Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

In-Hospital Mortality Patterns And Readmissions In Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Analysis Of The Role Of Pulmonary Hypertension, Saad Afzal Khan, Trishna Parikh, Adishwar Rao, Akriti Agrawal, Aarohi Parikh, Farah Kazzaz, Sarah Shin, Harry Karmouty-Quintana, Maulin Patel, Kha Dinh, Bela Patel, Bindu Akkanti

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be complicated by pulmonary hypertension (PH). We aimed to understand the impact of PH on in-hospital mortality and quantify the 30-day readmission rate among patients with COPD. For this cross-sectional study, we used the Nationwide Readmissions Database from 2017-2020 to identify adults ≥18 years with COPD. Patients were stratified according to PH diagnosis. Baseline characteristics between groups were compared using the Pearson chi-square test and two-sample t-test. Predictors of in-hospital mortality were determined using multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for demographics and confounders. The 30-day readmission rate and prevalence of PH subgroups by baseline …

Exploring Burnout Among Ncaa Collegiate Athletes: The Impact Of Gender, Sport, Seasonal Demands, And Other Contributing Factors, Anneliese Wong

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine burnout among NCAA Division I student-athletes at one mid-sized University in the Rocky Mountains region of the United States and determine whether differences existed based on gender, sport type, competitive season stage, and burnout dimension. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used and data was collected from 76 student-athletes across 11 varsity sports. Burnout was assessed using items adapted from the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ; Raedeke & Smith, 2001), along with additional items assessing fatigue and seasonal experiences.

Descriptive results showed the student-athletes reported the highest mean level of physical burnout, followed …

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Variability In Prediction Of Target Organ Injury: The Ship Ahoy Study, Coral D Hanevold, Jang Dong Seo, Stephen R Daniels, Bonita E Falkner, Michael A Ferguson, Joseph T Flynn, Julie R Ingelfinger, Philip R Khoury, Marc B Lande, Kevin E Meyers, Mark Mitsnefes, Joshua Samuels, Elaine M Urbina

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Ambulatory hypertension is associated with elevated left ventricular mass index (LVMI), cardiac dysfunction, and increased arterial stiffness in adolescents. Whether the addition of measures of BP variability improves the prediction of subclinical cardiovascular target organ damage (TOD) over mean BP measures is not known.

Methods: We assessed clinic and ambulatory BP (ABP), anthropometrics, and TOD in 397 adolescents. ABP means standard deviation (SD), BP, and heart rate (HR) dipping were calculated; coefficients of variability (CV) were calculated (SD/mean) to assess ABP variabilities. Measures of TOD included LVMI, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), LV systolic shortening, LV diastolic function (e'/a'), and …

Individual And Household Factors Associated With Tungiasis In A Marginalized Population In Karamoja, Northeastern Uganda, Lynne Elson, Abneel K. Matharu, Berrick Otieno, Hermann Feldmeier, Charles Waiswa, Amina Abubakar, Jürgen Krücken, Ulrike Fillinger, Francis Mutebi

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Background: Tungiasis is a neglected tropical skin disease caused by adult female fleas which burrow into the skin of people and animals, causing considerable pain and itching. The distribution of the disease is heterogeneous, with Napak district, Karamoja sub-region of northeastern Uganda having the highest disease burden recorded globally. We aimed to determine the factors associated with this high prevalence to inform future intervention strategies. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to identify factors associated with infection of individual children and adults, and a nested case–control study to identify factors for whole households (families). Infected children were identified through mass-screening …

Assessing Content Validity Of The Osteo-Taq(Aus) Using Cognitive Interviews: Cross-Jurisdictional Evidence From Uk Osteopathic Practice​​, Oliver P. Thomson, Elena Golder, Gopi Anne Mcleod, Jerry Draper-Rodi, Steven Vogel, Brett Vaughan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The Osteopaths’ Therapeutic Approaches Questionnaire (Osteo-TAQ) has demonstrated content, construct, and face validity across multiple jurisdictions but required cognitive validation for use in the United Kingdom (UK). Objectives: To assess the cognitive content and face validity of the Australian-adapted Osteo-TAQ (Osteo-TAQ(Aus)) with practising UK osteopaths, and to determine whether any revisions were necessary. Methods: Cognitive interviews were conducted with six (n = 6) UK osteopaths using a combination of think-aloud and verbal probing techniques, informed by the Cognitive Interview Reporting Framework (CIRF). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using team-based content analysis to identify issues of item interpretation, clarity …

