Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing Urban And Rural Vulnerability To Heat-Related Mortality: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Ying Li, Emmanuel A. Odamne, Ken Silver, Shimin Zheng

ETSU Faculty Works

Studies of the adverse impacts of high temperature on human health have primarily focused on urban areas, due in part to urban centers generally having higher population density and often being warmer than surrounding rural areas (the “urban heat island” effect). As a result, urban areas are often considered to be more vulnerable to summer heat. However, heat vulnerability may not only be determined by heat exposure, but also by other population characteristics such as age, education, income, baseline health status, and social isolation. These factors are likely to increase vulnerability among rural populations compared to urban populations. In this …

Sustainability Of Community-Managed Rural Water Supply Systems In Amazonas, Peru: Assessing Monitoring Tools And External Support Provision, Jacob E. Mangum

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Globally, there is still a large number of people without access to safe drinking water; a known health risk. In rural areas of countries like Peru, when potable water systems are built the responsibility for maintaining these systems is given to volunteer water committees. Despite its prevalence as a management model, there is a consensus that community management alone cannot ensure sustainable water service. Therefore, the overall goal of this research is to assess the sustainability of community-managed water systems in rural areas of the department of Amazonas, Peru. Specifically, this research examines two mechanisms that have been shown to …

Measuring Australian Children’S Water Safety Knowledge: The National Water Safety Quiz, Amy E. Peden, Richard Charles Franklin, Justin Scarr

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Water safety knowledge levels of Australian children are poorly understood. Royal Life Saving developed an online National Water Safety Quiz (NWSQ) as an interactive means of determining water safety knowledge amongst Australian primary school children (ages 5 to 12 years). Over a period of 8 months, a total of 4,215 children participated in the NWSQ. The NWSQ identified areas of water safety where knowledge was poor including the topics of CPR, swimming, and river safety. Children achieved a better result as they aged. Females out-performed males overall and specifically from ages 10-12 years. Children from independent schools performed better. This …

How Useful Is Gsv As An Environmental Observation Tool? An Analysis Of The Evidence So Far., Katherine Nesse, Leah Airt

SPU Works

Researchers in many disciplines have turned to Google Street View to replace pedestrian- or carbased in-person observation of streetscapes. It is most prevalent within the research literature on the relationship between neighborhood environments and public health but has been used as diverse as disaster recovery, ecology and wildlife habitat, and urban design. Evaluations of the tool have found that the results of GSV-based observation are similar to the results from in-person observation although the similarity depends on the type of characteristic being observed. Larger, permanent and discrete features showed more consistency between the two methods and smaller, transient and judgmental …

Influenza Epidemiology And Immunization During Pregnancy: Final Report Of A World Health Organization Working Group, Deshayne B. Fell, Eduardo Azziz-Baumgartner, Michael G. Baker, Maneesh Batra, Julien Beauté, Philippe Beutels, Niranjan Bhat, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Cheryl Cohen, Rehana Salam

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

From 2014 to 2017, the World Health Organization convened a working group to evaluate influenza disease burden and vaccine efficacy to inform estimates of maternal influenza immunization program impact. The group evaluated existing systematic reviews and relevant primary studies, and conducted four new systematic reviews. There was strong evidence that maternal influenza immunization prevented influenza illness in pregnant women and their infants, although data on severe illness prevention were lacking. The limited number of studies reporting influenza incidence in pregnant women and infants under six months had highly variable estimates and underrepresented low- and middle-income countries. The evidence that maternal …

Mobile-Based Sidewalk Inventory App For Smart Communities, Health, And Safety, Madhav Erraguntla, Dursun Delen, Rupesh K. Agrawal, Karthic Madanagopal, Richard Mayer

Suburban Sustainability

As the United States and other nations strive to cope with the obesity epidemic (NCHS, 2015), progressive communities are developing sidewalk infrastructure to promote physical activity and health. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that community-based interventions like neighborhood walk, bike programs etc. have shown to be effective in promoting physical activity and health. Smart cities are embracing the development of community trails and promoting their use to increase physical activity among youth and adults. System implementation, data collection, and analysis were performed from January 2015 through July 2015. To promote these objectives, communities and cities need accurate information …

International Black-Market Organ Trade, Marni E. Granzow

Student Publications

The human organ trade is a global epidemic as citizens of developed-countries look to developing-countries to find organ donors, specifically exploiting the poor for their own personal gain. The impoverished organ donors are treated in an inhumane manner, as they are often left with serious medical complications and are not treated equally in the transaction.

