Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Herbal Medicine And Pediatric Massage: Interning At A Tcm Pediatric Clinic, Yvette Way

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Before entering this program my knowledge of TCM was practically nonexistent. However even from a young age, I had an interest in learning about the healing properties of plants and herbs but, I had no way of exploring this interest of mine. After entering this program, I have learned more about TCM and herbal medicine. Because of the lessons that we have taken in class, it made me want to have a deeper understanding of TCM because of this, I decided to do an internship that would involve TCM. My time at Yang Zhen Er Kang clinic has taught me …

The Hapless State Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis In India: A Comprehensive Look At Life And Medical Services For Als Patients In Rural Himachal Pradesh, Carson J. Bergström

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to paralysis. The disease requires a high amount of medical intervention and interdisciplinary focus to achieve quality of life for patients. This study looks at ALS patient’s lifestyles, their access to these medical devices, Indian therapeutic approaches and policy that impacts patients in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. As caretakers have a critical part in the care for this disease, their lives were also considered in the case studies. It was found that ALS patients are not experiencing access to medical devices necessary for life because of physical …

Intersections Between Health And Disability: A Case Study At Disha Centre, Jaipur, Rajasthan, Finnian Brokaw

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigated intersections between health and disability by asking the question: how do community perceptions of disability at Disha: A Resource Centre for the Disabled in Jaipur, India relate to health and quality of life for a person with multiple disabilities? This study utilized a case study methodology. The researcher took qualitative interviews from six respondents in the immediate educational and familial support network of a 27-year-old man with multiple disabilities. An interview based, qualitative methodology was important for investigating the complexity of perceptions of multiple disabilities and health as intersecting identities. The responses were analyzed and reflected upon …

An Analysis Of The Rajasthan Public Health System’S Response To The 2019 Dengue Insurgence, Luke Bryan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Dengue virus is in a pandemic status and is a major public health issue in the modern world. The mosquito-borne disease is largely prevalent in Asia and specifically India, where more than half of the states are considered to have complete presence of the dengue virus. The intricate infrastructure of the Indian public health system looks for dengue cases at all levels and reports to the integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP).

Analyses of the IDSP and trends of dengue cases was done in response to dengue outbreaks throughout the state. Geographic information system (GIS) maps were created to evaluate a …

Perceptions Of Rural Birthing Practices: A Glimpse Into Maternal And Child Health For Women In Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh, Mackenzie Burke

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the past two decades birthing practices within India have drastically changed. This change is most visible in the shift from homebirths to hospital births following the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission. This study aims to understand and give voice to women’s perceptions of birthing practices in the rural villages of Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh. A total of ten interviews were conducted with both mothers and healthcare practitioners in the surrounding villages of Kangra District in order to gain a thorough, qualitative understanding of birthing practices in the local communities. The healthcare practitioners’ responses were divided according …

Logistic And Structural Considerations For The Use Of Psychological First Aid In Humanitarian Emergencies, Taylor Johnson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Following the IASC recommendations for implementation of psychological first aid (PFA) in 2007, providing PFA in humanitarian emergencies as a method of psychosocial support has become one of the standard interventions in the wake of crises. However, the impact of PFA on future mental health outcomes remains largely unstudied and many structural and logistic factors (e.g. training of PFA providers, reviewing evidence to inform practice, and policy considerations) must be managed in order to ensure appropriate, high-quality PFA in humanitarian emergencies. This research aims to synthesize both primary interview data and the existing literature surrounding PFA in humanitarian emergencies to …

Finding A Common Ground Between Theology And Women’S Reproductive Rights: Assessing The Societal Levels Of Influence Of Religion On The Sexual And Reproductive Health Of Women, Natalie Montufar

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The principle aim of this study is to explicate and elucidate the intersection between religious beliefs and practices and Sexual and Reproductive Health throughout distinct levels of society in the developing world. A literature review identified relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature on religious beliefs held on sexuality and procreation, the landscape of influence of religion on laws and policies at a national and international level, the effects of religion on individual sexual behavior, and modern interventions aiming to be culturally and religiously sensitive. The intricacies and nuances of three Abrahamic faiths were assessed to highlight the dogma of sacred texts …

Pensaba Que Te Había Olvidado: El Daño Duradero De La Trauma Que Viene De Tortura En La Dictadura Chilena, Antonia Mcdonnell Capossela

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research question: Is there a more useful model to characterize the torture that was implemented in Chile using the context of theory and history to establish an in-depth understanding of the symptomology and effects of the experience of torture survivors?

