Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Psilocybin With Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (Act) For The Treatment Of Social Anxiety Disorder (Sad), Aspen E. Allred

University Honors Theses

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a debilitating mental health condition characterized by an overwhelming fear and anxiety of social rejection that can lead to chronic patterns of social behavioral avoidance. Despite the existence of traditional efficacious treatments, a significant number of individuals either do not respond to treatment or experience a recurrence of symptoms over extended periods, spanning 10-12 years. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a form of acceptance-based behavioral therapy considered part of the "third wave" of cognitive behavioral therapies, has shown promising results in early studies, comparable to those of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that is considered the …

Economic Analysis Of Population-Based Next Generation Sequencing For Breast Cancer, Sapphire Curelaru

University Honors Theses

Breast cancer develops due to accumulated DNA replication insults which causes cancer to uncontrollably proliferate. An individual's predisposition to developing cancer, as well as the composition of a tumor, can be sequenced using genetic tests. Myriad's BRACAnalysis CDx^® seems to be the most utilized genetic test. However, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) seems to be a better genetic test for breast cancer when compared to Myriad's BRACAnalysisCDx^® in terms of return-time, accuracy, efficiency, and healthcare cost. By using Next Generation Sequencing tests, stakeholders can save money on genetic testing which can be invested in more genetic tests. Payers can …

Effects Of Language Status, Community Advice, And Parent Beliefs On Heritage Language Maintenance In The U.S.: A Scoping Review, Jasmine Loeung

University Honors Theses

This scoping review examines the effects of language status, community advice to parents, and parents' beliefs on heritage language maintenance within a U.S. context. A total of 34 articles met the inclusion criteria. Four key themes were identified as follows: (1) status of a language in society affects maintenance, (2) parents' beliefs about the impact of the heritage language affect family language practices, (3) community advice impacts parents' beliefs and practices, (4) other factors affecting maintenance of the heritage language across generations. Overall, HL maintenance was observed as a dynamic relationship between a variety of factors, with individuals as well …

The Impact Of Period Poverty On Low-Income Adolescents In The United States, Makayla Olson

University Honors Theses

Period poverty is an issue that impacts menstruators globally. This creates a significant health disparity for menstruators, including difficulties accessing menstrual products, inadequate menstrual and puberty health education, and shame and stigma that come from societal misunderstandings and misinformation regarding menstruation. This paper examines the effects of period poverty on low-income adolescents in the United States. It looks at the current literature that addresses how the financial and accessibility barriers that cause period poverty, as well as how these causes impact school-aged menstruators. It aims to address the role that schools play in creating safe environments for menstruators, including staff …

The Association Of Patient-Provider Language Concordance With Healthcare Comprehension Among Latino/As In Oregon, Grace Parra

University Honors Theses

Background: The purpose of this study is to describe the need and preferences among Mexican-origin Latinos in Oregon for language-concordant healthcare providers. We hypothesize that the presence of a language concordant provider is associated with greater health care comprehension.

Methods: This is a cross sectional study in collaboration with the General Consulate of Mexico. We developed a 20-item survey that includes questions about socio-demographics, a validated language-based acculturation scale, and questions regarding language concordant care experience and preferences used in previous studies. We are recruiting at the Mexican Consulate 500 Latino/as ages 18 or older who had a healthcare visit …

Tattoos And Trauma: Are Tattoos Healing For Trauma?, Krystal Bell

University Honors Theses

Prior research and literature reviews suggest that there is medicinal value in tattooing for the healing of trauma. However, tattooing is still a burgeoning topic in academic studies and still mostly taboo as a western societal practice, so there are gaps in qualitative and quantitative data that could further validate the healing benefits of tattoos for trauma. This literature review analyzed 30 peer reviewed articles that focus on "contemporary tattoo data," "indigenous traditions and practices," "tattoos and trauma," and other alternative healing such as "MDMA, psilocybin, EMDR" to establish a well-rounded investigation into tattoos as an alternative healing option. The …

Homelessness, Water Access, And Environmental Justice In An Urban Environment, Alicia Gamble

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Only in recent years has houselessness been viewed as an environmental justice issue, and little is understood about the environmental injustices of water insecurity among unhoused individuals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to understand the environmental injustices (i.e., distributive, procedural, and recognition) of the water insecurity process using the cause-response-effect theoretical model, unhoused participants living near services were interviewed in Portland, Oregon about their lived experiences gaining access to water, the barriers they encounter when trying to access water, and the impacts that result from these barriers. Results revealed that COVID-19 was a barrier to water access and …

Classifying Severe And Enduring Anorexia Nervosa: A Literature Review, Phoenix Black

University Honors Theses

Little focus is placed on the subsection of the eating disorder patient population who struggle chronically with their illness. This review synthesizes research on the topic to identify gaps in knowledge and reflect on implications for diagnosis and classification of severe and enduring anorexia nervosa. There was some variability between both clinicians and researchers who focused on this patient population, which is discussed based on different classifying criteria used to include or exclude an individual into the study. This review considers traditional methods used for classifying psychiatric diagnoses in relation to this disorder.

