Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Investigation Of The Association Of Exposures To Fire-Related Hazards With Pulmonary Function Of Firefighters, David G. Goldfarb

Dissertations and Theses

Background. Firefighters are habitually exposed to hazardous toxicants which place them at an elevated risk for numerous adverse health outcomes. An example of this is the associations observed in other works between inhalation of combustion byproducts from urban structural fires and both acute and chronic pulmonary dysfunction. To-date, the characterization of firefighters’ exposures to dangerous chemicals in smoke from non-wildfire incidents, both directly through personal monitoring and indirectly from work-related records is scarce. Prior works investigating the association between routine firefighting and pulmonary function have relied on crude metrics such as years of service and numbers of responses to …

Determination Of Anxiolytic And Antidepressant Medicines In New York City Wastewater Samples, Jasmine J. Gayle

Student Theses

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) provides information about a population’s exposure to certain chemical agents, such as drugs of abuse and medicines, by the analysis of human biomarkers, also known as excretion products, in wastewater samples. Although this is a growing field worldwide, mainly in Europe, Oceania, and Asia, limited data from the US are currently available. We developed and validated an analytical method to quantitatively and qualitatively determine the presence of commonly prescribed drugs to treat anxiety (alprazolam, buspirone, clonazepam, lorazepam, and propranolol) and depression (bupropion, citalopram, clomipramine, duloxetine, fluoxetine, imipramine, paroxetine, sertraline, and venlafaxine) in wastewater using liquid chromatography tandem …

Assessing The Ordinality Of Response Bias With Item Response Models: A Case Study Using The Phq-9, Venessa N. Singhroy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Improper scale usage in psychological and clinical assessment is an important problem. If respondents do not use the scales in a consistent manner, the reliability of a composite is likely to be attenuated. This is particularly problematic when particular items are singled out for special treatment or when subscales are of interest, not just a total score. This study used both non-parametric and parametric item response theory (IRT) methods to gain further insight into the validity of the PHQ-9, a dual purpose instrument that assesses the severity of depressive symptoms using nine Likert-scale items and allows the investigator to establish …

Incorporating Place And Space: A Hierarchical Spatial Approach To Exploring Preventable Congestive Heart Failure Hospitalizations In New York City, Rachael Weiss Riley

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Faced with rising medical care costs, increasing prevalence, and widening health disparities, preventing congestive heart failure (CHF) hospitalizations is a central public health concern. Despite evidence of geographical clustering in preventable CHF admissions, there is a lack of research designed to examine spatial patterning of CHF and the local area neighborhood determinants that contribute to this variability. This study sought to assess and evaluate the importance of both space and place in analyzing preventable CHF hospitalizations and readmissions by applying appropriate statistical techniques, clarifying the assumption inherent in each method, and interpreting the findings within the context of existing …

A Green Oasis: What Makes Community Gardens Worth Saving? While Researchers Amass Evidence Of Benefits, Advocates Develop New Strategy To Prove Their Value., Joel Wolfram

Capstones

Green Valley Community Garden in Brownsville, Brooklyn, is one of about a dozen gardens on land owned by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development that are being uprooted by plans to build affordable housing. The gardeners are fighting back to prevent the garden’s destruction, saying that the food-producing green space is a source of healthy eating in a community with high rates of health problems, like diabetes and obesity. Researchers are attempting to tease out the public health benefits of community gardens as one metric of their value, but the science is still catching up with …

Variation In Restaurant Sanitary Scores In New York City, Kyle Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether restaurants that are homogenous in nature would exhibit substantially different hygiene scores based on the underlying consumer learning behaviors present in the neighborhoods in which the restaurants are located.

Multilevel Analysis Of Individual, Neighborhood, And Health Care Facility Characteristics Associated With Achievement And Maintenance Of Hiv Viral Suppression Among Persons Newly Diagnosed With Hiv In New York City, Ellen W. Wiewel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective

To investigate the effect of individual, health care facility, and neighborhood characteristics on achievement and maintenance of HIV viral suppression, among New York City residents aged 13 years and older diagnosed with HIV between 2006 and 2012.

Methods

I used individual-level data from the New York City HIV surveillance registry and Case Surveillance-Based Sampling, facility-level data from the surveillance registry, and neighborhood-level data from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey. The outcomes of interest were first viral suppression after diagnosis (Aims 1 and 3; ≤400 copies/mL) and virologic failure after first suppression among persons who achieved suppression (Aim …

Risk Factors And Costs Influencing Hospitalizations Due To Heat-Related Illnesses: Patterns Of Hospitalization, Michael T. Schmeltz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this dissertation was to identify individual and environmental risk factors, investigate outcomes and hospital resource use, including costs, and document the pattern of heat-related illness hospitalizations in the United States. The main data source for the study population was the 2001-2010 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). The study population for heat-related illnesses (HRIs) consists of patients in the NIS with at least one diagnosis of a heat-related illness (ICD-9 codes 992.0 - 992.9) from 2001 to 2010. Outcome analysis included a study population of patients who had primary or secondary diagnoses of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, nephritic …