Public Health Commons^™

Profiling Maine’S Long Term Support System [Project Brief], Eileen Griffin Jd

Disability & Aging

A recent report by the Muskie School and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services provides a new way of looking at the state’s long term support system. With an emphasis on developing a common approach for description and analysis across programs, the profile reveals that users of long term services and supports in Maine span all age groups and types of service users. In fact, 28% are ages 17 or younger and 29% are between the age of 35 and 64. Long term service users include people with physical impairments, cognitive and intellectual disabilities, and people who need …

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Identifying Publication Outlets In Occupational Health Psychology: An Opinion Survey, Maria Karanika-Murray, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Leigh Schmitt

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Voz De Los Internos: Atención De Salud En El Recinto Penal En Arica, Chile, Lily Hoffman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

According to both international and Chilean laws, incarceration does not affect one’s right to healthcare. Despite this protection, the health of prisoners’ remains a controversial topic in many communities, which may contribute to the inconsistencies in the levels of access to, and quality of, healthcare services in jails/prisons. A voice that is commonly overlooked, despite its value, is that of the patients of healthcare systems in jails/prisons around the world. This project was conducted in the maximum security prison complex in Arica, Chile and includes interviews with twenty-two incarcerated individuals based on their experiences with healthcare services in prison. Sixty-eight …

Health Communication Sources And Cancer Survivors’ Information Seeking, Ni Zhang, Yong-Chan Kim

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Suicide Attempts Among Latinas Who Experienced Early Sex Were Largely Mediated By Substance Abuse, Patria Rojas, Sunny Kim, Mario De La Rosa, Wayway M. Hlaing, Theophille Niyonsenga

Florida Public Health Review

The purpose of this study was to describe the role of substance abuse as a mediating factor between early sexual experiences and suicide attempts among adult Latinas. In our study participants (n=158), nearly 15% had attempted suicide and 39% experienced their first sexual encounter at an age of 15 or younger (referred to hereafter as “early sex”). Latinas who experienced early sex were more likely to attempt suicide [OR=2.4, p<0.05], and this relationship was largely mediated by substance abuse. An early sexual debut may indicate an environmental adversity on the child that calls for long term intervention for prevention of substance abuse as well as promotion of psychological well-being later in life.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 85, No. 4, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Wilson, Laurel. Some Students Off Swine Flu – Influenza
• Hood, Sarah. Va-Va-Voom – Megan Coker, Vette City Roller Derby
• Harris, Shakia. Group to Talk Domestic Partner Benefits – Health Insurance, University Senate
• Walker, Morgan. A Thousand Words – Chris Goodrow, Homeless Persons, Vietnam Veterans
• Freeman, Phil. Smoking Survey Expected – Cigarettes, Tobacco
• Jenkins, Spencer. Veteran’s Group Forms – Student Veterans of America
• Erskine, Anne. Editorial Cartoon re: Swine Flu – Big Red
• Pandemic or Pandemonium – Swine Flu, Influenza
• Bryan, Kendrick. Student Government Association Wants You to Get …

Exploring The Effect Of Sexual Education On Sexual Health Risk Behaviors: Analysis Of The 2003 And 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys In Florida And Alabama, Shenena Armstrong, Alicestine Ashford, Ivette A. López, C. Perry Brown

Florida Public Health Review

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between sexual health education content and sexual health risk behaviors, and the mediating effect of demographic variables. A cross-sectional research design employing secondary data analysis explored these associations in a sample of African American and non-Hispanic White male and female adolescents that took part in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) for the years 2003 and 2007 in the aforementioned southern states. Significant associations were observed between race and reported condom use and alcohol and/or drug use during last intercourse. For both Alabama and Florida, sexual health education was associated …

Using Primary Care To Bend The Curve: Estimating The Impact Of A Health Center Expansion On Health Care Costs, Leighton C. Ku, Patrick Richard, Avi Dor, Ellen Tan, Peter Shin, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

This research brief, the third in a series examining the link between national health reform proposals and community health centers, estimates the cost savings that would be realized by making important investments in non-profit health centers as an element of national health reform. Key findings include:

Increasing health center capacity by another 20 million patients by 2019 (to 39 million patients) under health reform can be expected to generate an additional $35.6 billion savings in 2019 and $212 billion in additional savings over the 2010-2019 ten-year time period.

