Digital Commons Network^™

Racial Differences In Birth Outcomes: The Role Of General, Pregnancy, And Racism Stress, Tyan Parker Dominguez, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Laura M. Glynn, Calvin J. Hobel, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: This study examined the role of psychosocial stress in racial differences in birth outcomes.

Design: Maternal health, sociodemographic factors, and 3 forms of stress (general stress, pregnancy stress, and perceived racism) were assessed prospectively in a sample of 51 African American and 73 non-Hispanic White pregnant women.

Main Outcome Measures: The outcomes of interest were birth weight and gestational age at delivery. Only predictive models of birth weight were tested as the groups did not differ significantly in gestational age.

Results: Perceived racism and indicators of general stress were correlated with birth weight and tested in regression analyses. In …

Timing Of Fetal Exposure To Stress Hormones: Effects On Newborn Physical And Neuromuscular Maturation, Lauren M. Ellman, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Calvin J. Hobel, Aleksandra Chicz-Demet, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The purpose of the study was to determine the specific periods during pregnancy in which human fetal exposure to stress hormones affects newborn physical and neuromuscular maturation. Blood was collected from 158 women at 15, 19, 25, and 31 weeks' gestation. Levels of placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and maternal cortisol were determined from plasma. Newborns were evaluated with the New Ballard Maturation Score. Results indicated that increases in maternal cortisol at 15, 19, and 25 weeks and increases in placental CRH at 31 weeks were significantly associated with decreases in infant maturation among mates (even after con trolling for length …

Familialism, Social Support, And Stress: Positive Implications For Pregnant Latinas, Belinda Campos, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Cleopatra M. Abdou, Calvin J. Hobel, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

This study examined the association of familialism, a cultural value that emphasizes close family relationships, with social Support, stress, pregnancy anxiety, and infant birth weight. Foreign-born Latina (n = 31), U.S.-born Latina (n = 68), and European American (n = 166) women living in the United States participated in a prospective study of pregnancy in which they completed measures of familialism, social support, stress, and pregnancy anxiety during their second trimester. As expected, Latinas scored higher on familialism than European Americans. Familialism was positively correlated with social support and negatively correlated with stress and pregnancy anxiety in the overall sample. …

Stress And Blood Pressure During Pregnancy: Racial Differences And Associations With Birthweight, Clayton J. Hilmert, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Tyan Parker Dominguez, Cleopatra M. Abdou, Calvin J. Hobel, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

OBJECTIVE: To extend findings that African American women report greater stress during pregnancy, have higher blood pressure (BP), and are twice as likely to have low birthweight infants relative to white women. This study examines a) racial differences in associations between stress and BP during pregnancy, and b) the combined effects of stress and BP on infant birthweight in a sample of 170 African American and white women.

METHODS: A prospective, longitudinal study of pregnant women was conducted in which measures of BP, stress, and other relevant variables were collected. Multiple measures of systolic and diastolic BP were taken at …

Differential Dynamic Properties Of Scleroderma Fibroblasts In Response To Perturbation Of Environmental Stimuli, Momiao Xiong, Frank C. Arnett, Xinjian Guo, Hao Xiong, Xiaodong Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Diseases are believed to arise from dysregulation of biological systems (pathways) perturbed by environmental triggers. Biological systems as a whole are not just the sum of their components, rather ever-changing, complex and dynamic systems over time in response to internal and external perturbation. In the past, biologists have mainly focused on studying either functions of isolated genes or steady-states of small biological pathways. However, it is systems dynamics that play an essential role in giving rise to cellular function/dysfunction which cause diseases, such as growth, differentiation, division and apoptosis. Biological phenomena of the entire organism are not only determined by …

The Relationship Of Medical Homeness To The Quality Of Life Of Mothers Of Children With And Without Special Health Care Needs, Cynthia G. Cortes

All ETDs from UAB

A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the relationship of child, family, and medical home status to quality of life for mothers of children with and without special health care needs. Mothers of children with (n=100) and without (n=80) special health care needs, completed a questionnaire at a children’s hospital in the southeastern United States focusing on the child, family, and medical home and maternal quality of life. Standardized instruments were used to measure quality of life (SF-36) and social support (Social Support Questionnaire). Non-standardized instruments used in other research were incorporated into the maternal questionnaire. Logistic and linear regression …

Interim Monitoring Efficacy, Safety And Futility In Phase Iii Clinical Trials, Qing Li

