Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Criminality Groups And Substance Abuse, Dana Brown

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This descriptive study was designed to determine whether substance abusers could be differentially characterized by past involvement in crimes and, further, whether there is a relationship between the type of substance abused and the degree of violence of the crimes committed. By comparing the socio-demographic characteristics, substance-use, and strain-inducing events reported by 598 residential and outpatient treatment seekers in the Kentucky Treatment Outcome and Performance Pilot Studies Enhancement Project, this study provides further understanding of the crime-substance relationship. This study utilized Robert Agnew's 1992 general strain theory. Results suggest that substance addicts and substance users can be characterized in terms …

Barriers To Lesbian Health Care, Paula Bowles

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The primary purpose of this research was to examine a sample of sixteen lesbian women regarding the barriers to lesbian health-care. From this information several interpretive findings regarding lesbian health-care are made. Data were gathered via indepth interviews with each individual lesbian. The data suggest that most lesbian women do not reveal their sexual orientation to their primary-care physician for fear of reprisal. Most of the women interviewed do feel they receive adequate health-care from their physician. The women who participated in this project did so confidentially and were assigned pseudonyms. They were asked questions on a variety of topics, …

The Relationship Between Childbirth Experience And Psychological Functioning In The Postpartum Period, Dena Dian Daniel

Student Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between the mother's perception of the birth experience, symptoms of the post-traumatic stress, and symptoms of postpartum depression. Sixty-seven participants ranging from 17 to 40 years of age completed a self-report questionnaire containing items from three instruments including the Perception of Birth Scale, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the Davidson Trauma Scale. The findings reveal a more negative perception of the birth experience is significantly related to a greater frequency and/or. severity of. post- traumatic stress and postpartum depression symptoms following childbirth., These findings support the conclusion that an …

Socio-Economic And Demographic Factors Associated With Injecting Drug Use Among Drug Users In Karachi, Pakistan, A. Agha, S. Parviz, M. Younus, Zafar Fatmi

Community Health Sciences

Objective: To identify the socio-economic and demographic factors associated with injecting drug users (IDUs) in Karachi.

Methods: We recruited 242 IDUs (taking drugs through sub-dermal routes) and 231 non-IDUs (taking drugs other than sub-dermal routes) from February through June 1996. IDUs were interviewed regarding sociodemographic factors, economic condition, and social network (marital status, living with spouse). In addition, information regarding location of drug users within the city (districts of Karachi) and current history of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were gathered. Moreover, blood samples were also obtained for HIV testing

.Results: Multivariate analysis showed that the income generation via illegal …

Ua61/6 Newsletter, Issue 2, Wku Institute For Rural Health Development & Research

WKU Archives Records

Newsletter created by and about the Institute for Rural Health Development & Research. This issue contains:

• College of Health & Human Services Has New Dean – John Bonaguro
• Simpson, Staci. Institute Aims to Improve Oral Health of Children
• Whitfield, Beth. WKU Mobile Unit KICS Off Dental Event with Webster County – Kentucky Interdisciplinary Community Screening
• Stone, Glynda. TEACH KY: Teachers Exploring & Advocating Careers in Health in Kentucky
• Institute Sponsors Hispanic Health Fair
• HIV Prevention Counseling & Testing Training Program Initiated at WKU
• New Web-based Course Offered Through Communications Disorders Department at WKU
• Lashley, Donita. Child Passenger Safety Training
• Handy, …

Spruce Run News (Fall 2003), Spruce Run Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

The Benefits Of Breastfeeding: An Introduction For Health Educators, Sheila G. J. Clark, Timothy J. Bungum

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Currently 16% of Americans breastfeed their children for at least 12 months as recommended by the AAP, which is well below the HP 2010 goal of 25%. Breastfed infants receive benefits that can improve their health throughout their lives. The benefits of breastfeeding for children include increased resistance to infectious diseases, such as gastroenteritis, respiratory tract infections, and ear infections. Breastfed children also display lower rates of chronic diseases including diabetes, obesity, asthma, and leukemia. The choice to breastfeed results in economic benefits from lower health care costs and from reduced spending on infant formula. The Healthy People 2010 targets …

Identifying Compliance Issues In The Community Health Care Clinic Environment, Faye K. Beery

Student Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the high number of failed appointments and follow-up appointments at a community health care children’s clinic. A thirty-seven item questionnaire was randomly given to 112 participants seeking health care at the clinic on a random basis. Based on literature reviews, five hypothesis were generated to examine reasons for failing to keep appointments for children: 1. Communication difficulties between healthcare personnel and parents regarding patient comprehension of instructions and bottle directions were anticipated. 2. Patient/physician/clinic relationships were expected to influence patient compliance. The need for more reminder calls for appointments was anticipated to be a factor in patient …

