Joyce Moon Howard
Joyce Moon Howard
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Director of Undergraduate Programs
Clinical Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Community Health Science and Practice
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Professional overview
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Dr. Joyce Moon Howard’s work and career is rooted in the community healthcare movement, where she witnessed the transformative power and positive impact of neighborhood and community action on healthcare.
Through community-based participatory research (CBPR), she facilitates cooperation between researchers and community members to understand community needs and concerns, create lasting bonds that build trust, and empower communities to take action. While working in rural Tanzania on needs assessment, she engaged community members and employed qualitative strategies, such as photovoice (a research technique where community members photograph scenes to describe a particular problem and/or research theme) and focus groups, to create a space for open dialogue among community members and researchers to effectively address health needs. Further, she has served as Principal Investigator in several research studies: a Health Resources and Services Administration study on eliminating disparities among pregnant women in low-income areas in New York City; a National Institute of Child Health and Infant Development study focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention strategies in African American communities; and an National Institute on Aging study examining facilitators and barriers to CBPR at the Columbia University Medical Center.
As a professor, Dr. Moon Howard shares her research experiences with students in Community Assessment and Evaluation courses and in an undergraduate course, Health, Society, and the Global Context.
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Education
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BA, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CAMPH, Columbia University, New York, NYDrPH, Columbia University, New York, NY
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Areas of research and study
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Community EngagementCommunity HealthCommunity-based Participatory ResearchQualitative Research
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Publications
Publications
A balancing act: The tension between case-finding and primary prevention strategies in New York State's voluntary HIV counseling and testing program in women's health care settings
AbstractHealton, C., Howard, J., Messeri, P., Sorin, M. D., Abramson, D., & Bayer, R. (n.d.).Publication year
1996Journal title
American journal of preventive medicineVolume
12Issue
4Page(s)
53-60AbstractThis study sought (1) to identify factors that influence women's willingness to accept voluntary HIV counseling and testing at New York State Family Planning Programs (FPPs) and Prenatal Care Assistance Programs (PCAPs) and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of such a voluntary counseling and testing program. Telephone interviews elicited organizational-level data from 136 agencies; a combination of telephone and face-to-face interviews was used to gather provider data from 98 HIV counselors; and client data were gathered from 354 women in face-to-face interviews at counseling sites. Slightly fewer than 60% of women agreed to be counseled, and, of those, under half consented to an HIV test at the counseling site. Approximately two thirds of the women who were tested returned for their results and posttest counseling. Clients' recall of pretest counseling content was relatively poor. Bivariate and regression analyses suggest that client, provider, and organizational factors are all associated with rates of pretest counseling and testing. The current voluntary counseling and testing program is achieving only moderate success. Although a substantial number of clients accept HIV counseling, many women remain reluctant to consent to HIV testing, and many who accept testing do not return for their results. Moreover, among those who receive pretest counseling, many do not recall important informational content, which suggests variation may exist in the quality of counseling or that one-time HIV counseling interventions are insufficient to communicate complex information. Medical Subject Headings (MeH): AIDS, HIV serodiagnosis, women's health, patient education.Putting Prevention Into Practice: Impact of a Multifaceted Physician Education Program on Preventive Services in the Inner City
AbstractGemson, D. H., Ashford, A. R., Dickey, L. L., Raymore, S. H., Roberts, J. W., Ehrlich, M. H., Foster, B. G., Ganz, M. L., Moon-Howard, J., Field, L. S., Bennett, B. A., Elinson, J., & Francis, C. K. (n.d.).Publication year
1995Journal title
Archives of Internal MedicineVolume
155Issue
20Page(s)
2210-2216AbstractBackground: Physicians' prevention practices often differ from guidelines published by national authorities. Effective preventive services are most needed in inner city settings that suffer disproportionately from preventable diseases. This study examined the impact of a multifaceted physician prevention education program on the provision of preventive services in an inner city municipal hospital. Methods: The study used a controlled intervention comparative design at two inner city municipal hospitals— Harlem Hospital Center, New York, NY (intervention site) and Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, NY (comparison site)—serving predominantly African-American patient populations. The intervention site received prototype materials for physicians, patients, and the office setting from the US Public Health Service's Put Prevention Into Practice campaign and a series of prevention lectures from November 1991 through April 1992. Change in physician prevention practices and knowledge was assessed by self-administered questionnaires and change in patients' reports of preventive services received was assessed by structured interviews. Results: Physicians at Harlem Hospital Center reported a greater postintervention increase in prevention practices and demonstrated a greater increase in prevention knowledge in comparison with physicians at Kings County Hospital. Patients at Harlem Hospital Center reported receiving increased preventive services from physicians after the intervention, while patients at Kings County Hospital did not report any significant change in preventive services received. Conclusions: A multifaceted physician education program using prototype materials from the Put Prevention Into Practice campaign with prevention lectures significantly increased the prevention knowledge and practices reported by physicians and the preventive services reported received by patients at an inner city municipal hospital.HIV-1 seroprevalence and risk behaviors in an urban African-American community cohort
AbstractBrunswick, A. F., Aidala, A., Dobkin, J., Howard, J., Titus, S. P., & Banaszak-Holl, J. (n.d.).Publication year
1993Journal title
American journal of public healthVolume
83Issue
10Page(s)
1390-1394AbstractObjectives. Previous attempts at obtaining population estimates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) seroprevalence have been beset by problems of cooperation bias. As part of the fourth round of study with an urban African-American community cohort, the following investigation was aimed at assessing HIV-1 prevalence and the relative importance of sex and drug injection as risk factors in infection. Methods. Personal interviews were conducted in the home with 364 respondents, followed by voluntary blood sample collection from 287 of these individuals. Results. Blood assays showed a point prevalence of 8.4% HIV-1 seropositivity in this community cross section, with a higher female-to-male ratio than appears among acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) case reports. Most infected persons were unaware and unsuspecting of their infection. Conclusions. First, findings underscore the need to focus on risk behaviors rather than on risk groups. Second, the smaller than 2:1 ratio of infected men to women suggests that current AIDS case reports seriously underestimate HIV-1 infection among certain cohorts of African-American women. Finally, wide spread ignorance of own infected status and inaccurate risk assessment signal the substantial task for community health educators in reaching inner-city African-American men and women at risk.Building a Dental Constituency: a Survival Strategy for Public Health Dentistry
Jorey, L. E., & Howard, J. M. (n.d.).Publication year
1983Journal title
Journal of public health dentistryVolume
43Issue
4Page(s)
313-316