Other Public Health Commons^™

Calculating Risk: A Scoping Review Of Ncaa D1 Football Players’ Motivations To Play And The Correlation To Demographic Characteristics And Injury Experiences, Kathleen D. Walsh

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research was to investigate the motivations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 (D1) football players for playing the game and how these motivations are associated with their socioeconomic status (SES). Further, the research aimed to investigate how the uncovered motivations were linked to injury experiences. The original project was designed as a survey-based mixed methods study on a national scale. However, issues with participant recruitment led to sidelining of that primary research. The research presented is a scoping review of the available literature pertaining to the research question: What is known from existing literature …

Is There A Role For Plant-Based “Meat” In Cardiovascular Disease Prevention?, Aziza Jadallah, Usmaan Al-Shehab, Adam Friedman

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Diet is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association recommends following a whole-food, minimally processed diet emphasizing fruit and vegetables to reduce cardiovascular mortality. Recently, processed plant-based meat substitutes, such as Beyond Meat® and Impossible™ foods have become easily accessible to consumers and are advertised as a healthful addition to a plant-based diet. However, these products are highly processed and contain high amounts of saturated fat and sodium. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of processed plant-based meat diets on adverse cardiovascular events compared to animal-based meat diets and minimally processed healthful …

End Of Life Symptom Management In The Emergency Department, Alice Chang, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The Emergency Department is at times the only place patients can turn to for symptom relief. In an aging population, this means that more patients are presenting to the ED towards the end of life (EOL). Emergency medicine (EM) prides itself as a specialty that handles disease-directed treatment for a variety of acute conditions. In contrast, palliative care (PC) is focused on improving the quality of life (QOL). It has become essential for EM physicians to care for patients who are not seeking life-sustaining measures, but instead quality of life interventions. Patients with serious illness, even hospice patients, present to …

The Correlation Between Traumatic Brain Injury And Incarceration Among Adult Males In The United States, Shadi Shams

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The United States has one of the largest growing prison populations in the world. A large amount of social and economic resources go towards the cost and maintenance of correctional facilities each year. Additionally, the current correctional programs are insufficient in assisting inmates with getting back to society; especially those with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who often remain undiagnosed and are usually treated unfairly in the prison system instead of receiving the appropriate help. Prior scholarly work has shown that patients in the post-TBI stage are more likely to enter the judicial system. In the recent population-based cohort study, the …

Cardiovascular Disease Prediction Modelling: A Machine Learning Approach, Usmaan Al-Shehab, Maduka Gunasinghe, Yousuf Elkhoga, Nimay Patel, Juliana Yang

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The objective of this project is to utilize the UCI Heart Disease dataset to identify physiological biomarkers that are highly correlated with heart disease incidence. A predictive model can then be developed using these biomarkers to estimate the likelihood of someone having or developing a heart-related condition. This study compares the efficacy of predicting cardiovascular disease as an outcome using three machine learning algorithms: Support Vector Machine, Gaussian Naive Bayes, and logistic regression. Support Vector Machine works by creating hyperplanes between data points to conduct classification. Gaussian Naive Bayes works by using the conditional probabilities of events to classify the …

Secondhand Smoke: An Examination Of The Public Health Issue In Marina, Eric J. Tallman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Monterey County Tobacco Control Program is a public health organization that works to solve tobacco related issues in Monterey county. Secondhand smoke exposure is a major public health issue because of its dangerous effects on human health. This project is a research report on secondhand smoke in the city of Marina. The expected outcomes of this project were to educate readers, gain information, and find an effective policy for mitigating this public health issue. Components of this project include in depth research on secondhand smoke, survey conduction regarding Marina residents opinions about the issue, and data collection of tobacco …