All The News That’S Fat To Print: The American "Obesity Epidemic" And The Media, Natalie Boero

Faculty Publications, Sociology

Increasingly the term epidemic is being used to describe the current prevalence of fatness in the United States. Skyrocketing rates of obesity among all groups of Americans, particularly children, the poor, and minorities, have become a major public health concern. Indeed, it is difficult to open a newspaper or magazine without encountering a discussion of the expanding American waistline and the health problems associated therewith. In this paper I use 751 New York Times articles on obesity to examine the media construction of the obesity epidemic. I show that there is not one dominant discourse (i.e. medicine) constructing this epidemic, …

Next-Of-Kin Perceptions Of Physician Responsiveness To Symptoms Of Hospitalized Patients Near Death, Joel C. Cantor, Jan Blustein, Matthew J. Carlson, David A. Gould

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many different medical providers visit critically ill patients during a hospitalization, and patients and family members may not feel any physician is truly in charge of care. This study explores whether perceiving that a physician was clearly in charge is associated with reports by surviving next of kin about the responsiveness of physicians to symptoms in hospitalized patients near the end of life. We conducted telephone interviews with surviving next of kin of adult patients (n = 1107) who died in one of five New York City teaching hospitals between April 1998 and June 1999 after a minimum 3-day inpatient …

Sibling Death In Childhood: An Evaluation Of The Literature Regarding Inclusion Of Minority Cultures, 1990–2002, Joyce Kay L. Cherry

Community & Environmental Health Theses & Dissertations

This evaluation seeks to determine the extent to which the professional literature concerning bereaved children in the United States includes African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American children whose siblings have died in childhood.

A literature search identifies 58 articles, published between 1990 and 2002, concerning children under age 19 living in the United States whose siblings have died. Articles are sorted by time frame and classified by type. There are 31 descriptive articles consisting of five literature reviews, five commentaries, five case studies, and 16 narratives; there are 27 research articles. Analysis determines the extent to which race, culture, …

United Power For Action And Justice: Breaking The Cycle Of Homelessness Reports - Policy Brief, Center For Urban Research And Learning, Christine George, Chiara Sabina, Aparna Sharma

Center for Urban Research and Learning: Publications and Other Works

This is a story of two groups of determined people with intersecting interests. Group one: a dozen leaders within United Power for Action and Justice who set out to prove their conviction, that homelessness is one symptom of a complex of issues that destabilizes individuals and communities. Group two: persons who are homeless and struggle daily to “fit in” to a landscape that is, more and more, structured to shut them out. In 2000, a cluster of leaders within United Power organized member institutions in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago, and initiated a relationship with Congressman John Porter …

Long-Term Care: Informed By Research, Francis G. Caro

Gerontology Institute Publications

Health services research has contributed to health policy and service developments that have led to major improvements in the quality of long-term care in the United States. This policy brief highlights a few areas in which publicly and privately funded research has informed the long-term care field.

The Effect Of Abortion Legalization On Sexual Behavior: Evidence From Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Jonathan Klick, Thomas Stratmann

All Faculty Scholarship

Unwanted pregnancy represents a major cost of sexual activity. When abortion was legalized in a number of states in 1969 and 1970 (and nationally in 1973), this cost was reduced. We predict that abortion legalization generated incentives leading to an increase in sexual activity, accompanied by an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Using Centers for Disease Control data on the incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis by state, we test the hypothesis that abortion legalization led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. We find that gonorrhea and syphilis incidences are significantly and positively correlated with abortion legalization. Further, we …

Killing For The State: The Darkest Side Of American Nursing, Dave Holmes, Cary H. Federman

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The aim of this article is to bring to the attention of the international nursing community the discrepancy between a pervasive ‘caring’ nursing discourse and the most unethical nursing practice in the United States. In this article, we present a duality: the conflict in American prisons between nursing ethics and the killing machinery. The US penal system is a setting in which trained healthcare personnel practices the extermination of life. We look upon the sanitization of death work as an application of healthcare professionals’ skills and knowledge and their appropriation by the state to serve its ends. A review of …

Spruce Run News (Spring 2003), Spruce Run Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

"Are You Beginning To See A Pattern Here?" Family And Medical Discourses Shape The Story Of Black Infant Mortality, Elaine R. Cleeton

