CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — 140th APHA Annual Meeting

Theme: Prevention and Wellness Across the Lifespan

Women's Caucus

Submission Deadline: Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Women’s Caucus (established in 1970) represents the health care needs, interests, and demands for expanded women’s health research, intervention and treatment services, and reproductive rights. The Caucus develops programs exploring a range of women’s health issues, needs, and emerging topics. The Caucus also works closely with APHA, other Caucuses, the Committee on Women’s Rights, and various Sections to develop public health policy on the behalf of women of all ages.

The Women’s Caucus invites abstracts (250 words maximum) on any topic related to the lives and health of women of all ages. The Caucus is particularly interested in social, cultural, environmental, and political contexts of women’s health across the lifespan. Women's Caucus welcomes conceptual abstracts that discuss emerging trends in women's health, as well as data-driven abstracts. Preference is given to abstracts that focus on underserved populations of women and girls, as well as emerging topics not covered elsewhere at the Annual Meeting (e.g., gender and war, criminalization of women’s bodies, medical apartheid).

For the 140th Annual Meeting, the Women’s Caucus is interested in topics consistent with the theme of the meeting – Prevention and Wellness Across the Lifespan. We welcome submissions that are novel and related to emerging issues the lives and health of women of all ages.

Topics/Subtopics:

• Reproductive and sexual health
  
  • Abortion/adoption/pregnancy/fertility rights
  • Gender-based violence and sexual assault
  • Health of sexual minority women/WSW/WSWM/Transgender women 
  • HIV/AIDS and other STIs
  • Human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer
  • Partner negotiation skills and reproductive choices
  • Perimenopause and menopause 
• Social, cultural, environmental, and political contexts of women's health
  
  • Access to health care
  • Evidence-based medicine
  • Gender and media
  • Health promotion policies to address women’s health
  • Sexism
  • Women’s health policy reform/advocacy
  • Women in conflict and refugee situations (genocide and war)
• Women's health across the lifespan
  
  • Body image/eating disorders
  • Cancer prevention and control
  • Cardiovascular disease and women’s risk perception
  • Chronic and autoimmune diseases
  • Long-term care and aging-in-place
  • Mental health
  • Vaccinations
  • Women’s health, caretaking, and family health
  • Women’s work (formal and informal)
• Women's health disparities
  
  • Health equity
  • Medical apartheid/perceived discrimination/distrust
  • Rural health disparities
  • Women and poverty
  • Women in prisons, jails, and detention centers
• Other
  
  • Built environment
  • Community health centers and safety net organizations
  • Environmental exposures
  • Gendered social marketing
  • Translational research as health promotion strategy
  • Virtual communities 

Individuals should submit an abstract only if they (or a co-author) are committed to presenting the paper or poster themselves or to finding a substitute willing to register, attend the meeting, and present the paper or poster instead. Invitations to present will be withdrawn should authors of award abstracts be unable to present at the Annual Meeting.

Requirements (Abstracts that do not adhere to these requirements will not be reviewed):
1. In most cases, structured abstracts are preferred. All research abstracts should be submitted with five sections: background/significance, objective/purpose, methods, results, and discussion/conclusions.
2. Do not include in-text citations in any of the abstract sections, or a list of references.
3. Do not include brand or trade names in the title and/or text of the abstract; generic names are required for continuing education purposes. Women's Caucus prides itself on having most (if not all) of its sessions approved for continuing education units (CEUs). The inclusion of brand or trade names would result in CEUs being denied to an entire session. If you are in doubt as to whether or not a particular name falls into this category, please contact the program chair or co-chair for verification before you submit your abstract(s).
4. All abstracts must be submitted with at least two learning objectives in the proper APHA format (i.e., “By the end of the session, the participant will be able to…”). Objectives should be measurable (e.g., describe, explain, identify, etc.) The following are NOT measurable objectives: “…to understand” and “…to learn.” Please refer to the APHA submission guidelines for more information on writing measurable learning objectives.
5. Please check the abstract title and text for spelling and grammatical errors.
6. Do not include your name or contact information in the text portion as this prohibits a blind peer review process. Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in your abstract being rejected.
7. If you are unable to identify a specific session for your abstract, please submit it under "Other."
8. Lastly, all abstracts should contain sufficient details to fully evaluate the scientific value of the actual work that has been completed to-date, rather than alluding to what “will be” included in the presentation.

Please refer to the abstract submission page for abstract submission guidelines (http://apha.confex.com/apha/140am/oasys.epl).

Peer review of abstracts is blinded. Abstracts will be peer reviewed based on the following criteria:
• Innovation: Innovative information/cutting edge/topic not addressed elsewhere
• Overall Clarity: Clearly written and conveys essence of research
• Relevance: How well the abstract relates to one or more important Women's Health issues
• Disparities: Concerns an underserved population
• Advancement: Extent to which the work described has the potential to inform and advance the science of women's health
• Completeness: Extent to which supporting data is used to describe the work• Annual Meeting Theme: Relevance to prevention and wellness across a woman’s lifespan
• Quality: Rigor of study design and research methods; validity of supporting data
• Overall: In addition to providing a score for each of the above criteria, reviewers will also score the abstract in terms of their overall impression of the work described
Awards: The first author of the highest scoring abstract will receive a certificate of achievement prior to her/his presentation at the Annual Meeting. Students and new members are encouraged to submit abstracts to the Women's Caucus. The first student author of the highest scoring student abstract will also receive a certificate of achievement prior to her/his presentation at the Annual Meeting.

Following are instructions for submitting a proposal for an entire session:
(1) Submit each abstract separately (up to four abstracts per session) to the same topic area. If a session proposal includes abstracts submitted to multiple topic areas, the session proposal will be considered incomplete.
(2) Contact the program planners with:
(a) a brief overview of the session (including relevance to women’s health across the lifespan);
(b) at least three proposed learning objectives in APHA format for the entire session (Each individual abstract that will be part of the proposed session must also have at least two individual learning objectives); and
(c) the title, first author, and abstract number of all abstracts that will be included in the session.
Session proposals may also include suggestions for moderators (please provide a name and contact information). Session proposals that do not adhere to these requirements will not be considered. Please contact the program chair or co-chair if you have any questions.

Continuing Education Credit
APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses, health educators and those certified in public health at its annual meeting. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract so members can claim credit for attending your session. These credits are necessary for members to keep their licenses and credentials.

For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit, each presenter must provide:
1) an abstract free of trade and/or commercial product names
2) at least one MEASURABLE objective (DO NOT USE understand or to learn as objectives, they are not measureable). Examples of Acceptable Measurable Action Words: Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define or List.
3) A signed Conflict of Interest (Disclosure) form with a relevant Qualification Statement. See an example of an acceptable Qualification Statement on the online Disclosure form.

Thank you for your assistance in making your session credit worthy. Contact Annette Ferebee at annette.ferebee@apha.org if you have any questions concerning continuing education credit. Contact the program planner for all other questions.

Submitting an abstract to the Women’s Caucus implies that you understand the terms of this call for abstracts. Failure to adhere to the instructions outlined in the call for abstracts may result in your abstract not being considered and may impact future submissions. Further, submitting the abstract implies that you (and/or co-authors or colleagues) are willing to present the abstract at the Annual Meeting. If selected for presentation at the APHA Annual Meeting, it is imperative that you monitor emails sent by APHA. It is the only means of communication with you regarding details of your presentation.

If you are unable to present an accepted submission, notify the program planners as soon as possible. Speakers who fail to show up for their scheduled presentations without previously notifying the program planners of cancellation may not be permitted to present papers or posters for the Women’s Caucus at future annual meetings.