Pubh 7090a - A Spatial Analysis And Health, Jeff Jones

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course will introduce students to geographic information systems (GIS) to map and spatially analyze public health and demographic data. Students will learn the fundamentals of the ArcMap software system and ways to integrate cartography into biomedical informatics practice. Beyond use of GIS for cartography, this course will also examine ethical issues and methods of analyzing demographic and spatial health patterns using GIS and demography analysis methods. The versatility of GIS in a public health setting will be examined and will include exercises involving GIS applications in health marketing, demography, epidemiology, and health care systems. For example, we will look …

The Burden And Social Determinants Of Asthma For Adults In The State Of Georgia, Mark Ebell, Christian Marchello, Jean O'Connor

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: Asthma is a serious chronic health condition, and social determinants may affect its prevalence.

Methods: Data from the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), the Georgia Asthma Call-back Survey (ACBS), and the Georgia hospital and emergency department survey for patients with a diagnosis of asthma were used. All data were from the years 2011 through 2014. SAS and SUDAAN software were used to calculate weighted prevalence estimates and to perform univariate and multivariate analyses of the association between social determinants, other risk factors, and asthma outcomes.

Results: The prevalence of asthma was highest among non-Hispanic blacks, women, and persons …

Nonprofit Hospital Community Benefit Requirements: An Exploration Of National Health Policy Models, Justin P. Swearingen

Dissertations and Theses

Introduction: Nonprofit hospital organizations are public charities with complete tax immunity. Such exemptions are worth $24.6 billion and impact the health of hundreds of millions of people, yet what these charities must do to meet the current “community benefit standard” to maintain their tax-exempt status remains a policy debate. To help inform policymaking, an evaluation of four national requirement models was performed: Tax Value Requirement (at least the value of the tax exemptions must be spent on community benefit), Grassley Requirement (at least 5% of revenue must be spent on community benefit), Expense Requirement (at least 3% of expenses must …

Charting A Pathway Forward: Redesigning And Realigning Supports And Services For Maine's Older Adults, Eileen Griffin Jd, Elizabeth C. Gattine Jd

Disability & Aging

The current growth of the population age 65 and older is one of the most significant demographic trends in the history of this country and is especially significant for Maine, where the number of people age 65 and older is growing even faster than the rest of the nation. By 2025, over a quarter of Maine’s population is expected to be age 65 and older. Because the cost of long term paid support is out of reach for many Mainers, public financing—particularly Medicaid financing—is an essential tool for addressing the long term support needs of older adults. But Medicaid is …

Lyme Disease And Youtube™: A Cross-Sectional Study Of Video Contents, Corey H. Basch, Lindsay A. Mullican, Kwanza D. Boone, Jingjing Yin, Alyssa Berdnik, Marina E. Eremeeva, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung

Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease. People seek health information on Lyme disease from YouTubeTM videos. In this study, we investigated if the contents of Lyme disease-related YouTubeTM videos varied by their sources.

Methods: Most viewed English YouTubeTM videos (n = 100) were identified and manually coded for contents and sources.

