Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Listening To The Voices Of Community Health Workers: A Multilevel, Culture-Centered Approach To Overcoming Structural Barriers In U.S. Latinx Communities, Angela L. Palmer-Wackerly, Virginia Chaidez, Caitlyn Wayment, Jonathan Baker, Anthony Adams, Lorey A. Wheeler

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are often incorporated into efforts to reduce health disparities for vulnerable populations. However, their voices are rarely the focus of research when considering how to increase their job effectiveness and sustainability. The current study addresses this gap by privileging the voices of 28 CHWs who work with Latinx communities in Nebraska through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Using a multilevel, Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) to Health Communication, we identified two key structural communication issues: (a) increasing language accommodation and (b) increasing (and stabilizing) network integration across three ecological levels of health behavior (individual, microsystem, and exosystem …

The Medicalization Of Sleeplessness: Results Of U.S. Office Visit Outcomes, 2008-2015, Mairead Eastin Moloney, Gabriele Ciciurkaite, Robyn Lewis Brown

Sociology Faculty Publications

Previous analysis of U.S. physician office visits (1993–2007) indicated that the medicalization of sleeplessness was on the rise and had potentially negative implications for population health. Our study asks if the medicalization of sleeplessness at the level of patient-physician interaction has persisted over time. Using the most recent years available (2008–2015) of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey we calculated nationally representative estimates for four sleeplessness-related outcomes of physician office visits: sleeplessness complaint, insomnia diagnosis, and prescription of benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics (NBSH). To test for the significance of the linear trajectory, we ran a series of bivariate linear models. …

Geographical, Racial And Socio-Economic Variation In Life Expectancy In The Us And Their Impact On Cancer Relative Survival, Angela B. Mariotto, Zhaohui Zou, Christopher J. Johnson, Steve Scoppa, Hannah K. Weir, Bin Huang

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Purpose

Despite gains in life expectancy between 1992 to 2012, large disparities in life expectancy continue to exist in the United States between subgroups of the population. This study aimed to develop detailed life tables (LT), accounting for mortality differences by race, geography, and socio-economic status (SES), to more accurately measure relative cancer survival and life expectancy patterns in the United States.

Methods

We estimated an extensive set of County SES-LT by fitting Poisson regression models to deaths and population counts for U.S. counties by age, year, gender, race, ethnicity and county-level SES index. We reported life expectancy patterns and …

Does Insulin Therapy Matter? Determinants Of Diabetes Care Outcomes, Jennifer A. Andersen, Larry Gibbs

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objective: To evaluate adherence to care standards for people with diabetes (PWDs) on insulin therapy versus PWDs who are not on insulin therapy, controlling for social determinants.

Research design and methods: Utilizing the United States 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, this study used logistic regression analyses to estimate differences in self-care behaviors, healthcare provider quality of care, and diabetic complications for individuals on insulin therapy and individuals not on insulin therapy.

Results: PWDs on insulin therapy are more likely to adhere to self-care measures (self-glucose checks [OR: 7.57], self-foot checks [OR: 1.27], diabetes class participation [OR: 1.96]), adherence …

Ethnic Differences In Medicinal Plant Use Among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey Of Self-Reported Medicinal Plant Use At Two Midwest Universities, Rachel Craft, Katrina C. Mcclure, Steven Corbett, Maria Pontes Ferreira, Ashley M. Stiffarm, Kelly Kindscher

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Background: Numerous surveys of medicinal plant use among college students abound, but none compare use between students enrolled in two different Universities with significantly different ethnic compositions. The objective of this study is to compare medicinal plant use between two different ethnic college populations and explore differences between student medicinal plant users and non-users for comparison with previous research.

Methods: Students (n = 721) at a large research university (n = 498) and a Pan-Tribal University for Native Americans (n = 233) completed surveys in October 2011 to assess past year medicinal plant use. The Mann-Whitney U test, Chi Square …

Agenda: 2012 Energy Justice Conference And Technology Exposition, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center For Energy & Environmental Security, University Of Colorado Boulder. Colorado European Union Center Of Excellence, University Of Colorado Boulder. Presidents Leadership Institute

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Co-sponsored with the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence and the Presidents Leadership Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The ability to harness energy is fundamental to economic and social development. Worldwide, almost 3 billion people have little or no access to beneficial energy resources for cooking, heating, water sanitation, illumination, transportation, or basic mechanical needs. Energy poverty exacerbates ill health and economic hardship, and reduces educational opportunities, particularly for women and children. Specifically, access to efficient and affordable energy services is a prerequisite for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) relating to poverty eradication.

In response, the UN …