Digital Commons Network^™

Expanding A Behavioral View On Digital Health Access: Drivers And Strategies To Promote Equity, Maura M Kepper, Lauren A Fowler, Isabelle S Kusters, Jean W Davis, Manal Baqer, Sara Sagui-Henson, Yunyu Xiao, Adati Tarfa, Jean C Yi, Bryan Gibson, Kristin E Heron, Nicole M Alberts, Marissa Burgermaster, Veronica Ps Njie-Carr, Lisa M Klesges

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

The potential and threat of digital tools to achieve health equity has been highlighted for over a decade, but the success of achieving equitable access to health technologies remains challenging. Our paper addresses renewed concerns regarding equity in digital health access that were deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our viewpoint is that (1) digital health tools have the potential to improve health equity if equitable access is achieved, and (2) improving access and equity in digital health can be strengthened by considering behavioral science-based strategies embedded in all phases of tool development. Using behavioral, equity, and access frameworks allowed for …

Expanding A Behavioral View On Digital Health Access: Drivers And Strategies To Promote Equity, Maura M Kepper, Lauren A Fowler, Isabelle S Kusters, Jean W Davis, Manal Baqer, Sara Sagui-Henson, Yunyu Xiao, Adati Tarfa, Jean C Yi, Bryan Gibson, Kristin E Heron, Nicole M Alberts, Marissa Burgermaster, Veronica Ps Njie-Carr, Lisa M Klesges

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The potential and threat of digital tools to achieve health equity has been highlighted for over a decade, but the success of achieving equitable access to health technologies remains challenging. Our paper addresses renewed concerns regarding equity in digital health access that were deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our viewpoint is that (1) digital health tools have the potential to improve health equity if equitable access is achieved, and (2) improving access and equity in digital health can be strengthened by considering behavioral science-based strategies embedded in all phases of tool development. Using behavioral, equity, and access frameworks allowed for …

Women's Experience Of Cancer Treatment During Covid-19 On The Texas-Mexico Border, Kayla E. Castañeda

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed existing racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic, and gender disparities in cancer care and highlighted the need for more research in understudied populations. No studies have elucidated the experience of women living on the Texas-Mexico border receiving cancer treatment during the pandemic. This study explored the lived experience of receiving cancer treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 for women living on the Texas-Mexico border and identified participants' self-identified unmet needs while receiving cancer treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic on the Texas-Mexico border. Following IRB approval and informed consent, ten women living on the Texas-Mexico border who received …

Evolving Community Preparedness: Analysis Of United States Pandemic Health Disaster Readiness, Jessy Rugeyo

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown substantial gaps in counties' preparedness and response capacity across the United States. This study analyzes the relationship between county-level pandemic preparedness and confirmed COVID-19 cases using secondary data from the FEMA's National Household Survey (NHS) and county-level COVID-19 data from the CDC. The data show a negative relationship between preparedness levels and COVID-19 positive rates, highlighting the necessity of proactive readiness measures. Individual risk assessment, motivation for preparedness, and socioeconomic variables have a major influence on confirmed cases. Higher levels of education, income, and preparedness are associated with lower positive rates, emphasizing the importance of …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Career Decision Making In College Students: Investigating The Moderating Effects Of Perceived Covid-19 Impact And Ambiguity Tolerance, Kendall Klumpp

Dissertations

College students face many difficult decisions as they navigate adulthood, including making a decision about their career. Although much research has already been conducted to explore these difficulties, little has explored the potential impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on one’s career-related cognitions. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a new context in which difficulties with career-related decisions may be exacerbated. Through the lens of psychological stress, the current study examined the responses of 231 undergraduate students using a university-based online participant recruiting site, SONA. It was predicted that level of ACEs would be positively related with levels of negative …

Economic Development In Legacy Cities: Current And Emerging Challenges And Opportunities, Neil Reid, Sujata Shetty, Jane Adade

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

As manufacturing employment has declined in the traditional manufacturing regions over the past decades, many communities have experienced population loss and overall economic decline. Local economic development professionals have had to grapple with long-term structural changes in the economy as well as short-term jolts. To gain insights into the changing landscape of economic development, we interviewed economic development practitioners in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The interviews focused on their perception of current and emerging challenges and opportunities with respect to economic development in their respective communities. Having identified the major challenges and opportunities, we asked them to articulate the …

Mental Health Of Healthcare Workers In Kosovo During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Latif Hoxha

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study explored the mental health of healthcare practitioners in Kosovo during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the prevalence of stress, depression, and anxiety, and the associated individual, family, and work-related factors. The research employed a cross-sectional design with a sample of 449 healthcare workers from two hospitals in Kosovo. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used to assess mental health symptoms, while socio-demographic and work-related information was collected through a questionnaire.

