Digital Commons Network^™

The Uncertain Future Of The Postgraduate-Degree Life – A Commentary, Cari L. Cuffney

Florida Public Health Review

Public health is an area where we will always need professionally-prepared people, but despite desperate needs to replace persons in an aging public health workforce, some students are concerned that there might not be a quality job for them in the foreseeable future. Perhaps now more than ever public health professional programs and schools need to devote resources toward career counseling and job placement.

College Within The College: Population Health, James D. Plumb, Md, Mph, Rickie Brawer, Mph, Phd, Mches, Abbie Santana, Msph, Rob Simmons, Drph, Mph, Mches, Cph, Nancy L. Chernett, Ma, Mph

College of Population Health Lectures, Presentations, Workshops

College within the College (CwiC) – Population Health Skills for Physicians

• Incorporate culturally relevant information into a treatment plan for a patient

• Counsel individuals about healthy lifestyles

• Identify community support and resources to serve patients

• Coordinate health care services as a member of multidisciplinary teams

• Promote primary and secondary prevention

• Advocate for the needs of patients and the community

• Conduct population health research/evaluation

• Promote healthy lifestyles in communities

• Work in partnership with community based agencies and organizations

Cultural Competency In Health Care: Framework, Training And Evaluation - A Review Of The Literature, Diana Salas Coronado

Center for Social Policy Publications

Healthcare professionals are now more aware of the challenges they face when providing healthcare services to a culturally and racially diverse population. Cultural competency has emerged as a framework for understanding health disparities among racial and ethnic groups in particular, but also for women, the elderly, sexual orientation and gender identity, people with disabilities, and religious minorities. Although there are several definitions of cultural competency, each emphasizes the need for healthcare systems and providers to be aware of and responsive to patients’ cultural perspectives and backgrounds. One example defines cultural competency as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies …

A Qualitative Study Of An Urban Community Garden: Creating Healthier Neighborhood Environments, Lauren Workman

Theses and Dissertations

Neighborhoods influence population level health; the places where people live, work, and grow are an essential setting for health promotion interventions. In efforts to create healthier neighborhood environments, there is a movement to better understand neighborhood social characteristics. The neighborhood social environment potentially includes social relationships (including trust and cohesion), networks, norms, and the resources that may be generated from relationships. In addition, more work is needed to learn about how people may become engaged in neighborhood initiatives. Community gardens are a 1) potential strategy to promote health at community and individual levels 2) mechanism to involve community members in …

Postnatal Depression In Mexico: Healthcare Provider Conceptualizations And Policies In The Public Health Sector, Jean Marie Sims Place

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) highlight education and training for healthcare providers and the development of a policy framework as core strategies to address maternal mental health in low- and middle-income countries. This research critically examines these strategies with respect to postnatal depression in Mexico. The research 1) addresses how healthcare providers in Mexico conceptualize postnatal depression, and 2) assesses the policies that exist in Mexico regarding postnatal depression, which will inform the next steps for policy development. The research informs appropriate healthcare provider education and training, as well as the next …

The Effectiveness Of Educational Support To Orphans And Vulnerable Children In Tanzania And Uganda, Mary Shann, Malcolm Bryant, Mohamad Brooks, Paul Bukuluki, Denis Muhangi, Joe Lugalla, Gideon Kwesigabo

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Little evidence is available to assist policy makers and donors in deciding what kinds of programs in developing countries are more likely to be effective in supporting the entry and continuation of OVC in secondary schools. This is particularly important for females whose education has direct bearing on child mortality in the next generation. This study gathered four kinds of educational outcome measures in two East African countries ravaged by the AIDS/HIV pandemic. The goal was to determine whether direct scholarship aid to individual students versus various forms of block grants would be more effective in promoting lower rates of …

Effects Of Different Fasciola Hepatica Recombinant Proteins On The Biochemical And Serological Responses Of Experimentally Infected Sheep, Diana Wesselinova

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

In the DELIVER (Full project title: Design of effective and sustainable control strategies for liver fluke in Europe) project the objective was to analyze 3 recombinant antigens for their capacity to induce a satisfied immune response in sheep, to challenge the animals with metacercariae of Fasciola hepatica, and to observe their immune response and protection from the parasitosis. The animals were treated initially with metacercariae and every second week blood was taken for liver enzyme estimation of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), gamma-glutamyl transferase (\gammaGT), and antibody response. After the 3rd month of infection all the animals developed parasitosis, although to different …

Community-Based Approaches To Mental Health And Conflict Resolution In Post-Conflict Libya, Amanda Lubit

Anthropology Theses

Post-conflict Libya faces the challenges of establishing a national health system that is capable of addressing mental health needs for a population traumatized by decades of repression and a recent war. In order to recover, traumatized populations require feelings of safety, calm, empowerment, connectedness, and hope. To help achieve this outcome, programs must focus on medical and social aspects at both the individual and community level.

