Digital Commons Network^™

Electronic Cigarette Cessation Program In Caja Costarricense Del Seguro Social (Ccss)-Costa Rica: An Assessment To Guide The Future Development Of An Educational Intervention For Ccss's Health Practitioners, Jeancarlo Cordoba

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Newer tobacco products are becoming widely popular in recent years, especially among youth and young adults. New technologies, such as electronic cigarettes, focus on efficiently delivering the addictive substance nicotine into the body while simulating conventional smoking behavior without burning tobacco (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2019). Due to the addictiveness of nicotine, there is a high biological plausibility of high levels of nicotine dependence among electronic cigarette users. Consequently, there is a need for specific interventions for priority populations at risk, requiring research studies that provide evidence for future action and strategic planning purposes. The 2015 Costa Rican Ministry of …

Trajectories Of Maternal Parenting Stress And Adolescent Behavioral Symptoms In Unmarried Families : The Roles Of Family Immigration Status, Harsh Parenting, And Father’S Early Involvement, Fei Tang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

BackgroundAdolescence is a critical period for developing social and emotional wellbeing. Adolescents experience many physical and social changes, making them vulnerable to adaptive and behavioral problems. Compared to their peers in married families, adolescents in unmarried families may be at particularly elevated risk of developing internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, identifying key risk factors in a family context could provide insights on the development of family-based interventions. Mothers are often seen as the center of the environmental context of children development, their responsiveness to children may be impacted by their economic and psychological resources, which could crucially affect the wellbeing …

Investigating The Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Obesity While Considering Race, Ethnicity, Sex, And Sexual Orientation, Mariama Ceesay

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

AbstractObesity is a chronic disease that plagues about 34% of the world population and rising (CDC,2023). Obesity develops over time due to lifestyle factors, biological factors, and the environment. Life course epidemiology approaches understanding the etiology of obesity by pinpointing how particular events in a lifetime can facilitate later life obesity. One emerging important early life factor that may influence adult obesity risk is adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Rates of ACEs are higher in sexual minorities, women, and nonwhite individuals (Hughes et al., 2022). Furthermore, the rate of obesity is higher in women and nonwhite communities (CDC,2023). Knowing this information, …

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Step Towards Unfolding The Mystery, Aditi Kamlesh Bhanushali

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

AbstractBackground: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is a complex disease that includes the dysregulation of the Central Nervous system. There is no exact known etiology or pathophysiology which leads to the development of ME/CFS. To understand the possible causes behind this mysterious disease, I conducted this project under the guidance of Dr. Moslehi to evaluate a range of demographic, lifestyle, and epidemiological factors and their risk in the development of ME/CFS. Methods: My project is part of a case-control study conducted by Dr. Roxana Moslehi. ME/CFS is a rare disease, so a case-control study design was …

Evaluating Spatial Relationships Between Environmental Factors And Contextual Sociodemographic Burden And Associations With Respiratory Morbidity Among Young Children: An Indicator-Based Approach, Neil Anthony Muscatiello

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The body of public health literature related to air pollution epidemiology is extensive. Similarly, the body of literature related to social epidemiology has also expanded greatly in recent years. While studies in these sub-disciplines of epidemiology sometimes seek to control for variables more commonly studied in one or the other, fewer studies report on their combined effects. Studies which do attempt to summarize how the combined air pollution burden and contextual sociodemographic burden differentially effect health outcomes beyond their individual effects could be beneficial in understanding links between the environment and certain health outcomes such as childhood asthma. The proposed …

Gestational Epigenetic Aging : Prenatal Influences And Early Life Associations, Emilia Pawlowski

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Development Origins of Health (DOHaD) evidence suggests that prenatal exposures have an important impact on offspring health throughout the life course. Environmental and psychosocial exposures during fetal development are associated with a range of health outcomes for offspring, and effects are often sex specific. One of the mechanisms which may explain differences in health outcomes is epigenetic alterations, which are the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression and can be modified during fetal development. Many studies have shown that psychosocial stress and social adversity can modulate epigenetic mechanisms and affect health. While there are several methods for measuring epigenetic alterations, …

Examining The Association Between Childhood Adversity And Later Life Cardiometabolic Diseases, Shreya Shrinivas