Health Literacy And People Diagnosed With Mental Illness, Beckie Child

Dissertations and Theses

Health literacy is a well-studied concept that has a large literature base. Yet, little is known about health literacy and people diagnosed with mental illnesses, and even less health literacy research speaks to people diagnosed with mental illness. I used a framework and approach of lived experience of psychiatric diagnosis and psychiatric survivor research to conceptualize and inform the study. It explores health literacy with people diagnosed with mental and physical health diagnoses using a small quantitative survey, focus groups, and an individual interview. The findings suggest that health literacy is a dynamic and complex construct that interacts with the …

Examining Demographic And Environmental Factors In Predicting The Perceived Impact Of Cancer On Childhood And Adolescent Cancer Survivors, Nazan Cetin

Dissertations and Theses

Cancer survivors' perceptions on how cancer has impacted their lives has been identified as a "critical predictor" of psychosocial well-being and quality of life outcomes. Given the dramatic increase in survival rates and the long-term health and psychosocial challenges, as well as survivorship care barriers, this study focuses special attention on childhood and adolescent cancer survivors and is guided by Tedeschi and Calhoun's theory of posttraumatic growth and Hammond's theory of distinctiveness. This study aims to examine the influence of demographic (i.e., age at diagnosis, biological sex, race/ethnicity, type of cancer) and environmental factors (i.e., geographical location and insurance type), …

Treatment Disparities In Emergency Medical Services: The Influence Of Race/Ethnicity, Obesity, And English Proficiency, Jamie Kennel

Dissertations and Theses

Different treatment in healthcare settings provided to different social groups of people may lead to disparities in health, quality of life, and life span. Despite the critical role among healthcare services that Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provides disproportionately for marginalized communities, it remains unclear if and to what extent treatment disparities take place in the pre-hospital setting. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of social worth, aversive racism, and stigma, this study utilizes medical chart data from three different public and private datasets to investigate treatment disparities by Emergency Medical Service providers for racial minority, obese, and limited English proficiency patients. …

Covid's Impact On Nurses & Their Labor Market, Joshua Stanfill

University Honors Theses

The Covid pandemic has swept across the globe impacting many different kinds of people in many different ways. Businesses and workers experienced changes in how their respective labor markets operated with new incentives. One group of laborers that experienced quite a significant impact are nurses working through the Covid pandemic. The pandemic created new incentives for nurses that heavily impacted their labor market. Through a literature review of scientific studies examining the impacts of working through a pandemic on nurses, I discovered that this was causing psychological and emotional damage to nurses. Covid spurred on an already occurring nursing shortage …

Augmentative And Alternative Communication Use, Service Delivery Experiences, And Communicative Participation For People With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Betts Peters

Dissertations and Theses

People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often experience changes to their speech, and may use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices and techniques to maintain the ability to communicate. The use of AAC may facilitate the participation of people with ALS in various life situations involving communication. There is limited data in the literature about the AAC approaches currently used by people with ALS, the professional services they receive to support communication, or the effects of AAC on their communicative participation. This dissertation involved a nationwide online survey of people with ALS, and comprises three papers intended to add to …

Reflecting On Resilience: Insight Into Resiliency Development And Utilization In Oregon's Older Adults From 2020 To 2022, Riley A. Wilton

University Honors Theses

The events of the last 2 years have complicated the lives of older adults throughout the world. For many, their survival can be traced back to one key trait: resilience. In the state of Oregon, the years 2020-2022 came with a host of issues that expanded past the COVID-19 pandemic. These events provide context for the world our storytellers discuss.

Using a snowball recruitment strategy through the efforts of community organizations and senior centers, 4 storytellers sat down to describe their resilience in different ways. They were asked to reflect on their own life experiences, how it influenced their resilience, …

Fortunate People In A Fortunate Land: Dwelling And Residential Alienation In Santa Monica's Rent-Controlled Housing, Lauren E.M. Everett

Dissertations and Theses

The importance of safe and stable housing for individual and community wellbeing is widely acknowledged. However, for the one third of Americans who rent their homes, housing-related stress and precarity (residential alienation) may undermine stability and a sense of home. Rent control is perhaps the most well-known tenant protection policy in the United States, but it remains highly controversial and its efficacy has been debated for decades. This research is the first academic inquiry to examine the policy through the experience of residents of rent-controlled housing. In academic discourse dominated by quantitative inquiry from the discipline of economics, this study …