Based on the descriptive statistics of DASS-21 scores, the prevalence of mental health issues among the participants included high levels of depression (18%), anxiety (25%), …

Im/Mobilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Perspectives From International Graduate Students Studying In The Southern United States, Christina W. Yao, Kaitlyn Hall, Simone Gause, Leslie Jo Shelton

Educational Sciences and Organizations

The background of this study is situated within the COVID-19 pandemic as an acute challenge with chronic issues that international graduate students have faced continuously. With the pandemic serving as a critical incident, we highlight the political, systemic, and personal fragilities of international graduate students studying in the southern United States. The methods for our study were informed by a narrative inquiry approach combined with a systematic literature review to connect with the conceptual framework of Avison and Turner’s chronic strains and Robertson’s conception of timescales. The findings highlight three broad themes: shifting immigration policies and travel uncertainty, institutional responses, …

The Influence Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Binge Eating In A Demographically Diverse Us Community Sample, Jessica H. Habashy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has had profound effects among many individuals with or at risk for eating disorders. The most common primary eating disorder is binge eating disorder which has uniquely reflected more similarities than differences among diverse populations compared to other eating disorder classifications. Considering the upsurge of prevalence rates of eating disorders during the pandemic, it is important to assess the rate of binge eating across the demographic strata to gain a better understanding of who is impacted and provide healing to those who are suffering. Screening for binge eating features across the United States (US) using …

The Credit Card Behaviors And Financial Satisfaction Among Emerging Adults During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jessica Ralphs

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Using data from the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), this study focused on poor credit card behaviors and financial satisfaction of emerging adults ages between 18 and 29 (N=1,944). The descriptive results show that 45.8% reported carrying over a balance in the past 12 months and 51.3% reported paying the minimum payment some months. It was also found that 28.3% reported being charged a late fee for late payment some months in the past 12 months, whereas 21.7% reported being charged an over the limit fee for exceeding their credit limit some months.

The multivariate results indicated …

Challenges In Lncrna Biology: Views And Opinions, Donald A Adjeroh, Xiaobo Zhou, Alexandre Rossi Paschoal, Nadya Dimitrova, Ekaterina G Derevyanchuk, Tatiana P Shkurat, Jeffrey A Loeb, Ivan Martinez, Leonard Lipovich

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This is a mini-review capturing the views and opinions of selected participants at the 2021 IEEE BIBM 3rd Annual LncRNA Workshop, held in Dubai, UAE. The views and opinions are expressed on five broad themes related to problems in lncRNA, namely, challenges in the computational analysis of lncRNAs, lncRNAs and cancer, lncRNAs in sports, lncRNAs and COVID-19, and lncRNAs in human brain activity.

Pediatric Mental Health Emergency Department Visits From 2017 To 2022: A Multicenter Study, Jennifer A Hoffmann, Camille P Carter, Cody S Olsen, David Ashby, Kamali L Bouvay, Susan J Duffy, James M Chamberlain, Sofia S Chaudhary, Nicolaus W Glomb, Jacqueline Grupp-Phelan, Maya Haasz, Erin P O'Donnell, Mohsen Saidinejad, Bashar S Shihabuddin, Leah Tzimenatos, Neil G Uspal, Joseph J Zorc, Lawrence J Cook, Elizabeth R Alpern

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected children's mental health (MH) and changed patterns of MH emergency department (ED) utilization. Our objective was to assess how pediatric MH ED visits during the COVID-19 pandemic differed from expected prepandemic trends.

