Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome In India: A Socio-Cultural Perspective, Hannah Wickham

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the ways in which cultural determinants affect the health-seeking, diagnosis and treatment process of women with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) as well as the underlying socio-cultural causes of the illness. Often coined as a “lifestyle disease”, PCOS is becoming a growing concern of physicians and women alike as its prevalence is on the rise with no signs of slowing down. Lifestyle, stigmas/taboos, PCOS’s effect on identity, and quality of life are all areas that are examined throughout this paper. A mixture of patients’ and doctors’ perspectives on PCOS were gathered throughout a three-week time period in …

Faith C. S. Ho, Western Medicine For Chinese: How The Hong Kong College Of Medicine Achieved A Breakthrough, Jack Greatrex

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese was founded in 1887 with expansive ambitions: the adoption of western medicine and science by the Chinese population of colonial Hong Kong and China more broadly.

Justice Served Fresh: Associations Between Food Insecurity, Community Gardening, And Property Value, Micajah Daniels, Courtney Coughenour Ph.D

McNair Poster Presentations

Numerous stakeholders in Nevada have used a variety of efforts to combat the growth of food insecurity facing Nevadans. The purpose of this research project is to understand the association between food insecurity, community gardens, and property value. Following the wealth of scholarship on these topics and data collected from community garden agencies in Southern Nevada, the research questions for this project include: (1) Where are community gardens located in SNV? (2) What efforts community gardens agencies are doing to address food insecurity (most interested in their efforts using community gardens)? (3) What are the perceptions of supports and barriers …

State Employment First Policies #2: Engaging Stakeholders In Development And Implementation, Jennifer Bose, Jean Winsor, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

This brief is the second in a series focusing on Employment First implementation as it relates to one of the seven elements within the High-Performing States in Integrated Employment model. It looks at the interagency collaboration and partnership element in depth. Interagency partnership and collaboration includes interagency agreements and relationships, provider collaboration, and outreach to stakeholders to ensure that integrated employment is a shared goal.
Case study data was collected for a sub-sample of seven states: Connecticut (CT), Delaware (DE), Kansas (KS), Minnesota (MN), Missouri (MO), Tennessee (TN), and Washington (WA). These states were selected because they represent a wide …

"Born Out Of Fear": A Grounded Theory Study Of The Stigma Of Bipolar Disorder For New Mothers, Walker Ladd Ph.D.

The Qualitative Report

Childbirth is an established trigger for the onset of bipolar disorders (BD) in the postpartum period, causing significant pathology and disability. Research has shown that the stigma of mental illness for new mothers is a powerful obstacle to care, preventing women from accessing critical treatment and social support. However, the majority of research has examined the relationship between the stigma and postpartum depression, leaving a gap in knowledge regarding stigma and postpartum bipolar disorder. The problem addressed in this grounded theory study was the lack of knowledge regarding the stigma of a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) in the first …

Kinship Diversion In The District Of Columbia: A Review Of Local Practice To Inform National Policy, Marla P. Spindel, Beth A. Stekler, Stephanie Ridgway Mcclellan

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This article addresses a practice commonly known in the child welfare community as “kinship diversion,” where a child welfare agency informally places children with relatives as an alternative to foster care. While evidence predominantly shows that abused and neglected children have better outcomes when they are placed with relatives when they cannot remain safely at home, serious concerns about these children’s safety and well-being arise when the placement with relatives is informal. Indeed, it is often not understood that these same relatives can be approved as foster parents and can receive essential financial assistance and supportive services to help safely …

Bringing Employment First To Scale: State Of The Science As A Knowledge Translation Strategy, John Kramer, Caro Narby, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

To synthesize our findings to date, the ThinkWork team at ICI developed 3 draft papers that captured the core themes from our RRTC on Advancing Employment for Individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (IDD). We asked experts in the field to weigh in on these papers, and then broadly disseminated the papers to multiple audiences. Our primary goal was to engage with a diverse group with a range of perspectives and experiences, including fellow researchers, state agency employees, rehabilitation providers, and individuals with IDD and their families. To reach this goal we used a Knowledge Translation (KT) process. KT has …

Bringing Employment First To Scale: Writing For Families: Tips To Increase The Impact Of Training Materials, Jennifer Bose, John Kramer, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