Were the Medicaid prospective payment rate system to be applied to exchange …

Counting On Care Work: Human Infrastructure In Massachusetts, Randy Albelda, Mignon Duffy, Nancy Folbre

Center for Social Policy Publications

In Massachusetts, as in every other place in the world, all children need to be cared for and educated, everybody has physical and mental health needs that require attention, and some individuals need assistance with the daily tasks of life because of illness, age, or disability. The labor of meeting these needs – which we call care work – is a complex activity that has profound implications for personal, social and economic well-being. Care work is not just a cornerstone of our economy – it is a rock-bottom foundation. Care work provides the basis for our human infrastructure, and we …

Patient/Physician Communication In Type 2 Diabetes-Related Health Behavior Change, Barbara Marie Thomas

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Adult type 2 diabetes is an increasing problem in the United States and affected over 16 million Americans in 2004. Most patients are treated in primary care settings and managed medically, but controlling insulin resistance through activity and diet is considered the greatest challenge for the next 30 years (Katen, et al., 2007). Understanding how physicians and patients communicate about health behaviors is necessary for developing the most effective strategies for facilitating health behavior change in this population. In the current study, adults with type 2 diabetes (n= 87) from the Loma Linda University Diabetes Treatment Center (LLUDTC), …

Study Of The Four Factor Theory Of Women’S Sexual Function, Julie M. Merrell

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Tiefer, Hall, and Tavris (2002) described factors comprising four categories of female sexual function. They suggested that unique factors need to be examined to understand sexual function in women. Socio-cultural, political, or economic factors, partner and relationship factors, psychological factors, and medical factors were described as aspects of women’s lives that can be the source of sexual dysfunction. In a previous study, Merrell (2007) utilized Tiefer et al’s (2002) four factor model of sexual functioning to examine female sexual functioning looking specifically at body shame, relationship satisfaction, positive and negative affect, sexual self-schema, and overall health. Based on the results …

Quality Of Life Estimation With Structural Equation Modeling In School Aged Children With Asthma, Sheniz Moonie, Xuan Huang, David A. Sterling

Environmental & Global Health Faculty Research

Significant increases in childhood asthma prevalence and mortality has prompted federal and regulatory agencies to work towards a national framework to address childhood asthma. Quality of life is an important component of chronic disease, and the evaluation of healthcare outcomes. There is little discussion in the literature regarding the implications of QoL as a theoretical construct. This study determined the effect of asthma on the QoL of our study population and caregiver’s missed workdays on the child’s QoL scores. A negative relationship was found between the child’s QoL and the caregiver’s missed workdays due to their child’s asthma. The use …

Health Center Data Warehouses: Opportunities And Challenges For Quality Improvement, A. Seiji Hayashi, Emily Jones, David M. Stevens, Peter Shin, Brad Finnegan, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

This Policy Research Brief reports on a pilot effort to leverage the growing presence of health center data warehouses to advance health care quality improvement through data sharing and exchange. This project builds on a partnership between the Michigan Primary Care Association and The George Washington University's Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative that centers on developing approaches to using existing health center data for quality improvement.

Community Health Centers In Indiana: State Investments And Returns, Avi Dor, Patrick Richard, Ellen Tan, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Peter Shin, Lee Repasch

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

Indiana Community Health Centers (I-CHC), including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and State Funded Health Centers (SFHCs), play a vital role in caring for the state's most vulnerable populations. Although their patient base tends to be poorer and experience greater health challenges than the general population, these health centers have generated substantial health care savings while providing high quality, low cost care. In this brief, key findings are presented from a recent study, conducted for the Indiana State Department of Health by GWU faculty and staff that was designed to estimate the cost savings and benefits generated by the state's …

Estimating The Effects Of Health Reform On Health Centers' Capacity To Expand To New Medically Underserved Communities And Populations, Leighton C. Ku, Peter Shin, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

Nearly 100 million persons reside in urban and rural communities that can be considered medically underserved as a result of inadequate supply of primary care physicians and elevated health risks. A report by the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center estimated that 60 million people are "medically disenfranchised" and lack access to adequate primary health care because of where they live, even though many have health insurance. This brief assesses the potential effects of national health reform on health centers and on the number of patients they can serve. Because improving primary care access is …

National Health Reform: How Will Medically Underserved Communities Fare?, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Emily Jones, Peter Shin, Leighton C. Ku

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

This brief examines the factors underlying medical underservice. It finds that the number of Americans living in communities at risk for medical underservice is more than double the number of persons who are uninsured. The report notes that even with health insurance reform, these communities and providers that serve them will continue to be affected by elevated numbers of low income uninsured persons, as well as persons who may be seriously under-insured because of poorer health status and lower family income.

