Dayna Johnson, PhD, MPH, MSW, MS talks about the necessity of community partnerships as the recipient of this year’s Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award at SLEEP 2023 and how inquiring into the community is vital for integrating healthy sleep practices.
Understanding what the community needs when committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts is an integral part to helping communities’ improve their sleep health, explains Dayna Johnson, PhD, MPH, MSW, MS, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in this interview from SLEEP 2023.
Transcript
How important are community partnerships to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts?
They're absolutely essential. Without community partnerships, we can't do this work. Something that I like to talk a lot about is the lived experience. What we're doing in this research is really informed by what's a priority to the community, and then what's feasible. It's one thing for us to come up with different ways on how to intervene, but if someone is not amenable to those, then it won't be efficient or effective. So, having those partnerships to find out, “what's the priority? How can we partner to make this change?” And then also for us to understand, “what are the factors that are prohibiting sleep for you?”
As an example, from some of my work, we did focus groups around what we formerly referred to as sleep hygiene, which is really just healthy sleep practices, which include sleeping in a dark, quiet room. We had participants say, "I absolutely can't do that. Someone will break into my house if it's dark." That's not something whoever created these thought about. There's nothing around safety, but it's absolutely important. We have to make sure we're finding out, what are the barriers and facilitators and then using those to leverage the work we're doing to make change.
Could On-Body Delivery of Isatuximab Bring More Competition to Anti-CD38 Myeloma Treatment?
June 6th 2025Results for IRAKLIA show noninferiority for Sanofi's on-body delivery system for isatuximab, compared with IV administration. Patients overwhelmingly preferred the hands-free delivery option.
Read More
Laundromats as a New Frontier in Community Health, Medicaid Outreach
May 29th 2025Lindsey Leininger, PhD, and Allister Chang, MPA, highlight the potential of laundromats as accessible, community-based settings to support Medicaid outreach, foster trust, and connect families with essential health and social services.
Listen
Zanubrutinib Shows Durable Benefit for High-Risk CLL/SLL at 5 Years in SEQUOIA Trial
June 6th 2025Zanubrutinib showed long-term efficacy in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) and deletion of the 17p chromosome, with progression-free survival similar to patients without high-risk disease characteristics.
Read More
Real-World Data Support Luspatercept vs ESAs for Anemia in Lower-Risk MDS
June 5th 2025Patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who received luspatercept showed greater hemoglobin gains and transfusion independence compared with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) in a real-world analysis.
Read More
At EHA 2025, Hematology Discussions Will Stretch Across Lifespans and Locations
June 5th 2025The 2025 European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress, convening virtually and in Milan, Italy, from June 12 to June 15, 2025, will feature a revamped program structure for the meeting’s 30th anniversary while maintaining ample opportunities to network, debate, and absorb practice-changing findings in hematology and oncology.
Read More