Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Covid-19 Case Fatality In Relation To The Prevalence Of Chronic Conditions And Health Behaviors In Appalachian Kentucky, W. Jay Christian

Journal of Appalachian Health

Background: Research has demonstrated that common chronic conditions, especially those related to cardiovascular health, are important risk factors for severe COVID-19 symptoms or hospitalization. Population prevalence rates of such conditions have not previously been examined in relation to COVID-19 case fatality rates in the Central Appalachian region.

Purpose: This study examined prevalence rates of selected chronic conditions and COVID-19 case fatality rates to determine whether the relationship between them is consistent across Appalachian and non-Appalachian regions of Kentucky.

Methods: Data from Kentucky’s Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (KyBRFS) were used to calculate prevalence rates of asthma, diabetes, influenza vaccination, hypertension, obesity, …

Informing Aviation Security Workforce Assessment And Selection Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Stephen R. Mitroff, Benjamin Sharpe

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented the aviation security industry with short-and long-term challenges relating to workforce assessment that require thoughtful responses. In the short-term, the pandemic has made it difficult to administer typical assessment methods. In the long-term, as the pandemic’s impact lessens and travel regains pre-pandemic levels, organizations will need to decide how best to allocate current employees and onboard new employees. While the pandemic has created both selection and assessment challenges, it now opens the door for innovations to support organizations to be better prepared to support the traveling public. The current paper discusses a tool, XRAY Screener, …

Women In The Outdoors: Navigating Fear And Creating Space For Spiritual Inspiration 2021, Morgan Costello

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fear and spiritual inspiration for women in the outdoors. Specifically, this study looked at participants from SUNY Cortland’s Outdoor Education Practicum, a core course in the Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Studies Department that culminates with a two-week outdoor experience, with the goals of teaching outdoor skills and building community. This was a mixed-method study, with quantitative data collected according to pre(mid)post design and qualitative data coming from journal entries over a 5-day period. Testing was conducted using the Outdoor Situational Fear Inventory to measure fear, and the Nature Relatedness …

Group Living Environment Responses To Pandemic: A Case Study Of Advocates, And The Covid-19 Crises, Nicole K. Atchue

School of Professional Studies

The literature will take a deeper look in the personal lives of developmentally disabled members and their staff who experienced COVID-19 pandemic in a group living environments. The holistic approach of understanding will navigate the history of care and the level care needed as well as external factors that played a larger role in explanation for the support provided.

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Food Insecurity And Solutions In Worcester, Massachusetts, David Sullivan

School of Professional Studies

Worcester, Massachusetts is a postindustrial city with high levels of potential that faces the persistent obstacle of food insecurity for its low-income and ethnic minority communities. This research thesis examines food insecurity in general and explores data and trends in Worcester, then combines this with conceptual frameworks which explain how socioeconomic factors play into food security. It also explains the systemic inequalities present as a result of food insecurity and critiques academic assumptions surrounding food insecurity. One of these assumptions is that food deserts on their own can explain food insecurity in Worcester and elsewhere, though it has been found …

Medicare-Paid Naloxone: Trends In Non-Metropolitan And Metropolitan Areas, Chris Delcher, Yue Cheng, Minji Sohn, Jeffery C. Talbert, Patricia R. Freeman

Rural & Underserved Health Research Center Publications

Overview of Key Findings

• Medicare pays for the largest share (> 30%) of naloxone dispensed from retail pharmacies in non-metropolitan areas.
• Medicare-paid dispensing has grown since 2013, but from 2017-2018 dispensing growth in non-metropolitan areas slowed considerably compared to metropolitan areas (42% v 121%, respectively).
• As of 2018, the rate of naloxone dispensing to Medicare enrollees in metropolitan areas was approximately double that in non-metropolitan areas (4.9 v 2.9 per 1,000 enrollees, respectively).

Using Machine Learning To Predict Super-Utilizers Of Healthcare Services, Kevin Paul Buchan Jr.

