Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Bridging Bone Health: Osteoporosis Disparities In The Rio Grande Valley, Ryan P. Bialaszewski, John M. Gaddis, Blake Martin, Philippe J. Dentino, John Ronnau

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Introduction: Osteoporosis is characterized by decreased bone mass and decreased bone quality, leading to increased bone fragility and risk of fractures. The number of fractures due to osteoporosis is projected to increase to over three million by the year 2025 and cost $25.3 billion annually. It ranks highly among diseases that cause patients to become bedridden with serious complications and reduced quality of life. Additionally, osteoporosis disproportionately affects Hispanics, which comprise most of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) population. Therefore, our primary objective was to determine the prevalence of osteoporosis within the RGV. Additionally, we had secondary objectives to determine …

Evaluation Of A Targeted Covid-19 Community Outreach Intervention: Case Report For Precision Public Health, Isela De La Cerda, Cici X Bauer, Kehe Zhang, Miryoung Lee, Michelle Jones, Arturo Rodriguez, Joseph B Mccormick, Susan P Fisher-Hoch

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Cameron County, a low-income south Texas-Mexico border county marked by severe health disparities, was consistently among the top counties with the highest COVID-19 mortality in Texas at the onset of the pandemic. The disparity in COVID-19 burden within Texas counties revealed the need for effective interventions to address the specific needs of local health departments and their communities. Publicly available COVID-19 surveillance data were not sufficiently timely or granular to deliver such targeted interventions. An agency-academic collaboration in Cameron used novel geographic information science methods to produce granular COVID-19 surveillance data. These data were used to strategically target an …

Opportunities For Mental Health Interventions In Rural Mississippi Communities During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Quantitative Analysis, Brice Fortinberry

Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 presented unique challenges for rural Mississippi communities including impacts on the mental health of rural individuals. This research study aimed to identify opportunities for mental health interventions to provide health promotion professionals with quantitative data on the accessibility and the likelihood of engagement with mental health-fostering behaviors. A secondary objective of this research was to categorize these behaviors within the constructs of the Social Ecological Model. Demographics for rural Mississippi communities were collected and displayed, and using multivariate analyses including Spearman’s correlation and a Mann-Whitney U test the correlation between mental health fostering behaviors and demographic factors was obtained. …

The Special Sauce Of The Cancer Prevention And Control Research Network: 20 Years Of Lessons Learned In Developing The Evidence Base, Building Community Capacity, And Translating Research Into Practice, Stephanie B Wheeler, Rebecca J Lee, Alexa L Young, Adam Dodd, Charlotte Ellis, Bryan J Weiner, Kurt M Ribisl, Prajakta Adsul, Sarah A Birken, María E Fernández, Peggy A Hannon, James R Hébert, Linda K Ko, Aaron Seaman, Thuy Vu, Heather M Brandt, Rebecca S Williams

Journal Articles

PURPOSE: The Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) is a national network focused on accelerating the translation of cancer prevention and control research evidence into practice through collaborative, multicenter projects in partnership with diverse communities. From 2003 to 2022, the CPCRN included 613 members.

METHODS: We: (1) characterize the extent and nature of collaborations through a bibliometric analysis of 20 years of Network publications; and (2) describe key features and functions of the CPCRN as related to organizational structure, productivity, impact, and focus on health equity, partnership development, and capacity building through analysis of 22 in-depth interviews and review …

Building Up A Genomic Surveillance Platform For Sars-Cov-2 In The Middle Of A Pandemic: A True North-South Collaboration, Waqasuddin Khan, Furqan Kabir, Samiah Kanwar, Fatima Aziz, Sahrish Muneer, Adil Kalam, Mehdia Ali, Nadia Ansari, Fyezah Jehan, Muhammad Imran Nisar

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Next-generation sequencing technology has revolutionised pathogen surveillance over the last two decades. However, the benefits are not equitably distributed, with developing countries lagging far behind in acquiring the required technology and analytical capacity. Recent declines in the cost associated with sequencing-equipment and running consumables have created an opportunity for broader adoption. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid diagnostics development and DNA sequencing revolutionised the ability to diagnose and sequence SARS-CoV-2 rapidly. Socioeconomic inequalities substantially impact the ability to sequence SARS-CoV-2 strains and undermine a developing country's pandemic preparedness. Low- and middle-income countries face additional challenges in establishing, maintaining and expanding genomic …

Expanding Health Professional Education In The Rio Grande Valley During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sabrina R. Orta, Samantha G. Alvarado, Shuchita Jhaveri

Research Symposium

Purpose: The COVID-19 Pandemic has prompted innovation in health professional education, such that learners are able to recognize and mitigate healthcare disparities in the outcomes of vulnerable populations. The objective of our project was to increase education on preventing, preparing for, and responding to COVID-19 and other locally prevalent infectious diseases that disproportionately affect RGV communities.