All ETDs from UAB

Phase III trials often have both efficacy and safety outcomes. Sometimes the safety outcomes are closely associated with the efficacy outcomes. We sought to find a statistical method to treat both efficacy and safety outcomes as bivariate primary outcomes and set up stopping rules at interim stages based on the following criteria: (1) greater safety; (2) greater efficacy; (3) futility. We first examined the internal pilot design to adjust sample size for clinical trials with a bivariate response (efficacy and safety). Three nuisance parameters (two variances and correlation) need to be considered when doing sample size recalculation for the internal …

Randomized Controlled Trial Of Low Cost Interventions To Reduce Childhood Immunization Dropouts In Pakistan, Hussain Raza Usman

All ETDs from UAB

Childhood immunization coverage in Pakistan remains sub-optimal despite universal and free of cost availability of vaccines. Structural impediments to progress may include the immunization card that is hard to read and interpret. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the effect of redesigned immunization card and center-based education to mothers on immunization completion at rural immunization centers in Karachi, Pakistan. Other objectives were to identify the predictors of immunization completion and to identify factors associated with delay at first dose of diphtheria-tetanuspertussis (DTP1). Mother-child units were enrolled from six immunization centers at DTP1 and randomized to four study groups: …

The Effect Of Malaria And Intestinal Helminth Coinfection On Birth Outcomes In Ghana, Nelly J. Yatich

All ETDs from UAB

Several studies have reported the relationship between malaria during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes including maternal anemia, low birthweight, as well as preterm delivery and small for gestational age infants. Some studies have also demonstrated the linkage between helminth infection and maternal anemia. Few studies have assessed the occurrence of coinfection of these infections in pregnancy and its effects on maternal anemia and birth outcomes. The objective of this dissertation was to assess the effect of malaria and intestinal helminth coinfection on birth outcomes in Ghana. A cross-sectional study of 785 women presenting for delivery in two hospitals in Kumasi, …

A Review Of The Evaluation Of Healthway Sponsorships, Michael Rosenberg, Christina Mills, Joanna Granich, Renee Ferguson, Sarah French, Lisa Wood

Research outputs pre 2011

This study reviewed the methods used by Healthway to assess sponsorship implementation/value and to explore complimentary or alternative evaluation measures...

Interview questions related to sponsorship activities, procedures, requirements and evaluation. Suggestions for practical and alternative ways of assessing sponsorship implementation and conducting evaluations were also asked. In addition, the perceived value of sponsorship investments to Healthway and satisfaction with the existing evaluation framework were also sought...

Participation In Sports, Arts And Racing And Its Relationship To Message Literacy And Health Behaviours, Christina Mills, Michael Rosenberg, Sarah French, Jenna Mitchell, Lisa Wood

Research outputs pre 2011

The purpose of this study was to assess health message awareness and health behaviours by participation/non participation in sport, arts and racing (SAR) in Western Australia. In this study a 'participant' was defined as someone who was (1) a member of a SAR organisation, group or club; and/or (2) having attended a SAR event as a spectator or audience member in the last 12 months. A 'non participant' was someone who did not participate in any SAR events as a member and/or spectator and/or audience member in the last 12 months.

Assessing The Professional Development Needs Of Public Health Educators In Light Of Changing Competencies, A. R. Demers, Edward M. Mamary

Faculty Publications

Introduction Because of the need for a well-trained public health workforce, professional competencies have been recently revised by the Institute of Medicine and the National Health Educator Competencies Update Project. This study compared the self-identified training needs of public health educators with the updated competencies and assessed employer support for continuing education. Methods A convenience sample of public health educators was recruited from an e-mail list of San Jose State University master of public health alumni. Respondents completed a Web-based survey that elicited information on emerging trends in public health education, training needs, and employer support for continuing education. Results …

State Policies Matter: The Case Of Outpatient Drug Treatment Program Practices, Jamie Chriqui, Yvonne Terry-Mcelrath, Duane C. Mcbride, D Eidson

Faculty Publications

This study examined relationships between state policy requirements governing outpatient substance abuse treatment services and reported outpatient treatment program practices. State policies effective as of February 1, 2003, and February 1, 2004, were collected and analyzed via primary legal research; data were validated by state officials (88% response rate; > 90% validation rate). Treatment practice data were obtained from the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services for the years 2003 and 2004. Multivariate analyses clustered by state were conducted, controlling for state, program, and state-aggregated client admission characteristics. Results indicated that treatment programs located in states with requirements for comprehensive …

Promoting Healthy Weight In The Preschool Years: A Portfolio And Planning Guide To Address Barriers In Primary Care, Margaret Miller, Renee Campbell-Pope, Lydia Hearn

Research outputs pre 2011

The rapidly rising incidence of overweight and obesity in Australia, particularly among young children has led to an urgent need for effective prevention. Recent figures indicate that 15% of preschool children in Australia are overweight, and a further 6% are obese1,2, with rates rising steadily especially among children from lower socioeconomic groups.

