NHPHA Public Health Stories: What does public health mean to you?

May 2012 Member Spotlight - Julia Zamarchi, Student Member

How did you first get involved with NHPHA? With public health work?

I completed an internship working for the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services and was introduced to NHPHA through my summer there.

What do you like the most about the work that you do or hope to do?

I love public health. It took me a while in my undergraduate career (5 majors) to find out about public health and seriously look at it as a career choice, but I’m glad I did! I am very excited to start my life trying to help as many people as I can. I have focused all of my health related concentrations of the elderly and hope to focus my future career on this topic as well!

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Julia Zamarchi and I will be graduating from my undergraduate work at UNH this month. I plan to attend George Washington University this fall to get my Master’s in Public Health and I know that the opportunity to be a part of this annual meeting has given me an experience that I will be able to take with me through my future career.

You presented a poster at one of our events. What was the name of your project? Could you provide us with a brief summary of your work?

I presented my work entitled “Asthma Among Older Adults in NH; How they Manage and Control their Condition”. This was a qualitative approach to determining how older adults manage their asthma, what resources they use, and barriers they may find associated with having asthma. I found that there were a variety of ways in which older adults manage their condition and it is dependent on the individual’s specific condition. There was a low attendance of asthma related events held in NH, and a low rate of physicians routinely checking lungs among the older adults interviewed. This research is a small step towards the beginning of research concerning asthma and the resources used and demanded by older adults.