Objective: The general objective of this study is to establish the origin of the methods of torture used during the Pinochet dictatorship and use these results to suggest a model of reparations that is more wholistic. The specific objectives are to understand the intervention and instruction by the CIA in Chile, to study the testimonies of torture during the dictatorship …

La Ciudad Versus El Campo: La Calidad De Vida De Los Adultos Mayores Aymara Entre Arica Y Putre, Clare Rogowski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The elderly population in Chile is increasing rapidly. In indigenous villages in the interior of Chile, like Putre, the younger generation is leaving to pursue education and employment opportunities in cities, in this case Arica. In many cases no one stays to take care of the elders. As the elderly begin to grow older and require greater support, the younger generation seeks to move their family members to the city so that they can care for them. While this provides for greater connection to family and access to medical care for the elderly relatives, the elderly loses their connection to …

“Para Nunca Más Vivirlo, Nunca Más Negarlo”: El Legado De Violencia Sexual Durante La Dictadura, Isabel De La Torre

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question: What are the mental health effects of sexual political violence against women during the dictatorship and during the current socio-political movement?

Objectives: The general objective of this study is to identify how sexual political violence has been used in Chile against women and to analyze its consequences on the mental health of survivors. More specifically, this study attempts to investigate the mechanisms sexual political torture during the dictatorship and now, visibilize the unique damages to mental health caused by this type of violence, and analyze the dictatorial legacy in regards to sexual violence and the current socio-political climate. …

La Incorporación De La Dimensión Intercultural Para Pacientes Quechuas En El Centro Comunitario De Salud Mental De Calca, Caroline Parker

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Trastornos mentales afectan a una de cada cinco personas del Perú. Sin embargo, entre las personas que indican una necesidad de atención de salud mental, 69%-85% no buscan servicios. Este problema se amplifica en zonas rurales y comunidades indígenas a lo largo del país. Debido a la falta de servicios en estas regiones, y a la ausencia de investigaciones acerca de la salud mental en comunidades indígenas, investigué los servicios para la salud mental en Calca, una provincia en el sur del Perú con una población substantiva de personas indígenas. Mi pregunta principal es: ¿de qué manera el Centro Comunitario …

La Pertinencia Cultural De Los Proyectos Relacionados A La Planificación Familiar De Las Ongs En El Distrito De Acomayo, Sadie Traylor

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación identifica y analiza la pertinencia cultural de los esfuerzos de ayuda ambos de una ONG local (Kallpa) y de una ONG internacional (Plan International), examinando específicamente el proyecto de cada ONG vinculado al aumento del acceso y uso de la planificación familiar en el Distrito de Acomayo en la región de Cusco para evaluar cómo opera (o no opera) cada ONG con una pertinencia cultural. Además, esta investigación explora la forma en que las estrategias de cada ONG mantienen un enfoque intercultural, y también analiza las percepciones de los beneficiarios del proyecto como testimonios de cómo este método …

Why We Can’T Solve The Opioid Problem, Wayne F. Coombs, Ph.D.

Journal of Appalachian Health

Appalachia’s opioid epidemic is a complex, systemic problem being addressed by limited intervention processes conceptualized through narrow disciplinary models that are not working. We need a new comprehensive, collaborative approach if we ever hope to find solutions to this problem.

A Virginia Mountain City Responds To The Challenge Of Improving Health Outcomes, Robert S. Cowell Jr.

Journal of Appalachian Health

In 2012, Roanoke Virginia was becoming a city of haves and have-nots, a place where many were benefitting from revitalization underway but too many were seeing their situation grow worse and becoming even more entrenched. Poverty with levels as high as 50% in some neighborhoods; life expectancy sometimes 14 years shorter than those living just one or two neighborhoods over; and lack of access to fresh food, medical care, and economic opportunities—all within view of the largest hospital in the region was unacceptable.

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Adult Food Security And The Relationship With Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Residents Of Appalachian North Carolina, Manan Roy, Erin Bouldin, Maggie Bennett, Adam Hege

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: The Appalachian region has worse health outcomes than the remainder of the United States. These disparities are often linked to the underlying social and environmental determinants of health. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with poor health outcomes across the lifespan and have a significant impact on future social determinants as an adult, including food security status.

Purpose: To explore the relationships between ACEs and food security among adults in the Appalachian counties of North Carolina and make comparisons with the rest of the state.

