Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Process And Case Study Approach To Implementing A Nutrition-Specific Dissemination And Implementation Science Training In Appalachia, Ayron E. Walker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Introduction: Nutrition professionals face implementation challenges due to their lack of knowledge to incorporate D&I science into intervention design. To improve intervention outcomes, nutrition professionals must be trained in D&I science, which are currently absent in the field.

Aims: To identify and assess nutrition educators and practitioners perceived motivations, self-efficacy, and attitudes in using D&I science to inform the educational design and strategies of a nutrition-specific D&I curriculum for nutrition educators. Then to test feasibility of the nutrition-specific curriculum in increasing knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitudes by a case study approach, pre/post intervention design.

Methods: First, scoping review methodology involved the …

Screen Media Use Among Children And Adolescents – Applications Of Supervised And Unsupervised Machine Learning And Sentiment Analysis, Yifan Zhang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Screen media has become increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives and has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. However, we are still unclear about the long-term influence of screen media use on our physical health, mental health, and social wellbeing. Children and adolescents are in an important stage of brain development and are susceptible to the environmental influence that screen media possess. This dissertation pursued three aims to address research gaps related to screen media use among children and adolescents: 1) identify topics and knowledge gaps in screen media use research among children and adolescents …

Examining The Spatial Relationship Between Maternal Morbidity, Access To Health Care, And Community Characteristics In West Virginia, Sarah E. Woolard

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Maternal-related morbidity rates in the United States have risen almost three fold since the early 1990’s. Issues related to rurality, socioeconomic disparities, and pre-existing health conditions increase the risk of poor pregnancy outcomes and introduce barriers to accessing advanced maternal health care. West Virginia (WV) has higher maternal morbidity rates than many other states in the United States (US), and is considered to be driven by all 55 counties being classified as Appalachian, possessing the highest prenatal smoking rate in the US, and having disparities in access to health care. Despite this, no previous studies have evaluated maternal morbidity in …

Zonulin As A Mediator Of Psychological Stress And Periodontal Disease, Casey D. Wright

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The prevalence of chronic inflammatory diseases is on the rise. Some have posited the permeability of tight junctions in gastrointestinal epithelium tissues as a potential mechanism for precipitating inflammatory processes throughout the body. Zonulin is the only known modulator of tight junction permeability and has been implicated in numerous chronic inflammatory processes (e.g., proinflammatory cytokine production) and diseases, more generally. The role of zonulin in oral inflammation, however, has yet to be explored. Periodontal disease is the most common oral inflammatory condition and primary perpetrator of tooth loss. Periodontal disease also is associated with a number of other health problems …

Psychosocial Influences On And Behavioral Characteristics Of Young Adult Food Addiction, Rachel A. Wattick

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Introduction. Research on food addiction has increased in recent years, but there are few studies focusing on college-attending young adults, who may be at risk of developing food addiction due to the stress of the college environment. Additionally, causes and characteristics of food addiction are under-explored.

Aim. This dissertation aims to 1) determine the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and other early life influences on the development of food addiction in college-attending young adults and 2) determine the psychosocial and behavioral characteristics of young adults with food addiction.

Methods. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was used for aims 1 …

Implementing Trauma-Informed Care Through A Multi-Agency Learning Collaborative: A Theory-Driven Analysis Of Outcomes And Sustainability, Mira D H Snider M.S.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Learning collaboratives (LCs) are often used in large-scale implementation initiatives to promote evidence-based practice across provider networks. Although the outcomes and stakeholder perspectives of many LCs have been documented, support for the effectiveness of LCs is equivocal, and the means by which LCs achieve long-term improvements in clinical care are not understood. The current study investigated outcomes and sustainability of a multi-agency LC for implementing trauma-informed care in 23 rural Pennsylvania counties. Changes in outcomes (i.e., trauma symptom screening, trauma-informed care training attendance, clinician confidence with using trauma informed-care, utilization of trauma-related diagnostic codes, retention in service, service unit density) …