Description: This project had 3 goals: (1) provide learners with virtual patient-interaction simulations (2) provide interactive training modules on the identification, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases affecting South TX and strategies to increase child vaccinations, and (3) provide learners an opportunity to coordinate …

Strategies For Strengthening The Resilience Of Public Health Systems For Pandemics, Disasters, And Other Emergencies, Benjamin Ryan, Mayumi Kako, Rok Fink, Perihan Şimşek, Paul Barach, Jose Acosta, Sanjaya Bhatia, Mark Brickhouse, Matthew Fendt, Alicia Fontenot, Nahuel Arenas Garcia, Shelby Garner, Abdülkadir Gunduz, D Mike Hardin, Tim Hatch, Lashonda Malrey-Horne, Makiko Macdermot, Ryoma Kayano, Joshua Mckone, Chaverle Noel, Shuhei Nomura, Jeremy Novak, Andrew Stricklin, Raymond Swienton, Ismail Tayfur, Bryan Brooks

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify and prioritize strategies for strengthening public health system resilience for pandemics, disasters, and other emergencies using a scorecard approach.

METHODS: The United Nations Public Health System Resilience Scorecard (Scorecard) was applied across 5 workshops in Slovenia, Turkey, and the United States of America. The workshops focused on participants reviewing and discussing 23 questions/indicators. A Likert type scale was used for scoring with zero being the lowest and 5 the highest. The workshop scores were analyzed and discussed by participants to prioritize areas of need and develop resilience strategies. Data from all …

Spatial Epidemiology Of Prediabetes And Diabetes In Florida, Md Marufuzzaman Khan

Doctoral Dissertations

The burden of diabetes and diabetes-related Emergency Department (ED) visits has increased in Florida. However, Diabetes Self-management Education (DSME) Program participation remained considerably low. Little is known about disparities of DSME participation, diabetes complications, and ED use by diabetes patients in Florida and yet this information is important for guiding health programs aimed at reducing diabetes burden. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate: (a) disparities of diabetes prevalence and DSME participation; (b) disparities of diabetes-related ED visit risks; and (c) prevalence and predictors of stroke among persons with prediabetes and diabetes.

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and …

Simulation As A Key Training Method For Inculcating Public Health Leadership Skills: A Mixed Methods Study, Keren Dopelt, Itamar Shevach, Ofek Eliad Vardimon, Katarzyna Czabanowska, Jascha De Nooijer, Robert Otok, Lore Leighton, Osnat Bashkin, Mariusz Duplaga, Hagai Levine, Fiona Macleod, Maureen Malowany, Leah Okenwa-Emegwa, Shira Zelber-Sagi, Nadav Davidovitch, Paul Barach

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Successful management of public health challenges requires developing and nurturing leadership competencies. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of training simulations to assess public health leadership and decision-making competencies during emergencies as an effective learning and training method.

METHODS: We examined the effects of two simulation scenarios on public health school students in terms of their experience (compared to face-to-face learning) and new skills acquired for dealing with similar emergent situations in the future. A mixed-methods design included developing a validated and pre-tested questionnaire with open-and closed-ended questions that examined the simulation impact and the degree of student satisfaction …

Pandemic Response Officers: Integration Between Medical, Public Health, And Higher Education Systems To Expedite Prevention And Response., Anne C Jones, Genevive R Meredith, Donna Leong, Sabine Jamal, Rachel Buckwalter, John D Clarke, Marin Clarkberg, Allan Bishop, Frank Cantone, Claire Espey, Frank Kruppa, Mary George Opperman, Gary A Koretzky

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Faculty Scholarship

CONTEXT: Research and policy studies alike have enumerated population and community health benefits of system integration between medical, public health, and social entities. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the necessity of a well-trained and adequately staffed public health and medical workforce in order to process SARS-CoV-2 cases and prevent subsequent transmission. Higher education systems, in particular, represented defined populations of exposure and transmission. Opportunities existed for collaboration and task sharing between institutions of higher education and local public health departments to limit spread and impacts.

