Section on Epidemiology

2005 Outstanding Achievement Award In The Application Of Epidemiologic Information To Child Health Outcomes

Congratulations to Young Juhn, MD, MPH winner of the AAP Sections on Community Pediatrics and Epidemiology Second Annual Outstanding Achievement Award. This award was established to recognize pediatricians who have made outstanding contributions toward advocating for children and child health in the community through the effective use of epidemiologic information.

Dr. Juhn was nominated by his department chair and collaborator, Robert M Jacobson, for his work on how health outcomes are influenced by the interface between biomedical and non-biomedical factors.

Dr Juhn has thoughtfully conceptualized and framed his research on the broader understanding of health of children and their families in the social and community context. Specifically, he seeks to learn how the interface between biomedical and non-biomedical factors determines the subsequent health outcomes. He has emphasized the importance of community as a conduit to greatly enhance the health of children in Minnesota. He has collaborated with many community agencies such as the city planning department, the county health department, Head Start, child care organizations, the local child protection agency, and the school district.

Several of his interventions include multilevel analysis of the independent influence of neighborhood environment on the incidence of childhood asthma, identification of febrile children in child care settings, and most notably, research on incomplete pre-Head Start physical examinations and the rising trend of obesity among enrollees. The study revealed significant rates of abnormal screening results and incomplete evaluation for vision, hearing, hemoglobin, and urine screening - data which proved invaluable for Head Start in formulating subsequent interventions. The study also identified significantly higher rates of obesity in children of families in which English is the second language. This was a major finding that led to the 2004 Mayo Summit on Obesity and subsequent collaborations with the city-county planning department to assess the influence of neighborhood environment on childhood obesity. Obesity is a national epidemic and requires innovative and effective solutions. The City Planning Department is a novel way to approach the problem and to improve Public Health and fitness for all. Successful programs benefit all of society without stigmatizing the poor.

Dr. Juhn has been on faculty at the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine for six years. He received his M.D. from Inje University School of Medicine, South Korea, and completed his pediatric residency training at Hurley Medical Center, a Michigan State University-affiliated hospital. He completed a general academic pediatric fellowship and an M.P.H. at Yale University.

In 1999 he started his clinician investigator career on faculty in the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at Mayo Clinic and has two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, a NIH R01 funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a NIH R21 funded by the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. His primary research interest is asthma epidemiology.