Methods: We retrospectively studied MH ED visits by children 5 to < 18 years old at nine U.S. hospitals participating in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Registry from 2017 to 2022. We described visit length by time period: prepandemic (January 2017-February 2020), early pandemic (March 2020-December 2020), midpandemic (2021), and late pandemic (2022). We estimated expected visit rates from prepandemic data using multivariable Poisson regression models. We calculated rate ratios (RRs) of observed to expected visits per 30 days during each pandemic time period, overall and by sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

Results: We identified 175,979 pediatric MH ED visits. Visit length exceeded 12 h for 7.3% prepandemic, 8.4% early pandemic, 15.0% midpandemic, and 19.2% late pandemic visits. During the early pandemic, observed visits per 30 days decreased relative to expected rates (RR 0.80, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.78-0.84), were similar to expected …

A Community Health Worker Led Diabetes Self-Management Education Program: Reducing Patient And System Burden, Laura Porterfield, Xiaoying Yu, Victoria Warren, Michael E Bowen, Carolyn Smith-Morris, Elizabeth M Vaughan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Aims: Conduct a secondary analysis of the TIME (Telehealth-supported, Integrated Community Health Workers (CHWs), Medication access, diabetes Education) made simple trial (SIMPLE) to evaluate healthcare utilization and explore variables that may have influenced HbA1c.

Methods: Participants (N = 134 [67/group]) were low-income, uninsured Hispanics with or at risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus. We included in-person and telehealth clinician visits, other visits, missed visits, orders placed, and guideline-adherence (e.g., vaccinations, quarterly HbA1c for uncontrolled diabetes). Using multivariable models, we explored for associations between HbA1c changes and these measures.

Results: The control arm had higher missed visits rates (intervention: 45 %; …

A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Young Women's Agency And Mental Health During Covid-19 In Low-Income Communities In Mumbai, India, Marie A Brault, Melissa F Peskin, Anastasia N Jones, Amrita Saikia, Rinchen O Bhutia, Sai Sammitha Cheruvu, Vaishali M Jagtap, Rajendra Singh, Poornima Nair, Rajesh Vedanthan, Sten H Vermund, Shubhada Maitra

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in India face additional health inequities compared to their male peers, as gender norms constrain agency for prevention and self-care. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns deepened health inequities and often worsened mental health, but the impacts on agency are unclear. This exploratory sequential mixed methods paper examined mental health and COVID-19 elements that exacerbated or mitigated adverse consequences for AGYW in low-income communities in Mumbai.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with AGYW (aged 15-25 years; N = 60) and adults (parents, healthcare providers, community-based organization representative; N = 30). …

The Association Between Prolonged Sars-Cov-2 Symptoms And Work Outcomes, Arjun K Venkatesh, Huihui Yu, Caitlin Malicki, Michael Gottlieb, Joann G Elmore, Mandy J Hill, Ahamed H Idris, Juan Carlos C Montoy, Kelli N O'Laughlin, Kristin L. Rising, Kari A Stephens, Erica S Spatz, Robert A Weinstein

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

While the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the United States labor market are well-established, less is known about the long-term impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and Long COVID on employment. To address this gap, we analyzed self-reported data from a prospective, national cohort study to estimate the effects of SARS-CoV-2 symptoms at three months post-infection on missed workdays and return to work. The analysis included 2,939 adults in the Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry (INSPIRE) study who tested positive for their initial SARS-CoV-2 infection at the time of enrollment, were employed before the pandemic, and completed …

Demystifying The Virtualization Process: A Call For Standard Reporting Of Virtual Modifications To Evidence-Based Psychotherapies, Using The Frame Model, Derrecka M Boykin, Tracey L Smith, Barbara Rakel, Merlyn Rodrigues, Jennie Embree, Ken Woods, Angelic D Chaison, Lilian Dindo

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The sudden onset of the coronavirus disease led to a rapid expansion of video telehealth to deliver mental healthcare. Although video telehealth was not a new clinical practice, there was limited guidance on how best to modify evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for virtual delivery (a process also referred to as virtualization). The virtualization process for EBPs remains unclear as newly emerging reports on this topic do not consistently report modification decisions. This commentary calls attention to the need to improve documentation practices to allow a greater understanding of modifications needed to maximize the positive effects of EBPs transported to a virtual …

26th Annual Open Government Summit: Your Guide To The Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, Peter F. Neronha, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Incidence Of Sexual Assaults And Victim Services, Jessica Hunter

Student Works

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Incidence of Sexual Assaults and Victim Services

Purpose: The purpose of this literature review is to discuss incidents/rates of sexual assaults (SA), access to or accessibility of SA victim services, and the utilization of SA services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: In the U.S., 1 in 5 women experience rape or attempted rape, while 1 in 4 men experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. Additionally, SAs affect roughly one-third of the world's population, making SA a prominent problem worldwide.