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ACEs stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences, which are traumatic or stressful events that occur in childhood before the age of 18 (Wisner, 2022). These experiences can include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; neglect; household dysfunction, such as parental separation, domestic violence, substance abuse, or incarceration; or exposure to community violence, racism, or discrimination. Research has shown that individuals who experience ACEs are at a higher risk for developing chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and mental health disorders later in life (Felitti, 2002). This is because ACEs can cause toxic stress, which is chronic activation of the stress …

Antibody Profiling Of An Elderly Cohort After Sars-Cov-2 Vaccination And Infection Using Dried Blood Spots, Gianna Mirabile

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Three years after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China, COVID-19 remains a major public health emergency throughout the globe. Although major advancements have been made in terms of controlling the virus, such as the use of mRNA vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 infections from variants of concern (VoC) continue to persist and cause significant morbidity and mortality in vulnerable populations, including the elderly. The ability for public health entities to effectively gauge disease susceptibility across large swaths of the population is critical in deciding when to implement new vaccination recommendations. Dried blood spots (DBS) are an upcoming serological sample type being studied …

Toward A New Approach To Job-Related Distress: A Three-Sample Study Of The Occupational Depression Inventory, Renzo Bianchi, James Sowden, Jay Verkuilen, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently developed to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. One purpose of the ODI is to respond to limitations of current assessments of job-related distress, most notably, assessments relying on the burnout construct. In this study, we conducted a thorough examination of the psychometric and structural properties of the ODI using exploratory structural equation modelling bifactor analysis and Mokken scale analysis. The study involved three samples of employed individuals, recruited in France (N = 3454), Switzerland (N = 1971), and Australia (N = 1485). Results were consistent across the three …

Medically Accurate Evidence-Based Sex Education And Abstinence-Only Sex Education: Impact On Teen Pregnancies In The United States, Nicole Chiu

Nursing | Senior Theses

The U.S. has funded abstinence-only programs to combat pregnancy rates for a long time. With numerous factors contributing to teen pregnancies, there have been a lot of ways that people have decided to try to decrease the number of teen pregnancies. For example, schools have either decided that they intend to fully educate their teenage students using medically accurate evidence-based sex education or come from a more conservative approach and give abstinence-only education. The objective of this investigation is to identify whether evidence-based sex education or abstinence-only sex education is more effective at combating teen pregnancy and abortion rates. This …

Researching Covid To Enhance Recovery (Recover) Pregnancy Study: Rationale, Objectives And Design, Torri D Metz, Rebecca G Clifton, Richard Gallagher, Rachel S Gross, Leora I Horwitz, Vanessa L Jacoby, Susanne P Martin-Herz, Myriam Peralta-Carcelen, Harrison T Reeder, Carmen J Beamon, James Chan, A Ann Chang, Maged M Costantine, Megan L Fitzgerald, Andrea S Foulkes, Kelly S Gibson, Nick Güthe, Mounira Habli, David N Hackney, Matthew K Hoffman, M Camille Hoffman, Brenna L Hughes, Stuart D Katz, Victoria Laleau, Gail Mallett, Hector Mendez-Figueroa, Vanessa Monzon, Anna Palatnik, Kristy T S Palomares, Samuel Parry, Christian M Pettker, Beth A Plunkett, Athena Poppas, Uma M Reddy, Dwight J Rouse, George R Saade, Grecio J Sandoval, Shannon M Schlater, Frank C Sciurba, Hyagriv N Simhan, Daniel W Skupski, Amber Sowles, Tanayott Thaweethai, Gelise L Thomas, John M Thorp, Alan T Tita, Steven J Weiner, Samantha Weigand, Lynn M Yee, Valerie J Flaherman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: Pregnancy induces unique physiologic changes to the immune response and hormonal changes leading to plausible differences in the risk of developing post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), or Long COVID. Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy may also have long-term ramifications for exposed offspring, and it is critical to evaluate the health outcomes of exposed children. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Multi-site Observational Study of PASC aims to evaluate the long-term sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection in various populations. RECOVER-Pregnancy was designed specifically to address long-term outcomes in maternal-child dyads.

