Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

How Community Participation In Water And Sanitation Interventions Impacts Human Health, Wash Infrastructure And Service Longevity In Low-Income And Middle-Income Countries: A Realist Review, Sarah Nelson, Dorothy Drabarek, Aaron Jenkins, Joel Negin, Seye Abimbola

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objective:

To understand how, and under what circumstances community participation in water and sanitation interventions impacts the availability of safe water and sanitation, a change in health status or behaviour and the longevity of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) resources and services.

Design:

Realist review.

Data sources:

PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases were used to identify papers from low-income and middle-income countries from 2010 to 2020.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies:

Criteria were developed for papers to be included. The contribution of each paper was assessed based on its relevance and rigour (eg, can it contribute to context, …

Planning For Evacuation And Sheltering Of Vulnerable & Medically Fragile Populations During The Post-Vaccine Period Of A Compound Hurricane-Pandemic Threat: After-Action Report (Aar) Summarizing Results Of A Workshop Hosted On September 27, 2021, Wie Yusuf, Converge Covid-19 Working Group, Old Dominion University, University Of South Florida

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

From the Executive Summary:

The CONVERGE COVID-19 Working Group’s Workshop on Planning for Evacuation and Sheltering of Vulnerable and Medically Fragile Populations during the Post-vaccine Period of a Compound Hurricane-Pandemic Threat was held virtually on September 27, 2021. The 137 workshop participants represented federal, state, and local governments, the nonprofit sector and advocacy organizations, businesses, and academic institutions. Participants primarily represented functional areas of emergency management, planning, and public health. Geographically, the workshop participants came from 20 states, primarily along the Eastern seaboard plus the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.

Factors Affecting Retention In The Philippine National Rural Physician Deployment Program From 2012 To 2019: A Mixed Methods Study, Erika Louise L. Flores, Edric Matthew R. Manahan, Miguel Paulo B. Lacanilao, Isabella Ma. Beatriz T. Ladaw, Mico Martin B. Mallillin, Nikolai Thadeus Q. Mappatao, Juan Alfonso Leonardia, Veincent Christian F. Pepito

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

To address the maldistribution of healthcare providers and the shortage of physicians in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas of the Philippines, the Philippine National Rural Physician Deployment Program, or more commonly known as the Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) program was established in 1993. However, as of 2011, only 18% of the DTTBs chose to stay in their assigned municipalities after their two-year deployment, termed retention. This study aims to identify the individual, local, work, national, and international factors affecting the retention of DTTBs in their assigned communities after their two-year deployment.

Methods

A descriptive, mixed-methods, explanatory design was …

Navigating The Pandemic As It Enters Its Second Year, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

Many countries, enabled by the rapid vaccine rollout, experienced some moments of relief from the Covid-19 pandemic as they embarked on their long and winding transition toward normalcy. However, despite the Herculean effort expended, achieving herd immunity remains a distant goal for many due to the emergence of the highly transmissible and lethal Delta variant and the persistence of vaccine hesitancy. As such, the coronavirus continues to upend lives, businesses, and society, and the playbook for survival will still be a work-in-progress

Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Loneliness And Social Isolation: A Multi-Country Study, Roger O’Sullivan, Annette Burns, Gerard Leavey, Iracema Leroi, Vanessa Burholt, James Lubben, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Christina Victor, Brian Lawlor, Mireya Vilar-Compte, Carla M. Perissinotto, Mark A. Tully, Mary Pat Sullivan, Michael Rosato, Joanna Mchugh Power, Elisa Tiilikainen, Thomas R. Prohaska

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

The COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent public health social measures have challenged our social and economic life, with increasing concerns around potentially rising levels of social isolation and loneliness. This paper is based on cross-sectional online survey data (available in 10 languages, from 2 June to 16 November 2020) with 20,398 respondents from 101 different countries. It aims to help increase our understanding of the global risk factors that are associated with social isolation and loneliness, irrespective of culture or country, to support evidence-based policy, services and public health interventions. We found the prevalence of severe loneliness was 21% during …