Discriminative Performance Of Externally Validated Dementia Risk Prediction Models: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Blossom C.M. Stephan, Jacob Brain, Kaarin J. Anstey, Tanya Buchanan, Claire V. Burley, Elissa Burton, Jennifer Dunne, Linda Errington, Matthew Gorringe, Zhongyang Guan, Bronwyn Myers, Serena Sabatini, Marc Sim, William Stephan, Eugene Yee Hing Tang, Narelle Warren, Mario Siervo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Data on the external validation of current dementia risk prediction models has not yet been systematically synthesised. This systematic review and meta-analysis collated results from three previous reviews to evaluate the predictive discriminative performance of dementia risk models when validated in population-based settings. Methods: Embase (via Ovid), Medline (via Ovid), Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from inception to June 2022 with an updated search conducted up to November 2024. Included studies (1) had a population-based cohort design; (2) assessed incident late-life (i.e. ≥ 60 years) dementia; and (3) reported predictive performance of at least one dementia risk …

Enhancing Independence And Social Connection: The Impact Of A Tailored Exercise Program On New Residents Transitioning Into Australian Residential Care Facilities, Stacey Scott, Annette Raynor, Julie Dare, Jennifer Grieve, Leesa Costello

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Transitioning from independent living to a residential care facility often results in a significant loss of independence, autonomy, and connectedness, leaving new residents with profound feelings of loss and grief. In light of these challenges, this study explored the potential benefits of a tailored in-house exercise program for new residents. Methods: The study took place in an Australian residential care facility and included four new residents (aged 72 to 88, 75% female), who participated in a 12-week tailored exercise program led by an exercise physiologist. A focused ethnographic approach was used to obtain a comprehensive data set, drawing on …

Adding A Weight To Constrain The Trunk Increases Knee Joint Kinetics During Sidestep Cutting In Female Athletes, Daniel Kadlec, J. Jordan, Jacqueline Alderson, Sophia Nimphius

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Sidestep cutting exposes the knee to high multiplanar loads that both challenge tissue capacity and provide an opportunity to develop resilience through progressive exposure. This study investigated task constraints applied at the trunk and preparatory step and changes in lower-body joint kinetics associated with ACL injury risk during sidestepping in female athletes. Twenty-one trained female athletes performed six sidestep conditions: pre-planned and unplanned sidesteps, each with and without trunk (holding ~ 5–7.5% body mass at chest level) and preparatory-step (ducking under an adjustable rope at eye height) constraints. Relative joint power at the hip, knee, and ankle was analysed using …

Association Of Glycd147 With Carotid Atherosclerosis: Evidence From Integrative Analyses, Cuihong Tian, Yang, Xingang Li, Hongxia Zhang, Jieyi He, Jinxiu Zhu, Yequn Chen, Xuerui Tan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory cardiovascular disease that progresses with ageing. Glycosylation plays a significant role in inflammation and contributes to the pathogenesis of ageing-related diseases, including atherosclerosis. Cluster of differentiation 147 (CD147), a glycosylated agonist of matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9), serves as an inducer of atherosclerosis and atherothrombosis. However, the effect of glycosylated CD147 (GlyCD147) on atherosclerosis remains unclear. This research aims to identify whether GlyCD147 is associated with atherosclerosis. Methods: To begin with, a clinical case-control study was designed to assess the differences of CD147 and GlyCD147 between 69 carotid atherosclerosis (CAS) cases and 69 controls. Traditional atherosclerotic …

Co-Creating An Intervention To Prevent Injuries In Police Force Recruits: A Concept Mapping Study Of Police Force Recruits, Police Force Staff, Health Professionals, And Research Experts, Myles Murphy, Andrea B. Mosler, Garth Allen, Alex Donaldson, Clare L. Ardern, Carolyn A. Emery, Martin Hägglund, Jonathan M. Hodgson, Joanne L. Kemp, Debra Langridge, Tiffany Mcalinden, Thomas Mirco, Sophia Nimphius, Simone Radavelli-Bagatini, Kiera Staley, Vanessa Sutton, Evert Verhagen, Andrea M. Bruder

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objective: Police force recruits have a high musculoskeletal injury burden, which results in a substantial economic burden and can lead to attrition. The objective of this study was to identify and prioritise the strategies perceived as important and feasible to reduce the prevalence, incidence, and burden of injury in police force recruits. Design: Mixed-methods concept mapping study. Methods: Forty-eight participants were recruited from four broad groups: police force recruits/officers; police force staff; health professionals; and research experts. Participants brainstormed statements in response to a prompt (“To prevent injury and/or reduce the impact of injury on law enforcement recruit training, I …