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Postmodern and poststructuralist theorizations of the interrelations of the particular and the universal have identified women's bodies to be the last frontier for scientific discovery leading to and satisfying the modern compulsion to stabilize and control life from birth to death. This institutional ethnography of one city's response to an elevated infant mortality rate among the babies of African American urban, impoverished women explores their discursive transformation from single mothers who cannot begin prenatal care before the second trimester because too few physicians will treat Medicaid patients, into sexually-immoral, illegaldrug- using women who deliberately harm their babies. The study locates …

Introduction Of A Waterless Alcohol-Based Hand Rub In A Long-Term Care Facility, Lona Mody, Mcneil A. Shelly, Rongjun Sun, Bradley Suzanne, Carol A. Kauffman

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE:

To examine the impact of introduction of an alcohol-based hand rub on hand hygiene knowledge and compliance and hand colonization of healthcare workers (HCWs) in a long-term-care facility (LTCF).

METHODS:

Two floors of an LTCF participated. Ward A used the hand rub as an adjunct to soap and water; ward B was the control. HCWs' hands were cultured using the bag-broth technique for Staphylococcus aureus, gram-negative bacilli (GNB), Candida, and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). HCWs completed a questionnaire at baseline and after an educational intervention and introduction of rub.

RESULTS:

Hand hygiene practices, knowledge, and opinions did not change after …

Availability And Acceptability Of Iuds In Guatemala, Carlos Brambila, Berta Taracena

Reproductive Health

The purpose of this study was to identify the reasons for the low use of the IUD in Guatemala and to explore the reasons why other reversible methods are selected more frequently than IUDs. The study aimed to determine the availability and acceptability of IUDs as a contraceptive option within the Ministry of Health, the Guatemalan Social Security Institute, and APROFAM. Results indicated that service providers do not take into consideration women’s reproductive needs or intentions when they provide family planning counseling. There are several demand-side factors that affect the use of the IUD, including lack of knowledge about the …

Testing Balanced Counseling To Improve Provider-Client Interaction In Guatemala's Moh Clinics, Federico R. Leon, Carlos Brambila, Marisela De La Cruz, John H. Bratt, Julio Garcia Colindres, Benedicto Vasquez, Carlos Morales

Reproductive Health

The job aids–assisted Balanced Counseling Strategy adopted by Guatemala’s Ministry of Health required specific instructions for use by nonprofessional providers and an intervention that assured provider compliance with the behavioral requirements of the new paradigm. Results show that the trained providers outperformed the controls in quality of care at each level of session length, but used nine extra minutes per session on average. Nonprofessional providers can take advantage of the job aids–assisted Balanced Counseling Algorithm and substantially improve their quality of care. Extra time invested in counseling new family planning clients will be easily absorbed insofar as they continue to …

Parenting Adolescents, Sandra L. D'Angelo, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

The period of adolescence is often thought to be one of intense stress and turmoil. Yet many parents and teens negotiate this developmental stage without extreme family conflict and without sacrificing close relationships. This review summarizes a portion of the literature on parent-adolescent relationships, focusing on monitoring and control of adolescent behavior and parenting style. Basic principles to emphasize when working with adolescents and parents are also included.

Female Circumcision In Indonesia. Extent, Implications And Possible Interventions To Uphold Women's Health Rights, Meiwita P. Budiharsana, Lila Amaliah, Budi Utomo

Reproductive Health

In Indonesia, the practice of female circumcision (FC) has long existed, but information concerning where and how it is carried out has been limited. The specific aims of the study conducted by the Population Council Jakarta were to provide research-based information on FC customary practices and their socio-cultural determinants, and if possible, to assess any long-term physical and psychological consequences. Study findings indicate that in general Muslim communities support the continuation of FC practice, because they perceive it as both a societal custom and a religious duty. The report strongly recommends that key donor agencies pressure the Ministry of Health …

Renforcement Des Capacites Villageoises: Comment 23 Villages S'Initient Aux Droits Humains Et Abandonnent La Pratique De L'Excision Au Burkina Faso, Nafissatou J. Diop, Edmond Bagde, Djingri Ouoba, Molly Melching

Reproductive Health

This document is a summary of the process followed in implementing a community-based education program in Burkina Faso. The Population Council initiated a collaboration between two NGOs, Tostan in Senegal and Mwangaza Action in Burkina Faso, to replicate the program for improving women’s reproductive health and contributing to the end of female genital cutting (FGC). In Burkina Faso, the participants (men and women) held discussions to analyze the problems faced by their communities and to find appropriate solutions. Many positive changes occurred in the participating villages: the communities now promote reproductive health and human rights and work to improve public …

