Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Impacts Of Climate Change And Heat Stress On Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review, Moussa El Khayat, Dana A. Halwani, Layal Hneiny, Ibrahim Alameddine, Mustapha A. Haidar, Rima R. Habib

Faculty Publications

Due to the continuous rise of global temperatures and heatwaves worldwide as a result of climate change, concerns for the health and safety of working populations have increased. Workers in the food production chain, particularly farmworkers, are especially vulnerable to heat stress due to the strenuous nature of their work, which is performed primarily outdoors under poor working conditions. At the cross-section of climate change and farmworkers' health, a scoping review was undertaken to summarize the existing knowledge regarding the health impacts associated with climate change and heat stress, guide future research toward better understanding current and future climate change …

Reporting Of Concussion Symptoms By A Nationwide Survey Of United States Parents Of Middle School Children, Zachary Y. Kerr, Brittany M. Ingram, Christine E. Callahan, Aliza K. Nedimyer, Avinash Chandran, Melissa K. Kossman, Julia Hoang, Paula Gildner, Johna K. Register-Mihalik

Faculty Publications

This cross-sectional study assessed concussion symptom knowledge of parents of middle school (MS) children (aged 10–15 years) through a free-response item that solicited concussion symptoms and compared findings to a pre-validated scale-based measure. A self-administered online questionnaire was sent to a panel of randomly selected United States residents who were recruited by a third-party company, aged ≥ 18 years, and identified as parents of MS children. Via a free-response item, parents listed what they believed were concussion symptoms. Multiple sections later, parents identified potential concussion symptoms via a scale measure, which featured 25 items (22 actual symptoms, three distractor symptoms) …

Facility Attractiveness And Social Vulnerability Impacts On Spatial Accessibility To Opioid Treatment Programs In South Carolina, Parisa Bozorgi, Jan M. Eberth, Jeannie P. Eidson, Dwayne E. Porter

Faculty Publications

Opioid dependence and opioid-related mortality have been increasing in recent years in the United States. Available and accessible treatments may result in a reduction of opioid-related mortality. This work describes the geographic variation of spatial accessibility to opioid treatment programs (OTPs) and identifies areas with poor access to care in South Carolina. The study develops a new index of access that builds on the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, and has three dimensions: a facility attractiveness index, defined by services rendered incorporated into the Huff Model; a facility catchment area, defined as a function of facility attractiveness to account …

Perceived Vulnerability To Covid-19 Infection From Event Attendance: Results From Louisiana, Usa, Two Weeks Preceding The National Emergency Declaration, Ran Li, Bingcheng Yang, Jerrod Penn, Bailey Houghtaling, Juan Chen, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul, Brian E. Roe, Danyi Qi

Faculty Publications

Background: Individual perceptions of personal and national threats posed by COVID-19 shaped initial response to the pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in residents' awareness about COVID-19 and to characterize those who were more aware and responsive during the early stages of the pandemic in Louisiana.

Methods: In response to the mounting threat of COVID-19, we added questions to an ongoing food preference study held at Louisiana State University from March 3rd through March 12th, 2020. We asked how likely it was that the spread of the coronavirus will cause a national public health crisis …

Sex And Gender In Research On Healthcare Workers In Conflict Settings: A Scoping Review, Dana A. Halwani, Diana Mikati, Layal Hneiny

Faculty Publications

The occupational health literature has established that sex and gender are associated with all dimensions of the workplace. Sex and/or gender (sex/gender) factors play an important role in shaping the experiences, exposures, and health outcomes of male and female healthcare providers working in war and conflict settings. This study aims to (1) assess how sex/gender is considered in the occupational health literature on healthcare workers in conflict settings, and (2) identify the gaps in incorporating sex/gender concepts in this literature. A scoping review was carried out and nine electronic databases were searched using a comprehensive search strategy. Two reviewers screened …

Ten Questions Concerning The Built Environment And Mental Health, Andrew J. Hoisington, Kelly A. Stearns-Yoder, Steven J. Schuldt, Cody J. Beemer, Kerry A. Kinney, Teodor T. Postolache, Christopher A. Lowry, Lisa A. Brenner

Faculty Publications

Most people spend the majority of their lives indoors. Research over the last thirty years has focused on investigating the mechanisms through which specific elements of the built environment, such as indoor air quality, influence the physical health of occupants. However, similar effort has not been expended in regard to mental health, a significant public health concern. One in five Americans has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the past year, and, in the United States, the number of suicide deaths are similar to the number of deaths due to breast cancer. Increases in mental health disorders in …

Longitudinal Homogenization Of The Microbiome Between Both Occupants And The Built Environment In A Cohort Of United States Air Force Cadets, Anukriti Sharma, Miles Richardson, Lauren Cralle, Christopher E. Stamper, Juan P. Maestre, Kelly A. Stearns-Yoder, Teodor T. Postolache, Katherine L. Bates, Kerry A. Kinney, Lisa A. Brenner, Christopher A. Lowry, Jack A. Gilbert, Andrew J. Hoisington

Faculty Publications

The microbiome of the built environment has important implications for human health and wellbeing; however, bidirectional exchange of microbes between occupants and surfaces can be confounded by lifestyle, architecture, and external environmental exposures. Here, we present a longitudinal study of United States Air Force Academy cadets (n = 34), which have substantial homogeneity in lifestyle, diet, and age, all factors that influence the human microbiome. We characterized bacterial communities associated with (1) skin and gut samples from roommate pairs, (2) four built environment sample locations inside the pairs’ dormitory rooms, (3) four built environment sample locations within shared spaces …

Measuring Vapor Intrusion: From Source Science Politics To A Transdisciplinary Approach, Peter C. Little, Kelly G. Pennell

Faculty Publications

Investigation of indoor air quality has been on the upswing in recent years. In this article, we focus on how the transport of subsurface vapors into indoor air spaces, a process known as ‘vapor intrusion’, (VI) is defined and addressed. For environmental engineers and physical scientists who specialize in this emerging indoor environmental exposure science, VI is notoriously difficult to characterize, leading the regulatory community to seek improved science-based understandings of VI pathways and exposures. Yet despite the recent growth in VI science and competition between environmental consulting companies, VI studies have largely overlooked the social and political field in …

Beyond Sustainability: A New Conceptual Model, Molly Kerby, Gayle Mallinger

Faculty Publications

Over the last few decades, the notion of sustainability has become an interdisciplinary buzz word. Sustainability has been an integrative concept that includes three constructs or pillars: a) social; b) economic; and c) ecological. Until recently, theoretical approaches based on the three pillars approach have operated in silos rather than exploring the interconnectedness of the constructs. Few models have moved beyond the idea that logical relations exist among the constructs (social, economic, and ecological) to consider factors external to communities, nor have they examined the internal socio-economic factors that influence positive outcomes. While this conceptualization has raised awareness about the …