Methods: Researchers used North Carolina’s 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data; namely, …

Roanoke's Collective Public Health Activities, Michael Lytton

Journal of Appalachian Health

Roanoke is addressing problems that confront many small and medium sized cities in the U.S., especially disparities in health and life expectancy between neighborhoods. These disparities are often legacies of decades of racial and economic segregation, resulting in low-income or disinvested communities. Typically, such neighborhoods have fewer parks, higher vacancy rates and less stable affordable housing stock, inadequate public transit systems, too few clinics, too many fast food restaurants and insufficient access to high quality schools. In Roanoke these are the northwest and southeast quadrants, both federally designated Medically Underserved Areas, and characterized by a large proportion of the city’s …

Conflict Between Religious Beliefs And Sexuality: An Autoethnography, Carlos E. Gerena

The Qualitative Report

Despite the shift in attitudes in religious institutions toward homosexuals in the United States, there are some religions that continue to view same-sex behavior as a deviant and damning sin. For many, religious beliefs and values provide meaning and impact personal identity. Using autoethnography, I will explicate my own experiences with religious institutions and the ongoing conflict between religious beliefs and sexuality. I will discuss messages received from the Pentecostal church, family, and Latino community, and how these messages influenced my human development and emotional well-being. I show that internalization of the principles taught by the Pentecostal Church triggered a …

Change In Motherhood Status And Fertility Problem Identification: Implications For Changes In Life Satisfaction, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Andrea R. Burch, Michele H. Lowry, Stacy Tiemeyer, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objective: To determine whether the association between changes in life satisfaction and becoming a mother (or not) depends on fertility problem identification status.

Background: Evidence and symbolic interactionist theory suggest that, for women who initially perceive a fertility barrier, gaining the valued identity “mother” should be associated with increases and continuing to face a blocked goal (i.e., not becoming a mother) should be associated with decreases in life satisfaction.

Method: This study used the nationally representative two-wave National Survey of Fertility Barriers to conduct a change-score analysis with chained multiple imputation. The focal dependent variable was change in life satisfaction. …

Exploration Of The Experiences And Viewpoints Of Faculty Members On Continuing Education Webinars: A Qualitative Study, Fatemeh Jafarzadeh-Kenarsari, Kobra Abouzari-Gazafroodi, Fatemeh Zaersabet

The Qualitative Report

Continuing education is necessary to improve the professional knowledge and skills of graduates of medical sciences, which may be implemented via e-learning. This qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences and viewpoints of faculty members participating in continuing education webinars. The participants consisted of 15 faculty members selected purposefully and with maximal variation regarding their sex, age, the field of specialization, academic rank, and work experience. Data were collected through semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews. Data analysis of these transcripts using a qualitative content analysis approach revealed 3 themes and 9 sub-themes. The main themes included “Moving across the boundaries of …

Does Ethnic Identity, In-Group Preference, And Acculturation Protect Latinas With A History Of Interpersonal Trauma From Developing Symptoms Of Ptsd?, Evelyn M. Ramirez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research suggests ethnic identity, a sense of belonging to a particular cultural group, may be protective against symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the role of ethnic identity, in-group preference (i.e., an individual’s preference for interactions with members of their own ethnic group) and acculturation (i.e., the level of comfort with the mainstream culture) have not been investigated as protective factors for Latinas with a history of interpersonal and sexual trauma. In this study, ethnic identity, in-group preference and acculturation were assessed via self-report on the Scale of Ethnic Experience in two samples of undergraduate Latina and non-Latina …

Decline In Telomere Length By Age And Effect Modification By Gender, Allostatic Load And Comorbidities In National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2002), Saruna Ghimire, Carl V. Hill, Francisco S. Sy, Rachelle Rodriguez

School of Public Health Faculty Research

Background: This study aims to assess the decline in telomere length (TL) with age and evaluate effect modification by gender, chronic stress, and comorbidity in a representative sample of the US population. Methods: Cross-sectional data on 7826 adults with a TL measurement, were included from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, years 1999–2002. The population rate of decline in TL across 10-year age categories was estimated using crude and adjusted regression. Results: In an adjusted model, the population rate of decline in TL with age was consistent and linear for only three age categories: 20–29 (β = -0.0172, 95% …

Hope, Courage, And Resilience In The Lives Of Transgender Women Of Color, Nadine Ruff, Amy B. Smoyer, Jean Breny

The Qualitative Report

There is a lack of qualitative and strengths-based knowledge about the lived experience of transgender women of color in the US. To address this research gap, a Photovoice project was undertaken with five transgender women living in a small urban area. Thematic analysis of the participants’ discussion of their photographs identified three major themes: hope, courage, and resilience. Analysis suggests a framework for understanding these women’s lived experiences and the psychosocial tools that they use to negotiate their daily lives and persevere in the face of interpersonal and structural oppression.

