Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2009 - (Page 11)

proper hygiene procedures. My goal was to drive home the most important aspects of CA-MRSA prevention and to give athletes access to reliable resources on the subject if they had any more concerns. Locker Room Science Before I headed out to the fields to meet the athletes, I collected bacterial samples from their equipment. The microbiology department at RWJUH provided me with the sampling and culturing supplies as well as the training I needed to conduct this part of my research. By tracking the relative amount of bacteria the athletes regularly encountered—especially the amount of staph— I hoped to identify pieces of gear that athletes should pay more attention to or to find a relationship between the amounts of bacteria on different pieces of equipment. On almost all of the equipment I sampled, I found bacteria that typically live on human skin. But I also found large amounts of staph on all their gear, with the highest numbers inside athletes’ equipment bags. Because these bags had the most staph and because they contained the other gear athletes used, the bags clearly required the most attention. I added proper equipment-cleaning techniques, such as wiping them with a bleach-water solution, to my educational plan. Then I headed out to the fields, where I met with four sports teams who were at high risk: the football team, the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams, and the field hockey team. Combined, these teams gave me a fairly large population of 160 athletes to follow for the entire season. Old Habits Die Hard My study was conducted during the teams’ regular practices. Unfortunately, some athletes missed practice on the days when post-intervention surveys were administered, so my study could not accurately assess the effects of my educational program on all the athletes. The absence of certain athletes had only a marginal effect on some of my conclusions, but participation was definitely an area to improve in further research. Another challenge was that my study had to be completely anonymous. Usually, in studies like mine, there is some sort of identification roster that includes the true identity of the subjects. But school privacy requirements would not allow such a list, so I had to create an algorithm that assigned each athlete an identification number based on their demographic information. This allowed me to track athletes’ progress January/February 2009 by pairing the scores of their surveys while keeping their identities anonymous. At the season’s end, I was disappointed, but I had kind of expected the results I obtained. I found that the education program was effective at helping athletes better understand CA-MRSA, its causes and effects, and how to prevent its contraction. But I also found virtually no change in athletes’ behavior. Despite learning that they were at high risk, that treatments could be ineffective, and that a few simple steps each day could save their lives, they acted no differently. I concluded that a better education system needs to be devised. Other studies have shown that mentoring programs are highly effective in changing medical students’ hygiene practices. It’s possible that such a program in a high school athletic setting could have similar results. For now, my work has led to changes in school policies for cleaning athletic equipment. Not only does school staff sanitize all school-owned equipment weekly, but they also clean wrestling mats and other communal equipment before and after each use. The school’s website now includes information about MRSA as well, and I hope such progress will continue. hen people ask me about the most memorable part of my research or what I learned from it, I tell them I discovered that it was a long, tiring, and thankless walk from the lab to the practice fields. To improve the quality of people’s lives, epidemiologists need to be persistent and tireless. They need to be passionate about what they’re doing in order to overcome frustration and keep looking for answers. I hope one day to work as a member of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. I’d like to pursue infectious disease research and join the global fight against malaria and tuberculosis. Working on this project made me realize that I have the drive and desire to keep making that long walk, to do what it takes to make a difference. i Scott Kobner is a senior at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey. For his work on this project, he was a semifinalist in the 2008 Young Epidemiology Scholars competition. He was also a semifinalist in the 2008 USA Biology Olympiad. Scott enjoys scuba diving, playing guitar, and snowboarding. W For more information about the Young Epidemiology Scholars competition, see page 28. imagine 11

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2009

Imagine Magazine - John Hopkins - January/February 2009
Contents
Letters
Big Problems
In My Own Words
Witness to a Pandemic
An Ounce of Prevention
Of Math and Measles
Predicting the Next Pandemic
Medicine, Medicine Everywhere
Food Matters
Looking for a Challenge? Try Summer College!
CTY: The Real Deal
Hot Topic
Selected Opportunities & Resources
Off the Shelf
Word Wise
Middle Ground
One Step Ahead
Exploring Career Options
Planning Ahead for College
Students Review
Creative Minds Imagine
Sudoku
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2009

https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20160506_LTB
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20160304_CTW
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20160102_JHB
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20151112_DSS
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150910_RUR
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150506_WSH
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150304_TGB
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150102_IDS
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20141112_ASE
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140910_PBD
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140506_BDA
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140304_SHD
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140102_JUS
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20131112_MX5
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20120910_CTD
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130910_AFN
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130506_PLQ
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130304_TRB
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130102_GME
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20121112_LRH
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120910_YBS
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120506_B2H
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120304_P3A
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120102_FMS
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20111112_TAML
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110910_ATSP
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110506_DMI
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110304_MIV
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110102_JFH
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20101112IMJHND
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20100910QTVS1
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20100506_INH
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20100304_SFF
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20090102_v2
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com