The Influence Of The Urban Food Environment On Diet, Nutrition And Health Outcomes In Low-Income And Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review, Susannah Westbury, Iman Ghosh, Helen Margaret Jones, Daniel Mensah, Folake Samuel, Ana Irache, Nida Azhar, Lena Al-Khudairy, Romaina Iqbal, Oyinlola Oyebode

Community Health Sciences

Introduction: Diet and nutrition are leading causes of global morbidity and mortality. Our study aimed to identify and synthesise evidence on the association between food environment characteristics and diet, nutrition and health outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), relevant to urban settings, to support development and implementation of appropriate interventions.
Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search of 9 databases from 1 January 2000 to 16 September 2020 with no language restrictions. We included original peer-reviewed observational studies, intervention studies or natural experiments conducted in at least one urban LMIC setting and reporting a quantitative association between a characteristic of …

Covid-19 One Year On: Security And Privacy Review Of Contact Tracing Mobile Apps, Wei Yang Ang, Lwin Khin Shar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused 3.8 million deaths since December 2019. At the current vaccination pace, this global pandemic could persist for several years. Throughout the world, contact tracing (CT) apps were developed, which play a significant role in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. This work examines the current state of security and privacy landscape of mobile CT apps. Our work is the first attempt, to our knowledge, which provides a comprehensive analysis of 70 CT apps used worldwide as of year Q1 2021. Among other findings, we observed that 80% of them may have handled sensitive data without adequate …

Precision Public Health Campaign: Delivering Persuasive Messages To Relevant Segments Through Targeted Advertisements On Social Media, Jisun An, Haewoon Kwak, Hanya M. Qureshi, Ingmar Weber

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although established marketing techniques have been applied to design more effective health campaigns, more often than not, the same message is broadcasted to large populations, irrespective of unique characteristics. As individual digital device use has increased, so have individual digital footprints, creating potential opportunities for targeted digital health interventions. We propose a novel precision public health campaign framework to structure and standardize the process of designing and delivering tailored health messages to target particular population segments using social media–targeted advertising tools. Our framework consists of five stages: defining a campaign goal, priority audience, and evaluation metrics; splitting the target audience …

Conflicts Of Interest: An Invisible Force Shaping Health Systems And Policies, Afifah Rahman-Shepherd, Priya Balasubramaniam, Meenakshi Gautham, Eleanor Hutchinson, Freddy E. Kitutu, Robert Marten, Mishal S. Khan

Community Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Longitudinal Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) Acceptability, Initiation And Adherence Among Criminal Justice-Involved Adults In The Usa: The Southern Prep Cohort Study (Specs) Protocol, Katherine Lemasters, Carrie B. Oser, Mariah Cowell, Katie Mollan, Kathryn Nowotny, Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein

Sociology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: HIV prevalence among criminal justice (CJ)-involved adults is five times higher than the general population. Following incarceration, CJ-involved individuals experience multilevel barriers to HIV prevention. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a widely available, daily medication efficacious in preventing HIV. Little is known about PrEP knowledge, acceptability, initiation and sustained use among CJ-involved persons or about how these outcomes vary by multilevel factors. The Southern Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Study (SPECS) will investigate barriers and facilitators for PrEP initiation and sustained use among CJ-involved adults, building a foundation for PrEP interventions for this underserved population.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: SPECS uses a mixed-methods sequential …

Building Back Healthier: The Role Of Public Health In State Disaster Recovery Law, Claire Pendergrast, Nicole Errett

Population Health Research Brief Series

When communities are impacted by disasters, state officials must implement efficient and competent recovery strategies with the health and wellbeing of residents in mind. This research brief summarizes findings from a peer-reviewed study showing that few U.S. states explicitly integrate public health into their disaster recovery laws, and the types of public health requirements and authorizations vary substantially across states.