As part of an internship experience, I worked with Dr. Omar Reda, a Libyan psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) who helps communities, organizations and mental health professionals throughout Libya to address …

A Critical Ethnography Of Globalization In Lesotho, Africa: Syndemic Water Insecurity And The Micro-Politics Of Participation, Cassandra Lin Workman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In spite of decades-long development programs, Lesotho faces an ongoing problem of water insecurity with far- reaching individual and social impacts. The purpose of this research was to understand how women in Lesotho are impacted by the synergistic epidemics, or syndemics, of water insecurity and HIV/AIDS and how they respond to these forces. Little has been done to address how water insecurity, defined in terms of both sufficient amount and quality of water, catalyzes the syndemic impact on the people of Lesotho. Access to safe and reliable sources of water is crucial for all individuals, particularly those who have been …

Exploring Potential Risk Factors Of Fetal Origins Of Diabetes: Maternal Stressors During Pregnancy And Birth Outcomes Among Women In A Hospital In The Municipality Of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Juan Pablo Arroyo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Puerto Rico has the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes, low birth-weight, and the second highest prevalence of preterm-birth in all the U.S. and its non-incorporated territories. These conditions are related. Birth-weight at both ends of the spectrum and preterm-birth are associated with an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes and immune-inflammatory dysregulations. Maternal psychosocial stressors during pregnancy have also been recognized as potential risk factors for type 2 diabetes, and have been consistently associated with preterm-birth and low birth-weight across populations. Current evidence points toward epigenetic fetal metabolic-programming as the mechanism that underlies the increased risk for the …

African Americans And Hospice: A Culture-Centered Exploration Of Disparities In End-Of-Life Care, Patrick Dillon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the United States' population ages and grows more diverse, scholars and practitioners have grown increasingly concerned about persistent disparities in the cost and quality of end-of-life health care, particularly with regard to African Americans. Although a variety of factors may influence these disparities, most scholars agree that the underutilization of hospice care by this population is an important contributor. Drawing from the culture-centered approach to health communication and narrative theory, the present study explores African American patients and caregivers' experiences with hospice care and takes an initial step toward addressing disparities in end-of-life care. I begin this study, first, …

The Elimination Of Blindness: An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Fight Against Trachoma In Niger, Kelley Cosby Sams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to explore specialized and popular cultural models of trachoma, and the interaction between the trachoma elimination program and its target audience in one trachoma hyper-endemic intervention community. Eighty four million people worldwide, mainly children, are infected with active bacterial trachoma. For some, this will lead to painful and progressive corneal opacity and eventual blindness. The disease is most commonly spread by person-to-person contact or by flies, and affects very specific populations living in resource-poor areas such as rural Niger, which has one of the highest prevalence rates worldwide.

The World Health Organization formed an …

Survivorship, Infertility And Parenthood: Experiencing Life After Cancer In Puerto Rico, Karen Elizabeth Dyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While incidence rates are increasing for many cancers in Puerto Rico, mortality rates are declining (Torres-Cintron, et al. 2010), resulting in growing numbers of survivors and creating a situation in which long-term survivorship concerns are beginning to emerge as priorities. The importance of quality-of-life among survivors of cancer is increasingly being recognized among healthcare providers, although there remains a gap in knowledge of how young adult survivors cope with long-term treatment-related physical effects, such as infertility, and of the impact of cancer on survivors' social relationships and future goals.

Because understandings of "cancer survivorship," as well as of reproduction, vary …

The Professionalization And Practice Of Lactation Consulting: Medicalized Knowledge, Humanistic Care, Aimee R. Eden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breastfeeding support for mothers and their babies historically was the informal work of family and community members. In the United States today, breastfeeding support is embedded in the biomedical system, and is provided by a new allied health professional: the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). This dissertation explores this professionalization of breastfeeding support and the origins of this new profession. It studies how IBCLCs working in the U.S. cultural context perceive and practice the profession and examines the relationship between the profession of lactation consulting and the medicalization of breastfeeding. Oral history interviews with 17 founders of the profession, …

An Exploration Of The Meaning And Consequences Of Unintended Pregnancy Among Latina Cultural Subgroups: Social, Cultural, Structural, Historical And Political Influences, Natalie Dolores Hernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, prominent racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy, abortion, and unintended births exist. Recent analysis suggests that Latinas are three times more likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than non-Latina white women. More than half of pregnancies among Latinas (53%) in the United States are unintended and have higher unintended births as they are less likely than black women to have an abortion. In addition, in 2006 the unintended pregnancy rate was highest among women aged 20-24. Little research has 0been conducted to understand unintended pregnancy particularly among young adult Latina women.