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I aim to forecast high utilizers of emergency care and inpatient Medicare services (i.e., healthcare visits). Through a literature review, I demonstrate that accurate and reliable prediction of these future high utilizers will not only reduce healthcare costs but will also improve the overall quality of healthcare for patients. By identifying this population at risk before manifestation, I propose that there is still time to reverse undesirable healthcare trajectories (i.e., individuals whose clinical risk increases an excessive healthcare and treatment burden) through timely attention and proper care coordination. My dissertation culminates in the delivery of state-of-the-art predictive …

Rurality As A Moderator Of Perception Of Need For Medical Care And Patient Satisfaction, Kyndal Grammer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many individuals experience barriers to accessing medical care, especially in rural areas. Some barriers are attitudinal and represent perceptions of quality care. Patient satisfaction and perceived need for medical care are two such attitudinal barriers related to health care utilization, yet the relationship between these variables has not been explored. Using data from an online survey, the current study examined the association between these variables, and further, whether rurality status moderated this association. Results indicated a significant correlation between patient satisfaction and perception of need. Although the overall moderation model was significant, perception of need was not significantly associated with …

A Descriptive Case Study Of The Challenges Of Drug And Alcohol Counselors, Ruben Herron

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Substance abuse is the number one public health problem in Oklahoma and nationally. Annual related expenses of substance abuse in Oklahoma are nearly $2 billion. This qualitative descriptive case study asks the question what are the challenges of substance-abuse counseling? The researcher will be describing in detail the history of drug and alcohol treatment and counseling in America. Using interviews, observations and document collection which will allow the interviews voices to be heard.

Healthy Food Accessibility In Rural Mississippi And Potential For A Corner Store Intervention, Anna Conner

Honors Theses

Some areas of the United States have poorer food environments than others. The Mississippi Delta has limited access to nutritious food, often relying on corner stores for sustenance. The impact of a poor diet can increase chronic disease prevalence, creating additional barriers to health and nutrition for Mississippians. The purpose of this study was to document and explore the rural food environment and discuss urban intervention studies in light of the current state of stores in the Delta. An adapted version of the Baltimore Healthy Kids survey and store impact questionnaire was used to record owner perceptions and food availability. …

The Role And Challenges Of Cluster Randomised Trials For Global Health, Louis Dron, Monica Taljaard, Yin Bun Cheung, Rebecca Grais, Nathan Ford, Kristian Thorlund, Fyezah Jehan, Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu, Denis Xavier, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Jay J H. Park, Edward J. Mills

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Evaluating whether an intervention works when trialled in groups of individuals can pose complex challenges for clinical research. Cluster randomised controlled trials involve the random allocation of groups or clusters of individuals to receive an intervention, and they are commonly used in global health research. In this paper, we describe the potential reasons for the increasing popularity of cluster trials in low-income and middle-income countries. We also draw on key areas of global health research for an assessment of common trial planning practices, and we address their methodological shortcomings and pitfalls. Lastly, we discuss alternative approaches for population-level intervention trials …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Levels Of Engagement In Mental Health Services Regarding Minorities, Karla Salazar Rendon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study focuses on analyzing if the level of engagement when receiving mental health services affects how many mental health providers an individual has. Although mental health impacts everyone, minorities encounter barriers such as language, transportation, and residential segregation. Obstacles such as these discourage individuals in regards to pursuing mental health services. Minorities make up a significant amount of the U.S. population: however, they are underrepresented in the mental health field. The challenges they encounter need to be addressed to provide efficient services. This study includes male and female participants over the age of 18 in San Bernardino County. The …

Factors Associated With Health Coverage Gaps And Cost Barriers To Health Services In U.S. Adults Before And After The Aca, Danielle Kilchenstein

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background

Health law known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010 and implemented in 2014 in the U.S. It was intended to reduce cost burdens to health coverage and care.

Purpose

Self-reported health coverage gaps and cost barriers to physical, mental, dental care, and prescription medications of U.S adults before and after the implementation of the ACA in 2014 were examined to determine impacts of health reform on marginalized populations.

Methodology

Cross-sectional secondary data analysis was conducted using National Health Interview Survey Data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Set (2010-2017). The 140,341 surveys represented an average …

Fine Particulate Matter And Low Weight Births In Mexico City, Mexico, Kennedy Cohn

Honors Theses

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure has been associated with several negative health consequences, and recent studies suggest a potential relationship between PM2.5 exposure and adverse birth outcomes, including low birth weight (LBW). This thesis investigated a potential relationship between fine particulate matter concentration and low birth weight in Mexico City, Mexico between 2008-2016. Maternal pollution exposure was estimated at the city-wide level by averaging PM2.5 measurements from various monitoring stations. Birth weight was collected from the SINAC database. Logistic regression models were run for different temporal scales (by trimester, and 10-month periods); however, there were no significant relationships found between …

