Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Assessing Social Determinants Of Health In Primary Care, Vicki Carpenter

Doctoral Projects

The social determinants of health encompass the various circumstances and environments in which individuals reside, develop, labor, and experience aging (Social Determinants of Health, 2022). These variables significantly contribute to the existence of health inequities and disparities within populations. In order to effectively mitigate health disparities, it is imperative to consider the various determinants that influence health outcomes, as this consideration is crucial for advancing the goal of achieving health equity. This public health concern encompasses multiple sectors within our society, necessitating the collaboration of various organizations and communities to effectively address and mitigate its impact.

The fundamental …

Why The West Should Help China Reduce Unrecognized And Preventable Covid-19 Deaths, George A. Gellert

Journal of Health Ethics

In an era marked by a ruinous war between a democratic state and a totalitarian regime, political volatility, rightward looking isolationism and nationalism, and heightened competition and disputes between China and the West, it is perhaps difficult to discern why the West should supply China with COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, as well as epidemiological assistance in order to mitigate a potentially unrecognized COVID-19 crisis in that nation. This commentary considers three arguments against Western and international indifference to the plight of China as it transitions to COVID-19 endemicity.

Ethical Considerations Surrounding Vaccine Development During A Public Health Crisis, Syed Arsalan Akhter Zaidi, Kainat Saleem, Rahul Bollam, Bushra Zaidi

Journal of Health Ethics

Epidemics and Pandemics have been plaguing mankind since many centuries, and are a cause of major healthcare expense in modern times. The novel coronavirus pandemic of 2019-2020 spread worldwide faster than many previous pandemics, including EBOLA in 2017. Although personal protective equipment, and social distancing slowed the outbreak, a vaccine is needed to ensure global immunization and to stop this deadly outbreak. Developing a vaccine in times of a public health crisis comes with a lot of ethical considerations, including overlooking proper informed consent, the issue of using placebo in control arm of trials, extended timelines of development of vaccines, …

A Framework For Personal Respiratory Ethics, Ian W. Goddard

Journal of Health Ethics

The Covid-19 pandemic raises the need for an ethical framework that addresses the unique ethical challenges and questions arising from airborne infectious diseases. For example, are we ever ethically obliged to wear a face mask? If so, why and when? The Respiratory Ethics Framework (REF) herein proposes pathways to answers grounded in ethical norms and the moral principles of non-harm, beneficence and respect for personal autonomy. REF is a personal ethics wherein your ethical duty to increase your respiratory hygiene efforts—such as by donning a mask—is proportional to your estimation of an increase in the likelihood that your respiratory effluent …

A Case Study In Resiliency: How A University Survived A Pandemic, Mary Ellen Stewart

Dissertations

This case study was conducted to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the campus of a small private university in central Mississippi, where traditionally, relational community and interaction were key contributors to campus culture. Through document analysis, individual interviews with campus leaders, and focus groups consisting of members of key departments, the role of resiliency was examined during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging from the data were the four thematic categories of leadership, campus culture, engagement and interaction, and challenges. Key components in each category revealed the significance of resiliency of university leaders, faculty, and staff as …

Testing Barriers To Non-Suicidal Self-Injury With College Students: Narcissistic Traits As Moderators, Philip Stoner

Dissertations

Research on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has produced mixed findings, resulting in a lack of clarity regarding these behaviors (Klonsky & Meuhlenkamp, 2007). To address this, Hooley and Franklin (2018) developed the Benefits and Barriers Model (BBM) to provide a comprehensive understanding of NSSI, in which they identified the barriers that commonly prevent people from engaging in these behaviors (e.g., self-esteem, shame, and peer-bonding motivations/social norms). They also identified adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as a distal predictor of NSSI, which aids people in overcoming the barriers to engaging in these behaviors. Recent NSSI literature has shown that college women in the …

"I Felt What Was Happening In Our Country [Usa] With Race Was So Much Scarier Than The [Covid-19] Virus.” Black Lives Matter Protesters’ Beliefs And Practices During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Evelyn Arana-Chicas, Brooke D. Jones, Francisco Cartujano-Barrera, Ana Paula Cupertino

Journal of Health Ethics

This study describes the COVID-19 prevention practices and beliefs of Black Lives Matter protesters in the U.S. Participants completed a survey on following COVID-19 guidelines and answered interview questions. Twenty participants were enrolled. Mean age was 29 and most were female (80%) and black (75%). Participants almost always wore their masks (75%) and washed their hands (85%) while protesting. Most reported rarely social distancing (55%) and not being concerned about COVID-19 (55%). Themes included: 1) Fighting for social justice, 2) Protesting is more important than COVID-19, 3) Unable to social distance, 4) Masks mostly worn, 5) Protests sparked global movement, …