Health Communication Support In Baseline Health Literacy Research, Owen Manahan

Senior Honors Projects

Health literacy refers to the ability to obtain, understand, and use health information to make good health decisions. Improving health outcomes in Rhode Island requires removing health literacy barriers.

In the spring of 2019, researchers at the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College received funding from the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services to assess health literacy in Medicaid beneficiary outpatient health centers. Such research has never before been conducted in Rhode Island. Researchers administered a modified health literacy assessment to collect self-reported data on patient health status, measure patient confidence in accessing health information, …

Covid-19 Impact Assessment And Future Strategies, Sarah Thorsteinson, Lina Albernaz, Renee Bailey, Ellis Baril, Miranda Boitano, Caysea Browne, Kaitlyn Browne, Maggie Christie, Antonia Gschwend, Sofie Halverson, Madeline Hazenberg, Sloane Perkins, Savannah Schell, Devon Sherwood, Derek Simmons

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This capstone project is in collaboration with Dr. Liz Mogford’s sociology capstone project titled Population Health Advocacy. The class was invited by the Whatcom County Health Department to conduct research on city and county Community Health Improvement priorities. These priorities include racial equity, youth mental health, housing and economic security. As part of a research team, we conducted interviews with 30 participants who were identified for their expertise in these priority areas. Our class was split into priority subgroups to conduct interviews and then, as an entire class, we analyzed our interviews to find commonalities across the three priorities. Our …

Stroke: Identifying Symptoms And Acting Fast To Save Lives And Prevent Permanent Disabilities, Mary E. Helander, Bernard Appiah, Miriam Mutambudzi

Population Health Research Brief Series

Stroke is the 5^th leading cause of death in the United States. Strokes and their long-term effects are preventable. Recognizing the symptoms of stroke and acting quickly can prevent death and minimize long-term disabilities. Family members and bystanders have an important role to play. This issue brief describes stroke symptoms and prevention guidelines, summarizes the information 9-1-1 callers should be prepared to provide when someone is having a stroke, and discusses the importance of acting quickly to save lives and long-term damage.

The Public Good, Bad Policies, And Tough Times: When Profit And Public Interests Collide, Austin Mcneill Brown, Shannon M. Monnat

Population Health Research Brief Series

Privatization of public goods maximizes corporate profits while providing minimal benefits or protections to public health. When calamities such as infectious disease pandemics, natural disasters, and severe weather strike, privatized systems often fail to respond adequately. This issue brief describes how privatization of public goods undermines public health, damages public trust, and erodes democracy and provides suggestions for how we can rethink policies to value people over profits instead of valuing profits over people.

Mapping The Literature On Health Literacy Related To Covid-19 Pandemic: A Scientometric Analysis, Rozeen Shaukat, Nusrat Ali, Muhammad Asif Naveed

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study intended to carry out a scientometric analysis of the literature on health literacy related to Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic to determine its periodic growth, publication format dispersion, core journals, authorship patterns, geographic origin, keywords patterns, and core institutions. Two general bibliographic databases such as Scopus and Web of Science were searched using keywords such as ‘health literacy, health education, health communication, health promotion, combining with Covid-19 using AND to identify related citations. The data set of 620 citations were analyzed and visualized for several bibliographic characteristics using ScientoPy and VOSviewer. The results revealed that there is a phenomenal …

Consequences Of Covid-19 Crisis For Persons With Hiv: The Impact Of Social Determinants Of Health, Kristie Cason Waterfield, Gulzar H. Shah, Gina D. Etheredge, Osaremhen Ikhile

Department of Health Policy and Community Health Faculty Publications

Background

With the indiscriminate spread of COVID-19 globally, many populations are experiencing negative consequences such as job loss, food insecurity, and inability to manage existing medical conditions and maintain preventive measures such as social distancing and personal preventative equipment. Some of the most disadvantaged in the COVID-19 era are people living with HIV/AIDS and other autoimmune diseases.