The purpose …

Expectation Vs. Perspective: A Personal Experience Of Completing Transition From High School To Community, Katherine Steinman

Online Theses and Dissertations

A challenging transition occurs when students with intellectual disabilities leave high school, yet there is little data in the literature covering this period of secondary transition. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the perspectives of a young adult with an intellectual disability who completed the secondary transition process, his parent, and a vocational specialist. Data was collected through a semi-structured interview with each of the three participants about their experiences during the secondary transition. Three themes emerged from the data, including "I had no expectations": Expectations of the parent and transition plan; "He can do all those …

Impact Of Disability On Celebration Of Wedding Anniversaries, Emily Lemaster

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how married couples observe their wedding anniversaries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 couples (four of which one partner has a disability) to determine how they celebrate their wedding anniversaries. This data was compared to how having a disability within the couple affects anniversary celebrations. Several themes emerged that were common among all participants including: an exchange of items, participants, reminiscing about the past, change within the marriage and celebration (which encompasses ritual and tradition). Few differences were noted in the couples who are living with disability. The most prominent is being …

Paleoparasitology: The Origin Of Human Parasites; Paleoparasitologia: A Origem Dos Parasitas Humanos, Adauto Araújo, Karl Reinhard, Luis Fernando Ferreira, Elisa Pucu, Pedro Paulo Chieffi

Karl Reinhard Publications

Parasitism is composed by three subsystems: the parasite, the host, and the environment. There are no organisms that cannot be parasitized. The relationship between a parasite and its host species most of the time do not result in damage or disease to the host. However, in a parasitic disease the presence of a given parasite is always necessary, at least in a given moment of the infection. Some parasite species that infect humans were inherited from pre-hominids, and were shared with other phylogenetically close host species, but other parasite species were acquired from the environment as humans evolved. Human migration …

Translating The Values Of Clinical Pedagogy Across Generations, Alistair E. Newbern

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Clinical teaching is a Baby Boomer. After an extended infancy, it came of age in the 1960s. It challenged the entrenched isolation and aloofness of law school by questioning the very methods by which law is taught. Channeling the Boomers' cultural tenets of dismantling hierarchy, fostering collaboration, and advocating for social change, it shook off legal academia's suit and tie and rolled up its sleeves, bringing the community into the classroom and putting the university to work. These Boomer-era values are reflected in clinical teaching's enduring core principles of non-directive teaching, reflective practice, close and immediate supervision, learning from experience, …

Deprivation And Hispanic Health Paradox: Neighborhood Effects On Children's Wheezing In El Paso, Texas, Young-An Kim

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the impact of hypothetical health determinants - including objective and relative economic deprivation, as well as foreign-born composition -at the neighborhood-level on respiratory wheezing among Hispanic children in El Paso, Texas while accounting for individual-level covariates based on hierarchical logistic modeling (HLM). Due to El Paso's majority Latino/a population, focus is placed on the so-called "Hispanic health paradox" through analysis of the impact of neighborhood foreign-born composition on Hispanic children's wheezing. Neighborhood-level variables at the census tract-level are derived from US Census data. The percent of families in poverty and the GINI coefficient for income (income inequality) …

Life And Health Outside Prison, Tiffany Amorette Young

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the subjective understandings of formerly incarcerated individuals' experiences of health and healthcare prior to, during, and post release. The study incorporates in depth ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and life charting to formulate a holistic understanding of how incarceration has impacted the health and lives of the participants recruited for this study. All participants were incarcerated for a minimum of one year in the U.S. prison system. This interdisciplinary study contributes to the fields of sociology, criminology, and public health, and builds on the literature of race, health, and corrections in the United States.

Morphological Similarities Between Spanish Pigeon Breeds., Pere Miquel Parés I Casanova

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Relationships among 30 pigeon breeds were studied using data from 31 morphological characteristics. The relationships between breeds obtained from the study were rather congruent with the classification used by fanciers groups. The average Euclidean distance between pigeon breeds was 0.93 ± 0.16 STD. The results obtained were very compatible with those described in the literature for each classificatory group. Three large, perfectly definite clusters could be observed in this tree. A cluster was formed by Balearic nonpouter breeds and the Catalan Bare Pigeon. Another cluster occupied an intermediate position and was formed by thief pouters. They shared some remarkable peculiar …

