The History of US Menstrual Health, School Nurses, and the Future of Menstrual Health Equity.

In the United States, adolescents suffer from inadequate menstrual health, meaning that adolescents are unprepared for menarche, lack the practical resources they need to comfortably and confidently manage menstruation, and receive inadequate health education and care for menstrual pain and disorders. In this article, we provide a historical analysis of the role of school nurses in addressing menstruation from the early 20th century up to the present day. We contextualize the current realities of school nursing and menstrual health education and clinical support. We argue that the decentralized US school system, a cultural aversion to open discussion about menstruation, and the outsized influence of commercial menstrual product manufacturers have hampered the ability of school nurses to deliver menstrual health education along with menstrual health support. Finally, we discuss implications for today's schooling experiences as well as recommendations for how to support school nurses in aligning our national approach to menstrual health toward the public health perspective of menstrual equity. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(9):903-908. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307705).

The Proving Ground: Colombo Plan Fellowships and the Changing Landscape of Health Education in Canada, 1951-69.

This article examines the history of the Colombo Plan fellowship program in Canada during the 1950s and 1960s. It will argue that this program had a visible impact on Canadian institutions of learning and health care for three reasons. First, it brought an unprecedented number of students and health care professionals from South and Southeast Asia to Canada; second, it fostered a sense of mission within Canadian institutions about the role education should play in contributing to health and international development overseas; and third, it revealed the challenges and tensions inherent in fulfilling this mission in the context of differences between the objectives of Canadian officials and those of the fellows themselves. With its focus on South and Southeast Asia, the Colombo Plan fellowship program anticipated broader trends regarding the international migration of health workers from that region in later years.

Manuel González Rivera. Promotor de la educación higiénica en México durante la década de 1940.

This article revisits Doctor Manuel González Rivera's work as a promoter of hygiene education in Mexico during the 1940s. From his classroom at the School of Public Health and head of the Hygiene Education Department of the Ministry of Health and Assistance, González Rivera produced an interesting bibliography on the meaning and importance of hygiene education. Based on three of his most important books, Educación Higiénica (Hygiene Education) (1943), Doña Eugenesia y otros personajes. Materiales de educación higiénica popular (Eugenics and other characters. Popular hygiene education materials) (1943) and Enfermedades transmisibles. Cartilla para maestros rurales (Communicable diseases. A booklet for rural teachers) (1944), this article highlights his pedagogical and social work in the design of strategies and tools for health personnel and rural teachers to educate the population in matters of prevention and hygiene habits promotion.

Este artículo rescata la labor del médico Manuel González Rivera como promotor de la educación higiénica en México durante la década de 1940. Desde su aula en la Escuela de Salubridad y como jefe de la Dirección de Educación Higiénica de la Secretaría de Salubridad y Asistencia, González Rivera produjo una interesante bibliografía sobre el significado e importancia de la educación higiénica. Con base en tres de sus principales libros: Educación Higiénica (1943), Doña Eugenesia y otros personajes. Materiales de educación higiénica popular (1943) y Enfermedades transmisibles. Cartilla para maestros rurales (1944), este artículo destaca su labor pedagógica y social en el diseño de estrategias e insumos para que personal sanitario y maestros rurales educaran a la población en materia de prevención y fomento de hábitos higiénicos.

Always stay cheerful - health information in the 1920s. / Vær alltid i godt humør ­ helseopplysning i 1920-årene.