METHODS: RECOVER-Pregnancy cohort is a …

Identification Of Novel Biosynthetic Gene Clusters Encoding For Polyketide/Nrps-Producing Chemotherapeutic Compounds From Marine-Derived Streptomyces Hygroscopicus From A Marine Sanctuary, Hannah Ruth Flaherty

Honors Theses and Capstones

Nearly one out of six deaths in 2020, around ten million people, were caused by cancer, making it a leading cause of death worldwide (WHO, 2022). This major public health issue, in addition to the rise of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, provides a high demand for the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs to be used clinically to treat these conditions. The Streptomyces genus accounts to produce 39% of all microbial metabolites currently approved for human health, indicating its potential as an important species to study for antimicrobial and anticancer agents. The long linear genome of Streptomyces contains specialized sequences known as …

European Epidemiological Patterns Of Cannabis- And Substance-Related Congenital Neurological Anomalies: Geospatiotemporal And Causal Inferential Study, Albert Stuart Reece, Gary Kenneth Hulse

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: Of the many congenital anomalies (CAs) recently linked with community cannabis exposure, arguably the most concerning are neurological CAs (NCAs). We therefore conducted a detailed study of this in fourteen European nations.

Methods. Congenital anomaly data were from Eurocat. Drug exposure data were from European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Income from World bank.

Results: The Netherlands, Spain, France and Bulgaria reported increasing rates of many NCAs. The NCA rate (NCAR) was: severe microcephaly 2.14 x 1013 higher in nations with increasing daily cannabis use when compared to those without (p = 0.0204, minimum E-value (mEV) = …

Relationship Between Dietary Intake And Erythrocyte Pufa In Adolescents From A Western Australian Cohort, Fuzhen Wan, Feng Pan, Trevor A. Mori, Therese A. O’Sullivan, Lawrence J. Beilin, Wendy H. Oddy

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background:

Population-based studies show that the intake of omega-3 (n-3) and omega-6 (n-6) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are associated with a range of health conditions. Therefore, the reliability of food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) as rapid and easily accessible screening tools for PUFA intake deserve investigation.

Objective:

We aimed to assess the relationship between erythrocyte fatty acids and fatty acid intake collected using the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) food frequency questionnaire in an adolescent cohort.

Design:

A cross-sectional study using data from 1155 young adolescents participating in the 14-year follow-up of the Raine Study. Bland–Altman plots were used …

Spore-Forming Clostridium (Clostridioides) Difficile In Wastewater Treatment Plants In Western Australia, Jessica M. Chisholm, Papanin Putsathit, Thomas V. Riley, Su-Chen Lim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

There is growing evidence that shows Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile is a pathogen of One Health importance with a complex dissemination pathway involving animals, humans, and the environment. Thus, environmental discharge and agricultural recycling of human and animal waste have been suspected as factors behind the dissemination of Clostridium difficile in the community. Here, the presence of C. difficile in 12 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Western Australia was investigated. Overall, C. difficile was found in 90.5 % (114/126) of raw sewage influent, 48.1 % (50/104) of treated effluent, 40 % (2/5) of reclaimed irrigation water, 100 % (38/38) of untreated …

Examining The Nexus Of Housing Instability And Neighborhood Within New York City (Nyc), Benjamin Boateng

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Housing instability within the New York City (NYC) area significantly affects the community's well-being. As a robust and growing city, many families in the low-income bracket face the challenge of spending a significant portion of their monthly income toward housing costs (rent, utilities, insurance). With families spending 50% (extreme housing burden) and more of their monthly income to stay in their housing units, various disparities have presented themselves within the housing context.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, families within NYC have struggled to maintain their housing stock. Policy and community-based actions are needed to reduce the burden …

Risk Factors Of Human Papillomavirus Positive Oropharyngeal Cancer In Men, Kentress Davison

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a leading domestic and global sexually transmitted disease. The purpose of this secondary quantitative, cross-sectional study is to investigate if there is an relationship between the rate of oral HPV-oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) and race, exposure to smoking cigarettes (tobacco), risky sexual behavior, and participation in oral sex of male-to-male contact vs. male-to-female contact. The social cognitive theory grounded this study. The University of Alabama at Birmingham cancer database population supplied the study’s sample size of 337 males greater than 18 years of age with a diagnosis of OPSCC. I conducted descriptive analyses using …

Predictors Of Psychoactive Substance Abuse Among Eastern Nigeran Youth, Kingsley Chidiebere Izuka

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractPsychoactive substance (PAS) abuse is a major public health problem leading to increased morbidity and mortality. In Nigeria, the incidence rate of PAS abuse has remained high, particularly in the youth population. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of social factors and school enrollment status on PAS abuse in youth in Southeast Nigeria. The social ecological model and the theory of reasoned action were the theoretical frameworks used for this study; they were selected due to their focus on multiple levels of factors that influence behavior. A quantitative cross-sectional study design approach was used to determine …

