Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Chosen Family: One Woman’S Fight To Become Her Best Friend’S Next Of Kin, Yessenia M. Moreno

Capstones

Nearly 70,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the state of New York. For the queer community, this time of death and mourning has highlighted how complicated things can get at the end of someone’s life.

This audio documentary, “Chosen Family, ”is the story of one woman’s fight to overcome the legal system and become her best friend’s health care proxy in the final battle of his life .

Link to capstone project: https://medium.com/@yessimoreno/7b3d96691b9f

Policing And Health: Police Encounters As A Fundamental Cause Of Racial Health Disparities, Richard S. Carbonaro

Doctoral Dissertations

Structural racism has taken many forms throughout American history and to this day continues to drive social, economic, and health inequalities. Mass incarceration is a modern tool of social marginalization with well documented and deep-rooted racial inequalities. Research has continually shown that mass incarceration negatively impacts the health of disadvantaged communities. Even police stops, the most common and mundane form of criminal justice contact has been linked with deleterious health outcomes at the individual and community level. In this dissertation, I identify specific social and biological mechanisms connecting encounters with the police and health outcomes. In the first chapter, I …

Examining The Relationships Between Early Childhood Experiences And Adolescent And Young Adult Health Status In A Resource-Limited Population: A Cohort Study, Zeba A. Rasmussen, Wasiat H. Shah, Chelsea L. Hansen, Syed Iqbal Azam, Ejaz Hussain, Barbara A. Schaefer, Nicole Zhong, Alexandra A. Jamison, Khalil Ahmed, Benjamin J J. Mccormick

Department of Medicine

Background: Adolescence is a critical point in the realization of human capital, as health and educational decisions with long-term impacts are made. We examined the role of early childhood experiences on health, cognitive abilities, and educational outcomes of adolescents followed up from a longitudinal cohort study in Pakistan, hypothesizing that early childhood experiences reflecting poverty would manifest in reduced health and development in adolescence.
Methods and findings: Adolescents/young adults previously followed as children aged under 5 years were interviewed. Childhood data were available on diarrhea, pneumonia, and parental/household characteristics. New data were collected on health, anthropometry, education, employment, and languages …

Loneliness And Health Outcomes Among Malaysian Older Adults, Siti Zuhaida Hussein, Azera Hasra Ismail, Suraya Hanim Abu Bakar

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: Loneliness is a major social problem among the elderly all over the world.

Methods: A community-based survey was conducted among 380 community-dwelling older adults residing in Malaysia. A proportional stratified random sampling method was used to examine the relationship between health factors and loneliness. Data were collected using the short-form Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults, Geriatric Depression Scale-15, and RAND SF-20. p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant, and data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Statistics 26.0 for Windows.

Results: Results revealed that 32.6% of the respondents had social loneliness, 39.9% had emotional loneliness, and 9.2% had family loneliness. Bivariate analyses showed that social and emotional loneliness are significantly related to …

Interdisciplinary Development Initiative (Idi) Entitled “Emerging Team Initiative To Reduce Inequities In Maternal And Child Lifestyle Health, Rozhan Momen

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Interdisciplinary Development Initiative (IDI) entitled “Emerging team initiative to reduce inequities in maternal and child lifestyle health"; an environmental scan of the faculty of health sciences and other western faculties, Brescia university college and research institutes as well as community agencies with similar interests.

“Practice Basic Hygiene, And You’Ll Stay Healthy”: How Primary School Reading Textbooks Transmitted Cultural Education In The Soviet Union, Victoria Storozenko

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Russia’s Cultural Revolution, beginning after the October Revolution in 1917, produced a broadly defined understanding of culture and cultural education at Russian schools that encompassed even basic hygiene and health. Drawing from postdoctoral research, this paper discusses the Cultural Revolution’s impact and its ideas on cultural education as presented in textbooks for 10-year general education schools in the Soviet Union. Discourse analysis revealed that the schoolbooks acted as an interface between a functional education system and changes in its surrounding environment, especially changes due to the Cultural Revolution. Amid today’s COVID-19 pandemic, the study’s findings raise several questions about what …

What’S In Wildfire Smoke?: A Toxicologist Explains The Health Risks And Which Masks Can Help, Luke Montrose

Public Health and Population Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Smoke is turning the sky hazy across a large swath of the country as dozens of large fires burn, and a lot of people are wondering what’s in the air they’re breathing.

As an environmental toxicologist, I study the effects of wildfire smoke and how they differ from other sources of air pollution. We know that breathing wildfire smoke can be harmful. Less clear is what the worsening wildfire landscape will mean for public health in the future, but research is raising red flags.