The Health Consequences And Healthcare-Seeking Strategies For South American Immigrant Careworkers In Genoa, Italy, Patti A. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This research on healthcare strategies of home-based, low-wage, immigrant careworkers contributes to the ways medical anthropology, migration studies and social science understand human-economy-family care relationships and health and carework as commodities in today's global economy. It reveals the consequences for workers as they defray the costs of care for the Italian government and contribute to their home economies. This research was conducted in Genoa, Italy, which has the largest percentage of people over the age of 70 in any city of its size in the world and a tradition of sending and receiving immigrant workers. The main question was: Under …

Desert In The Springs: Ethnography Of A Food Desert, Margeaux Alana Chavez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Food desert" commonly describes food insecure areas with few fresh food outlets. Though used in a number of sources, the definition of "food desert" remains largely undeveloped and research is often deficit oriented, failing to account for community assets that may exist within food deserts but are underutilized or under-supported. Using an assets-based, ethnographic approach, this study combines GIS and survey methodology with participant observation and qualitative interviews to assess the potential positive effect of urban agriculture on food accessibility in Sulphur Springs, a USDA identified urban food desert in Tampa, Florida.

Ethnographic data suggest that within this neighborhood, residents …

"When You Tell Them, Your Secret Is Out There": Experiences Of Sexuality And Intimacy Among Hiv Positive Black Women, Mackenzie Rae Tewell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

HIV/AIDS infections disproportionately impact African Americans within the United States. In 2010, black Americans made up 12 percent of the United States population, yet accounted for 44 percent of new HIV/AIDS infections (Kaiser Family Foundation 2013). The majority of black women (85 percent) are infected with the virus through heterosexual contact, meaning it is critical examine their sexual lives in order to gain insight into this infection within this population (CDC 2011b). Through semi-structured interviews at a Tampa, Florida AIDS service organization, this study presents the experiences of sexuality and intimacy among HIV positive black women. Results demonstrate that HIV …

More Than Feeding: Lived Experiences Of Low-Income Women Receiving Lactation Support, Emily Anne Dunn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing breastfeeding duration, especially among low-income women, has become a national public health priority. These mothers and their babies have less equitable access to support, resources, and the health benefits of breastfeeding. This thesis examines breastfeeding from a biocultural perspective with a focus on political economy, embodiment, and human rights. This research explores the lived experiences of new mothers who receive services from a community non-profit lactation support program which is aimed at providing in-home postpartum breastfeeding support to low-income/at-risk mothers. Evaluation of program services and analysis of women's narratives will provide insight into improvement of lactation services for all …

The Role Of Agency In Community Health Outcomes: Local Health Departments And Childhood Immunization Coverage Rates, James Anthony Ransom

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Organizational culture is defined as a system of shared meaning held by members of an organization that distinguishes it from other organizations. How organizational culture is experienced in the public sector, particularly local health departments (LHDs), is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to determine whether LHD organizational culture impacts childhood immunization coverage rates. I used a modified organizational culture survey tool, the Organizational Management Survey, to quantify organizational culture and determine whether an LHD's organizational culture helps explain variations in childhood immunization coverage rates. In addition, qualitative data from an earlier study of LHD immunization staff …

Observations On Eye Care In Lamu, Kenya: Overlooked Needs And Proposed Interventions, Erick Henderson, Rebecca Gearhart

Scholarship

These notes draw attention to the underserved eye care needs of residents of Lamu, Kenya. They are comprised of observations that we, Rebecca Gearhart, an anthropology professor at Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) and Erick Henderson, an IWU biology and pre-optometry major and president of the Optometry Club, made while volunteering at a clinic in Lamu, Kenya during the summer of 2011. Plans to establish a temporary eye clinic emerged after Rebecca discovered that Erick was an optometric technician who might use his portable optometry lens set to fit residents of Lamu Town on Lamu Island for glasses and teach them …

Survey Of The Cancer Patient Experience With Oral Care Information, Debbie Mahre

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"Cancer incidence continues to rise. Standard cancer management therapies are known to cause oral complications, such as mucositis (OM), that can range from mild to very severe. Severe OM can require interruption of treatment, and possibly hospitalization for IV rehydration, pain control, and nourishment. Utilizing good oral care practices during treatment has been shown effective to help limit severity and/or reduce duration of OM. Patient education on this concept, and on ideal products and self-care techniques are integral to patient implementation of supportive oral health practices. Unfortunately, patients may not receive comprehensive oral health education that promotes good oral health. …

Prolactin And Fmri Response To Skf38393 In The Baboon, Brad Miller, Lauren A. Marks, Jonathan M. Koller, Blake J. Newman, G. Larry Bretthorst, Kevin J. Black

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.