This brief covers some of the lessons learned in reviewing literature designed to engage with families about employment. It suggests some tips and strategies to use with families to increase effective involvement and collaboration.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness Is Positively Associated With Waist To Height Ratio And School Socio Economic Status In Irish Primary School Aged Children, M. O'Leary, E. Rush, Seán Lacey, Con Burns, Tara Coppinger

Publications

Background; The purpose of this paper is to examine any association between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and markers of health among 6 and 10 year old Irish children. Methods; A total of 917 children (6 year olds, N=459; 10 year olds, N=458) from 11 primary schools in Cork (Ireland) participated. Body composition, blood pressure (BP), CRF (550-metre distance run) and school socio-economic status (SES) were assessed. Children were classified as low or high fitness based on run-time standard deviation scores (SDS). Physical activity (PA) determined over 1 week by accelerometry was collected from a sub sample of 700 children (76.3%). Results; …

Strengthening Employment Services For Job Seekers With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities (Bringing Employment First To Scale, No 15), Alberto Migliore, Kelly Nye-Lengerman, Oliver Lyons, John Butterworth, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Strengthening the effectiveness of employment services for job seekers with disabilities is key for improving their employment outcomes and their financial self-sufficiency. The purpose of this brief is to examine the quality of employment services available to job seekers with disabilities, and to offer recommendations for improvement. Findings are from a longitudinal study that involved 61 employment 37 employment programs in 17 states. Data were collected through a survey employment specialists, delivered to the job developers, or participants’ business developers. smartphones every work day for one year. Based on these findings and the literature about effective employment support practices, we …

Unequal Hopes, Lives, And Lifespans In The Usa: Lessons From The New Science Of Well-Being, Carol Graham

Center for Policy Research

Given that we have had historic increases in inequality, as well as stagnant poverty levels for several decades, I will tell the story of poverty and inequality in the U.S. from the perspective of the metrics of happiness and well-being. My research—and the book that resulted—found that inequality is part of this story, but not the only part. The story was much more complicated than I anticipated. One of the most interesting parts of the story includes different levels of hope and resilience across races and places. Poverty and inequality play a big role, but there is much more to …

A Cause To Action: Learning To Develop A Culturally Responsive/Relevant Approach To 21st Century Water Safety Messaging Through Collaborative Partnerships, Angela K. Beale-Tawfeeq, Austin Anderson, William D. Ramos

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Globally, and in the United States, drowning is considered a “neglected public health threat” (WHO, 2014b). Reports have shown that there are groups of people in certain communities who are at greater risk. African Americans, as a group, have a drowning death rate 9% higher than that of the overall population, with the greatest disparity being among African American youth (Gilchrist & Parker, 2014). While many national programs and organizations present water safety awareness and drowning prevention efforts within communities, very few offer multi-sectorial collaborative efforts (WHO, 2017a) among culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) aquatic stakeholders designed to empower, promote, …

Best Integrated Writing 2018 - Complete Edition

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. The journal is published annually by the Wright State University Department of English Language and Literatures.

Family Experiences In Engaging In Employment: How Do We Improve Outcomes?, John Kramer, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Session 018: Abolishing Exploitive Labour Practices Room: Freedom H

Sponsors: Disability Youth, Aging, and the Life Course

Organizer, Presider &

Discussant: Katherine Caldwell, University of Illinois at Chicago

Papers:

“Differences in Earnings among Persons with and without Disabilities,” Alexandra Krause, Florida State University

“Family Experiences in Engaging in Employment: How Do We Improve Outcomes?” John Kramer, University of Massachusetts Boston

“Shifting the Paradigm through Entrepreneurship,” Katherine Caldwell, University of Illinois at Chicago

From Contemplation To Action: Mechanisms Of Change In The Mentoring Academy, Linda S. Behar-Horenstein, Huibin Zhang

The Qualitative Report

Mentoring is fundamental to the professional development of research scientists in academic health centers (AHC). Qualified mentors can support the development of competencies considered most significant in training research scientists. Yet AHC faculty may have little preparation in and knowledge of how to mentor. Emerging AHC mentor academies provide educational environments whereby faculty can learn the art and practice of mentoring. However, little is known about their effectiveness. Using the Transtheoretical Change Model (TTM), this study explored how 23 mentors used newly learned information to change their communication styles and develop shared expectations with mentees. Based on an inductive analysis …

Higher Quality At Lower Cost: Community Health Worker Interventions In The Health Care Innovation Awards, Caitlin Cross-Barnet, Sarah Ruiz, Megan Skillman, Rina Dhopeshwarkar, Rachel Singer, Rachel Carpenter, Suzanne Campanella, Maysoun Freij, Lynne Snyder, Erin Colligan

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background: Published evidence regarding cost savings, reduced utilization, and improved quality associated with employing community health workers (CHWs) is largely lacking. This paper presents findings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Health Care Innovation Awards (HCIA), with a focus on six diverse programs that employ CHWs. We examine outcomes associated with programs incorporating CHWs into care teams for a broad age range of patients with various health issues such as cancer, asthma, and complex conditions.