An Intersectional Approach To Time Poverty: A Pilot Study Of Time Poverty And Black Women’S Perceived Health Based On Semi-Structured Interviews, Lauriane Ngaya Fonkou

McNair Scholars Program

The term “time poor” describes people disproportionately burdened by responsibilities and inflexible work schedules resulting in little to no discretionary time. Time poverty was brought to my attention via the social media app TikTok where Black women creators expressed how time poverty affects them. Given that Black women are an especially vulnerable population in terms of health, I became curious about the relationship between time poverty and Black women’s health. However, the existing sociomedical science literature on time poverty does NOT adequately account for Black women’s subjectivity because the research considers mediators of class OR gender OR race but does …

The Politics Of Medicine: Power, Actors, And Ideas In The Making Of Health, Claire Wulf Winiarek

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The practice of medicine has become the prescribing of medicine. Reflecting a construct of health defined by Rationalism, individualism, and biomedical science, medicines (pharmaceuticals) are politically constructed to be the first – and sometimes only prescribed – line of defense against illness and disease. Pharmaceuticals also represent a highly desirable, ‘recession-proof’ component of many Nation-states’ (states’) export strategies, helping advanced economies, in particular, to maintain favorable trade balances and economic growth amidst the headwinds of deindustrialization.

Higher use and the overreliance on pharmaceuticals promote an outsized role for certain actors and ideas in the making of global health, referring to …

“The Clementine Collective”: A Corner Store Intervention Of Clementine Fruits In A High Need Neighborhood In Staten Island, New York, Heather Butts

Faculty of Health Care & Public Administration Publications

Individuals living in underserved neighborhoods face significant barriers to getting fresh produce. It has been extensively researched that providing individuals with fresh fruits and vegetables can have a positive physical and mental impact on the lives of individuals in underserved neighborhoods and the lives of their families. Unfortunately, individuals who reside in such neighborhoods are often viewed as not being motivated to consume fresh fruits and vegetables, even where barriers to eating such foods are removed. This study aims to determine whether, in the COVID-19 era, individuals in underserved neighborhoods would consume fresh fruits if presented with them in an …

Exploring The Perceived Barriers And Benefits Of Physical Activity Among Wounded, Injured, And/Or Sick Military Veterans, Robert Walker, Caroline Limbert, Paul M. Smith

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Wounded, injured, and/or sick (WIS) military veterans face significant physical and psychosocial challenges following discharge from service. Physical activity can have many positive effects on the holistic wellbeing of such individuals. However, little knowledge exists regarding the perceived barriers and benefits of physical activity within this population, creating challenges surrounding physical activity promotion. Therefore, this study was designed to identify key barriers and benefits among this population, so that informed approaches to encourage participation in physical activity can be developed. A questionnaire related to the perceived barriers and benefits of physical activity was completed by 105 WIS British military veterans. …

Mapping The Suitability Of Cal Poly's Insulated Solar Electric Cookers (Isec) In Ghana, Togo, And Jamaica, Julia G. Kraatz

Social Sciences

The World Health Organization estimates that 3 billion people depend on biomass fuels for cooking, heating, and other day-to-day activities, which causes approximately 4.3 million people annually to die from illnesses attributable to indoor air pollution. The issue is especially pressing for women and children in developing countries, because women care for the home and are consequently responsible for attaining household fuels and cooking. In 2015, ISECs (Insulated Solar Electric Cookers) were developed at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, as a technology that utilizes solar electricity to directly cook food in a well-insulated chamber. They are capable of …

Health Infrastructure Accessibility In San Joaquin, Ca, Vinson Lok Kwan, Trisha Phuong Tran

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to assess the health infrastructure and accessibility in San Joaquin, California through the existing conditions of the city, reviewing various cities facing similar conditions, and creating potential solutions or recommendations to be implemented into the city to accommodate growth and overall well-being in the community.

Health infrastructure and accessibility is important to every community since it has the ability to influence the quality-of-care individuals are able to receive. When it comes to infrastructure, it is important to determine the underlying health conditions the local population faces and whether the services provided are adequate in …

Comparing The Health And Welfare Of Refugees And Non-Refugees At The Outset Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Results Of A Community Needs Assessment., Matthew J. Lyons, Mary Helen O'Connor, Iris Feinberg, Daniel J. Whitaker, Michael Eriksen, Ashli Owen-Smith, Saiza Jivani, Mohammad Tamer, Esther Kim, Ganaro Makor

Journal of Refugee & Global Health

Refugees are a vulnerable population who experience significant health disparities. They may also be at disproportionately high risk of adverse outcomes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper presents the results of a community needs assessment to investigate the impact of the pandemic on health and welfare in a refugee relocation community in the United States. A multilingual data collection team made up of refugees surveyed 179 participants (128 refugees vs. 51 non-refugees). Only 55.9% of refugee respondents said they would be able to provide enough food for their family this week, compared with 84.0% of non-refugees (p < 0.01), and this difference was even greater for food next week …