BACKGROUND: The interwar period was a time of comprehensive preventive health programmes in Norway. Physical exercise, nutritious diets, strict sleep regimens and better hygiene were at the centre of these efforts. A massive mobilisation of volunteers and professionals took place. The publication of House Maxims for Mothers and Children was part of this large-scale mobilisation, and consisted of ten posters with pithy health advice for hanging on the wall. Mothers were an important target group for health promotion. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The posters have previously received little attention in medical literature, but they can elucidate some features of life and the health propaganda of their time. We have used databases that provide access to newspapers, books and medical literature: Retriever, bokhylla.no, Oria, PubMed and Web of Science. RESULTS: It is hard to quantify the effect of this popular movement when compared to political measures to improve living conditions. In any case, mortality rates fell, life expectancy increased and the dreaded communicable diseases were largely defeated. Special efforts were targeted at children, also with good results. Infant mortality fell and schoolchildren became healthier, stronger, taller and cleaner. INTERPRETATION: The line between social hygiene and general disciplining is blurred, for example the boundary between a healthy diet and bourgeois norms. The education of mothers and children also included a normative aspect that concerned good manners and control.

Early 20th century conceptualization of health promotion.

This historical analysis of the term 'health promotion' during the early 20th century in North American journal articles revealed concepts that strongly resonate with those of the 21st century. However, the lineage between these two time periods is not clear, and indeed, this paper supports contentions health promotion has a disrupted history. This paper traces the conceptualizations of health promotion during the 1920s, attempts to operationalize health promotion in the 1930s resulting in a narrowing of the concept to one of health education, and the disappearance of the term from the 1940s. In doing so, it argues a number of factors influenced the changing conceptualization and utilization of health promotion during the first half of the 20th century, many of which continue to present times, including issues around what health promotion is and what it means, ongoing tensions between individual and collective actions, tensions between specific and general causes of health and ill health, and between expert and societal contributions. The paper concludes the lack of clarity around these issues contributed to health promotion disappearing in the mid-20th century and thus resolution of these would be worthwhile for the continuation and development of health promotion as a discipline into the 21st century.

The social impact of HIV/AIDS in India.

This paper is based on the last public lecture given by Dr Solomon at the 7th World Workshop on Oral Health & Disease in HIV/AIDS, held in Hyderabad, India, in November 2014. It examines the social impact of HIV in India and the founding of the Y.R. Gaitonde Center for AIDS Research and Education (YRG CARE) clinic in Chennai, India, by Dr Suniti Solomon and her colleagues. This is a story of prejudice and ignorance throughout the various social levels in India. Reports of India's first AIDS case surfaced in 1986, when female sex workers were found to be HIV positive. The first voluntary counseling and testing center, part of a sexually transmitted diseases (STD) clinic, was set up to increase awareness about the epidemic. To address the rapid spread of HIV infection in Tamil Nadu and the existing stigma in society and hospitals, Dr Solomon established YRG CARE in 1993. She recognized that fear and panic about HIV led to widespread social prejudice against HIV-positive patients, even within hospitals. By the end of 2014, over 34 000 patients had accessed these services and 20 000 HIV+ patients had been registered, nearly 40% of whom were females. The team embarked on a statewide awareness program on HIV and sexuality, covering over two hundred schools and colleges educating them about prevention strategies and combating the social stigma attached. The grass-root work of YRG CARE in the management of HIV infections revealed a widespread prejudice, due largely to the lack of awareness about the subject. It is estimated that even in 2015, as little as 40% of HIV-infected people are formally diagnosed and have access to care. In a country as socially and culturally diverse as India, there is much more to be carried out to build on the pioneering work of Dr Solomon.

[Enrico Modigliani and the Institution of maternal assistance: a study of the social factors of illegitimate motherhood during early Twentieth century]. / Enrico Modigliani e l'Opera di assistenza materna: i fattori di rischio della maternità illegittima nei primi anni del Novecento.

Enrico Modigliani (1877-1931) was an Italian paediatrician of the early Twentieth century whose work anticipated modern concepts of maternal and child health. Convinced of the importance of creating a network of health and social care for children born out-of-wedlock, he began by providing care to single mothers and their babies at his home on Sundays. In 1918, in Rome, he established the Institution for Maternal Assistance, which aim was to provide single mothers with basic health information as well as tools to face their socioeconomic situation. The Opera encouraged breastfeeding and maternal acknowledgement of the child and promoted the establishment of lactation rooms and nurseries within factories. Moreover, women were supported to find a job which was compatible with their situation. In the first five years of activity, over 1,000 unmarried women were assisted; 95% of them acknowledged their children and 52% found a job. The infant mortality rate fell to 11%, which was much lower than the 35% observed at the time among the social classes which Modigliani called the most miserable. This article reviews Modigliani's paper, in which the paediatrician reported the first five years of activity of the Institution of Maternal Assistance and where he largely focused on the social factors surrounding illegitimate motherhood. The paper was structured like a modern scientific report, with photographic documentation and statistical data, and proposed a point of view regarding social inequality which is surprisingly up-to-date.

