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University of Alabama at Birmingham

Theses/Dissertations

2018

Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) School of Public Health

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Effects Of Medicare Reimbursement Policies On The Quality Of Hospital Care, Monica Aswani Jan 2018

Effects Of Medicare Reimbursement Policies On The Quality Of Hospital Care, Monica Aswani

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation is composed of two papers related to the role of social risk factors in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). As value-based initiatives like the HRRP become more commonplace, there is growing need to understand the relationship between performance in these programs and social risk factors, such as race and poverty, which are not incorporated in the program’s risk adjustment methodology. To address this gap in the literature, this dissertation specifically focuses on three areas: 1) how hospital and community factors are related to average HRRP penalties, taking the context of geography into account, 2) how hospital and …


Cigarette Smoking Among Hiv-Positive Patients In Routine Clinical Care, Cosmas Mudenda Zyambo Jan 2018

Cigarette Smoking Among Hiv-Positive Patients In Routine Clinical Care, Cosmas Mudenda Zyambo

All ETDs from UAB

People living with HIV (PLWH) are two to three times more likely to be current smokers, less likely to quit smoking and more likely to relapse than those in the general population. Although smoking status, prescription of smoking cessation medications (SCMs), smoking cessation and relapse has been explored in this population, few have investigated using a large sample of PLWH receiving routine HIV care. Using data from a large observational cohort of PLWH receiving routine care in Birmingham, we determined: 1) Factors associated with smoking status; 2) Factors associated with prescription of SCMs; 3) Predictors of smoking cessation and; 4) …


Social Factors, Public Policies, And Infant Mortality, Lauren Wallace Jan 2018

Social Factors, Public Policies, And Infant Mortality, Lauren Wallace

All ETDs from UAB

Despite consistent and substantial investments, the United States’ infant mortality rate (IMR) has not decreased significantly in the 21st century and disparities between racial and ethnic groups have increased. This study investigates the impact of social and health factors, and public policies on IMR at the state level. The research aims were to: 1) evaluate which state-level social factors and public policies were associated with state IMRs using principal component (PC) analysis; and 2) evaluate whether states cluster on their PC scores and IMRs using cluster analysis. The data used were six composite index scores based on social factor and …