Discussion

As the number of new HIV infections decrease globally, many subpopulations remain at high risk of infection due to lack of or limited access to prevention services, as well as clinical care and treatment. For persons living with HIV or at higher …

Capacity Of Rural Counties To Address An Hiv Or Hepatitis C Outbreak, Jennifer Lenardson Mhs, Jaclyn Janis Rn, Mph, Amanda Burgess Mppm, Karen Pearson Mlis, Ma, Martha Elbaum Mpa

Population Health

HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) are major public health concerns in the United States and are a focus of significant federal health policy attention. Rural counties may be potentially vulnerable to an HIV or HCV outbreak among persons who inject drugs due to greater prevalence of high-risk injection practices as well as limited public health capacity to prevent, prepare for, and respond to an HIV or HCV outbreak. This study identified states potentially at risk for an HIV or HCV outbreak and used data from the 2016 Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Profile Survey, 2016 National Association …

Short-Range Forecasting Of Covid-19 During Early Onset At County, Health District, And State Geographic Levels Using Seven Methods: Comparative Forecasting Study, Christopher Lynch, Ross Gore

VMASC Publications

BACKGROUND:

Forecasting methods rely on trends and averages of prior observations to forecast COVID-19 case counts. COVID-19 forecasts have received much media attention, and numerous platforms have been created to inform the public. However, forecasting effectiveness varies by geographic scope and is affected by changing assumptions in behaviors and preventative measures in response to the pandemic. Due to time requirements for developing a COVID-19 vaccine, evidence is needed to inform short-term forecasting method selection at county, health district, and state levels.

OBJECTIVE:

COVID-19 forecasts keep the public informed and contribute to public policy. As such, proper understanding of forecasting purposes …

Voices From The Field: A Qualitative Study Of The Challenges And Promising Practices Of Rural Public Health In Addressing Hiv And Hepatitis C, Martha Elbaum Williamson Mpa, Karen B. Pearson Mlis, Ms, Amanda R. Burgess Mppm, Jennifer D. Lenardson Mhs, Erika C. Ziller Phd

Population Health

Rural areas of the United States may be vulnerable to an HIV or hepatitis C (HCV) outbreak among persons who inject drugs. Researchers at the University of Southern Maine’s Rural Health Research Center examined the capacity of rural public health systems to prepare for, identify, control, and respond to an HIV or HCV outbreak. Through semi-structured interviews with 36 state and local public health professionals from six rural states, we sought to understand the challenges related to HIV, HCV, and serving rural persons who inject drugs and to identify strategies to address those challenges. Challenges limiting the public health capacity …

Problems, Policy And Politics – Perspectives Of Public Health Leaders On Food Insecurity And Human Rights In Australia, Stephanie L. Godrich, Liza Barbour, Rebecca Lindberg

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background:

To achieve zero hunger targets set within the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, high-income countries such as Australia must reconsider current efforts to improve food security. This study aimed to; explore perspectives from public health nutrition experts on the usefulness of drawing on the international human right to food, and associated mechanisms, to address food insecurity; identify potential roles of key stakeholders in Australia to implement a rights-based approach; and examine barriers and enablers to achieving the right to food in Australia.

Methods:

Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants ( > 10 years professional experience). Braun and Clarke’s (2006) …

Health Literacy Of University Students In Covid-19 Pandemic And Infodemic: A Pakistani Perspective, Rozeen Shaukat, Muhammad Asif Naveed

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This research investigated the levels of health literacy among Pakistani university students in the Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic. The university students were surveyed using an online questionnaire at two public sector universities and one private sector university in Punjab-Pakistan. The administration of the data collection instrument was completed with permission from concerned authorities. A total of 374 responses received which were imported to SPSS and analyzed by applying descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The results revealed that the health literacy of university students in the Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic was not at an optimal level as these participants expressed …