Age, Race/Hispanic Origin, And Covid-19 Mortality Among Sickle Cell Disease Patients In The United States, Joe Lamont Ndula

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic remains a global health challenge, with 6.7 million deaths worldwide as of January 2023. It has illuminated the health iniquities in underserved communities and populations like those with sickle cell disease (SCD). Researchers have associated the COVID-19 outcome among SCD patients in other regions of the globe. The purpose of this retrospective cross-sectional observational study was to investigate the relationship between age, race/Hispanic origin, and COVID-19 mortality among persons with SCD in the United States from January 2020 to March 2021. The Krieger ecosocial theory of disease distribution framed the study. Data were drawn from an existing …

Language Barrier: An Unmet Challenge For Low Screening Of Colorectal Cancer Among Hispanic Americans In Texas, Moses Owusu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractHispanic population represents the fastest growing minority group in the United States, and only California surpasses Texas with Hispanic residents in the United States. Overall, non-Hispanic Whites have higher rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence than Hispanics; however, Hispanic Americans have lower survival rates than non-Hispanic Whites. Using cross-sectional analysis, CRC screening modalities were examined to assess disparities among White only, non-Hispanic, Black only, non-Hispanic, and Hispanic populations in Texas to evaluate the impact of limited English proficiency (LEP) on CRC screening among Hispanic Americans residents. The age of study participants ranged from 50 to 79 (mean age = 65.8 …

An Association Of The Transgenerational Implications Of Redlining And Obesity On Pediatric Type Ii Diabetes, Carlin Dexter Nelson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

s the prevalence and incidence of childhood obesity has increased, so has the number of cases of pediatric Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Although made unconstitutional in 1968, the transgenerational implications of redlining can be observed in disinvestments resulting in neighborhood detraction. Utilizing the 2019–2020 National Children’s Health Survey, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the relationship between obesity, T2DM, and neighborhood detraction elements as well as assessed indicators of T2DM in non-institutionalized children 6 through17 years of age (N = 34,725). The social determinants of health perspective served as the conceptual framework for the study. Results indicated …

Traditional Healing And Biomedicine Use In Urban American Indians Living With Diabetes, Elin Elise Kambuga

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this interpretative qualitative study was to describe influences that affect the use of traditional healing and biomedical health services for type 2 diabetes to help health educators develop more culturally competent diabetes education programs for urban American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities in the United States. The theoretical framework used for this study was the social ecological model (SEM). Using the SEM, the research questions were crafted to explore experiences of participants connected to personal, interpersonal, community, institutional, policy, and educational factors that influenced the use of traditional healing and biomedical health services. Urban AI/AN adults living in …

Maternal Folate Status And Risk Factors For Autism Spectrum Disorders, Michael M. Haniff

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are thought to be influenced by environmental, genetic, and maternal factors, including potential links to periconceptional folic acid. This quantitative case-control study, guided by the life course theory, explored the association of maternal risk factors (age, race, education, income, folate status, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and MTHFR mutation) on the precipitation of ASD in offspring. The sample comprised 96 mothers of children with ASD and 143 mothers of children without ASD. Logistic regression analysis indicated no significant association between maternal folate status and ASD (OR = 1.00, 95% CI [1.000, 0.001], p = .755). Mothers with …

Relationship Between Homelessness, Substance Use, Employment, Living On A Reservation And Tuberculosis Among Northern Plains Native Americans, Darla Mccloskey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Native Americans in the Northern Plains have a long history of tuberculosis (TB) infections. There is limited research on the causes of latent TB infections (LTBI) and TB in this population. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the relationship between latent TB and factors of homelessness, substance use, employment, living on a reservation, and active or latent TB among this population using the eco-social theory as the theoretical framework. Data from 146 TB cases of Native Americans living in the Northern Plains and diagnosed with TB from 1999 to 2019 were analyzed using chi-square tests that showed …

The Relationship Between Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis And Race, Gender, And Age, Johnny James Mcgrew

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this quantitative correlational design using secondary data from Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment was to examine the relationship between different types of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), specifically, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, and race, gender, and age in the United States. This study is significant because it could assist medical personnel to focus on more personally-based STI treatments. This study could also lead to a call for more research regarding sexual health programs across the nation, individuals’ willingness to share personal information regarding STIs, and how sexual health programs could increase testing for STIs. The study …

