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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Machine Learning As A Tool For Early Detection: A Focus On Late-Stage Colorectal Cancer Across Socioeconomic Spectrums, Hadiza Galadima, Rexford Anson-Dwamena, Ashley Johnson, Ghalib Bello, Georges Adunlin, James Blando Jan 2024

Machine Learning As A Tool For Early Detection: A Focus On Late-Stage Colorectal Cancer Across Socioeconomic Spectrums, Hadiza Galadima, Rexford Anson-Dwamena, Ashley Johnson, Ghalib Bello, Georges Adunlin, James Blando

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of various machine learning (ML) algorithms in predicting late-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnoses against the backdrop of socio-economic and regional healthcare disparities. Methods: An innovative theoretical framework was developed to integrate individual- and census tract-level social determinants of health (SDOH) with sociodemographic factors. A comparative analysis of the ML models was conducted using key performance metrics such as AUC-ROC to evaluate their predictive accuracy. Spatio-temporal analysis was used to identify disparities in late-stage CRC diagnosis probabilities. Results: Gradient boosting emerged as the superior model, with the top predictors for late-stage CRC diagnosis being anatomic site, …


The Online Ordering Behaviors Among Participants In The Oklahoma Women, Infants, And Children Program: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Qi Zhang, Kayoung Park, Junzhou Zhang, Chuanyi Tang Jan 2022

The Online Ordering Behaviors Among Participants In The Oklahoma Women, Infants, And Children Program: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Qi Zhang, Kayoung Park, Junzhou Zhang, Chuanyi Tang

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a nutrition assistance program in the United States (U.S.). Participants in the program redeem their prescribed food benefits in WIC-authorized grocery stores. Online ordering is an innovative method being pilot-tested in some stores to facilitate WIC participants' food benefit redemption, which has become especially important in the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research aimed to examine the online ordering (OO) behaviors among 726 WIC households who adopted WIC OO in a grocery chain, XYZ (anonymous) store, in Oklahoma (OK). These households represented approximately 5% of WIC households who redeemed …


Predictive Modeling And Estimation Of The Doubling Time Of Confirmed Cases Of Covid-19 In Niger, Ibrahim Sidi Zakari, Hadiza Galadima Mar 2021

Predictive Modeling And Estimation Of The Doubling Time Of Confirmed Cases Of Covid-19 In Niger, Ibrahim Sidi Zakari, Hadiza Galadima

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Modeling is increasingly used to assess scenarios and make projections on the future course of new coronavirus disease. This allows for better planning of care as well as a relaxation or tightening of the restrictive measures decreed by the government and the health authorities. The data analyzed in this study covers the period from March 19 to June 05, 2020 and allowed predictions of new cases of COVID-19 based on a growth model with a growth rate that changes linearly over time. In addition, we calculated and predicted the doubling time of the number of positive cases in each region …


Improving Public Health Readiness For Sea Level Rise: A New Initiative In Coastal Virginia, Steven M. Becker Jan 2018

Improving Public Health Readiness For Sea Level Rise: A New Initiative In Coastal Virginia, Steven M. Becker

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Sea level has been rising around the world, and in recent decades, the rate has been accelerating. Because rising seas have the potential to directly or indirectly affect the health of vast numbers of coastal communities and inhabitants, public health agencies and professionals—in conjunction with other fields—have a pivotal role to play in helping to protect populations, reduce and prevent health impacts, and foster resilience. This article discusses a novel effort that has been undertaken in Coastal Virginia to help prepare the next generation of public health professionals to grapple with sea level rise issues. The effort grew out of …


Caribbean Heat Threatens Health, Well-Being, And The Future Of Humanity, Cheryl C. Macpherson, Muge Akpinar-Elci Jan 2015

Caribbean Heat Threatens Health, Well-Being, And The Future Of Humanity, Cheryl C. Macpherson, Muge Akpinar-Elci

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Climate change has substantial impacts on public health and safety, disease risks and the provision of health care, with the poor being particularly disadvantaged. Management of the associated health risks and changing health service requirements requires adequate responses at local levels. Health-care providers are central to these responses. While climate change raises ethical questions about its causes, impacts and social justice, medicine and bioethics typically focus on individual patients and research participants rather than these broader issues. We broaden this focus by examining awareness among health-care providers in the Caribbean region, where geographic and socioeconomic features pose particular vulnerabilities to …


Role Of Low Exposure To Metals As Male Reproductive Toxicants, H. Anna Jeng, Yeou-Lih Huang, Chih-Hong Pan, Norou Diawara Jan 2015

Role Of Low Exposure To Metals As Male Reproductive Toxicants, H. Anna Jeng, Yeou-Lih Huang, Chih-Hong Pan, Norou Diawara

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

The objective of the study was to examine the associations between environmentally relevant low metal concentrations and semen quality parameters in men. The concentrations of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), selenium (Se), and lead (Pb) in the seminal plasma and urine were measured from 196 male human subjects in Taiwan. Urinary Cd concentrations were negatively associated with sperm viability (p=0.006). Seminal plasma Cu concentrations of the normal group (>= 15 x 10(6)/ml) were significantly lower than those of the abnormal group (p=0.023). However, the linear regression analysis showed a weak association between Cu concentration and sperm …


Anthropogenic Climate Change And Allergic Diseases, James Blando, Leonard Bielory, Viann Nguyen, Rafael Diaz, Hueiwang Anna Jeng Mar 2012

Anthropogenic Climate Change And Allergic Diseases, James Blando, Leonard Bielory, Viann Nguyen, Rafael Diaz, Hueiwang Anna Jeng

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Climate change is expected to have an impact on various aspects of health, including mucosal areas involved in allergic inflammatory disorders that include asthma, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis and anaphylaxis. The evidence that links climate change to the exacerbation and the development of allergic disease is increasing and appears to be linked to changes in pollen seasons (duration, onset and intensity) and changes in allergen content of plants and their pollen as it relates to increased sensitization, allergenicity and exacerbations of allergic airway disease. This has significant implications for air quality and for the global food supply.