The Role Of The Gut Microbiome In Autoimmune Disorders, Sierra Baxter

Physician Assistant Scholarly Project Papers

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), it is estimated that over 24 million Americans are diagnosed with autoimmune disorders, and the cases are increasing (2005). A significant risk factor that has been linked to the formation of these diseases is the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome of the adult plays a vital role in the efficacy of the immune system. The purpose of this research and systematic literature review is to determine how the gut microbiome can influence autoimmune disorders. In this review, five databases were searched including PubMed, DynaMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Clinical Key. A variety …

Mapping Nevada's Dental Workforce, Kelvin Chen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Access to care is a concern at the forefront of public health. Due to socioeconomic and geopolitical pressures, the distribution of healthcare providers across a population often does not coincide with the demand for healthcare in a specific geographic area. Rural areas typically do not have enough providers and urban areas typically have too many. This stark reality underscores an inherent inefficiency in the allocation of healthcare resources and is a discrepancy that must be addressed by state-sponsored institutions and programs. From a public health perspective, the problem of insufficient or lack of access to care is the greater of …

Depression And Quality Of Life Among Adults With Asthma Presence In Nevada, Elizabeth D. Kahane

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Asthma is a lung disease that causes coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, and breathlessness. It is often controlled by medication use and avoidance of environmental triggers. It is a leading chronic, non-communicable disease affecting over 19 million adults in the United States (CDC, 2020a). Asthma and severe asthma have been shown to negatively affect mental health and quality of life among adults including limiting physical activity, lowering sleep quality, exacerbating economic challenges, missing work, and increasing healthcare use (Stanescu, et al., 2019). Approximately 8% of adult Nevadans reported current asthma symptoms and 12.6% reported having a diagnosis during their lifetime (CDC, …

Social Emotional Learning As A Universal Upstream Approach To Youth Suicide Prevention: A Secondary Data Analysis Of A Prevention Program Evaluation, Maria Amaris Knight

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Nevada has had consistently high rates of youth suicide in the past decade with 21.2 deaths by suicide per 100,000 population (ages 15-24), over the national rate of 14.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2019. National strategies, state agendas, and best practices in the field prioritize research on upstream strategies to prevent suicide. One such strategy is the use of social emotional learning (SEL) programs for youth to help increase and enhance protective factors against suicide, helping them to cope with negative life events. Research has identified leading outcomes of SEL programs as the improvement of attitudes, behaviors, and academic …

Breastfeeding In Public: Knowledge And Perceptions On A University Campus, Jessica Tracy Weiss

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Research has shown that exclusive breastfeeding is the best source of nutrition for most infants and offers numerous physical and psychosocial benefits for the newborn and mother. Returning to work or attending university courses and maintaining exclusive breastfeeding is a challenge due to barriers such as time, private space, and public perception of breastfeeding in public. The aim of our study is to provide data, identify barriers and assess education needs to support breastfeeding mothers on a university campus. This study utilizes an adapted version of the Breastfeeding Behavior Questionnaire (BBQ), the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS), and knowledge …

Unlocking Knowledge To Benefit The Patient : How Connecting Km And Qrm Can Strengthen Science And Risk-Based Decision Making, Martin J. Lipa

Doctoral

This thesis explored knowledge management effectiveness in the pharmaceutical sector and included an examination of the critical relationship between knowledge management (KM) and quality risk management (QRM) as the dual enablers of an effective pharmaceutical quality system. The primary research objectives were to improve understanding and effectiveness of the interdependency between KM and QRM and to improve knowledge management across the pharmaceutical product lifecycle, starting with a focus on knowledge transfer during technology transfer. The thesis explored how improved KM across the product lifecycle coupled with thoughtful and intentional connectivity between KM and QRM as defined by this study could …

Key Performance Indicators Of Health Cte Students At For-Profit Colleges And Public Community Colleges, Souraya Hajjar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The advent of for-profit colleges to the higher education scene in the U.S. has challenged public community colleges on all levels; financial, academic, and consumerism. Research has shown that key performance indicators are more favorable at public community colleges than at for-profit colleges. Determining size and type of colleges, ethnicity and gender differences that contribute to total graduation rate of health Career and Technical Education (CTE) students will add to the limited research on the relationship between these constructs and provide information to prospective health CTE students about college enrollment. The study aims to examine institutional performance variables to assist …

