Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Elevated Bmi-Associated Characteristics Of Patients With Invasive Mrsa Infection In The Atlanta, Georgia Metro Area, 2005-2008, Lauren R. Lorentzson

Public Health Theses

INTRODUCTION: National obesity rates are leading to higher rates of Type 2 Diabetes, increasing the number of people at risk of invasive infections with Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (iMRSA) upon onset of ESRD and hemodialysis. However, an association between adiposity and risk of iMRSA has not been researched. AIM: The purpose of this study is to describe the epidemiological characteristics of an iMRSA cohort in the Atlanta metro area between 2005-2008; to examine BMI-related health outcomes within the cohort; and to compare proportions of BMI categories in this cohort to BRFSS data. METHODS: Surveillance data collected by the CDC EIP …

Personal Factors, Perceptions, Influences And Their Relationship With Adherence Behaviors In Patients With Diabetes, Glenn E. Hagerstrom

Nursing Dissertations (PhD)

Problem and significance: Adherence to health-promoting behaviors in a diabetes self-care regimen is essential for individuals with diabetes and can assist providers and individuals with diabetes management. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between personal factors (age, length of diabetes diagnosis, perceived health status, weight), perceived barriers to action (number of barrier days), interpersonal influences (social support), situational influences (depressive symptoms), and patient adherence to health-promoting behaviors (blood glucose monitoring, diet, and exercise) and health outcomes ( A1c and body mass index) in a diabetes self-care regimen.

Methods: A descriptive correlational analysis was performed using baseline …

A Spatial And Health Burden Analysis Of Census Tract 85: Implications For Prevention And Intervention, Allison C. Edwards

Public Health Theses

New regulations requiring not-for-profit hospitals to provide documented evidence of charitable care and community benefits provide a unique opportunity for strategic and targeted investment within the given community of the hospital. And with a growing number of uninsured and underserved in the US, the need for tactical community benefits is increasing exponentially. The purpose of this capstone is to pool together the relevant resources and data necessary to guide and inform the decision making process involved in creating prevention and intervention programs tailored specifically to census tract 85. Utilizing several different forms of demographic and health data including Census, Online …

Methods Of Competing Risks Analysis Of End-Stage Renal Disease And Mortality Among People With Diabetes, Hyun J. Lim, Xu Zhang, Roland Dyck, Nathaniel Osgood

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Background: When a patient experiences an event other than the one of interest in the study, usually the probability of experiencing the event of interest is altered. By contrast, disease-free survival time analysis by standard methods, such as the Kaplan-Meier method and the standard Cox model, does not distinguish different causes in the presence of competing risks. Alternative approaches use the cumulative incidence estimator by the Cox models on cause-specific and on subdistribution hazards models. We applied cause-specific and subdistribution hazards models to a diabetes dataset with two competing risks (end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or death without ESRD) to measure …

Evaluation Of Diabetes Education For Latinos Living In A Metropolitan Area, Anna Rockett Potter

Public Health Theses

Diabetes is a worldwide epidemic, especially as the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has increased in recent years. Minorities are disproportionately affected by the disease and, at the same time, often have less access to resources including medication and education. The Emory Latino Diabetes Education Program (ELDEP) is a culturally component diabetes education program aimed at promoting increased knowledge about diabetes disease management within the Latino population of metropolitan Atlanta. The program considers cultural competence and acculturation theory in its learning structure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate ELDEP’s effectiveness in increasing knowledge of diabetes, healthy behaviors, and …

Index Of Central Obesity As A Parameter To Evaluate Metabolic Syndrome For White, Black, And Hispanic Adults In The United States, Rebecca Lynn Griesemer

Public Health Theses

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of disorders including central obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. Today's metabolic syndrome definitions identify central obesity by waist circumference (WC) measurements. A recent pilot study suggests that cut-points derived from a waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), or Index of Central Obesity (ICO), is a more accurate measurement of central obesity. This study compared the association between the metabolic syndrome components and central obese parameters (ICO and WC) among the white, black, and Hispanic adults in the United States. The subjects' data was obtained from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. ICO was highly correlated with …