This qualitative study focuses on the intersection of Organizational Studies and Public Health. Through the use of cross-sector work, the Public Health field coordinates work across multiple organizations to diagnose and prevent health issues. Interviewing several administrators from organizations who partake in the Healthy Ontario Initiative allowed me to examine how organizations of different types and sectors interact and connect around this project. This study will predominantly focus on the challenges they face, how they overcome them, and how they are evaluated. Highlighting the intersection of Public Health and Organizational Studies and the way a current Public Health initiative organizes and delivers services may impact the way in which the field evolves in the future.

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The historic tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between 46 State Attorneys General and the tobacco industry in 1999 had a range of consequences. It resulted in the closure of tobacco industry policy groups that undermined public health, sharply reduced tobacco marketing using cartoon characters (eg, Joe Camel) and paid product placement in television, film and other media, and created a new nonprofit foundation whose primary goal was to educate youth and prevent them from initiating tobacco use. It also resulted in more than $206 billion in resources being allocated to states, subject to appropriation by state legislators and governors. This enabled states to recoup the cost of medical and other treatment expenditures for tobacco‐related illness.1 However, by 2018, only 2.6% of the $206 billion in settlement and tobacco state taxes had been used for tobacco‐related harm mitigation or prevention.

The Covid-19 pandemic has complicated efforts to address the US’s opioid crisis with a comprehensive, multi-part federal effort that combines primary medical care, essential support services, outreach to persons who misuse substances, patient engagement, and access to medications for opioid use disorder (OUD). This webinar will focus on how the pandemic is impacting efforts to address the opioid crisis. The panelists will also discuss some of the recommendations of the ASPPH Task Force on Public Health Approaches to the Opioid Crisis and how the pandemic might impact the panel’s recommendations, including its recommendation that a multi-site, multi-institutional collaborative evaluation structure be created that can leverage the strengths of different universities and agencies toward an effective, coordinated approach.

Discuss recommendations of the ASPPH Task Force on Public Health Initiatives to Address the Opioid Crisis. Learn from members of the academic public health community other/alternative public health initiatives to address the crisis.

The opioid crisis has accounted for 770 000 deaths in the United States over the past 20 years, a number approximately equal to the first 20 years of the AIDS epidemic.1 A substantial portion of these deaths were the direct result of overprescription of opioids, and many others were caused by former prescription opioid users migrating to less expensive and easier to obtain heroin and synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and its analogues. The opioid crisis has contributed to the decline in US overall life expectancy for 3 consecutive years; the first 3 year-on-year decline in US life expectancy since the 1918 flu pandemic.

Background: Obesity remains a major public health problem and a risk factor for developing chronic diseases. Substance use such as e-cigarette, marijuana, and alcohol have been associated with the risk of being obese. However, the results from previous studies have been inconsistent. The purpose of this study is to determine the association between substance use and obesity among adults in the United States. Method: Data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), an annual cross-sectional survey administered to 446,687 adults in all 50 states to collect information about their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions and the use of preventive services, was used in this study. Data was collected via a self-reported questionnaire validated by CDC. A multiple logistic regression model was conducted to determine the association between exposure variables (e-cigarette, marijuana, and alcohol abuse) and obesity. The model was adjusted for possible confounders such as demographics (age, sex and race) and behaviors such as tobacco smoking and physical activity. The data was analyzed using SAS v 9.4. Results: Individuals who used marijuana during the past 30 days were 32.4% less likely (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 0.676, 95% CI: 0.631-0.723, P<0.001) to be obese compared to those who did not. The odds of being obese among heavy alcohol drinkers was 30% less (aOR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.679-0.721, p<0.001) compared to those who were not heavy alcohol drinkers. Conclusion: The study findings demonstrate that marijuana and heavy alcohol drinking are significantly associated with reduced likelihood of obesity. However, e-cigarette use was not significantly associated with obesity. Further longitudinal studies to explore the relationship between these substances and obesity will be beneficial.