Analysis Of Covid-19 Concerns Raised By The Construction Workforce And Development Of Mitigation Practices, Makram Bou Hatoum, Ali Faisal, Hala Nassereddine, Hadi Sarvari

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The coronavirus outbreak has created a global health crisis that has disrupted all industries, including the construction industry. Following the onset of the pandemic, construction workers faced and continue to face unprecedented safety and health challenges. Therefore, construction employers established new safety precautions to protect the health and safety of the workforce and minimize the spread of the virus. The new precautions followed the advice and guidelines offered by different health and safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). With construction projects …

The Effects Of Sociodemographic Characteristics, Caregiving Practice Patterns, Coping Mechanisms, And Social Support On The Health Of Asian American Ethnic Groups And Asian American Caregivers, Suryadewi Edi Nugraheni

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: Asian American family caregivers came from various ethnic groups with different sociodemographic characteristics and culturally specific values. However, cultural practices were often overlooked because researchers often combined all Asian Americans under one umbrella. Objective: The purpose of the study was two-fold. First, the study investigated the study sample of Asian Americans participating in the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) 2009 comprised of multiple Asian American ethnic groups. By utilizing the study sample, the research aimed to investigate 1) the associations between caregiving and self-rated health (SRH) and hypertension and 2) the associations between heterogeneity of Asian American ethnic groups …

Are School Lunches Contributing To The Obesity Epidemic Among Children?, Luis Chavez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Background: Childhood obesity is a major public health issue in the United States (U.S.) and recent data have shown that the incidence and prevalence have been increasing over the past 20 years. Poor dietary habits are often attributed to these increasing rates. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides meals and snacks to over 30 million students. Therefore, determining whether an association exists between student participation in the NSLP, and their respective body mass index (BMI) is critical. Few studies have examined a family’s economic stability and the child’s race as potential moderating variables. This study aimed to investigate …

Should I Reduce My Red Meat Consumption?, Joshua Kojiro Bibbee

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Maintaining and improving the health of 5,000+ county employees is no easy task, but the Monterey County Health Department Employee Wellness (MCHDEW) program’s job is to do just that. There are many parts that fall under the category of health, and one area to research on is red meat consumption. A diet high in red meat can cause some of the health conditions of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of health conditions that increase a person’s risk of heart disease. This is relevant because metabolic syndrome is found in one-third of county employees, and this contributes to increased healthcare …

Resuming On-Site Services: Final Report And Recommendations Of The Cuny Libraries Covid-19 Task Force (April 2021), Kathleen M. Dreyer, Jeffrey Delgago, Karen Okamoto, Steven Ovadia, Roxanne Shirazi, Michael Waldman, Haruko Yamauchi, Simone Yearwood

Publications and Research

This report was prepared by the CUNY Libraries COVID-19 Task Force, which formed in May 2020 with the following charge:

Authorized by the CUNY Office of Library Services and the Council of Chief Librarians, the task force is charged to survey best practices shared by libraries world-wide and to develop guidelines for CUNY Libraries site management, staff and user safety, circulation and resource sharing, and materials handling as pandemic conditions evolve.

A summary of the draft report was submitted by Interim Dean for Library Services Polly Thistlethwaite to CUNY’s Academic & Student Support Task Force on June 23, 2020. The …

Healthcare Altruism And Dysconscious Healthism In The Delivery Of Integrated Healthcare Services To Individuals Who Are Deaf, Hard Of Hearing, And Deafblind, Jaime A.B. Wilson, Michael John Gournaris

JADARA

Healthcare altruism and dysconscious healthism are terms proposed to recognize the barriers to healthcare access faced by not only individuals with hearing loss but also all minority populations. The implications of an integrated healthcare model to provide services to individuals who are d/Deaf, hard of hearing, or DeafBlind (D/HH/DB) are explored. Unique insights are then offered regarding existing barriers to healthcare access and the next steps.

The Mobilization Of Contaminants From Superfund Sites To Adjacent Communities Due To Severe Water Events: A Systematic Literature Review, Julia Weil

GW Research Showcase 2021-2024

No abstract provided.

Are Adverse Childhood Experiences Associated With Health Behaviors Among College Students: Emotion Regulation As A Potential Moderator, Margaret Winters

Senior Theses

In this study, we sought to examine the relations among adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), physical activity (PA), sleep quality, and emotion regulation in college students. ACEs have been proven to have a dose-response relation with adverse health outcomes in adulthood, including heart disease, cancer, lung disease, liver disease, poor mental health, and risky health behaviors (Felitti et al., 1998; Merrick et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2020). ACEs have also been previously associated with poor sleep quality and emotion dysregulation (Kajeepeta, Gelaye, Jackson, & Williams, 2015[WL1] ; Kim & Cicchetti, 2010). Given these findings, we sought to examine how …