The Impact Of Quality Of Care On Contraceptive Use: Evidence From Longitudinal Data From Rural Bangladesh, Michael A. Koenig

Reproductive Health

This project provides convincing empirical evidence on the impact of quality of care on contraceptive use and fertility behavior through analysis of a unique longitudinal data set from rural Bangladesh. The findings from this project add important new and methodologically rigorous evidence to the emerging literature on the implications of service quality on contraceptive behavior. The results reaffirm the importance of female fieldworker outreach—both in terms of quality and the number of visits—on contraceptive use dynamics in rural Bangladesh. In addition to these substantive findings, the study makes important methodological contributions in assessing the impact of programmatic variables—especially quality of …

Testing A Model For The Delivery Of Emergency Obstetric Care And Family Planning Services In The Bolivian Public Health System, Deborah L. Billings, Eliana Del Pozo, Hugo Arevalo

Reproductive Health

Unsafe abortion is a serious public health problem in Bolivia, accounting for up to 25 percent of maternal mortality. Postabortion care (PAC) was recognized as a priority public health action in Bolivia in 1994 and the operations research project summarized in this report was undertaken at the request of the Ministry of Health to help guide the improvement of PAC services in the country’s revised health plan. Improvements were made in the following areas: informing women of their health status after the uterine evacuation procedure; elements of the procedure itself (instrument to be used, pain control, possible risks); and informing …

Policy And Program Implications Of The Matching Grants Program In The Philippines, Marilou Palabrica-Costello, Nimfa Ogena, Alejandro N. Herrin

Reproductive Health

In 1999, the Philippines Department of Health, with support from USAID and technical assistance from Management Sciences for Health (MSH), implemented the matching grants program (MGP) as a component of the local government performance program. The MGP aims to improve the capability of municipalities and component cities to expand service delivery, and to achieve significant increases in rates of fully immunized children, vitamin A supplementation, tetanus toxoid immunization for women, as well as in the use of family planning methods, especially modern methods. Upon the request of the USAID Mission, the Frontiers in Reproductive Health program worked closely with MSH …

Improving Quality Of Care For Family Planning Services In Uganda, Joel Okullo, Quinto Okello, Harriet Birungi, Ian Askew, Barbara Janowitz, Carmen Cuthbertson, Florence Ebanyat

Reproductive Health

The Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care at Makerere University, Uganda in collaboration with the Delivery of Improved Services for Health II Project, the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the Population Council’s FRONTIERS Program, conducted an operations research project to help the MOH improve the quality of family planning services with the aim of helping couples better attain their reproductive goals. The study developed a package of interventions (the Yellow Star Programme—YSP) that sought to increase the readiness of clinics to offer basic family planning services, to improve provider motivation, and to empower clients to request quality services. The …

Improving Postpartum Care Among Low Parity Mothers In Palestine, Center For Development In Primary Health Care (Cdphc)

Reproductive Health

In an effort to improve the health status of Palestinian women and their children in the West Bank and Gaza, USAID, in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Health and a number of NGOs, designed and funded a 28-month pilot activity, the Pilot Health Project (PHP), that was expected to have a positive impact on the health of women and children. This report describes the results of the intervention designed to measure the effectiveness of a second home visit on low-parity women in 1) improving their knowledge and practices regarding their own health as well as the health of their …

Assessment Of Pilot Health Project Outcome Indicators: West Bank/Gaza, Laila Nawar, Dale Huntington, Ibrahim Kharboush, Nancy Ali, Mahmoud Shaheen

Reproductive Health

The Pilot Health Project (PHP) was designed to address Palestinian women’s most pressing reproductive health needs. This report presents results from a single cross-sectional study that was conducted by the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HDIP) between May and August 2000 in order to determine the baseline measures for the PHP’s key outcome indicators among healthcare providers and clients in the PHP clinics. Based on the findings reflected by the study, a number of recommendations were made that need to be followed up and implemented by the Improved Village and Community Health Services Project. These include the need for …

Introducing Dmpa Injectable Contraceptives To Private Medical Practitioners In Urban Gujarat, Frontiers In Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health

Many public, NGO, and private-sector service-delivery systems are suitably matched to the requirements of providing injectable contraceptives in India, including the ability to ensure choice and service delivery quality. This operations research study was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of providing injectable contraceptives in private medical practices and to contribute to the body of scientific literature on the acceptability of this method in India. DKT India and EngenderHealth formed a partnership with the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health program to conduct this study in Gujarat. The ability to generate recommendations is limited, however, by the special characteristics of the …