PROGRAM: This article describes the Pandemic Response Officer (PRO) program at Cornell University, …

Inoculation For Neutralizing Misinformation: Replication Of An Experiment On The Effect Of The Fake Experts’ Strategy In Climate Change Communication’S Context, Joseph Abdalla

Theses and Dissertations

Low acceptance of climate change and low support for its mitigation efforts can be due to public misconceptions towards climate change. Climate skeptics use a communication strategy of fake experts to spread misinformation through spokespersons who are not experts in the field. Inoculation can be a protective approach for tackling the misinformation’s effect. Previous research was conducted in the United States and Germany and was never conducted in Africa. This study aimed to complement the previous research findings with results for Egypt by replication an experiment by Cook et al. with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design. A total of …

Trends In Opioid Usage And The Covid-19 Pandemic, Priya Brahmbhatt, Jeffery Powers

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic have affected individuals in the United States in various capacities, and new avenues to reduce the harmful effects of both public health crises must be explored. It has been found that those with substance use disorders have an increased risk for COVID-19 (Wang 2021). There have been more visits to emergency rooms for substance overdose during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic (Holland 2021). This research project attempted to understand the trends amongst opioid users during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, in …

What More Can Be Done? Childhood Obesity In Glassboro, Nj, N. Mirmanesh, Seth Spicer, Stephen Acheampong, Mary K. Duggan

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern in the United States, with an estimated 20% of American children being obese. In New Jersey (NJ), 9% of high school students are obese, and there are disparities in obesity rates based on gender, sexual identity, and race/ethnicity. In Gloucester County, NJ, limited data is available on childhood obesity rates, but 36.4% of adults are obese, and lower SES is related to higher rates of obesity in youth. To address this issue, this research poster proposes a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Glassboro to provide nutritional resources and create …

The Effects Of Obesity And Diabetes On The Pediatric Population, Keyur Patel, Vrushank Shah, Zachary Harris, Kanad Mukherjee

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The World Health Organization has declared diabetes (DM) and Obesity to be epidemics due to their rising prevalence. Obesity plays a role in the aetiopathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes in the world, as well as the development of its complications. Obesity and overweight play a growing role in type 1 diabetes. Weight gain is often thought of as a side effect of insulin therapy, but it also has a significant pathophysiological impact at different stages of the disease. (1) In the United States and other nations across the world, childhood obesity has become a …

Social Reproduction And Covid-19, Caroline I. Donovan

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

As Covid-19 rips across the world we are collectively asked to examine the structures of society to see what is working and what we can change. What can we learn from the roughly 6.9 million deaths (and counting) worldwide? How can we prevent something like this from happening again? This paper follows the course of Covid-19 from its birth in Wuhan, China, to the present day of mid-April 2023. By looking at the ways in which we have reacted to the pandemic, we are able to look forward and imagine new ways of tackling future pandemics and other pressing problems …

Program Evaluation: Utilizing Health Department’S Community Health Needs Assessment Data To Improve Emergency Preparedness Plans, Kathleen Gottschalk

Capstone Experience

Public health officials conducting emergency response plans must know how to easily identify the vulnerable populations in their community or jurisdiction. It is beneficial for access and functional needs appendices to include information and resources directed at the identified vulnerable groups before an emergency event to improve health outcomes. Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) can provide population-level statistics and information needed to easily identify vulnerable or at-risk groups. This report aims to evaluate the use of the CHNA data to guide the development of inclusive emergency response plans that account for vulnerable populations in local health department jurisdictions. The 2021 …

The Need For Racial And Ethnic Health Disparity Curriculum In Genetic Counseling Programs, Yusra Aziz

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Racial and ethnic health disparities (REHD) exist across all organized medicine, including the spectrum of genetic counseling, particularly in genomic testing and access to care. While cultural competency and health disparities have been included as a part of the Standards of Accreditation for Genetic Counseling, there have not been previous efforts to define what topics related to REHD are most important to include in graduate program curriculum. Therefore, this study aimed to determine what topics related to REHD should be taught in genetic counseling program curriculum by assessing what topics genetic counselors (GCs) learned about and in what settings, …

Inaugural Artificial Intelligence For Public Health Practice (Ai4php) Retreat: Ontario, Canada, Jacqueline K. Kueper, Laura C. Rosella, Richard G. Booth, Brent D. Davis, Sarah Nayani, Maxwell J. Smith, Dan Lizotte

