Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Medicine and Health Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Health Behavior And Outlooks In An Altered Microbial Diversity: Changes In Parental Attitudes On ‘Building Immunity’ Throughout The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jennifer Vidal Jan 2023

Health Behavior And Outlooks In An Altered Microbial Diversity: Changes In Parental Attitudes On ‘Building Immunity’ Throughout The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jennifer Vidal

Pitzer Senior Theses

The Covid-19 Pandemic in a short amount of time put into action disease control measures. Current literature has sought to address the long-term effects of sanitization efforts and social isolation on the diversity of the microbiome and the future of infectious diseases. Microbes – microorganisms such as bacteria, protozoa, algae, fungi, and viruses – inhabit the natural environment and human microbiome with our immune system, playing an essential role in immune regulation. The interplay between humans and microbes forms early immune development that has impacted parents’ attitudes toward microbes shown through their participation in Covid-19 preventative health practices. Using the …


Seed Storytelling: Growing Food As Cultural And Ecological Resilience In Asian American Communities, Kaitlyn Chin Jan 2023

Seed Storytelling: Growing Food As Cultural And Ecological Resilience In Asian American Communities, Kaitlyn Chin

Scripps Senior Theses

For many communities in the Asian American diaspora impacted by colonial legacies of the U.S., there is an understanding that healing and wellness are practiced on the community level. Practices of collective care have been found through growing and sharing nourishing food and plants, which have the ability to ground communities in their sense of home and family. This project looks historically at Asian American relationships to settler colonialism and agricultural labor, and then turns to how small-scale Asian American farmers and Asian immigrant gardeners are practicing community-based care by saving and stewarding seed varieties that are meaningful in their …


Not Coming Home: The Flaws In Skilled Nursing Facilities And Their Contribution To Cyclical Hospitalizations Of Post-Acute Patients, Kate Eisenbraun Jan 2022

Not Coming Home: The Flaws In Skilled Nursing Facilities And Their Contribution To Cyclical Hospitalizations Of Post-Acute Patients, Kate Eisenbraun

Pitzer Senior Theses

This literature review will discuss the experience of patients within the US healthcare system, focusing on skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and their contribution to cyclical hospitalizations. SNFs differ from nursing homes and other long-term care facilities by providing short-term, post-operational rehabilitation at a cost lower than what is offered at hospitals. Despite their critical role, SNFs often face fundamental issues, such as understaffing, underfunding, and staff burn-out, which result in lower quality patient care. This thesis argues that the issues faced by SNFs are a result of inconsistencies with state and federal staffing regulations, as well as inadequate insurance reimbursements. …


Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman Jan 2021

Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the unique interactions between pregnancy, substance involvement, and race as they relate to the War on Drugs and the hyper-incarceration of women. Using ordinary least square regression analyses and data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, I examine if (and how) pregnancy status, drug use, race, and their interactions influence two length of incarceration outcomes: sentence length and amount of time spent in jail between arrest and imprisonment. The results collectively indicate that pregnancy decreases length of incarceration outcomes for those offenders who are not substance-involved but not evenhandedly -- benefitting white …


The Path To Pregnancy: Fertility Services And Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Olivia H. Gilbert Jan 2020

The Path To Pregnancy: Fertility Services And Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Olivia H. Gilbert

Scripps Senior Theses

The emergence of reproductive assistance like fertility treatments and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in recent decades have provided new paths to pregnancy for many individuals. However, certain demographics in the US like low-income women and women of color are often excluded from utilizing these services on the basis of race, geography, and socioeconomic status. This in turn leads to significant disparities in access to and usage rates of such services. This research points out the perceived shortcomings in the current academic discussion surrounding fertility service disparities with the ultimate goal of expanding access to fertility assistance services for those who …


The Role Of Female Headed Households Caring For Children And No Spouse In Gentrification In Los Angeles, Jovita Murillo Jan 2020

The Role Of Female Headed Households Caring For Children And No Spouse In Gentrification In Los Angeles, Jovita Murillo

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Gentrification is the “in-migration of a relatively well-off, middle- and upper-middle-class population” into historically marginalized communities (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Matsuoka et al. 2017). Literature has repeatedly shown that gentrification is placing cost and rent-burdened residents at risk of displacement due to the hike in housing prices and rents. Most cost and rent burdened households are female-headed households caring for children without a spouse (FHHCCNS) (Colburn and Allen, 2018). Given there is a lack of literature describing the role of gender in gentrification, this descriptive study aims to describe the gentrification profile in Los Angeles using multiple …


Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Reforming Organized Dentistry To Address Persistent Oral Health Disparities In The U.S., Aparna Chintapalli Jan 2019

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Reforming Organized Dentistry To Address Persistent Oral Health Disparities In The U.S., Aparna Chintapalli

Pomona Senior Theses

The importance of oral health has been largely neglected from the conventional standards of healthcare in terms of public understanding & prioritization, the industrial infrastructure, and the scope of prevention & early-intervention services. Its adjunctive locus to the field of medicine has lead to the bifurcation of the oral cavity from the rest of the human body. As a result of this divide, there have been multiple factors that have allowed socially stratified oral health outcomes to manifest. This thesis examines the determinants of oral health disparities through a multidisciplinary lens (i.e. biology, public policy, infrastructure), and offers evidence of …


1.5/2nd Generation Vietnamese-Americans And Their Health Beliefs And Attitudes, Theresa Dang Jan 2018