Social Reproduction And Covid-19, Caroline I. Donovan

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

As Covid-19 rips across the world we are collectively asked to examine the structures of society to see what is working and what we can change. What can we learn from the roughly 6.9 million deaths (and counting) worldwide? How can we prevent something like this from happening again? This paper follows the course of Covid-19 from its birth in Wuhan, China, to the present day of mid-April 2023. By looking at the ways in which we have reacted to the pandemic, we are able to look forward and imagine new ways of tackling future pandemics and other pressing problems …

Increasing College Students Awareness Of Technologies Impacts In Their Daily Lives, Melissa Gutierrez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many college students today may spend an excessive amount of time on technology. Excessive technology may leave an impact on their mental and physical health leading to poor eating habits or obesity, anxiety and can even have an impact on their academics. When college students learn about how to manage their technology use, it is likely they will focus more on the negative impacts to benefit their health and wellbeing. To address the overuse of technology, I created a one-day workshop for Theta Alpha Sigma sorority college students at Cal State Monterey Bay.

Reducing Burnout Using Emergency Planning: A Literature Review, Taylor Vaughn

Capstone Experience

Objective

The objective of this capstone is to gain knowledge on what burnout is, what causes it, what can be done to prevent it, and what can be added to public health emergency plans to reduce burnout in local emergency preparedness workforces.

Methodology

A literature review was completed through peer-reviewed articles, and documents from professional and governmental organizations. The results were used to search current plans to determine whether burnout-related recommendations were present.

Results

Burnout prevention at the personal level includes a good diet, routine exercise, and mindfulness activities. At the organizational level it should include providing emotional support, emphasizing …

The Need For Racial And Ethnic Health Disparity Curriculum In Genetic Counseling Programs, Yusra Aziz

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Racial and ethnic health disparities (REHD) exist across all organized medicine, including the spectrum of genetic counseling, particularly in genomic testing and access to care. While cultural competency and health disparities have been included as a part of the Standards of Accreditation for Genetic Counseling, there have not been previous efforts to define what topics related to REHD are most important to include in graduate program curriculum. Therefore, this study aimed to determine what topics related to REHD should be taught in genetic counseling program curriculum by assessing what topics genetic counselors (GCs) learned about and in what settings, …

Examining The Marketing Strategies Of Campus Mental Health On A Minority Student Population, Rochelle Bernarte

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Background: Public health, particularly mental health services aimed at making a positive impact can be difficult to market to populations. Promoting mental health services to a target demographic of predominantly minority students at a university comes with its own set of unique variables making the task especially tough. This can be concerning as studies have shown that minority students experience greater amounts of stress than their White counterparts but are less likely to seek mental health services (DeFreitas et al., 2018; Duffy, 2019; Lipson, et al., 2022). The purpose of this study was to gauge the Attitudes and Practices …

Factors Associated With The Use Of Traditional Health Services In Indonesia: A Secondary Analysis Of The Indonesian Basic Health Research, Niswatul Rifka, Haerawati Idris

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: Traditional health services in Indonesia have been used increasingly over the past few years because patients nowadays are more proactive in seeking various alternative modes of self-care. This study aimed to analyze factors associated with the use of traditional health services in Indonesia.

Methods: This quantitative study used a cross-sectional research design. The research data were secondary data from the 2018 Indonesian Basic Health Research. The research samples were 163,259 respondents aged >10 years and the statistical test for data analysis was multiple logistic regression.

Results: The percentage of respondents who used traditional health services was …

Communicating Health: Misinformation And Mistrust In The Age Of Coronavirus, Chris Anstead

Undergraduate Theses

With one of the most advanced medical systems in the world, the Untied States still experienced an exceedingly high COVID-19 death rate per capita. Because biomedical therapies for COVID-19 were available, the focus of this review is on the social aspects of the COVID-19 response. By observing how Americans reacted to vaccination, masking, and social distancing guidelines, as well as how those guidelines were communicated to the general population from the public and private sectors, this thesis argues that the social and political aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic played a significant role in the outcome of the pandemic response. Additionally, …

An Analysis Of Burnout And Wellness Of Healthcare Workers Based On Patient Population And Healthcare Worker Location, Spencer Brandenburg