Improving Data Access And Use For Hiv Biomedical Prevention Interventions, Project Soar

HIV and AIDS

Over the past decade, biomedical prevention interventions—including voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)—have resulted in substantial gains in controlling the global HIV epidemic. Despite the inclusion of these highly effective interventions in multinational strategies and global prevention toolkits, their effective implementation rests upon context-specific, data-driven delivery to priority populations and geographies. Project SOAR has contributed to the evidence base by increasing access to and use of data through user-friendly interfaces and dissemination strategies, advancing VMMC and PrEP as vital prevention interventions in the global discourse. SOAR’s biomedical prevention portfolio has supported data-driven planning, implementation, and monitoring …

Soda, Water, And Convenience: An Evaluation Of The Mexican Soda Tax, Benjamin Hager

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to evaluate the Mexican soda tax of 2014 by exploring the reasons for the tax and the underlying factors that the tax seems to ignore. This soda tax, in particular, was implemented to address obesity by curbing the consumption of sugary soft drinks due to the large quantities consumed by the Mexican populous. However, as this thesis shows there are some potential pitfalls in this type of obesity prevention policy. By exploring potable water data from the World Bank, the rural and urban noncommunicable disease rates of two Mexican states, and the penetration of levels of the …

Bridging The Inequality Gap Among Marginalized Populations In Africa Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Call For Responsible Cooperation, Aanuoluwapo A. Afolabi, Olayinka S. Ilesanmi Dr., Titilope A. Afolabi

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.

“Ichachu”: Ontological Diversity For Assembling Common Futures, Kaliana Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

The present work explores the role of discursive analyses of language as potent elements in networks of discourse and practice. A particular focus is with how language functions in multiple, overlapping registers, and how this affects its ability to motivate and coalesce diverse actors into communities of practice. In particular, usages of sovereignty, food sovereignty, and ontology are explored as a means for understanding the process of cross-cultural eco-social action. Fundamental to these analyses is the precept that registers of language represent an epistemic diversity always operating in collaborations for biocultural sustainability. By “eco-social action,” it is meant any practice, …

In The Spirit Of St. Peter Claver: Social Justice And Black Catholicism In San Antonio, Philip Lampe Ph.D.

Verbum Incarnatum: An Academic Journal of Social Justice

The editors want to take the space reserved for the abstract to say that this is the final piece of research that Phil Lampe completed before his passing. We publish it here posthumously in tribute to Phil’s tireless work for social justice, as editor of Verbum Incarnatum, as researcher of social-justice efforts in South Texas and Mexico, and as an educator committed to inspiring students to pursue justice in their lives outside the academy.

Socastee Interview, Participant #16, April 29, 2021, Jennifer Mokos, Jaime Mccauley

Flood Survivor Interviews

A community member of the Rosewood neighborhood in Socastee is interviewed by a CCU student.

Proceedings - Wright State University Boonshoft School Of Medicine Thirteenth Annual Medical Student Research Symposium, Office Of Research Affairs, Boonshoft School Of Medicine

Medical Student Research Symposium Proceedings

The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students' oral and poster presentations at Wright State University's Thirteenth Annual Boonshoft School of Medicine Medical Student Research Symposium held on April 29, 2021.

The Tree Cover And Temperature Disparity In Us Urbanized Areas: Quantifying The Association With Income Across 5,723 Communities, Robert I. Mcdonald, Tanushree Biswas, Cedilla Sachar, Ian Housman, Timothy M. Boucher, Deborah Balk, David Nowak, Erica Spotswood, Charlotte K. Stanley, Stefan Leyk

Publications and Research

Urban tree cover provides benefits to human health and well-being, but previous studies suggest that tree cover is often inequitably distributed. Here, we use National Agriculture Imagery Program digital ortho photographs to survey the tree cover inequality for Census blocks in US large urbanized areas, home to 167 million people across 5,723 municipalities and other Census-designated places. We compared tree cover to summer land surface temperature, as measured using Landsat imagery. In 92% of the urbanized areas surveyed, low-income blocks have less tree cover than high-income blocks. On average, low-income blocks have 15.2% less tree cover and are 1.5˚C hotter …