Methods: Electronic searches in CINHAL and MEDLINE were performed using …

The Interplay Between Gender And Duration Of Hospitalization Modulates Psychiatric Symptom Severity In Subjects With Long Covid-19, Alessio Simonetti, Antonio Restaino, Claudia Calderoni, Emanuela De Chiara, Antonio Maria D'Onofrio, Salvatore Lioniello, Giovanni Camardese, Delfina Janiri, Matteo Tosato, Francesco Landi, Gabriele Sani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Long COVID-19 is characterized by ongoing symptoms or prolonged or long-term complications of SARS-CoV-2 contraction which persist beyond 4 weeks from the initial onset of symptoms. Gender and duration of hospitalization (DH) are key risk factors for developing long COVID-19 syndrome, but their impact and interplay need further study. This research involved 996 long COVID-19 patients, and we compared the levels of general psychopathology, depression, agitated depression, anxiety, and medication use between hospitalized and non-hospitalized males and females. In the hospitalized patients, multivariate regressions assessed the impact of gender, DH, and the interaction of these variables. The females had higher …

Teaching Staff Mathematics University: Catalyst Of The Emotional-Techno-Ontological Logic, Derling Jose Mendoza Velazco Dr, Magda Francisca Cejas Martínez Phd, Carmen Siavil Varguillas Carmona Phd, Mercedes Carolina Navarro Cejas Phd, Gina Silvana Venegas Álvarez M.Sc.

The Qualitative Report

The relevance of the study lies in the necessity to investigate the psycho-emotional state of teachers during the transition to remote teaching in universities and its impact on academic performance and emotional state of students. The aim of the research was to develop a theoretical approach to describe the emotional and techno-ontological logic of mathematics teachers during distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of their emotional state on the learning process. The study involved teachers and students from universities in Ecuador, both private and public. The study observed the behavior of teachers and students, analyzed the use …

Changes At The Heart: Adapting Eucharist In The Time Of Pandemic, Marjorie M. Snipes

Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society

During the initial COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-2021, social institutions worldwide faced stress in adapting to immediate needs, among them places of worship which faced challenges from the disruption of social gatherings, religious services, tithing, and the celebration of key rituals. While many churches suspended or postponed rituals such as weddings, funerals, and baptisms, the practice of Eucharist presented a unique challenge. This ethnographic research focuses on mainline Christian churches in a semi-urban town in the state of Georgia (U.S.). It examines the ways that the experience of shutdown and social isolation affected the practice of Eucharist in Catholic, Baptist, …

Monetary Policy Impact On Stock Returns For Selected South Asian Countries, Neluka Devpura, Paresh Kumar Narayan, Navin Perera

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

In this paper, we examine the monetary policy impact on the stock market returns and volatility for four major South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). We test our hypothesis that monetary policy influences both the first and second order of stock returns by using monthly data. The short-term interest rate and the Treasury bill rate are employed as proxies for monetary policy. Controlling for industrial production, inflation, exchange rates (vis-à-vis the US dollar), US interest rate, and money supply, our findings indicate that there exists a statistically significant impact of short-term interest rates on stock returns only …

Career Women’S Experiences Of Marital Discord And Domestic Violence During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Indonesia, Siti Mas’Udah, Lutfi Apreliana Megasari, Evan Doran, Rustinsyah, Muhammad Saud, Bagong Suyanto, Erna Setijaningrum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Domestic violence is a serious social problem, and the number of domestic violence cases are increasing each year in Indonesia. This study aims to explore marital discord and types and triggers of domestic violence experienced by career women who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). In this qualitative research, the researchers interviewed professional working women who experienced domestic violence perpetrated by their husbands in East Java. This study shows that marital discord escalated into domestic violence due to complications experienced when they were staying at home because of the lockdown. Daily engagement between husbands and wives had an …

Gender-Specific Mental Health Outcomes In Central America: A Natural Experiment, Thea Nagasuru

Computer Science Summer Fellows

While COVID lockdown measures have had varying effects on the mental health of different demographics, several bodies of research have noted their disparate effect on women. Why is women's mental health more negatively impacted by lockdown measures, and how much more are they impacted than men? How can we predict and mitigate these negative effects on women? This paper aims to contribute to answering those questions by comparing COVID stringency measures and their effect on the gap in depression rates between men and women in two neighboring countries: Nicaragua and Honduras.