Results: Within the sample, 40 videos were consumer-generated, 31 were internet-based news, 16 were professional, and 13 were TV news. Compared with consumer-generated videos, TV news videos were more likely to mention celebrities (odds ratio [OR], 10.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.13–52.58), prevention of Lyme disease …

Structural Violence And Gender-Based Violence In The United States, Sarbinaz Z. Bekmuratova

Theses & Dissertations

Three components of the dissertation project examined the relationship between three different constructs of structural violence and women’s experience of different violence types in their lifetime in the United States. The violence types examined in the study included psychological aggression, coercive control and entrapment, physical violence, stalking, sexual violence, and rape. 2010 National Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Survey with the final sample size of 9,827 was used for all three portions of the study to analyze the association of structural violence with six types of violence. Additional datasets used were Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s Status of Women …

An Assessment Of Funding And Other Capacity Needs For Health Equity Programming Within State-Level Chronic Disease Programs, Tiffany Pertillar, Ann Pobutsky, Phd, Gail Brandt, Edd, Mph, Marisa New, Otr, Mph, Jamielou Delavan, Ba, Robyn Taylor, Mba, Amishi Shah, Mpa, Ma, Folasaya Adunola, Dds, Mph, Onyemaechi Nweke

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background: Chronic diseases are an important contributor to morbidity and mortality among racial/ethnic minority, low-income, and other under-resourced populations. Given that state health departments (and their chronic disease programs) play a significant role in providing population and preventive health services, their capacity to promote health equity is an important consideration in national efforts to address chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to examine capacity needs of state chronic disease programs with respect to promoting health equity.

Methods: In 2015, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) conducted a survey of its members that work within a …

Mountain Biking As A Means To Encourage Public Health And Wellbeing, Scott C. Dillard

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

Mountain biking is a popular form of outdoor exercise. There are 8.3 million riders in the U.S., 2.8% of the population (The Outdoor Foundation, 2016). The National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/trends/nsre-directory/) places the number of participants much higher at 42.7 million riders, but their definition is less restrictive (Cordell, 2012). The National Survey includes anyone who has ridden a mountain or hybrid bicycle in the last twelve months, regardless of riding surface, while Outdoor Recreation Participation Top Line Report (The Outdoor Foundation, 2016) estimates are based on riding surface. Therefore, to avoid confirmation bias, the lower Outdoor …

The Fight Against Breast Cancer: A Policy And Programmatic Approach, Nandi Robinson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Breast cancer continues to remain a significant health issue for women. Previously thought to only occur among postmenopausal women, breast cancer has impacted women of different ages; and rates of breast cancer have various impacts among different ethnic groups. For women living in a toxic environment, many of them have become the new wave of breast cancer cases. Screening and detection have succeeded in decreasing mortality rates. However, more research is needed in finding an efficient method of treatment. In the effort to assist in the fight against breast cancer through a policy and programmatic angle, I am fulfilling …

Swedish Social Welfare And Its Application To American Welfare Systems, Ben Wilson Galloway

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Swedish Social Welfare and its Application to American Welfare Systems concerns itself with the issue of determining the origins of the modern Swedish social welfare system. Additionally, the causes behind the formation of the system are evaluated for their relevancy concerning the formation of the American welfare system. Multiple areas of study are considered, including racial impacts, economic factors, sociological impactors, and demographic variables.

Coal Ash Exposure And Asthma In Children., Jack Anthony Pfeiffer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the association between exposure to coal ash in the home among children aged 6-14 and asthma. Data was collected using personal modular impactors, lift tape samples, toe/finger nail samples, questionnaires, and peak flow meters. Laboratory methods used to analyze the samples included gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) / energy dispersive x-ray (EDX), and proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE). Statistical methods used to analyze the data included the Chi Square Test of Independence, logistic regression, the Hosmer-Lemeshow Goodness of Fit test, Fisher’s Exact Test, and the Anderson-Darling Normality Test. Sample size was small, making statistical significance in calculated …