Health Inequality As A Socially Created Complex System, Michele Battle-Fisher

Journal of Health Ethics

Brought to light by COVID-19, and the Black Lives Matter and Twitter #BlackBioethics movements, bioethics as a discipline has not intentionally accounted for distributive justice in its scholarship. Modern society exhibits gross disparities that affect marginalized populations who suffer amid social, financial, physical and emotional stressors. While marginalized groups that are underserved are not monoliths, disparity persists in disadvantaged communities regardless of social and economic strata. Disparity is the epitome of injustice. The overemphasis on proximal determinants demonstrates ill placed overemphasis on personal culpability whilst ignoring systemic factors that result in structural injustice. The sciences of complexity and systems thinking …

How Participation In Team V. Individual Sports Affects The Physical Activity Levels Of College Students, Kellie Jackson

Honors Theses

The present study investigated the association between team and individual sports participation and the physical activity levels of college students at the University of Southern Mississippi. Participants (n=72) responded to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) to determine their physical activity levels over the duration of one week. Participants also responded to the Participation Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ) to examine the similarities and differences in motivation among current, former, and never athletes. Participants who classified themselves as current and former athletes reported spending more time engaged in physical activity than never athletes. Among current athletes, former athletes, and never athletes, all …

Winners And Losers In The American Political Debates Of The Nation’S Health: An Ethical And Moral Dilemma, Dr. Sheila P. Davis

Journal of Health Ethics

The third and final issue of the Online Journal of Health Ethics for 2020 presents two poignant articles that are rankled with current health ethics and moral issues as the world races to a resolve for the COVID pandemic. There appears to be no easy, quick-fix solutions to the pandemic that has claimed over 1.11 million lives worldwide in this first wave. The Gellert article addresses his view of the U.S. government’s political response and the Gunn article presents an ethical perspective of the emerging promised vaccine to halt the virus.

An Epidemiological View Of The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election: Covid-19 And The Ethics Of Science Denial, George A. Gellert Md, Mph, Mpa

Journal of Health Ethics

COVID-19 is exploiting U.S. political and cultural polarization in the first presidential election to be driven by epidemiology and public health. Medical science is on the ballot as Americans’ views on economic re-opening fracture according to party affiliation. The difference between pro aggressive versus incremental re-opening, mask wearing and social distancing is rooted in respect for, or denial of, the science of epidemiological pandemic disease control. Political leaders at multiple levels, and in particular the president, have politicized the wearing of face masks and so intentionally obscured and misinformed the public regarding the objectively and scientifically proven value of these …

Framework For A Community Health Observing System For The Gulf Of Mexico Region: Preparing For Future Disasters, Paul Sandifer, Landon Knapp, Maureen Lichtveld, Ruth Manley, David Abramson, Rex Caffey, David Cochran, Tracy Collier, Kristie Ebi, Lawrence Engel, John Farrington, Melissa Finucane, Christine Hale, David Halpern, Emily Harville, Leslie Hart, Yulin Hswen, Barbara Kirkpatrick, Bruce Mcewen, Glenn Morris, Raymond Orbach, Lawrence Palinkas, Melissa Partyka, Dwayne Porter, Aric A. Prather, Teresa Rowles, Geoffrey Scott, Teresa Seeman, Helena Solo-Gabriele, Erik Svendsen, Terry Tincher, Juli Trtanj, Ann Hayward Walker

Faculty Publications

© Copyright © 2020 Sandifer, Knapp, Lichtveld, Manley, Abramson, Caffey, Cochran, Collier, Ebi, Engel, Farrington, Finucane, Hale, Halpern, Harville, Hart, Hswen, Kirkpatrick, McEwen, Morris, Orbach, Palinkas, Partyka, Porter, Prather, Rowles, Scott, Seeman, Solo-Gabriele, Svendsen, Tincher, Trtanj, Walker, Yehuda, Yip, Yoskowitz and Singer. The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region is prone to disasters, including recurrent oil spills, hurricanes, floods, industrial accidents, harmful algal blooms, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GoM and other regions of the U.S. lack sufficient baseline health information to identify, attribute, mitigate, and facilitate prevention of major health effects of disasters. Developing capacity to assess adverse human …

The George Floyd Of Healthcare, Sheila P. Davis, Phd, Fnp-C, Faan, Lsm-Bc, Gary Davis, Md

Journal of Health Ethics

Authors explore the infamous murder of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, and juxtaposition it to systemic racial practices in healthcare as documented by the Institute of Medicine Report: Unequal Treatment. The current COVID-19 pandemic is presented as a situation which has the potential to ignite unresolved discriminatory healthcare practices. Proposed are policies which could possibly mitigate this phenomenon.