Graft Survival And Rejection With Repeated Human Leukocyte Antigen (Hla) Mismatch In Kidney Transplantation: A Retrospective Multicentre Cohort Study Protocol, Henry Guo, William Mulley, Narelle Watson, Rhonda Holdsworth, Anne Taverniti, Jon Downing, Alycia Thornton, Lucy Sullivan, Fiona Hudson, Christopher E. Davies, Ryan Gately, Armando Teixeira-Pinto, Germaine Wong, John Kanellis, Wai Lim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Candidates awaiting repeat kidney transplantation face substantial immunological barriers due to prior human leukocyte antigen (HLA) allo-sensitisation. Re-exposure to previously mismatched HLA antigens may increase the risk of acute rejection and premature graft loss. Although avoidance of repeat HLA mismatches (RMM) has been standard practice, emerging evidence suggests this risk varies according to the specific HLA allelic RMM and anti-HLA antibody profile to the RMM. Here we describe the protocol for a retrospective registry-based cohort study that aims to determine the differences in graft outcome between recipients who received kidney transplants with and without RMM, and to examine the …

Preventive Behaviors Associated With Fall Incidence Among Older Adults Living In Rural Communities Of Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study, Rujira Nonsa-Ard, Sirapat Khodseewong, Kasama Wongprachum, Chaiwut Bourneow, Ploypailin Aneknan, Sumattana Glangkarn, Davina Porock

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The escalating population of older adults poses a significant challenge, particularly in lower-middle-income countries like Thailand. Falls represent a critical public health concern in this demographic. This study aimed to identify risk factors influencing fall occurrence in older adults within a specific rural community context, where the majority of participants remain engaged in farm work.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was utilized, involving 1,256 participants recruited by the multistage random sampling approach. Data were collected via a questionnaire that included: demographic information, the Thai version of the Barthel Activities of Daily Living (ADL), the Thai Fall Risk Assessment Tool …

The Impact Of Virtual Reality Simulation On Developing Competence And Confidence In Non-Technical Skills In Nursing. A Scoping Review, Katie Janz, Karen Clark-Burg, Khaya Morris-Binelli, Brennen Mills, Amanda Graf

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Medical errors are a global concern and can compromise patient safety, with up to 80% of these errors directly linked to non-technical skills (NTS) failures. Traditional simulation using mannikins is resource-intensive, and virtual reality simulation (VR) has the potential to offer comparable outcomes with enhanced consistency and lowered resource requirements, but the effectiveness of VR to teach and enhance NTS has been underexplored.

Aim: This scoping review explores the existing literature on VR simulation as a method for teaching NTS in nursing to evaluate whether VR simulation yields positive learning outcomes, particularly in comparison to traditional training methods such …

Primary Breast Sarcoma In Pediatric, Adolescent, And Young Adult Patients: A Single-Institution Retrospective Review, Amelie D. Perrier

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Medication Management And Caregiving Stress Or Benefit In Children With Medical Complexity., Casey O'Hare, Nicole Werner, Makenzie Morgen, Sophie Kooiman, James Feinstein, Michelle A. Chui, Gemma Warner, Anna Jolliff, Brittany Storhoff, Kristan Sondegren, Danielle Gerber, Jens Eickhoff, Ryan J. Coller

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

This study quantified medication management experiences for children with medical complexity and associations with caregiver stress or benefit. Using data from the MedS@HOME trial, involvement of professional caregivers was associated with increased caregiver benefit, and greater network collective efficacy was associated with increased caregiver benefit and decreased caregiver stress.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID NCT05816590.

Evaluating The Pulse Of Exercise Programs: Developing And Validating The Intervention Usability Scale For Exercise (Iuse) To Enhance Implementation And Adherence, Anne Inger Mørtvedt, Eva Ageberg, Steven Elmer, Kevin Trewartha, Erich Petushek

Michigan Tech Publications

Background: Adherence to exercise interventions is often suboptimal, despite numerous studies documenting barriers and facilitators. Usability may be a critical yet underexplored determinant of adherence. This study aimed to develop and assess the psychometric properties of the Intervention Usability Scale for Exercise (IUSE). Methods: Item generation and content validation involved cognitive interviews and feedback from eight exercise intervention stakeholders and ten target users from the general public. Subsequently, 526 target users from University, Qualtrics and Prolific participant panels assessed exercise programs through an online survey. Dimensionality was assessed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and bifactor models. …