Methods: This mixed-methods study used data from claims and site visits to assess the effectiveness of CHW programs. In difference-in-differences analyses of Medicare …

A Land Not Forgotten: Indigenous Food Security & Land-Based Practices In Northern Ontario By Michael A. Robidoux And Courtney W. Mason, Tonia L. Payne Ph.D.

The Goose

Review of Michael A. Robidoux and Courtney W. Mason's (eds.) A Land Not Forgotten: Indigenous Food Security & Land-Based Practices in Northern Ontario.

Madness And Lived Experience: An Analysis Of The Icarus Project, Alyson Young

Social Justice and Community Engagement

Psychiatric frameworks are used as the primary lens in the Western world to understand, define, describe, and categorize the experience of mental distress in individuals. The Icarus Project is a community mental health organization that has a focus on intersectionality and uses a social justice lens to look at experiences of mental distress. Members of The Icarus Project believe that they possess knowledge about the potential benefits that exist in the space between brilliance and madness as a community of individuals with lived experience of mental distress. Members believe that, through this knowledge, they can instill a sense of hope …

Queering Sexual Health: The Intersection Of Sexual Health And Lgbtq Identities In Worcester, Ma, Sara Richman Davidow

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research examined what support, services, and programming existed at the intersection of sexual health and LGBTQ identities in Worcester MA. The data analyzed were interviews with professionals in sexual health or LGBTQ related fields as well as the public websites of sexual health or LGBTQ organizations. The researcher examined this data, along with literature on the rise of sexual health and LGBTQ communities, to understand (1) how inclusive sexual health resources in Worcester were and (2) what themes still need to be addressed to make gender and sexuality minorities comfortable seeking sexual health medical aid. The findings indicated that …

Families And Employment Of People With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: Results From A Scoping Study, John Kramer, Jennifer Bose, Jean Winsor, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Purpose: Recent policy changes expanding community employment for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) and awareness of the important role of family members as facilitators of these opportunities motivated this scoping review of the literature on family engagement with the IDD service system.

Methods: Researchers used Arksey and O’Malley’s six-stage scoping review methodology (2005) to map a wide range of literature to discover the resources and strategies available to families supporting people with IDD to find employment; the resources and strategies to support people with IDD and families to develop a vision of employment; and the resources and strategies to support …

Toxic Effects Of Lead Disposal In Water: An Analysis Of Tri Facility Releases, Patrick Koval

Economics Department Working Papers

Using county-level TRI data from 2003 to 2016, I find evidence that lead emissions in water adversely affect birth weights within the emitting county, especially with respect to the percentage of births considered low birth weight within that county (less than 2,500 grams). I find that a one percent increase in lead emissions per square mile increases the proportion of low birth weights by 0.27 percentage points. For a county with an average number of births in a particular year, this one percent increase in lead per square mile translates to an additional $475,000 in hospitalization costs from complications with …

Chronic Migraines And Couples: A Grounded Theory Of Adaptation To Chronic Migraines For Patients And Their Partners, Douglas P. Mcphee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was completed to better understand and treat couples wherein one partner suffers from chronic migraines. I interviewed eight couples about their experiences in dealing with migraines as a patient, as a partner, and together. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by a team of seven researchers. We developed a theory that can be used to understand how patients and their partners adapt to chronic migraines. The theory was grounded in the experiences of the patients and partners who were interviewed. We found that patients and partners alike dealt with burdens and costs associated with chronic migraines. Coping, healthcare, …

Designed Cultural Adaptation And Delivery Quality In Rural Substance Use Prevention: An Effectiveness Trial For The Keepin’ It Real Curriculum, Michael L. Hecht, Youngju Shin, Jonathan Pettigrew, Michelle Miller-Day, Janice L. Krieger

