Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Vulnerability To And Protection Against Covid-19 Fear, Threat, And Worry, Marsha Kim Huh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from a sample of 10,368 adults living in the U.S., the current study examines the role of social and psychological resources in lowering COVID-related fear, threat, and worry, controlling for a number of social vulnerabilities (e.g. gender, race/ethnicity, and presence of children). The impact of social location, particularly in regards to race, and how one accesses and/or utilizes social and psychological resources is also examined through disaggregated regression models. Results demonstrate that some social and psychological resources impact COVID-specific distress (fear/threat/worry), but depending on the resource, relationships vary in direction and significance. The strength of social ties and mastery …

A Descriptive Case Study Of The Challenges Of Drug And Alcohol Counselors, Ruben Herron

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Substance abuse is the number one public health problem in Oklahoma and nationally. Annual related expenses of substance abuse in Oklahoma are nearly $2 billion. This qualitative descriptive case study asks the question what are the challenges of substance-abuse counseling? The researcher will be describing in detail the history of drug and alcohol treatment and counseling in America. Using interviews, observations and document collection which will allow the interviews voices to be heard.

An Automated Method To Enrich And Expand Consumer Health Vocabularies Using Glove Word Embeddings, Mohammed Ibrahim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clear language makes communication easier between any two parties. However, a layman may have difficulty communicating with a professional due to not understanding the specialized terms common to the domain. In healthcare, it is rare to find a layman knowledgeable in medical jargon, which can lead to poor understanding of their condition and/or treatment. To bridge this gap, several professional vocabularies and ontologies have been created to map laymen medical terms to professional medical terms and vice versa. Many of the presented vocabularies are built manually or semi-automatically requiring large investments of time and human effort and consequently the slow …

Hpv Vaccination In Females: The Role Of Primary Health Care And Primary Health Care Providers, Brooke Bouza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two reasons for subpar coverage of the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine are missed clinical opportunities and nonacceptance of the vaccine upon recommendation from a medical provider. The purpose of study one was to examine factors associated with access and adherence to physician’s recommendations in association with HPV vaccine uptake. Data were obtained from National Health Interview Survey (2017). Variables theoretically related to clinical opportunities and adherence to physician’s recommendations were examined in association with HPV vaccine uptake. Univariate logistic regressions were run to determine the associations between the aforementioned variables and uptake of the HPV vaccine. Multinomial logistic regressions were …

An Interdisciplinary Study To Understand Treatment Seeking Behavior Among Female Survivors Of Anorexia Nervosa, Meaghan Victoria Tipton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was done to examine what psychosocial factors influence treatment seeking behavior among female survivors of eating disorders. This study uses a mixed methods survey consisting of open-ended item questions regarding treatment experience and social environment, and close-ended items to measure constructs from the Health Belief Model. Fourteen participants were recruited for this study to retrospectively detail their experiences of treatment during their eating disorder. All fourteen participants identified as Caucasian, thirteen identified as female, one identified with other gender, each with a history of medically diagnosed anorexia nervosa. The mean of age of current participants was 29.46, and …

Extracting Patterns In Medical Claims Data For Predicting Opioid Overdose, Ryan Sanders

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this project is to develop an efficient methodology for extracting features from time-dependent variables in transaction data. Transaction data is collected at varying time intervals making feature extraction more difficult. Unsupervised representational learning techniques are investigated, and the results compared with those from other feature engineering techniques. A successful methodology provides features that improve the accuracy of any machine learning technique. This methodology is then applied to insurance claims data in order to find features to predict whether a patient is at risk of overdosing on opioids. This data covers prescription, inpatient, and outpatient transactions. Features created …

Philosophia Soteria: How Occupational Safety And Health Professionals Influence Decision Makers, Daniel Jay Snyder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify ideas about how occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals influence decision-makers on matters impacting occupational health and safety management systems. A modified nominal group technique was used that involved 67 participants in ten nominal groups and identified the most important ideas about how OSH professionals can influence workplace safety and health decision making. The research produced themes of communication, scientific, professionalism, leadership, adaptability, and business acumen that resulted in six domains of occupational safety and health professional influence.