Family, childcare, primary health care, early childhood education and the community are influential environments for young children3-7 with the potential to engage in an integrated approach to promote healthy weight and development of healthy eating and active lifestyle habits during the pre-school years5,8,9.

In 2006, the Child Health …

Organisational Survey: Impact Of Healthway Funding On Currently Funded And Previously Funded Sar Organisations, Michael Rosenberg, Sarah French, Jenna Mitchell, Christina Mills, Lisa Wood

Research outputs pre 2011

Since 1992, organisations in receipt of Healthway funding have demonstrated consistently high levels of commitment to sponsorship requirements. In part, the high levels of commitment observed may reflect a trend towards organisations with similar values to Healthway applying for funding. Organisations with different values to Healthway may receive funding once and decide that the sponsorship does riot match the needs of their organisation. This may result in difficulties fo.r Healthway to access hard to reach organisations, or to establish longer-term partnerships with Sports, Arts or Racing (SAR) organisations that target high priority groups. To better understand how Healthway's requirements of …

Nurses’ Experience Of Leadership In Assisted Living: A Situational Analysis, Carole H. Bergeron

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study concentrates on the voice of registered nurses as they describe their experiences of leadership within the nontraditional, non-institutional, non-hospital environment of assisted living. It further expounds upon regulatory and corporate information as context for the nurses’ leadership experiences. The desire to hear nurses describe their personal experiences of leadership influenced the decision to use grounded theory as a methodological process. The belief that voice requires context to be most effectively understood influenced, in turn, the addition of a situational analysis approach to the grounded theory methodology. As a result, interviews and scrutiny of contextual elements form the core …

Improving Laws And Legal Authorities For Public Health Emergency Legal Preparedness, David Fidler, Robert M. Pestronk, Brian Kamoie, Gene Matthews, Georges C. Benjamin, Ralph T. Bryan, Socrates H. Tuch, Richard Gottfried, Jonathan E. Fielding, Fran Schmitz, Stephen Redd

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Assessing Laws And Legal Authorities For Public Health Emergency Legal Preparedness, David Fidler, Brian Kamoie, Robert M. Pestronk, Peter Baldridge, Leah Devlin, George A. Mensah, Michael Doney

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

In-Vivo Delivery Of Dna Vaccines Using Metallo-Lipid Nanoparticles, Clarissa Sara Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There has been a rapidly growing area of research in the design and synthesis of molecules that self-organize in water to form functional nanosystems and due to the high interest in the area metal ligand complexes were tested as drug delivery systems with a Leishmania vaccine. Herein, we present the design, synthesis and functional activity of Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes that self-assemble in water to form spherical nanoscale structures that exhibit an affinity to bind DNA and deliver it into eukaryotic cells with a high percent efficiency in-vitro. In order to assess the effectiveness of these nanoparticles to deliver DNA …

A Study Of The Distribution And Abundance Of The Adult Malaria Vector In Western Kenya Highlands, Li Li, Ling Bian, Guiyun Yan

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Background: A sharp rise in the malaria mortality rate has been observed recently in western Kenya. Malaria is transmitted by mosquito vectors. Malaria control strategies can be more successful if the distribution and abundance of mosquito vectors is predicted. However, how mosquito vectors are distributed in space remain poor understood, and this question is rarely studied using spatial methods. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the distribution and abundance of mosquito vectors. To achieve this objective, spatial and non-spatial methods were employed. The data on the distribution of adult mosquitoes, and mosquito breeding habitats in a study …

Integration Of Analysis And Deliberation To Evaluate Biodiesel Occupational And Environmental Exposures, Nora M. Traviss

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Many U.S. organizations interested in a renewable and domestic source of energy are considering switching from petroleum diesel to biodiesel blends for transportation and heavy-duty equipment use. Biodiesel is a fuel made from vegetable oils or waste grease. While there is a considerable body of evidence on the negative health effects of petroleum diesel exhaust exposures in occupational and urban settings, there has been little research examining the impact of biodiesel fuel on occupational and environmental exposures. This dissertation combined a collaborative exposure assessment of B20 (20% soy-based biodiesel/80% diesel) at a rural recycling center with a policy intervention to …

Theory Of Planned Behavior Constructs As Mediators Of Behavior Change Associated With A Brief Alcohol Intervention, Denise Servo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the Theory of Planned Behavior constructs (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control [PBC], and behavioral intentions) as mediators of changes in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems in a longitudinal sample of 206 college students. The Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) is a program designed to curb risky alcohol consumption and its related consequences among college students. Eligible students completed a baseline assessment battery at assessment and again six months after participating in BASICS. The AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) assessed alcohol consumption and the RAPI (Rutgers Alcohol Problem Inventory) assessed alcohol-related problems. …