Abstracts From The 2024 Health Care Systems Research Network (Hcsrn) Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Health Care Systems Research Network

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

The Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN) comprises 20 learning health systems with integrated care delivery and embedded research units. The network’s annual conference serves as a forum for research teams from member institutions to disseminate project findings, explore scientific collaborations, and share insights about population-based research practices that can measurably improve health and health care for all. The theme of this year’s conference was “Advancing high-quality, equitable research in the age of new health care technologies.” Abstracts presented at HCSRN 2024 are published in this issue supplement of the Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews, the journal of record …

Effects Of Perceived Supervisor And Peer Support On Training Transfer For Frontline Registered Nurses, Carly Penn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of perceived supervisor support as well as perceived peer support on training transfer behavior outcomes for frontline nursing staff in post-COVID 19 technology-mediated training environments.

This study was guided by the following primary research question: what effect does training delivery, perceived supervisor support, and perceived peer support have on training transfer behavior? The secondary question to further examination of these variables is: How do these factors interact to enhance or inhibit transfer in the context of nurse training?

This study sampled U.S. based registered nurses trained in COVID-19 related protocols. …

A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Exploring How Licensed Marriage And Family Therapists Describe The Emotional Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Melissa Lund

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) in private practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was viewed through the lens of resilience theory, which suggests that an individual's ability to adapt and overcome adverse experiences is based on their individual level of resilience. Eight LMFTs varying in demographics, such as age, gender, and ethnicity, as well as length of time in practice participated in individual interviews exploring their lived experiences during the pandemic. The study's questions aimed to gain a better understanding of the emotional impact of …

Left Behind In Lockdown: Covid-19 And The Denver Unhoused Community, Lucy Briggs

The Geographical Bulletin

The population experiencing homelessness in Denver, Colorado, increased by nearly 15% from 2018 to 2019. This trend, combined with the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020, led to a distinct crisis for unhoused communities. This research attempted to answer the question, “How has COVID-19 impacted the locational strategies and spatial patterns of the Denver unhoused population in relation to public spaces and resources in the city core?” More specifically, this research has three objectives: (1) To explore the impact of COVID-19 on the shelter availability in Denver, (2) to develop an understanding of COVID-19’s impact upon public restrooms in Denver, and …

America Is Unprepared To Meet The Needs Of Its Growing Older Adult Population, Sierra Kaplan

Population Health Research Brief Series

In 2030, nearly 73 million Americans will be aged 65 years or older. As Americans continue to have fewer children than in the past, the number of older adults will outnumber children. Thus, fewer young adults will be around to support and care for the older adult population. Coupled with COVID-19 pandemic-driven disruptions to the healthcare industry, America’s health and aging care system is unprepared to support its large and growing older adult population. Over time, we will see increased health care scarcity and inequality in the distribution of elder care services, especially with continued healthcare worker shortages and drastic …

‘A Storm Is Coming:' The New York Times Coverage Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In American Prisons, Katarzyna Celinska, Amina Cheboubi

Publications and Research

In this research, we analyzed the content of 171 articles published between March and August 2020 in the New York Times (NYT) on COVID-19 in American correctional institutions. We observed that the NYT coverage decreased significantly over 6 months. Our analysis uncovered 8 themes within two broader frames: institutional and systemic inequity. Although the themes are not mutually exclusive, we argue that ‘Responding to COVID-19,’ ‘A storm is Coming,’ ‘Collective Experience,’ and ‘Critiquing Prison Conditions’ are within the institutional framing. ‘Redefining Public Safety,’ ‘Categorizing Prisoners,’ ‘Doing Injustice,’ and ‘Making it as a Celebrity’ are the themes that highlight systemic inequity, …