Computer Science Publications

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Public Health Practice Retreat was a hybrid event held in October 2022 in London, Ontario to achieve three main goals: 1) Identify both the goals of public health practitioners and the tasks that they undertake as part of their practice to achieve those goals that could be supported by AI, 2) Learn from existing examples and the experience of others about facilitators and barriers to AI for public health, and 3) Support new and strengthen existing connections between public health practitioners and AI researchers. The retreat included a keynote presentation, group brainstorming exercises, breakout group …

Communicating Health: Misinformation And Mistrust In The Age Of Coronavirus, Chris Anstead

Undergraduate Theses

With one of the most advanced medical systems in the world, the Untied States still experienced an exceedingly high COVID-19 death rate per capita. Because biomedical therapies for COVID-19 were available, the focus of this review is on the social aspects of the COVID-19 response. By observing how Americans reacted to vaccination, masking, and social distancing guidelines, as well as how those guidelines were communicated to the general population from the public and private sectors, this thesis argues that the social and political aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic played a significant role in the outcome of the pandemic response. Additionally, …

Brief Report: Out Of Sight Out Of Mind - Preventable Childhood Kidney Disease In The Far North, Johanna Neville, Allison Hempenstall, Caroline Taunton, Valmay Fisher, Malcolm Mcdonald

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

APSGN is an immune-mediated kidney disease that occurs after a Streptococcus pyogenes skin or throat infection in children and contributes to chronic kidney disease later in life. It is a disease of poverty and regrettably common in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. There have been seven documented APSGN outbreaks across Far North Queensland in the last nine years. Despite this disease being notifiable in both Western Australia and the Northern Territory, Queensland is yet to acknowledge the importance of early notification in the management of APSGN. Notification-driven publication of APSGN incidence should help raise its profile and stimulate better …

Differential Toxicity Of Pm2.5 Components And Modified Health Effects Modeling: A Case Study In Nepal, Jeremy Brownholtz

Masters Theses

During the latter part of the 20^th century, a transition away from coal as a major energy source in developed countries was accompanied by a notable decrease in air pollution-related deaths in those countries. Currently the same phenomenon is being observed in developing nations like China and India. However, many areas that do still rely on coal for their energy production or industrial needs also reflect a gap in research on the effects of those specific processes on local populations. Located in Nepal at the foot of the Himalayan Plateau, Kathmandu represents one such location. The local economy of …

The Associations Of Built Environments On College Students' Physical Activity Levels, Catherine M. Neel

Senior Theses

The issues with American physical activity infrastructure have been causing The United States to have lower levels of physical activity compared to other developed countries. The social and physical built environments of college students typically provide more access for students to be able to be active; however most students still do not meet the recommended amount of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to determine what in their physical and social environment that students utilize in order to participate in physical activity and what aspects of their environment discourage physical activity or limit access to being active. This …

Language Services For Populations With Limited English Proficiency (Lep) And The Necessity For Proper Medical Interpretation With A Focus In South Carolina, Elizabeth Pung

Senior Theses

Linguistically appropriate healthcare is a cornerstone of providing quality patient care. Provider-patient communication is imperative to achieving linguistically appropriate healthcare; unfortunately, language barriers introduced by different spoken languages of patients to their providers hinders this communication. Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) are ensured accessible healthcare under federal regulations such as the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS standards); however, a gap between patients with LEP and the healthcare system remains. Not only is there a gap in communication for patients with LEP to their providing physician, but there is a nationwide epidemic resulting in poor health …

Evaluation Of A Portable Gynecological Examination Table On Increasing Access To Cervical Cancer Screenings, Brennan Burrows, Giuliana Motta, Vibhasri Davuluri, Urvee Deo, Aman Tahir, Brindha Rajakumar, Jacob Blumenstein, Eliza Steinberg, Mariam Tobia, Asmita Tuladhar, Abigail Ahn

Medical Student Research Symposium

Introduction: Cervical cancer is a preventable disease affecting millions of women worldwide, with higher prevalence and mortality in developing countries. One explanation of this disparity is due to reduced access to screenings, especially in rural communities where mobile health clinics are limited by what medical equipment they can bring. To address these barriers, an engineering team called Project MESA (Making Examinations Safe and Accessible) designed a gynecological examination table that is portable, lightweight, and easily sanitizable.