[Strategies for BCG vaccination 1947 - 94]. / Strategier for BCG-vaksinasjon 1947 - 94.

The tuberculosis reform of 1947 stipulated a clear responsibility of the state to combat tuberculosis. This entailed sanctions directed at individuals, as well as compulsory vaccination. Universal vaccination was to be achieved through extensive information work that emphasised the responsibility of the individual. The decline in the disease, the dawning of human rights thinking and the decline of professional boards in public administration help to explain the downgrading of compulsory vaccination over time.

How Films Entered the Classroom: The Sciences and the Emotional Education of Youth through Health Education Films in the United States and Germany, 1910­30.

This essay focuses on health education films in Germany and the United States in the first decades of the twentieth century, illustrating how these films developed their potential as a teaching tool capable of shaping the emotions and changing the behavior of audiences. The essay argues that the films' educational goals were inspired by certain contemporary ideas on the relation between perception, cognition, and emotions. In concentrating on youth as a target audience, it traces the way in which the sciences of psychology and pedagogy discovered the significance of emotions to this specific age group's learning process. The essay discusses the deployment of both general and specially created films in the classroom as a new educational practice, arguing that these films can be read as a negotiation of the modern human subject and its emotions.

Washington and Welch Talk About Race Public Health, History, and the Politics of Exclusion.

This article shows how history can be used as a tool to influence political debate. Public health education over the radio became remarkably popular in the United States in the years leading up to World War II. Lectures, monologues, round tables, question and answer sessions, and dramas were all used by health departments to communicate ideas and knowledge about preserving health. In Baltimore, Maryland, a radio series called Keeping Well began in 1932 and ran until 1957. From 1939, 15-minute weekly dramas were broadcast that adopted many of the tropes of contemporary entertainment programs. Some of these dramas were based on interpretations of past events and imposed a particular kind of narrative of medical and social progress that reflected the wider purpose of educational radio programming to uplift and reform listeners. This article demonstrates how public health administrators manipulated historical narratives and fictionalized history for their own purposes. This manipulation was particularly evident in regard to divisive issues such as residential segregation, whereby the public health dramas downplayed Baltimore's troubled encounter with race and health.

[Health Education for Men by the Federal Centre of Health Education: A Contribution to the Presentation of Men as unaware of Health? (1970-1990)]. / Männerspezifische GesundheitsaufkIärung durch die BZgA: Ein Beitrag zur Verfestigung des Gesundheitsdefizitdiskurses? (1970-1990).

This article offers a close consideration about the gender-specific contents of health education campaigns in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1970 to 1990. By using educational publications issued by the Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA), it is shown which breaks and continuities emerged and which kinds of role models are thereby conveyed. Whereas the health education of the 1950s and 1960s was characterised by a didactical approach towards men and women, this changed as from the 1970s. By deconstructing exemplary education campaigns and including internal files of the BZgA, it can be shown, that the societal discourse on the feminism in the FRG contributed to the fact, that during the 1970s the switch has been made to an increased use of positive role models. However, within the men-specific health education there was no break; the health deficiency discourse was still applied in many and diverse ways in order to describe male health behaviour and knowledge.

[The "modernization" of health education in both German states between 1949 and 1975. The example of smoking]. / Die "Modernisierung" der GesundheitsaufkIärung in beiden deutschen Staaten zwischen 1949 und 1975. Das Beispiel Rauchen.