A Comparison Of Outdoor Bioaerosol And Particulate Measurements In Las Vegas, Tanviben Yogeshkumar Patel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The urbanization of the Las Vegas Valley has turned the desert into a green oasis by introducing many non-native plant species, some of which are allergenic. Outdoor bioaerosols consist of microorganisms, pollen, spores, and other agents that could cause infections or affect the health of humans. Studies have suggested that exposure to bioaerosols through inhalation can lead to various human health risks. Typically, one monitoring station is established per city to obtain pollen and mold counts for an entire metropolitan area, and the site may not be representative of community exposures. The objective of this study was to measure and …

How Canada Can Help Global Adolescent Health Mature, Ashley Vandermorris, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: There is an emerging focus on adolescent health within the global health community as we come to recognize that the adolescent years are formative in determining health and health-related behaviours across the life-course. Such attention is not only relevant on the global scale but is imperative in Canada as well.

Main body: This commentary provides a brief review of recent investments targeting global adolescent health and presents five potential avenues for action which emerged out of the recent Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) Global Adolescent Health conference. These avenues are: (1) Demand data; (2) Embrace complexity; …

The Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Network: A Model For Community-Based Environmental Monitoring For Public Health Action., Paul B English, Luis Olmedo, Ester Bejarano, Humberto Lugo, Eduardo Murillo, Edmund Seto, Michelle Wong, Galatea King, Alexa Wilkie, Dan Meltzer, Graeme Carvlin, Michael Jerrett, Amanda Northcross

Environmental and Occupational Health Faculty Publications

The Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Network (the Network) is a collaborative group of community, academic, nongovernmental, and government partners designed to fill the need for more detailed data on particulate matter in an area that often exceeds air quality standards. The Network employs a community-based environmental monitoring process in which the community and researchers have specific, well-defined roles as part of an equitable partnership that also includes shared decision-making to determine study direction, plan research protocols, and conduct project activities. The Network is currently producing real-time particulate matter data from 40 low-cost sensors throughout Imperial County, one of the …

Identifying Nodes Of Transmission In Disease Diffusion Through Social Media, David Sebastian Lamb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The spread of infectious diseases can be described in terms of three interrelated components: interaction, movement, and scale. Transmission between individuals requires some form of interaction, which is dependent on the pathogen, to occur. Diseases spread through the movement of their hosts; they spread across many spatial scales from local neighborhoods to countries, or temporal scales from days to years, or periodic intervals. Prior research into the spread of disease have examined diffusion processes retrospectively at regional or country levels, or developed differential equation or simulation models of the dynamics of disease transmission. While some of the more recent models …

At The Heart Of The Problem: Health In Johannesburg's Inner-City, Helen Rees, Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, Fiona Scorgie, Stanley Luchters, Matthew F. Chersich

Population Health, East Africa

Urban life in the twenty-first century is marked by numerous stresses and shocks, resulting from rapid urbanisation, frequent migration and crowding, massive unemployment, climate change, physical disasters, and disease outbreaks, among other challenges. This reality – according to the ‘100 Resilient Cities’ initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation – is why the concept of resilience is critical to a sustainable future: cities must learn to “survive and thrive, regardless of the challenge” [1]. In cities in the global South that face a heavy HIV burden, this health crisis is often inseparable from a wider set of interlinked social challenges, ranging from …

Breast Cancer Screening In Patients With Newly Diagnosed Lung And Colorectal Cancer: A Population-Based Study Of Utilization, Gelareh Sadigh, Ruth C. Carlos, Kevin C. Ward, Jeffrey M. Switchenko, Renjian Jiang, Kimberly E. Applegate, Richard Duszak Jr.

Radiology Faculty Publications

Purpose—To assess breast cancer screening utilization in Medicare beneficiaries with colorectal and lung cancer versus cancer-free controls.