Review Of Infected Kin: Orphan Care And Aids In Lesotho, Cassandra L. Workman

The Journal of Social Encounters

In the opening vignette, “A Story about Joala,” we readers are brought to the highlands of Lesotho to share homebrewed beer with brewers, research participants, and the authors. This experience of sharing a drink asks us to consider what it means to share in Lesotho, what the ties are that hold people together. Like the communal sharing of food, sharing joala is a defining social activity and as we learn throughout the ethnography, one that is important in the creation of kin. Indeed, this book is presented though a kinship-first perspective.

Using this framework and ground-up analytical methodology, Block and …

Enhancing Quality Of Life Of People With Visual Impairments Through Aesthetic Techniques, Christia M. Labro

Student Capstone Papers

Vision loss affects roughly 285 million people globally and is one of the leading causes of age-related disability which can lead to reduced quality of life (QoL) and increased levels of depression and anxiety (van der Aa, Bruin, van Rens, Twisk, & van Nispen, 2015). Occupational therapists have been involved in the rehabilitation of individuals with low vision since 1917 (Warren, 1995) and are significant to the low vision community due to their knowledge and expertise addressing occupational limitations while taking into consideration psychosocial factors that result from vision loss. However, there appears to be gaps in the literature related …

Life Satisfaction And Healthcare Utilization Among Immigrants To The United States, Merritt Christian Rachel Harrelson

LSU Master's Theses

Previous research suggests a relationship between life satisfaction and healthcare utilization or HCU (Habibov & Afandi, 2016; Kim, Park, Sun, Smith, & Peterson, 2014). However, no study was found that examined this relationship among elderly American immigrants. The purpose of this study was to determine whether life satisfaction is linked to HCU for this population. The researcher of the current study applied binary logistic regression to data taken from the Health and Retirement Survey to determine whether changes in life satisfaction could be linked to variance in HCU across seven domains, including hospitalization, overnight nursing home stays, doctors visits, dentist …

Recent Trends, Current Research In Cyberpsychology: A Literature Review, Amarjit Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Singh

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Cyberpsychology refers to the study of the mind and behavior in the context of interactions with technology. It is an emerging branch, which has focused on the psychological aspects connected to the increasing presence and usages of technology in modern lives. This paper traces recent advancement and trends of Cyberpsychology is an emerging domain of knowledge and goes on the give a literature review of the same. An analysis of the recent research and literature covering 300 most relevant research papers from the period of 2012 to 15, August 2019 was conducted to determine and shape the research pattern based …

Decomposing Trends In Child Obesity, Ashley Wendell Kranjac, Robert L. Wagmiller

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

We unravel the absolute level and relative prominence of two demographic processes that are relevant for childhood obesity, and that will ultimately determine the long-term course and pace of change in child obesity rates. We leverage data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to decompose change in child obesity from 1971 to 2012. We partition change into that attributable to (1) healthier, more nutritionally and economically advantaged cohorts in the population being replaced by cohorts of children who are less advantaged (between-cohort change), and (2) the health habits, nutrition, and social and economic circumstances of all cohorts of …

The Gendered Experiences Of Male Students In A Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Program: A Multi-Case Study, Jairus-Joaquin R. Matthews, Derek E. Daniels

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Speech-language pathology is a profession with a gender disparity wherein the majority of speech-language pathologists are female. This disparity is also reflected in speech-language pathology graduate programs. The American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association has developed many initiatives over the years to address this issue, yet the gender disparity still remains. The purpose of this study was to develop some initial insights into reasons that men enter into the profession of speech-language pathology, and their experiences in graduate programs. In this qualitative case-study approach, interviews were conducted with four male graduate students. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for major …

Perceptions On The Effectiveness Of Diversity And Inclusion Hiring: Are We Really Getting Ahead? [2019], Deidre D. Pierson

Master's Theses

Diversity and inclusion hiring in NCAA Division III athletic departments has seen some improvement over the last two decades, but questions remain on whether we are really getting ahead. There continues to be a lack of diversity, particularly in private Northeast institutions. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived effectiveness of hiring practices and initiatives utilized by athletics departments. The study utilized tenants of critical theory which supported the in-depth questioning and centering of the lived experiences of participants. This study used semi-structured interviews of nine Division III female head coaches of women’s sports to examine their …

Healthcare Access And Utilization By Transgender Populations: A United States Transgender Survey Study, Axenya Kachen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Transgender communities in the United States are highly marginalized and have been systematically and infrastructurally ignored due to the widespread fundamental belief that gender exists as a binary classification. The dichotomous theoretical framework of sex and gender prevented public recognition of this community as a population of interest for public health research and targeted intervention. Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations have fought for basic human rights, including access to affordable healthcare. The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) was founded in 2003 to advocate for the advancement of equality for transgender people. In 2015, the NCTE conducted the United …