER-Medicare data for neuro-oncology research,” published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology. Johnson and Johnston are members of the Bursky School secondary faculty.

Sarah Farabi, an assistant professor at Goldfarb School of Nursing and a courtesy faculty member of the Bursky School, is the first and corresponding author on, “Effect of a pregnancy lifestyle intervention embedded into a home visiting program on child neurodevelopment,” published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism. Co-authors include the Bursky School’s Debra Haire-Joshu and Cindy Schwarz, and WashU Medicine’s Candice Woolfolk, a Bursky School secondary faculty member.

Bursky School PhD student Luis Fuenmayor-Gonzalez is the last and corresponding author on, “Prevalence of poor functional capacity in patients undergoing prehabilitation before major surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” published in the journal Rehabilitacion.

The latest post in The Healthiest Goldfish is a new Purple Public Health project piece from Dean Galea and his partner in this project, Salma Abdalla. The focus: "The individual and the public: Rethinking autonomy in a field that serves populations."

The Purple Public Health project is a multiyear, multimedia effort to re-establish public health’s legitimacy, broaden its reach, and shore up its foundations in this moment and beyond. A purple public health is simply a field that engages with ideas and perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum. Such engagement is too often lacking in public health, Galea and Abdalla maintain.