Public Health Commons^™

Comparing The Impact Of Food Insecurity, Access To Exercise Opportunities, And County Classification On Obesity Rates In Ohio, Ankur Parekh, Deborah Lee

Scholarship in Medicine - All Papers

Objective: We completed a study to determine how food insecurity, access to exercise opportunities, and county classification (rural or urban) impacted obesity rates in Ohio. We hypothesized that the county classification impacted obesity the most followed by food insecurity and access to exercise opportunities.

Methods: We obtained data on food insecurity, access to exercise opportunities, and obesity from County Health Rankings and county classification data from the United States Department of Agriculture Census. We analyzed correlations between obesity and food insecurity and obesity and access to exercise opportunities in both county types. We also analyzed changes in obesity rates in …

Correlation Between Copd And Physical Activity In The United States, Ellie Ganz

Scholarship in Medicine - All Papers

Objective: My objective of this project is to determine whether there is a correlation between COPD and physical activity in the United States by looking at all 50 states. Also, to determine if there is a difference between the prevalence of COPD in different regions of the US.

Methods: Data was collected and analyzed using the publicly available data set from the CDC Wonder database (wonder.cdc.gov). A Pearson correlation test and an ANOVA with post hoc tests were used to determine correlations and differences between variables to answer research questions.

Results: There is a significant negative correlation between physical activity …

Understanding The Relationship Between Suicide Rates, Exercise, Commute Drive, And Healthcare Provider, Kaitlin Beemiller

Scholarship in Medicine - All Papers

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, with rates that have been rising significantly over the past decade, differing in varying states.1,2 Although there is not a lot known about the specific causes of these trends, recent literature has found a dose-response relationship association between inactivity and poor mental health, self-harm, and suicidal attempt, indicating that physical activity may possess a protective nature.1,4 Further expanding off this research, I wanted to investigate the relationships between rates of access to exercise, long commute drives, and healthcare providers to rates of suicide in 5 different states— to …

Association Between Sports Participation And Levels Of Physical Fitness, Jordan Italiano

Scholarship in Medicine - All Papers

Objective: Physical activity is a major component of overall health, especially in children. Increased physical activity in children provides many health benefits, and organized sports provide a great opportunity to meet the physical activity recommendations. In fact, participation in organized sports provides further health advantages, such as lower BMIs, compared to those who engaged in self organized physical activity and has shown to promote continued healthy habits throughout life. However, there has not been research looking at which sports are associated with the greatest level of fitness and provide the greatest health benefit for participants. In this study, we examine …

The Healthy Lifestyle Center: A Case Study Illustrating The Opportunities And Challenges Confronting Local Health Departments In Preventing Chronic Disease, Katherine Anne Kemper Blossom

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

Obesity is at epidemic levels in the United States, and is directly associated with decreased life expectancy, reduced quality of life, and increased health care costs. Public health system partners agree that reversing obesity trends will require a concerted effort led by government as well as business and civic organizations and that a multi-faceted approach will be needed to transform communities into places where the healthy choice becomes the easy choice for everyone. A foundational role for local health departments is to promote healthy behaviors. Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County (PHDMC) has a history of providing community-based health …

Walkability At Wright State University, Lan H. Nguyen

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine walkability at Wright State University (WSU), Dayton Ohio using the Postsecondary Education Campus Walkability/Bikeability Semantic-Differential Assessment Instrument. Safety, path quality, and path temperature comfort were the categories of criteria assessed. A total of 66 path segments were assessed on main campus, 50 were assessed during the day and 16 were assessed during the night. The average walkability score was 84.9% for day assessed segments and 82.1% for night assessed segments. Path segments received an overall average grade of B. The findings in this study suggest that the WSU campus is a walkable …