Describing health insurance expansion as the single most important strategy to alleviate medical underservice, the Brief also identifies a …

Boosting Health Information Technology In Medicaid: The Potential Effect Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act, Brad Finnegan, Leighton C. Ku, Peter Shin, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) will invest approximately $49 billion to expedite health information technology (HIT) adoption through Medicare and Medicaid. Our analysis of 2006 NAMCS data found that approximately 15 percent of the practicing office-based physicians in the country would qualify for up to $63,750 over six years in Medicaid financial incentives for HIT adoption. Included within the 45,000 eligible physicians are about 99 percent of all community health center physicians. If all qualifying physicians apply for the Medicaid incentives and receive the maximum level of payments, the federal government would invest more than $2.8 …

Complexity, Cofactors, And The Failure Of Aids Policy In Africa, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

Global AIDS policy still treats HIV as an exceptional case, abstracting from the context in which infection occurs. Policy is based on a simplistic theory of HIV causation, and evaluated using outdated tools of health economics. Recent calls for a health systems strategy – preventing and treating HIV within a programme of comprehensive health care – have not yet influenced the silo approach of AIDS policy.

Evidence continues to accumulate, showing that multiple factors, such as malnutrition, malaria and helminthes, increase the risk of sexual and vertical transmission of HIV. Moreover, complementary interventions that reduce viral load, improve immune response, …

Opportunities For Comparative Research In Public Health Pbrns : A Baseline Analysis Of Local Practice Settings, Glen P. Mays, Sharla A. Smith, Elaine B. Wootten, Sylvia J. Porchia

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This analysis describes the organizational and operational characteristics of local public health agencies participating in an initial cohort of five (5) public health PBRNs in the U.S. We examine variation in practice settings within and between PBRNs; compare practice settings to state and national norms; and identify opportunities for comparative research that can be conducted through PBRNs.

War And Hiv In Latin America, Shawn Smallman

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conflict has shaped the HIV pandemic from its inception, from the spread of HIV-1 in Central Africa, to the diffusion of HIV-2 from Portuguese Africa to the globe. At the same time, the relationship between HIV and conflict has been non-linear and poorly understood. Nancy Mock and her colleagues have been almost the only scholars to propose a model to understand this relationship. Their work suggests that several key variables (such as the time scale of the conflict, the characteristics of the parties involved, and the geographic scale of the fighting) explain wide variations in how warfare appears to have …

Ethnicity Matters: The Socioeconomic Gradient In Health Among Asian Americans, Emily S. Ihara

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examines the relationship between socioeconomic indicators and health status among Asian Americans using data from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), a population-based random-digit-dial survey with race-ethnic supplemental samples. Multivariate logistic regression analyses show that the inverse relationship between socioeconomic position and health status is similar for Asian Americans when measured as an aggregate group compared to Whites. However, when specific Asian American ethnic groups are examined, the relationship varies greatly. For example, among Chinese Americans and Vietnamese Americans, education is a significant predictor of poor health status, but household income is more significant among Korean Americans. …

A Study Of Bus Stop Accessibility: Public Health Students Working In Partnership With The Center For Independent Living, Ellen D.S. López, Susan F. Fesperman, Staci H. Graff, Stephanie Schropp, Sarah T. Catalanotto, Allysha C. Robinson, Zaynab I. Major

Florida Public Health Review

Over 54 million U.S. citizens report living with at least one disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act stipulates legislation that prohibits the discrimination of persons on the basis of disability. Rather than riding the bus in areas that offer a fixed-route bus system, individuals with disabilities often rely on expensive and limited paratransit services, or on family and friends. It has been proposed that with improvements in bus accessibility, riders with disabilities could use the fixed-route system more often and increase their options for independence and community participation. During their 2008 spring semester, participants in the University of Florida College …

Cancer Health Education Preferences Among Miami-Dade County Construction Workers, Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, David J. Lee, Lora E. Fleming, Lourdes Loubriel, Syed M. Ahmed, Aracely Alicea-Clark, John Davis Clark Iii, Evelyn P. Davila