Smart Medical System Integrating Clinical Workflows For Robust Skin Cancer Detection Across Heterogeneous Pathologies, Ahed Abugabah, Prashant Kumar Shukla, Suchi Mishra, Abhishek Dwivedi

All Works

Skin cancer is among the most prevalent and life-threatening dermatological diseases worldwide, with melanoma responsible for a substantial proportion of skin cancer–related deaths due to delayed and unreliable diagnosis. Conventional clinical screening based on visual inspection and expert interpretation is inherently subjective and often affected by inter-observer variability, lesion heterogeneity, and imaging artifacts, highlighting the need for accurate and generalizable automated diagnostic systems. This study proposes a novel hybrid deep learning architecture for skin cancer classification that integrates an attention-guided autoencoder with a transformer-inspired global context modeling module, forming a unified and robust representation learning framework. The encoder–decoder structure is …

Impact Of School Nurse Education On Factors Influencing Hpv Vaccine Communication With Parents, Diane Santa Maria, Erika Thompson, Sanghamitra M Misra, Paula M Cuccaro

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause six cancer types but can be prevented with timely vaccination in early adolescence. However, despite the wide availability of the HPV vaccine, uptake remains suboptimal among US adolescents. School nurses are invaluable resources to students and their families regarding adolescent immunization needs. As part of the All for Them vaccination program, we assessed the impact of the continued nurse education (CNE) intervention on school nurses’ HPV vaccine communication with parents. Seventy-two school nurses and nurse administrators in Texas participated in the study. Using a single-arm study design, we measured participants’ potential barriers to and self-efficacy …

Mtorc2-Nav1.2 Signaling Drives Early Hyperexcitability In Alzheimer’S Disease Mouse Model

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Hyperexcitability is a biomarker of early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and hastens cognitive decline later in its course. Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling contributes to the slope of this trajectory, as evidenced by early increased brain expression and the rescue of hyperexcitability by genetic deletion of mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2); however, a molecular mechanism directly linking mTOR signaling to membrane hyperexcitability in early-stage AD remains elusive. Here, we show that hyperactive mTOR signaling stimulates the voltage-gated Na+ channel 1.2 (Nav1.2), a previously identified downstream phosphorylation target of mTORC2 and a key regulator of membrane electrogenesis. Augmented Nav1.2 channel function induced …

Sociodemographic And Clinical Factors In Nmosd And Mogad: Disability, Psychiatric Burden, And Disparities, Neha S. Patil

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Role Of Perineural Invasion In The Risk Of Local Recurrence Of Cutaneous Melanoma After Adjuvant Radiation Therapy, Riya T. Patel

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Biomechanical Gait Analysis To Classify Neurological Gait Scores In A Spina Bifida Sheep Model, Shreya Pandiri

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Improving Adhd Screenings Through Quality Improvement, Workflow Optimization, And Evaluation Of A 6-Item Short Form Screening Tool, Paris A. Nix

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Environmental Or Occupational Heavy Metal Exposure In The Development And Progression Of End Stage Kidney Disease: A Systematic And Network Meta-Analysis, Lauren Nguyen

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Pediatric Surgical Care Delivery Across Settings: National Trends In Ambulatory, Outpatient, And Inpatient Models, Kyle C. Nevitt

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Potential Benefits Of Combining Cannabidiol And Beta-Caryophyllene For Neuropathic And Inflammatory Pain: A Systematic Review, Khalid Benamar

School of Medicine Publications

Purpose: In this review, we examined the analgesic effect of the combination of cannabidiol (CBD) and beta-caryophyllene (BCP) in different pain conditions.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Literature searches were performed across major academic databases (Google Scholar, Web of Science, and PubMed) from 2009 to 2026 to identify studies investigating the analgesic effect of the combination of CBD and BCP.

Results: The search identified 31 records. Ten reports were screened and assessed for eligibility, and five studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings consistently demonstrate …

Thinking Out Loud: Distinguishing Overt, Mimed, And Covert Speech Using Stereo-Electroencephalography For Brain-Computer Interfaces, Hasan K. Mubarak

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Parental Perceptions Of Child Health And Their Alignment With Clinical Indicators In Overweight Or Obese Low-Income Children, Katherine Moorman-Wolfe

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

The Association Between Early Postnatal Phosphorus, Magnesium, And Calcium Levels And Neurodevelopmental Outcomes In Extremely Preterm Infants: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Alyssa N. Miller

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Complex Care: Impact Of Congenital Malformations And Caregiver Health Literacy On Perceived Outcomes, Poorna R. Menon

Summer Research Program Abstracts

No abstract provided.