Evaluation Of A Nutrition Program Targeting Child Care Centers, Kendra Witt

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Color Me Healthy (CMH) is an interactive nutrition program designed for preschool aged children in child care settings. The current study examined if CMH increases the consumption of fruit and vegetables. Child care centers were randomly assigned to one of two conditions; children (n=165) in ten centers received CMH and children (n=98) in seven centers acted as controls. Consumption of fruit and vegetable snacks was assessed at baseline, one week post-intervention and 3 months post-intervention. Hierarchical linear modeling determined that group assignment was the only significant predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption. Children who were exposed to the CMH program …

Combination Of Natural Variability Estimation With Real Time Measurement For Mushroom Shelf Life Assessment., Leixuri Aguirre

Doctoral

The shelf life of mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) is affected by the natural variability of the produce which influences the perishable vegetable quality. One of the main causes of this variability is non-homogeneity in the product maturity at harvest, resulting in each vegetable batch being at a different stage of senescence. The present work aims to study a new approach to improve the assessment of the shelf life of mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) taking into account this variability. The study of variability involved the: i) study of the shelf life, quality parameters and variability of the mushrooms and modelling these experimental laboratory …

Poverty, Diet And Health Behaviours: A Quantitative And Qualitative Study Among Young Urbanised Women., Daniel Mccartney

Doctoral

Demographic, socio-economic, attitudinal, dietary, health behavioural and anthropometric data were collected from 221 “disadvantaged” and 74 “advantaged” women aged 18-35 years across Dublin, according to the provisions of a novel socio-economic sampling frame. Internal and external validation techniques established the dietary assessment method of choice and identified “valid” dietary reporters (n=216, 153 disadvantaged, 63 advantaged) among this sample. Five qualitative focus groups (n=5-8 per group) were also conducted among disadvantaged women to examine their diet and health behaviour choices. Lower intakes of fruit and vegetables (172g/d vs. 405g/d, p

Healing The Health Care System: Summaries From The Department Of Health Policy Summer Seminar, David B. Nash, Nora Dowd Eisenhower, Rosemarie Greco, Deborah C. Meiris

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Editorial Introduction:
The disease management field continues to evolve. The range of chronic diseases treated has expanded to include such conditions as obesity and pain management, and the care continuum now encompasses wellness, prevention, and population health. One population that is an ideal candidate for our collective efforts is that of older adults. Global and national population projections reveal the impending staggering increase in the age 65+ cohort, which will cause a sharp increase in the demand for health care and other services due to such age-related issues as multiple chronic conditions, falls, and depression.

To begin to address these …

The "Crossroads" And Beyond, David B. Nash

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Report On The U.S. Summit: "Chronic Care At The Crossroads: Exploring Solutions For Chronic Care Management", Janice L. Clarke

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

On Tuesday, July 17, 2007 in Washington, DC, Intel Corporation assembled a group of the nation’s most respected health leaders to discuss the issues surrounding chronic care and an aging population and explore solutions to these highly complex and increasingly urgent challenges for the US health care system. The highlevel summit, hosted by Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, was held in the auditorium of the National Museum for Women in the Arts and attended, either in person or via the simultaneous webcast, by presidents, chairmen, and executive directors of influential organizations including the National Business Coalition on Health, the National Medical …

Periodontal Disease And Diabetes: Knowledge And Attitudes Assessment Project

Florida Public Health Review

There is a growing body of evidence showing that periodontal disease is more prevalent among diabetic patients than among non-diabetic patients. This same evidence also shows that the more poorly controlled the diabetes, the more severe the periodontal disease. However, it is unclear if the increased risk of periodontal disease is known by the diabetes community. Two hundred diabetic patients voluntarily participated in an intervention to increase the diabetic patient’s knowledge of and attitudes toward periodontal disease. The study was conducted at the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) during the month of May 2005. The purpose …

How Does Quality Enter Into Health Care Purchasing Decisions?, Neil I. Goldfarb, Vittorio Maio, Chureen T. Carter, Laura Pizzi, David B. Nash

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

A number of employers, business consortia, and public purchasers are promoting "value-based purchasing" as a way to improve the quality of patient care. Some purchasers are using publicly available information on health plan and provider performance to make their health plan and provider choices, while others are using their market power to drive improvements in patient care and safety. This article examines six key strategies used by purchasers.