During The Wait: A Phenomenological Study On Denied Social Security Dissability Applicants Awaiting Appeal, Stefanie A. Ford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the essence of the experience of individuals who were denied Social Security Disability benefits and who sought the appeals process. In the first round, five semi-structured face-to-face interviews allow the participants to share their thoughts, feelings, and actions taken and, if any, what life changes occurred during the appeals process. Data analysis using phenomenological methods create textural-structural descriptions from which, in a second interview, applicants choose to confirm, edit, or add to their analyzed interviews. The findings present as seven major themes that describes the phenomenon. They are: (a) procedural unfairness …

Young Adult E-Cigarette Exposure: Implications For Policy And Prevention, Monica Page Daniel Dobbs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Objective. The purpose of this study is to examine factors associated with e-cigarette use among college students to better understand their behavior. Using Ajzen’s Reasoned Action Approach, this study sought to better understanding the influence of attitudes, Social norms, and perceived behavioral controls (PBCs) on college students’ intention to try e-cigarettes (even one puff) in the next 30 days.

Methodology. This study employed three phases for a mixed methods design that took place between December 2015 and April 2016. Phase 1 used Middlestadt’s salient belief elicitation procedure to capture responses through an open ended survey (n=58). Phase 2, a pilot …

A Community-Based Participatory Approach To Understanding Health Beliefs, Policies, Barriers, And Solutions Related To The Health Disparities Of Marshallese Cofa Migrants In Arkansas., Pearl Anna Mcelfish

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Public policies have different effects on different populations groups and can perpetuate health disparities among some populations. My research utilizes community-based participatory approach to research in the examination of one unique population: the Marshallese. This dissertation research presents three papers that are part of a cohesive research agenda predicated on community-based participatory research (CBPR) to facilitate policy-oriented learning. My research can be used to inform health policy, health care services, and health education. Chapter Two presents the article titled: Health Beliefs of US Marshallese Regarding Type 2 Diabetes.

This article explores the research question: what health beliefs related to diabetes …

Socially Constructing Drug Addicts From The Poor: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Kalynn Susan Amundson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Welfare drug testing was authorized by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, and has subsequently garnered extensive legislative interest in numerous states. This policy raises several questions, which are the subjects of the two journal articles and one manuscript included in this dissertation.

The first article addresses the question of a possible confluence of War on Drugs and Welfare Reform policies as evidenced through welfare drug testing policy, and indicated by continuity in policymakers’ rhetoric. This study examines federal-level policymakers’ debate discourse in these two policy streams. The analysis finds themes of the Social pathology, …

Development And Preliminary Validation Of A Nonmedical Prescription Drug Motives Questionnaire, Lauren Ashleigh Milner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of nonmedical prescription drug (NMPD) use continues to increase among emerging adult populations; however, little is known about the motivations behind this use. The current study aimed to extend previous research by developing and validating the first known comprehensive NMPD motives measure. As such, the primary focus of the current study was to examine evidence for the reliability and validity of the NMPD Motives Questionnaire by assessing the factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity of the motives scale. Participants were drawn from a larger study of college student substance use behaviors and attitudes (N = 1,427; Mage= …

An Evaluation Of A Peer Led Bystander Intervention Program To Reduce Sexual Assault Violence Among College Students, Elizabeth Madeline Childers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It has been reported that sexual victimization among college women is three times higher than the general population. Because of these alarming rates, sexual violence prevention has become a main concern on college campuses. Sexual violence prevention programs have been implemented and evaluated throughout the years in order to decrease the incidence of sexual violence, but very few have explored the bystander intervention component. The current study developed and evaluated a program that promoted proSocial bystander behavior through a one-time educational program utilizing peer educators. Data for this study were collected with a pre/posttest design from a Division 1 university …

An Empirical Investigation Of Supply Chain Excellence In Healthcare, Brian Keith Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is motivated by opportunities to improve the cost and quality of healthcare delivery through improved supply chain processes. This research assesses the quality of the healthcare supply chain and identifies factors that are driving supply chain excellence among organizations in the healthcare industry. The first objective of this research is to assess the state of quality measurement in the healthcare supply chain. The achievement of this first objective is presented in Chapter 3 of this dissertation in the form of a manuscript accepted for publication in The Quality Management Journal. The second research objective is to develop …