Multi-disciplinary University of Kentucky student teams recently vied for the honor of competing in the second annual Global Health Case Competition, which this year is focused on finding solutions to tackle childhood obesity in Mexico. The competition was hosted on the UK campus by the Global Health Initiative, whose goal is to provide advanced research and educational programs for students to improve the health of people throughout the world.
 
Each year, UK teams are challenged to create strategies that address a global health issues and then present their plans to a panel of judges. From those presenting, a winning team is selected to represent UK at the International Global Health Case Competition, which takes place in April at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The winning national team will share $6,000.
 
Team 12 won the UK competition with members:

• Karly Kindoll, of Louisville, Kentucky, an undergraduate in human health sciences in the College of Health Sciences; 
• Anton Abdul Fatah, of Indonesia, a graduate student in the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration;
• Olivia Pokoski, of College of Wildwood, Missouri, a freshman in the College of Public Health 
• Nadine Stella Achenjang, of Lexington, a first-year medical student in the College of Medicine 

“Our job was to come up with solutions for the childhood obesity crisis that Mexico is facing right now,” said Kindoll. “They have unprecedented rates of childhood obesity nationwide, especially in school-aged children. So, our task was to come up with a comprehensive approach involving the communities as well as a governmental approach.”
 
Team 12 won the competition with their three-level plan. At the national level, they would use the ANSA task force to “act as a collaborator between all branches of the government,” said Pokoski.
 
The second (local) level would enact a community health leader program. “The goal of this program is to motivate the individuals in the different communities to live a healthier lifestyle,” she said.
 
The third solution the team proposed was to increase the national soda tax.

The UK teams were evaluated by guest judges: Monica Kennison, chair of nursing at Berea College; Keith Martin, executive director of Consortium of Universities for Global Health; M. Raynor Mullins, faculty emeritus, UK College of Dentistry; Richard Clayton, faculty emeritus, College of Public Health; Perry Pugno, former chair of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors; and Javier Sevilla Martir, Indiana University Department of Family Medicine.

"Often times people have more than just one health issue, especially on a global scale where there are barriers of care to address such as cultural differences and finances. Initiatives like this competition are fostering the attitude and skills needed to solve complex world problems...Dental needs aren’t necessarily at the top of the list for many with a variety of problems but oral health may have systemic implications. Thus it’s critical that dentists play a role in addressing public health issues," shares UKCD student Tyler Sanslow who participated in this year's event. 

See full article by Gail Hairston and Andrea Gils on UKNow.