Antipsychotic Medication Administration In Oregon Assisted Living/Residential Care Settings: Analyzing An Action Situation, Sarah Dys

Dissertations and Theses

Antipsychotic medication use (APU) in assisted living and residential care (AL/RC) settings is an under-studied and controversial health policy issue. APU in older adults with dementia is associated with an increased risk of falls, hospitalizations, and early mortality. I operationalize the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework using a situational analysis approach, an extension of grounded theory methods, to explore the APU in Oregon AL/RC settings. Regulatory deficiency citations, Oregon AL/RC population data, and semi-structured interviews suggest that staff role clarity, organizational characteristics, and perceived agency influence decision-making around APU. AL/RC providers and caregivers are forced to simultaneously balance and prioritize …

The Longitudinal Effects Of A Family And Sleep Supportive Intervention On Service Member Anger And Resilience, Shalene Joyce Allen

Dissertations and Theses

The vast majority of workplace intervention research on employee anger and resilience primarily focuses on individual-level strategies for mitigating employee anger and resilience outcomes in the workplace, with no studies having examined these outcomes with tangible occupational health interventions utilizing organizational-level techniques. Thus, the current study extends the literature on how to provide improvements in employee anger and resilience using higher system and organizational change mechanisms by providing evidence-based support for the effectiveness of a Total Worker Health® intervention, referred to as the Family and Sleep Supportive Intervention Training (FaSST). This approach employs both health protection and health promotion strategies …

Incarceration And Suicide: Do The Risk Factors Differ For Civilians And Veterans?, Rheannon Gail Ramsey

Dissertations and Theses

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in United States jails and prisons. Many researchers have looked at suicides in prisons and what can potentially cause suicidal ideation but there are conflicting findings among civilian incarcerated populations and United States military veteran incarcerated populations.

The intent of this study is to examine which risk factors are most prevalent among adults in custody, with a focus on mental health and substance use or abuse and how these risk factors differ between incarcerated civilians and incarcerated veterans. Using survey data from the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails conducted …

The Psychedelic Renaissance: A Convergence Of Indigenous Knowledge And Science, Ronan K. Peck

University Honors Theses

In recent times, psychedelics have come back into the public eye, mostly through scientific intrigue about their healing potential. In the past decade, hundreds of studies have been conducted to explore the possible benefits, or risks, that these substances could bring to people – and there is great potential being found. This is the psychedelic renaissance, and with this phenomenon in full swing, it is important to take a step back and look at the full picture of our history with these substances. By doing so, it starts to become clear that psychedelics have guided human perception and understanding of …

The Relationship Between Regulation And Care Access In The Doula Industry, Charissa Billings

University Honors Theses

Birth doulas are unregulated service providers in the United States, who provide informational, emotional, and physical support before, during, and after birth. Currently, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate amongst the most developed nations, as well as a serious racial gap, with Black women being twice as likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications when compared to White women. Birth doulas can help close the gaps with trained support and advocacy. Since over 40% of the births in the US are covered by Medicaid, providing birth doula services to Medicaid recipients could result in improved birth outcomes. …

Where To Draw The Line: Evaluating Visuospatial And Attentional Processing In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Alisha Steigerwald

University Honors Theses

Objective: We investigated visuospatial processing in individuals with autism using bisection and quadrisection tasks to evaluate the presence of a possible downward vertical spatial bias that could provide insights into the preference for attending to the mouth in ASD populations.

Methods: Twenty participants with ASD and 20 age, IQ, and sex-matched control participants were recruited (ages 6-23). Participants were asked to bisect, quadrisect from the top, and quadrisect from the bottom vertical lines placed in their left, center, and right visual spaces. Distance from the true midpoint and quadripoint were calculated and compared between the two groups.

Results: No significant …

Happy 😊, Sad 😥Or Pizza 🍕: A Review Of Emoji Effects On Reading Times And Their Relation To Mood, Fetheya Alattar

University Honors Theses

With recent advancements in technology, emoji are continuously changing the way that people communicate and process language. Their use continues to evolve as a mechanism to counter the loss of the rich nonverbal cues of face-to-face communication. Subsequently, the need for research examining how emoji are processed and how they affect language and communication has become more important. This research specifically examines the scholarship on emoji effects on sentence reading times (RT) and how this relates to mood. Results on the effects of emoji on sentence RT are mixed. In some instances, emoji slowed RT and in others, they sped …

Treatment Satisfaction And Self-Efficacy In Hispanic Diabetes Patients At A Free Clinic Setting, Lhanze Tum