1.5/2nd Generation Vietnamese-Americans And Their Health Beliefs And Attitudes, Theresa Dang

Pitzer Senior Theses

Vietnamese immigration is distinct from other Asian/Pacific Islander groups in its context – the bulk of Vietnamese immigration was not of educational, economic, or career opportunity, but a diaspora. After the Fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War, Vietnamese immigrants faced extreme adversities and trauma as they fled to neighboring countries. Understanding the context and history of Vietnamese immigration plays a huge role in the acculturation process, management of health, and ability to navigate institutions among these families. As these immigrant families learn to survive in a new country, they also must face and heal from the emotional, psychological, and …


You Are What You (Can) Eat: Cultivating Resistance Through Food, Justice, And Gardens On The South Side Of Chicago, Ida B. Kassa Jan 2016

You Are What You (Can) Eat: Cultivating Resistance Through Food, Justice, And Gardens On The South Side Of Chicago, Ida B. Kassa

Pomona Senior Theses

Though food is widely recognized as a basic necessity for humanity, disparate access to it highlights whose bodies, environments, health, nutrition, and utter existence has mattered most in American society—and whose has mattered the least. Through interviews with residents of the South Side of Chicago about the alternative food pathway they’ve forged for themselves, we learn that food becomes much more than just sustenance. Interviewees describe our present day food system as undeniably rooted in a history of enslavement and exploitation of Black and Brown bodies; they regard food justice work by communities of color as an important source of …


The Germ Theory Of Dystopias: Fears Of Human Nature In 1984 And Brave New World, Clea D. Harris Jan 2015

The Germ Theory Of Dystopias: Fears Of Human Nature In 1984 And Brave New World, Clea D. Harris

Scripps Senior Theses

This project is an exploration of 20th century dystopian literature through the lens of germ theory. This scientific principle, which emerged in the late 19th century, asserts that microorganisms pervade the world; these invisible and omnipresent germs cause specific diseases which are often life threatening. Additionally, germ theory states that vaccines and antiseptics can prevent some of these afflictions and that antibiotics can treat others. This concept of a pervasive, invisible, infection-causing other is not just a biological principle, though; in this paper, I argue that one can interpret it as an ideological framework for understanding human existence …


A Mother's Paradox: Choosing A Birthing Method In The 21st Century, Jenae Franklin Jan 2014

A Mother's Paradox: Choosing A Birthing Method In The 21st Century, Jenae Franklin

Pitzer Senior Theses

Investigating childbirth, one of the biggest moments of a woman’s life, this thesis examines the reasons behind women’s preferred birthing methods. This research explores the fundamental decisions women make during the birthing process: the amount of prenatal care mothers will receive, the type of health care provider they will use, picking the place of delivery, views on technological and medical interventions, and outlooks on natural childbirth. In addition to an extensive literature review, in-depth interviews with mothers, midwives, and obstetricians are used to examine the various controversies of childbirth. This thesis begins with a review of the transition from midwives …


Shots, Everybody? : British Anti-Smallpox Vaccination And The Development Of Multifaceted Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric On Internet Parenting Forums, Marta B. Bean Jan 2014

Shots, Everybody? : British Anti-Smallpox Vaccination And The Development Of Multifaceted Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric On Internet Parenting Forums, Marta B. Bean

Scripps Senior Theses

Vaccination is an important public health measure that can help reduce disease at the population level. Substantial evidence exists that vaccines are safe and effective at reducing the incidence of diseases like pertussis, measles and cervical cancer. However, on Internet parenting forums, parents discuss whether or not vaccination is the right choice for their children. In this thesis, I highlight the historical context of the anti-vaccine movement in mid 19th century to early 20th century Victorian Britain in the era of compulsory smallpox vaccination. Vaccination in this time was a very different and more overtly dangerous process, and …


Fertile Lands And Bodies: Connecting The Green Revolution, Pesticides, And Women’S Reproductive Health, Sarah M.K. Cycon Apr 2013

Fertile Lands And Bodies: Connecting The Green Revolution, Pesticides, And Women’S Reproductive Health, Sarah M.K. Cycon

Pitzer Senior Theses

Environmentalists, social scientists, and economists have long critiqued the enduring impacts of the Green Revolution’s diffusion of agricultural technologies throughout the Global South. However, largely missing from the myriad analyses is the relationship between those technologies, namely pesticides, and health outcomes. This thesis explores the social and biological mechanisms through which excessive pesticide use culminated into adverse reproductive health outcomes for rural women in the Global South. Drawing together the history of the Green Revolution’s use of DDT, its social and economic impacts, and the biology of pesticide contamination in women’s bodies exposes how the Green Revolution situated women in …


Get Your Butt Off The Ground!: Consequences Of Cigarette Waste And Litter-Reducing Methods, Joyce Lee May 2012

Get Your Butt Off The Ground!: Consequences Of Cigarette Waste And Litter-Reducing Methods, Joyce Lee

Pomona Senior Theses

Cigarette butts are rapidly accumulating on our planet; trillions of them are discarded every year. In this paper, I examine why cigarette litter is a problem. I first discuss the biodegradability of filters and its scientific basis, including ways to enhance degradation rates by chemically manipulating filters. I also talk about the persistence of cigarette chemicals and their potential toxic effects on children and animals. I consider other social, economic, and environmental consequences of cigarette filters and chemicals. Furthermore, I discuss various solutions smokers and non-smokers alike have created to address the problem of cigarette litter; these methods come from …