Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Vegetarian Dietary Patterns: Mortality, Colorectal Cancer, And Food Consumption, Michael John Orlich

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Objective Vegetarian dietary patterns represent longstanding, real-world diets consumed by a minority of persons. Studies of important health outcomes of such diets, particularly for all-cause mortality and colorectal cancer risk, have yielded inconsistent results. We sought to examine these outcomes (mortality and colorectal cancer incidence) in a large North-American cohort. We also sought to further characterize potentially important differences in the food consumption patterns of these diets. Design Baseline diet was measured by a quantitative food frequency questionnaire among more than 96,000 Seventh-day Adventists in the US and Canada, enrolled from 2002-2007. Dietary patterns were defined, based on the reported …

Acculturation And Cardiovascular Behaviors Among Adult Asian-Americans, Monideepa Bhattacharya Becerra

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background: The World Health Organization recommends the promotion of positive cardiovascular behaviors (healthy diet and physical activity), while reducing negative ones (tobacco and alcohol abuse) as critical steps in reducing the burden of cardiovascular diseases. Researchers have highlighted the role of acculturation in predicting such behaviors among immigrants, though similar studies among Asian-American subgroups are lacking. This study examines the putative relationship between acculturation and aforementioned cardiovascular behaviors among six Asian-American subgroups.

Methods: A secondary analysis of the California Health Interview Survey 2007, 2009, and 2011 public access data was conducted. Acculturation was assessed utilizing proxy measures of language spoken …

Benefits And Barriers To Hiv Testing In A Population Of Federal Detention Inmates, Nicole A. Knight

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Voluntary HIV testing in combination with early medical intervention has been shown to be effective in reducing the rate of new infections and improving the health and life expectancy of those living with HIV. There are however several high-risk populations in the US that remain largely unreached by HIV testing efforts, some of which could be reached while they spend time in prison or jail. Per current Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policy, HIV testing is routinely offered only to “high risk” pretrial and sentenced inmates. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 721 pretrial and sentenced inmates who entered a large …