Objective: This study aims to (1) evaluate whether the implementation of this device improves the clinician’s ability to perform pap smears as opposed to …

“High” Innovators? Marijuana Legalization And Regional Innovation, Stephanihe Cheng, Pengkai Lin, Yinliang Tan, Yuchen Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The past three decades have witnessed a tremendous shift in public health policies towards marijuana legalization in the U.S. Adopting the process-based view of innovation, we hypothesize that marijuana's increased use and related consequences after its legalization affect innovators’ behavior and social environment during the innovation process, which in turn impacts regional innovation. Utilizing the staggered adoption of medical marijuana laws by 20 states between 1996 and 2013 as a quasi-experimental setting, we find that legalizing medical marijuana reduces the overall output of regional innovation, as proxied by patents’ total forward-citation count aggregated by innovator location. Further analyses decomposing the …

Socioecological Factors Linked With Pharmaceutical Incentive-Driven Prescribing In Pakistan, Muhammad Naveed Noor, Afifah Rahman-Shepherd, Amna Rehana Siddiqui, Wafa Aftab, Sadia Shakoor, Rumina Hasan, Mishal Khan

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Pharmaceutical marketing through financial incentivisation to general practitioners (GPs) is a poorly studied health system problem in Pakistan. Pharmaceutical incentivisation is seen to be distorting GPs prescribing behaviour that can compromise the health and well-being of patients. We draw on a conceptual framework outlined in the ecological system theory to identify multiple factors linked with pharmaceutical incentivisation to GPs in Pakistan. We conducted qualitative interviews with 28 policy actors to seek their views on the health system dynamics, how they sustain pharmaceutical incentivisation and their effect on the quality of care. Our analysis revealed four interlinked factors operating at different …

Marijuana Liberalization And Public Finance: A Capital Market Perspective On The Passage Of Medical Use Laws, Stephanie F. Cheng, Gus De Franco, Pengkai Lin

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We find that the staggered passage of state-level laws that legalize marijuana for medical use increases states' borrowing costs by 7–9 basis points. Consistent with economic theory on substance use suggesting that marijuana legalization increases local consumption of the drug (by expanding its availability and reducing its perceived risks), we predict and find that increased consumption represents an important mechanism that explains the higher state bond spreads. We also show that following such laws’ passage, states incur higher marijuana-consumption-related expenditures, including for police, corrections, and public welfare.

Public Health Interventions Guided By Houston's Wastewater Surveillance Program During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Loren Hopkins, Katherine B Ensor, Lauren Stadler, Catherine D Johnson, Rebecca Schneider, Kaavya Domakonda, James J Mccarthy, Edward J Septimus, David Persse, Stephen L Williams

Journal Articles

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance has emerged as a powerful tool used by public health authorities to track SARS-CoV-2 infections in communities. In May 2020, the Houston Health Department began working with a coalition of municipal and academic partners to develop a wastewater monitoring and reporting system for the city of Houston, Texas. Data collected from the system are integrated with other COVID-19 surveillance data and communicated through different channels to local authorities and the general public. This information is used to shape policies and inform actions to mitigate and prevent the spread of COVID-19 at …

Understanding The Relationship Between Undergraduate Students’ On-Campus Employment Status And Their Reported Sense Of Belonging To The Campus Community Post The Covid-19 Pandemic, Samantha Martinez

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Belonging has been studied for decades with many researchers concluding that humans have an inherent need to belong. Although each person’s level of need to belong differs, it is a deeply rooted human motivation that impacts a person’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Individuals develop a sense of belonging when they feel connected to others. The postsecondary journey allows for unique experiences and opportunities that foster a sense of belonging, which can assist college students to flourish in many aspects of their lives. Research has shown that belonging significantly impacts student well-being and academic achievement, making the topic imperative to continue …

Saftey Of Covid-19 Vaccines In Real World Studies, Khawla Amar Mohamed Gammudi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Background: The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been present since its outbreak in 2019. Despite global efforts to fully halt its spread, new strains are emerging daily. Various efforts have been undertaken to slow down the infection's spread by implementing different restrictive measures and policies, such as lockdowns, social distancing, and mask-wearing. However, the most effective approach to controlling this disease is through vaccinations (Chen, 2021). Substantial efforts have been dedicated to encouraging people in the United States to receive COVID-19 vaccines and booster doses. As of December 7, 2022, approximately 68.5% of the world's …