Developing Innovative Practices Through Third-Space Partnerships: Reflections On Project Dare (Dementia Knowledge, Art, Research And Education), Corinne A. Green, Michelle J. Eady Dr, Pippa Burns, Jessica Baker, Jennine Primmer, Penelope Harris, Carinya Barkley, Victoria Traynor

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Partnerships between schools, universities, and community organizations have mutual benefits for all involved. These partnerships value the contributions of all participants and capitalize on the expertise and knowledge that each brings. This reflective paper details a collaborative third-space partnership between a university, a primary school, and a community organization. The partnership facilitated the design, development, and implementation of a unique program called Project DARE (Dementia knowledge, Art, Research, and Education). A research-based evaluation of the Project DARE feasibility study can be found elsewhere (Burns et al., 2020). The aim of this paper is to reflect upon the formation of the …

Perceptions Of Residents Living In A Food Desert On The Impact Of A Community-Supported Agriculture Pilot Program, Jessica Thome

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of the study was to examine perspectives on food access among a low-income, food desert community through participation in a grant funded CSA program.Design: Healthy Eating Program is a pilot program assessing the effect of a CSA intervention on health among residents living in a food desert. Participants were surveyed through an initial survey and final survey with questions regarding perceived health status and daily food stressors. Data was collected through Qualtrics and analyzed using SPSS. Setting: Low-income, food desert community residing in the Westside of Bloomington, Illinois. Participants: Forty participants 18 years or older, low-income and …

Family-Based Caregiving: Does Lumping Asian Americans Together Do More Harm Than Good?, Suryadewi E. Nugraheni, Julia F. Hastings

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Asian American family caregivers have gained increased attention due to the need to provide life-sustaining aid at home given the rising numbers of older adults. This article reflects upon caregiving-related research studies that have overlooked the circumstances Asian American caregivers bring to the home-care context. Policies written to address community needs tend to omit the social circumstances many Asian American caregivers must face when trying to take advantage of programs and services. For example, the eligibility requirements fail to recognize distinctive cultural values embedded within the caregiving processes. Further, most Asian American data is aggregated. Aggregating data by ethnicity limits …

Eating And Body Image Disorders In The Time Of Covid19: An Anthropological Inquiry Into The Pandemic’S Effects On The Bodies, Theresa A. Stoddard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lifestyle changes are impacting the experiences of self-identifying women and females with body image disorders (BIDs) and/or eating disorders (EDs), focusing on the mental, physical, and emotional health of participants. Using surveys, person-centered semi-structured interviews, and autoethnography, I collected qualitative and quantitative data regarding the challenges, triumphs, hopes, and fears of participants regarding their EDs/BIDs during the pandemic and situated their experiences within their sociocultural context. Drawing on anthropological and psychological theory, I examine the data through the lenses of Scheper-Hughes’s and Lock’s “The Three Bodies” (the body politic, body …

Mobilizing Rural Communities To Create Systemic Changes To Reduce Health Disparities, Denise Everson, Amanda Tedrow, Al Parker Edd

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

USG institutions are creating strategies to enhance community capacity in addressing health inequities, "closing the gap" between suggested optimal development models and helping prepare a visioning masterplan in rural communities.

Evaluating The Impact Of Governmental Partners On School Nutrition And Physical Activity Policies: A Survey Of Florida School Principals, Michael J. Swain, Glenn D. Israel

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

For decades, U.S. schools have implemented policies aimed at improving student nutrition and physical activity. Governmental agencies have led these efforts with funding and regulation, and implementation supported by health and agriculture agencies and university extension services at state and local levels. To understand the roles of these agencies in school health, and other factors leading to the implementation of school health policies, we surveyed school principals in Florida in 2018 on topics related to school nutrition and physical activity policies. Depending on the wellness policy, prevalence varied from 6 percent (Safe Routes to School) to 66 percent (wellness coordinator). …

Misty Rhoads Ijzbtt Editorial Welcome, Misty Rhoads

Journal of Transformative Touch

Editorial Welcome to the IJZBTT from the Executive Editor -Dr. Misty Rhoads-

Executive Summary- Social Protection In Egypt: Mitigating The Socio-Economic Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Vulnerable Employment, Dina Makram-Ebeid, Amr Adly, Nadine Sika, Hania M Sholkamy, Samer Atallah

Faculty Journal Articles

This is the executive summary of an interdisciplinary project between the fields of development economics, political economy, labor sociology, development anthropology and public health. It reviews the social protection available to vulnerable employees and their households in Egypt and suggests ways to adapt them in light of the COVID 19 pandemic. The research focuses on four areas a) employment security b) social assistance c) health insurance d) gendered mitigations. The project will map the impact of the crisis on vulnerable employees and their households and propose policy interventions to alleviate the socio-economic effects of the pandemic through the publication of …