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This study examined how cultural adaptation and delivery quality of the school-based intervention keepin’ it REAL (kiR) influenced adolescent substance use. The goal of the study was to compare the effectiveness of the multi-cultural, urban (non-adapted) kiR intervention, a re-grounded (adapted) rural version of the kiR intervention and control condition in a new, rural setting. A total of 39 middle schools in rural communities of two states in the USA were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (i.e., control, non-adapted urban kiR, and adapted rural kiR). Data included adolescent self-reported lifetime substance use and observers’ ratings of delivery quality …

Geographical, Racial And Socio-Economic Variation In Life Expectancy In The Us And Their Impact On Cancer Relative Survival, Angela B. Mariotto, Zhaohui Zou, Christopher J. Johnson, Steve Scoppa, Hannah K. Weir, Bin Huang

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Purpose

Despite gains in life expectancy between 1992 to 2012, large disparities in life expectancy continue to exist in the United States between subgroups of the population. This study aimed to develop detailed life tables (LT), accounting for mortality differences by race, geography, and socio-economic status (SES), to more accurately measure relative cancer survival and life expectancy patterns in the United States.

Methods

We estimated an extensive set of County SES-LT by fitting Poisson regression models to deaths and population counts for U.S. counties by age, year, gender, race, ethnicity and county-level SES index. We reported life expectancy patterns and …

Complexities And Challenges Of Nonduality, Elizabeth Stephens

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

States of consciousness referred to as nonduality, awakening, enlightenment, moksha, peak experience, unitive states, or void states, among other terms, have garnered increasing secular attention and have become a topic of psychological and neuroscientific research. A review of the literature revealed many challenges to studying this set of states, such as inconsistent conceptualizations, a variety of models and theories, and conflicting descriptions indicating that the actual experience may not live up to the superlative descriptions found in historical texts or the expectations put forth by nondual teachers. A great deal more empirical research on this topic is needed, and researchers …

Wide Educational Disparities In Young Adult Cardiovascular Health, Elizabeth M. Lawrence, Robert A. Hummer, Benjamin W. Domingue, Kathleen Mullan Harris

Sociology Faculty Research

Widening educational differences in overall health and recent stagnation in cardiovascular disease mortality rates highlight the critical need to describe and understand educational disparities in cardiovascular health (CVH) among U.S. young adults. We use two data sets representative of the U.S. population to examine educational disparities in CVH among young adults (24–34) coming of age in the 21st century: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005–2010; N= 689) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (2007–2008; N=11,200). We employ descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The results show that fewer than one in four young adults had …

Why The Uk Needs A Separate Justice System For People With Mental Illness, Karen A. Snedker

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"Severe mental illness is on the rise in the UK, and an increasing number of people with mental illness are behind bars and supported by inadequate mental health services. This is a situation that could be improved by the introduction of courts specifically geared for hearing cases involving defendants with mental health issues."

Depression, Anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And A History Of Pervasive Gender-Based Violence Among Women Asylum Seekers Who Have Undergone Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Retrospective Case Review, Hazel Lever, Deborah Ottenheimer, Jimmitti Teysir, Elizabeth Singer, Holly G. Atkinson

Publications and Research

We sought to evaluate the frequency of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and any experiences of violence in women who had undergone Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and were seeking asylum in the United States. We undertook a retrospective qualitative descriptive study of FGM/C cases seen in an asylum clinic over a 2-year period. Standardized questionnaires provided quantitative scores for anxiety, depression and PTSD. Clients’ personal and physician medical affidavits were analyzed for experiences of violence. Of the 13 cases, anxiety and depression were exhibited by 92 and 100% of women, while all seven women screened for PTSD had symptoms. Qualitative analysis revealed …

Promoting The Health Of Individuals With Intellectual And/Or Developmental Disabilities Through Community Gardening, Stephanie Brown

Department of Advanced Practice Nursing

No abstract provided.

Adults Using Long Term Services And Supports: Population And Service Use Trends In Maine, Sfy 2016, Kimberly I. Snow Mhsa, Ba, Frances Jimenez Ba, Tina Gressani, Louise Olsen

Disability & Aging

All of us have likely either used, will use, or know someone who uses long term services and support (LTSS). They enable us to live with dignity and as much independence as possible and offer us the opportunity to remain involved and productive in our communities. The need for LTSS can arise suddenly after injury or illness or a life-long condition. But how ever the need arises, the impact is the same—services such as personal care, work support, home health care, and residential care provide not just for individual health and comfort, but also for interaction, inclusion, and engagement with …