Undergraduate Theses

Healthcare workers, even with all of the positive work that they do, often suffer from increased burnout and decreased wellness/quality of life. This problem is not new and has been steadily worsening for many years, however, there are factors which impact burnout and wellness that have not been analyzed or have produced mixed results in prior burnout and wellness literature. There has been little to no research done on the impact of patient population demographics on burnout and wellness in healthcare workers, and the research analyzing the impacts of demographic healthcare worker location has consistently produced mixed results often based …

Open Data Indicates That Collegedale Could Be A Bluezone, Tristan Deschamps, Alva Johnson

Campus Research Day

A blue zone is an indicator of exceptional health in a community. Adventists have a blue zone community in Loma Linda, but there has been little research into other Adventist populated areas that could be blue zones. Therefore, our goal is to show that open data suggests that a blue zone may exist near Southern Adventist University, specifically in Collegedale. This data has been gathered from different federal sources, including, the CDC, the US Census Bureau, the Tennessee Department of Health, official state records, and federal documents that are available to the public.

She Whose Words Helped Me To See, Tara Mckenna

be Still

This paper is a reflection on the interconnectedness of teachers and physician healers. Still, it identifies lessons that physicians can learn from educators in our lives and the importance of integrating these tools into how we teach patients about medicine.

3rd Place Contest Entry: Using The Scientific Method To Combat The Biological And Sociological Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Aspiring Healthcare Professional’S Perspective, Isabelle Dhindsa

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Isabelle Dhindsa's submission for the 2023 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won third place. It contains their essay on using library resources, their bibliography, and a sample of their research project on using the scientific method to combat the biological and sociological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Isabelle is a fourth-year student at Chapman University, majoring in Biology. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Carmichael Peters.

The Intersectionality Of Race And Rurality In Polysubstance Use During Pregnancy In The United States: A Study Of National Survey On Drug Use And Health, Sophia Tavakol

Senior Theses

Importance: Though detrimental consequences, many pregnant individuals are still binging alcohol, smoking, and/or using illicit drug. Yet, little is known regarding variations in such behaviors across pregnant people in the United States.

Objective: To examine alcohol, tobacco, and drug use during pregnancy in 2015-2020 and assess their racial, ethnic, and rural disparities.

Design: This cross-sectional descriptive study derived maternal characteristics and self-reported prenatal substance use data from 2015 and 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, considering the complex sampling weight per participant per year produced by NSDUH.

Setting: United States.

Participants: A scientific random sample of non-institutionalized residents …

Fixing The System: A Comparative Review Of The United Kingdom, Germany, And United States’ Healthcare Systems And Lessons Learned For Potential Improvements In The United States, Jessica Goddard

Senior Theses

In an effort to provide recommendations to the United States’ considerations of a universal healthcare system, this thesis analyzes the United States healthcare system alongside the sophisticated systems of the United Kingdom and Germany. Literature review and an analysis of 10 health outcomes and indicators guided the framework for a set of interview questions to be asked of healthcare professionals in all three countries. The interview response data was then organized and used to guide the suggested recommendations to the United States in its path towards universal healthcare. While a limited number of solutions could be provided given the time …

Obesity Heterogeneity By Neighborhood Context In A Largely Latinx Sample, Ashley W. Kranjac, Dinko Kranjac, Zeev N. Kain, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Brooke N. Jenkins

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Neighborhood socioeconomic context where Latinx children live may influence body weight status. Los Angeles County and Orange County of Southern California both are on the list of the top ten counties with the largest Latinx population in the USA. This heterogeneity allowed us to estimate differential impacts of neighborhood environment on children’s body mass index z-scores by race/ethnicity using novel methods and a rich data source. We geocoded pediatric electronic medical record data from a predominantly Latinx sample and characterized neighborhoods into unique residential contexts using latent profile modeling techniques. We estimated multilevel linear regression models that adjust for …