Pancreatic Cancer: Quantitative Study Investigating The Regional Risk Factors In North Carolina, Holly Marie Myers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, killing more than 90% of individuals diagnosed within 5 years. Due to the lack of signs and symptoms, 82% of all pancreatic cancer cases are diagnosed in terminal stages. As such, the most powerful method to reducing the morbidity and mortality of pancreatic cancer is to further investigate the risk factors. According to the theoretical framework of the ecosocial theory, long-term exposure to exposures to unfavorable socioecological and environmental factors serve as a “web of causation” for adverse health outcomes. Using data from the North Carolina Department …

The Daily Patterns Of Emergency Medical Events, Mary Elizabeth Helander, Margaret K. Formica, Dessa K. Bergen-Cico

Social Science - All Scholarship

This study examines population level daily patterns of time-stamped emergency medical service (EMS) dispatches to establish their situational predictability. Using visualization, sinusoidal regression, and statistical tests to compare empirical cumulative distributions, we analyzed 311,848,450 emergency medical call records from the U.S. National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) for years 2010 through 2022. The analysis revealed a robust daily pattern in the hourly distribution of distress calls across 33 major categories of medical emergency dispatch types. Sinusoidal regression coefficients for all types were statistically significant, mostly at the p < 0.0001 level. The coefficient of determination ($R^2$) ranged from 0.84 and 0.99 for all models, with most falling in the 0.94 to 0.99 range. The common sinusoidal pattern, peaking in mid-afternoon, demonstrates that all major categories of medical emergency dispatch types appear to be influenced by an underlying daily rhythm that is aligned with daylight hours and common sleep/wake cycles. A comparison of results with previous landmark studies revealed new and contrasting EMS patterns for several long-established peak occurrence hours--specifically for chest pain, heart problems, stroke, convulsions and seizures, and sudden cardiac arrest/death. Upon closer examination, we also found that heart attacks, diagnosed by paramedics in the field via 12-lead cardiac monitoring, followed the identified common daily pattern of a mid-afternoon peak, departing from prior generally accepted morning tendencies. Extended analysis revealed that the normative pattern prevailed across the NEMSIS data when re-organized to consider monthly, seasonal, daylight-savings vs civil time, and pre-/post- COVID-19 periods. The predictable daily EMS patterns provide impetus for more research that links daily variation with causal risk and protective factors. Our methods are straightforward and presented with detail to provide accessible and replicable implementation for researchers and practitioners.

Examining The Impact Of Teenage Pregnancy And Its Associated Factors On High School Graduation Rates In Ohio, Eshita Garg, Empress James

Scholarship in Medicine - All Papers

Objective: Our objective is to determine the impact of teen pregnancy, and its associated factors (e.g., child poverty, single-parent households, disconnected youth) on high school graduation rates in Ohio. Introduction: Failure to complete high school often results due to a process known as educational disengagement. This process has been studied to include such factors like teenage pregnancy, which is often linked to increased absences and decreased participation in class. While studies indicate that programs should emphasize attendance and engagement, rather than teenage pregnancy prevention, we also examine factors that are commonly associated with teenage pregnancy. Such variables that contribute to …

Thinly Rooted: Dobbs, Tradition, And Reproductive Justice, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. These two cases held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment encompassed a right of women to terminate a pregnancy. Roe reflected over 60 years of substantive due process precedent finding and reaffirming a constitutional right of privacy with several animating themes, including bodily integrity, equality, and dignity. The Court’s substantive due process doctrine had established that the analysis in such cases would involve multiple points of inquiry, such as tradition, contemporary practices, and …

Effects Of Crypto Bear Market On Mental Health Of Pakistani Crypto Traders, Muhammad Umar Iftikhar

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Introduction: The proliferation of Cryptocurrency trading has introduced significant volatility and stress into the lives of investors. With the high-pressure environment of trading, especially during bear markets, traders are frequently subjected to intense emotional strain. The psychological impact of trading, including anxiety, depression, and stress, has emerged as a growing concern, particularly in rapidly adopting markets such as Pakistan. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence and implications of depression, anxiety, and stress among Pakistani crypto traders in the context of a crypto bear market. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was adopted to collect quantitative data …