University Honors Theses

Diabetes continues to be one of the leading causes of death within the United States, with the Hispanic population having an especially high risk of developing diabetes. Understanding the different factors that may affect adherence to diabetes self-care, such as self-efficacy, duration of diabetes, and patient treatment satisfaction is important to reduce diabetes-related health complications. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between patient self-efficacy for diabetes management and satisfaction with treatment, as well as whether the duration of diabetes is associated with self-efficacy for disease management. Baseline data was collected on 16 Hispanic patients with diabetes …

The Digital Divide And Health: Examining Digital Access As A Social Determinant Of Health, Elizabeth Melissa Withers

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is comprised of three papers that consider ways in which one's level of digital access may impact self-rated health. Data are from multiple years of three separate nationally representative cross-sectional surveys: National Health Interview Survey, General Social Survey, and Health Information National Trends Survey to address the primary overarching research question: Is there an association between digital access and health? The examination of the relationship between digital access and health is situated within a social determinants of health perspective and draws on van Dijk's (2005) causal and sequential model of digital access. Education, income, race and ethnicity, work …

Identifying The Cost Of Preventable Chronic Disease In Prison: Can Illness Prevention Of Adults In Custody Save Money?, Molly Bineham

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the cost of preventable health problems and ailments when compared to other costs of incarceration. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of imprisonment on the costliest chronic illness. The health of adults in custody related to the general population and the overall fiscal cost of the deadliest chronic illness among incarcerated adults is discussed. Linear regression is used to analyze the occurrence of heart disease and diabetes among adults in custody while controlling for other factors. The results of this analysis provide insight that chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes should be …

Returning To Rejection: Outcomes And Boundary Conditions Of Mental Illness Stereotypes, Stefanie Fox

Dissertations and Theses

Mental illness is a common condition in the United States, with over 20% of working age adults managing a mental illness condition in a given year. Disclosure of mental illness is often required for workers to take advantage of employer-provided resources (e.g., accommodations), yet use of resources is exceedingly low (less than 10%). Negative stigma-related outcomes are a top reason for which individuals delay the use of resources. Using an experimental design in an online data collection of 242 participants over two time points, the current study builds on existing organizational diversity literature to examine the stereotypes associated with mental …

Exploring "What Works" In Veterans Affairs Home-Based Primary Care, Elizabeth Catherine Hulen

Dissertations and Theses

Home Based Primary Care (HBPC) is an interdisciplinary care model involving comprehensive primary care services for patients with chronic illness who are unable to access clinic-based care. The largest HBPC program in the United States is run by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and provides team-based primary care service to Veterans with complex, chronic conditions. The VA HBPC model includes primary care visits from a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant, nurse care management, service coordination by a social worker, mental health services from a social worker or psychologist, nutrition counseling from a dietician, and help with medication management. …

Experiences Of Shame, Exclusion, & Appropriation In Mindfulness-Based Wellness Culture, Charlotte Grace Starling

University Honors Theses

Yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness practices provide numerous benefits both physical and mental health to their practitioners. There is less research exploring the role mindfulness-based wellness programs and practices fit within the cultural environment of the United States and how the mindfulness movement influences wellness culture and practices. These practices and spaces have been accused of harming folks who don't fit the dominant social narrative of thin, white, upper-middle-class participants. This paper aims to explore how the United State’s commodification of mindfulness practices contributes to experiences of shame, exclusion, and appropriation in wellness culture. This is done by a literature …

Remote Data Collection: How Broadband Connectivity Affected The Conversion Of Physical Performance Testing To The Remote Setting During Covid-19: A Research Assistant's Assessment, Ramyar Eslami

University Honors Theses

The GET FIT Prostate and Exercising Together trials conducted by Dr. Kerri Winters-Stone incorporate exercise intervention for cancer survivors during or after completing their therapy. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the laboratory assessment of both studies was conducted in-person. However, the transition to remote assessment was required due to the safety precautions of COVID-19. Protocol outcomes for administering tests like the short physical performance battery (sPPB), which includes the 4m usual walk (4MW; m/s), chair stands (CS; sec), and standing balance measurements, were completed via a video conferencing interface called Cisco Webex.

Transitioning to remote testing determined the validity of remote …

Decolonizing Healthcare: A Black Feminist Analysis Of Sisters Informing Sisters On Topics Of Aids (Sista), Joy Mutare Fashu Kanu

Dissertations and Theses

This mixed methods project combines the conceptual insights offered by institutional ethnography, the deductive and inductive attributes of content analysis, semi structured interviews, and quantitative data analysis to study Sisters Informing Sisters on Topics of AIDS (SISTA), a social skills training program designed for sexually active, heterosexual African American women. This progressive program serves as a site to examine the complex relationship the U.S. state has had, and continues to have, with marginalized populations, particularly African Americans. The program reveals how the state, through the public health service, partners with scholars, researchers, and community-based organizations to produce, reproduce and perpetuate …