Implementing Screening To Assess Readiness To Change In Overweight And Obese Patients At A Patient-Centered Medical Home, Jarrod Gant

Doctoral Projects

Obesity is at epidemic levels within the United States (U.S.), but the Southern U.S. has some of the most obese states. Mississippi (MS) is the most obese state in the country (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2018). Factors such as diet, sedentary lifestyle, cultural influences, and socioeconomic status contribute to the state’s citizens being overweight and obese.

Contributing to the state’s obesity is the fact that MS has more people living in poverty than any other state (Center for American Progress [CAP], 2018). Lacking the ability to afford healthy foods and the ability to afford quality healthcare adds to the state’s …

Obesity: The Elephant In The Room We Can No Longer Afford To Ignore, Joanie Sompayrac, Katharine Linehart Trundle

Journal of Health Ethics

Everyone pays the price for the obesity-related illnesses of our fellow citizens – through increased premiums on our group health insurance policies, through reduced productivity of our co-workers, through taxpayer support of hospitals that provide indigent care and through soaring Medicare costs, to name a few. The fact that our entire society often ends up paying many of the costs for the obesity-related illnesses of not only ourselves but also our family members, our friends, our co-workers and even strangers raises questions: Why doesn’t insurance pay to help overweight and obese people to make lifestyle changes that could save us …

Increasing Cervical Cancer Screening In Hiv Positive Women By Introduction Of A Provider Prompted Algorithm Tool: A Quality Improvement Project, Aubri B. Hickman

Doctoral Projects

Continuous quality improvement projects and appropriate documentation are an essential component to continue to receive Ryan White grant funding. Compliance with mandated aspects of quality improvement is an extremely important concept-specifically for a clinic setting that cares for the largest HIV positive population in the state of Mississippi. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provides directives mandating that quality improvement projects should be applicable to areas of need and provide for outcomes that ensure quality care for HIV positive individuals (2016).

Initially, this clinic’s rate of compliance with the HRSA Cervical Cancer Screening Performance Measure was subpar to the …

How To Effectively Improve Nurse-Physician Communication, Savannah R. Lacoste

Honors Theses

A study of the issue of Nurse-Physician communication, its causes, effects, importance, and possible improvements through research. The results suggest both physicians and nurses agree that nurse-physician communication is an important problem, and can be effectively improved in many ways including: a required nurse-physician communication class for pre-medical and pre-nursing students at an undergraduate level, improved and structured communication tools, and inter-professional education (IPE) between nurses and physicians. The research provides the outlooks of twenty-five nurses and twenty-five physicians independently, as well as demonstrating the nurse-physician disconnect through data comparison and analysis.

Teenagers Need Drugs Too: Attitudes On The Accessibility And Acceptability Of The Hpv Vaccine From Parents Of Different Socioeconomic Statuses, Kristen Angell' Dupard

Honors Theses

Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women around the world and is linked to the human papillomavirus (HPV). Strains HPV-16 and-18 are linked to the causes of cervical cancer. Research shows that HPV vaccination in adolescent females projects a 70% non-contraction rate. However, only 57.3% of girls between the ages of 13-17 in the U.S. have received their first HPV vaccination dose. Researchers have begun speculating that factors such SES and race could be contributing to low vaccination participation. Answers to such information can aid in improving federal and state vaccination policies and prevent the …

Hospital Practices Related To Breastfeeding In Mississippi: A Socio-Ecological Approach, Amir Alakaam

Dissertations

Mississippi continues to have one of the lowest rates and the weakest support in respect to breastfeeding in the nation (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014a). Hospital practices supporting breastfeeding such as the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding (TSSB) can dramatically increase breastfeeding rates and duration (Rosenberg, Stull, Adler, Kasehagen, & Crivelli-Kovach, 2008). The aim of this study was to explore breastfeeding practices in Mississippi hospitals based on two levels of the Socio-Ecological Model: the organizational level (phase I) examined the hospital practices based on the level of implementation of the TSSB; the individual level (phase II) examined knowledge …

Dispositional Optimism: Modeling Cardiovascular Disease Mortality With Traditional Risk Factors And A Psychosocial Personality Trait, Kiana Ramisi Luckett Robinson

Dissertations

Despite increased awareness of clinical risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), heart disease remains a physical and economic burden to African Americans. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between dispositional optimism, a psychosocial personality trait, and CVD mortality, based on immediate cause of death. A cross-sectional design was used to examine the predictive value of dispositional optimism in CVD mortality concomitant with traditional CVD risk factors. The traditional CVD risk factors of interest consisted of body mass index, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, total cholesterol, and C-reactive protein. Also, aggregated mortality data for optimists …