{"id":179142,"date":"2023-06-20T16:36:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T02:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=179142"},"modified":"2023-06-27T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T00:11:58","slug":"scott-okamoto-prevention-science-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/06\/20\/scott-okamoto-prevention-science-award\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center researcher receives Hawai\u02bbi 1st Prevention Science Award"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"person<\/p>\n

University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Cancer Center<\/a> researcher Scott Okamoto, received the 2023 Prevention Science Award from the Society for Prevention Research<\/a> (SPR<\/abbr>). Okamoto was recognized for his contributions in developing and testing cancer prevention strategies in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and the Pacific, making him the first researcher from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to receive this award for significant work. For the first time, SPR<\/abbr> is recognizing the work being conducted in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and the Pacific with this award. <\/p>\n

\"Scott
Scott Okamoto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPR<\/abbr> is an organization dedicated to advancing the scientific investigation on the prevention of social, physical and mental health problems, and on the translation of that information to promote health and well-being. The Prevention Science Award is given to an individual or team of individuals for a significant body of research that has applied scientific methods to test one or more preventive interventions or policies.<\/p>\n

This commendation from SPR<\/abbr> was achieved through Okamoto\u2019s extensive work since 2006 in developing and evaluating a culturally-grounded, school-based tobacco and drug prevention curriculum for rural Native Hawaiian youth attending public intermediate schools on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island. The curriculum, Hoʻouna<\/span> Pono, to send with righteousness, has educated more than 480 students by focusing on drug use resistance skills training using interactive activities, facilitated discussions and realistic video content. <\/p>\n

“Dr. Okamoto\u2019s work is integrated into the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> community and has impacted thousands of students through shifting their trajectory and delaying onset of substance use concerns,” said Kelsie Okamura, implementation researcher, Harvard University. “His research creates a path to independence for other scholars, social workers, and substance use prevention professionals who desire to serve those in communities that need them the most.”<\/p>\n

Okamoto earned his PhD in social welfare from the UH<\/abbr> Manoa Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health<\/a>. He is currently working to develop a new curriculum for e-cigarette prevention. The vision earned him a $2.8 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. This intervention will update the existing Hoʻouna<\/span> Pono curriculum and introduce new e-cigarette and vaping prevention content, including a social and print media campaign, across intermediate and multi-level public and public charter schools on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island. More than 500 students are anticipated to enroll in this study over five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The work to help Hawai\u02bbi Island students with tobacco prevention earns a Â鶹´«Ã½Cancer Center researcher an award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[218,598,1467,1363,169,9],"class_list":["post-179142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-cancer","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-uh-cancer-center","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179142"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179501,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179142\/revisions\/179501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}