Florida Public Health Review

Construction work is a high-risk, transient occupation. Worksite outreach programs for cancer risk assessment are highly warranted because workers are exposed to both occupational and environmental carcinogens. We examined the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a paired cancer risk assessment and cancer prevention intervention using “lunch trucks” among construction worksites as the delivery mechanism. Among the 57 completed questionnaires from construction workers on a Miami-Dade County construction high-rise apartment building site, there were 50 (88%) males and 29 (51%) white Hispanics. Over 54% of the construction workers were current smokers of cigarettes, 3.5% chewed tobacco, and 19.3% smoked cigars. Of …

Health Literacy And Treatment Adherence In Hispanic Hiv-Infected Patients, Maria L. Alcaide, José G. Castro

Florida Public Health Review

This study examined health literacy in Hispanic HIV infected patients attending two large public clinics in Miami, Florida and assessed its association with adherence to antiretroviral medications. We performed a cross-sectional study. Eligible participants were enrolled from the Jackson Memorial Hospital HIV outpatient clinic and the University of Miami AIDS clinical research facility. Data were derived from socio-demographic information, the adult AIDS clinical trial group (AACTG) adherence questionnaire, the short test of functional literacy in adults (STOHFLA), and information about HIV clinical stages. Questionnaires were completed by study participants or by the study coordinator in their preferred language and the …

The Determinants Of First Nation And Inuit Health: A Critical Population Health Approach, Chantelle A.M. Richmond, Nancy A. Ross

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Environmental dispossession disproportionately affects the health of Canada’s Aboriginal population, yet little is known about how its effects are sustained over time. We use a critical population health approach to explore the determinants of health in rural and remote First Nation and Inuit communities, and to conceptualize the pathways by which environmental dispossession affects these health determinants. We draw from narrative analysis of interviews with 26 Community Health Representa- tives (CHRs) from First Nation and Inuit communities across Canada. CHRs identified six health determinants: balance, life control, education, material resources, social resources, and environmental/ cultural connections. CHRs articulated the role …

Attitudes And Beliefs That Predict Taiwanese Older Adults' Intentions To Attend Strength And Balance Training Programs, Shih-Fan Lin

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The rate of participation in the strength and balance training (SBT) program, an effective fall prevention intervention, is very low among older adults. To increase older adults' participations in SBT programs, this study involved an observational and cross-sectional study design to understand factors that affect Taiwanese older adults' intention to attend SBT programs utilizing the theory of planned behavior. Questionnaires that measured constructs of the theory of planned behavior (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral, normative, and control beliefs) were collected from 221 community-dwelling Taiwanese elderly women between the age of 55 and 94. Simple correlations and multiple …

The Treatment Action Campaign's First Decade: Success Achieved?, Jung Cho

Honors Scholar Theses

South Africa is known to have the largest HIV epidemic in the world with 5.7 million people currently living with HIV, according to UNAIDS. In light of the crisis, South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has led the social movement for increased treatment access for people living with HIV through lobbying the government, multinational pharmaceutical companies, and grassroots campaigning. Since it's founding a decade ago, TAC has been highly acclaimed both regionally and internationally for its success. In order to determine the success of this social movement organization, social movement theories, such as mobilization potential, external political opportunity structure, and …

To Vaccinate, Or Not? Health Care Providers And The Hpv Controversy, Nicole Elizabeth Hanbury

Honors Scholar Theses

Gardasil® – the vaccine was first thought to be a medical breakthrough in the fight against cancer, but it quickly became plagued with controversy. Despite wide media coverage, little attention has been paid to today’s health care professionals who are ultimately responsible for prescribing the vaccine, and who may be the most knowledgeable about it. The present study seeks to expand on previous literature by investigating health care providers’ current beliefs and practices with the human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization. It is essential that more recent research be performed in order to encompass current views of the vaccine, post FDA-approval.

Data …

Does Unemployment Decrease Cancer Mortality?, Benjamin Torres Galick

Economics Honors Projects

Recent research indicates that healthier lifestyles during recessions decrease the most common U.S. mortalities, but not cancer. However, they combine specific cancer mortalities with different progressions into one, possibly obscuring cancer’s link to unemployment. This paper estimates a fixed-effects regression model on unemployment and the nine most prevalent cancers between 1988 and 2002 using state-level panel data. Five cancers and total cancer are procyclical, and suggest that unemployment affects both incidence and gestation for some cancers. Consistent with the medical literature, this paper contradicts previous economic research and suggests that behavioral factors significantly impact cancer mortality.