Methods—Female fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries who were ≥ 67 years old and diagnosed with lung or colorectal cancer between 2000 and 2011 and who reported to a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry (case group) were followed for 2 years after their diagnoses, unless death, a diagnosis of breast cancer, or the end of 2013 came first. A similar number of cancer-free controls were individually matched to cases by age, race, registry region, and follow-up time. Screening utilization was defined as …

Age And Sex Normalization Of Intestinal Permeability Measures For The Improved Assessment Of Enteropathy In Infancy And Early Childhood: Results From The Mal-Ed Study, Margaret N. Kosek, Gwenyth O. Lee, Richard L. Guerrant, Rashidul Haque, Gagandeep Kang, Tahmeed Ahmed, Pascal Bessong, Syed Asad Ali, Shahida Qureshi, Anita K. M. Zaidi

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Objectives: The aim of the study was to describe changes in intestinal permeability in early childhood in diverse epidemiologic settings.
Methods: In a birth cohort study, the lactulose:mannitol (L:M) test was administered to 1980 children at 4 time points in the first 24 months of life in 8 countries. Data from the Brazil site with an incidence of diarrhea similar to that seen in the United States and no growth faltering was used as an internal study reference to derive age- and sex-specific z scores for mannitol and lactulose recoveries and the L:M ratio.
Results: A total of 6602 tests …

Implications Of Synchronous Ivr Radio On Syrian Refugee Health And Community Dynamics, R. Talhouk, T. Bartindale, K. Montague, S. Mesmar, C. Akik, A. Ghassani, M. Najem, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., P. Olivier, M. Balaam

Faculty Publications

With 1,033,513 Syrian refugees adding a strain on the Lebanese healthcare system, innovation is key to improving access to healthcare. Our previous work identified the potential for technology to improve access to antenatal care services and increase refugee agency. Using (1) paper mock ups and a mobile based prototype, (2) process mapping, (3) focus groups and interviews and (4) key informant meetings, we explored the concept of refugee led community radio shows to deliver peerled healthcare.1We observed the influence of community radio shows on Syrian refugee health education, community dynamics and community agency in relationships between healthcare providers and refugees. …

Exploring The Health Effects Of Precarious Employment By Sex/Gender Using Mixed Methods, Kathleen Flandrick

Dissertations and Theses

Employment in the United States has changed dramatically since the mid-1970s. Labor market forces like globalization and diversification of the American workforce have led to a heavily segmented labor market where new types of flexible employment such as temporary, contingent, and nonstandard work arrangements are increasingly common. These newer types of work are often on the lower end of the precarious employment continuum, categorizing jobs by their degree of: 1) temporariness, 2) disempowerment, 3) vulnerability, 4) compensation (wages), 5) rights, and 6) ability to exercise worker rights. The increase in precarious employment likely disproportionately affects women when compared to men, …

Case-Control Vaccine Effectiveness Studies: Preparation, Design, And Enrollment Of Cases And Control, Jennifer R. Verani, Abdullah H. Baqui, Claire V. Broome, Thomas Cherian, Cheryl Cohen, Jennifer L. Farrar, Daniel R. Feikin, Michelle J. Groome, Rana A. Hajjeh, Anita K. M. Zaidi

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Case-control studies are commonly used to evaluate effectiveness of licensed vaccines after deployment in public health programs. Such studies can provide policy-relevant data on vaccine performance under 'real world' conditions, contributing to the evidence base to support and sustain introduction of new vaccines. However, case-control studies do not measure the impact of vaccine introduction on disease at a population level, and are subject to bias and confounding, which may lead to inaccurate results that can misinform policy decisions. In 2012, a group of experts met to review recent experience with case-control studies evaluating the effectiveness of several vaccines; here we …

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 …

The Health Consequences Of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Building Resilient Communities, Elizabeth S. Najmabadi

Master's Projects and Capstones

Studies have identified that trauma experienced as a child directly affects your health later in life. In Sonoma County, one in four children have experienced two or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) before the age of 18. Twenty-two percent of Sonoma County adults reported experiencing four or more ACEs before the age of 18. With the high rates of ACEs in our community this fieldwork placement aimed to bring awareness and build community capacity to understand and address ACEs and foster resiliency. To raise awareness in our community we developed the ACES and Resiliency Fellowship Series, which trained 60 fellows …