Using the example of smoking, this article scrutinizes the notions of order, educational conduct and images of subjects in the health education of both German states between 1949 and the mid 70s. Drawing on archival sources, publications and educational media from both health ministries, the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum and the Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung I reconstruct the organizational, conceptual and medial shift of health education from "citizenship" to a technology of communication and public relation, needing "scientification" in the 1960s. New epidemiological evidence fostered the belief in an efficacious prevention of manly coded and with smoking associated cardio-vascular diseases by forming healthy behavior. This went hand in hand with the increase of state responsibility for the health of its citizens and the import of new knowledge stemming from social research and new methodological expertise from advertising. At the same time the ideal of a comprehensible citizen shifted into a "socialist personality" that was to be shaped by a hierarchical and consistent education in the German Democratic Republic. In the Federal Republic of Germany the general principle of the self-determined citizen unfolded the antagonism of health education between individual emancipation and imposition.

["But there are also men!" Gender-specific health education and prevention in the GDR from the 1950th to the 1970th]. / "Männer gibt es doch auch!" Geschlechterspezifische Gesundheitserziehung und Prävention in der DDR in den 1950er bis 1970er Jahren.

The notions of femininity and masculinity in the GDR health propaganda and their effects on the health consciousness and behaviour of the population in the GDR are the key topics of this article. The main questions of the first part are, if women and men were equally represented in educational materials and had to fulfil the same norms and expectations. The second part deals with ego-documents, primarily petitions to the Ministry of Health, as well as reports and evaluations from the local health authorities that shall help to answer the questions of male and female health behaviour. Additionally they can provide an insight into the views and actions of patients. Other factors such as the educational level, matters of milieu and regional peculiarities that have impact on the health status and behaviour will be discussed at the end of the article.

Baltimore and the Beginnings of the Fluoride Controversy.

The fluoridation of municipal water as a preventive dental health measure has proven to be a contentious issue from its very outset. In 1952, Baltimore became the first major city in the United States to artificially add fluoride to its water supply. This study draws largely on print media sources as a means of discerning public sentiment, in order to evaluate the nature of Baltimore's fluoride controversy in its infancy. Initial response was influenced by prior exposure to the substance within the context of dentistry, as well as a continued trend of conservatism within the community. Logistical issues during implementation due to the necessary upscale of established practices to accommodate Baltimore's population served to further exacerbate concerns. Much of the opposition was predicated on the breadth of the measure, as evidenced by the myriad of personal concerns put forth in objection. Personal concerns developed into demands for personal autonomy, providing a philosophical foundation for the anti-fluoridation movement that persists today.

[THE FORMATION OF HEALTHY LIFE-STYLE OF SOVIET YOUTH IN 1920S-1930s YEARS].

The article considers analysis of social pedagogical aspects of problem of formation of healthy life-style in youth in the Soviet Russia in 1920-1930s years in the course of public policy and as well as in theory and practice of national pedagogics.

Listen and Watch: The Practice of Lecturing and the Epistemological Status of Sex Education Films in Germany.

This article takes as its starting point Frauennot-Frauenglück (Women's Misery--Women's Happiness), a film representative of health education films on sex hygiene in Weimar Germany. This paper opens by situating the film in the landscape of German health education films from World War I to the Weimar era. I document the evolution of interest in sexual health education films in the early decades of the twentieth century and show how their narratives changed as a result of the increasing popularity of feature films in the Weimar period. The article then focuses on the lectures which accompanied health education films. I argue that an analysis of these under-investigated lectures can raise new stimulating epistemological questions on the historical status of health education films, as these lectures changed the filmic dispositive. I show how this common practice served as a technique of rhetorical reworking in efforts to adjust or orient the visuality of what was shown to the public. Drawing on two very different lectures which accompanied Frauennot-Frauenglück, the article identifies two approaches to lecturing. While one consisted in enabling controversial films to be screened to the public, the other (socialist) approach transforms initial censorial intentions, allowing the speaker stress his personal or new positions.