Public Health Commons^™

A Descriptive Study Of Ethical Procedures That Maintain Cultural Security When Conducting Health Research With Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander School Children In Western Australia, Dionne Paki

Theses : Honours

Cultural security is the maintenance of values and beliefs and the celebration of diversity unique to different cultures. This honours thesis developed a proposed framework to guide collaborative ethics procedures that demonstrate the Aboriginal values relevant to health research for use in Western Australia (WA). These values of reciprocity, respect, equality, responsibility, survival and protection, and spirit and integrity have been identified in the National Health and Medical Research Council's Values and Ethics: Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research. Ethical procedures for maintaining cultural security when conducting health research among Aboriginal people throughout Australia …

Mfit Weight Management Program: Effects On Anthropometric And Cardiovascular Measures, Lindsay L. Boik

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Objective: Traditional approaches to address obesity typically entail severe caloric restriction and drastic alterations in activity pattern. The MFit Weight Management Program, a derivative of the University of Michigan Health System, takes a different approach to weight loss. The goal of the program is to stress the development of longterm lifestyle changes and it places less emphasis on rapid weight loss. It was the purpose of this study to determine whether the MFit Weight Management Program, a behavioral modification program, is successful for decreasing anthropometric and cardiovascular measurements of obesity. Research Methods and Procedures: This is an ongoing study with …

Saddle Height Positioning For Triathletes Ssing Road Cyclist Methods, Edith Ann Sherman

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Triathlon is the combined sport of swimming, cycling, and running. Cycling is normally the longest portion of the race. Therefore, maintenance of comfort and efficiency while maintaining high power output is essential for success in the cycling portion. Several methods are currently used for determination of height for road cyclists. It has yet to be determined if these methods are applicable to triathletes. Because of the different geometry of a triathlon bicycle, the question remains whether road-saddle fitting techniques can be an applied and work for the triathlon bicycle.

This thesis evaluated the participant’s current saddle height in addition to …

Female Genital Cutting Among The Somali Of Kenya And Management Of Its Complications, Guyo W. Jaldesa, Ian Askew, Carolyne Njue, Monica Wanjiru

Reproductive Health

The Somali community living in Kenya (and in their native Somalia) has practiced the severest form of female genital cutting (FGC)—infibulation—for centuries. To understand the context within which the practice takes place, and how its complications are managed, the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health Program undertook a diagnostic study that confirmed that FGC is a deeply rooted and widely supported cultural practice. Several closely related reasons are used to sustain the practice: religious obligation, family honor, and virginity as a prerequisite for marriage; an aesthetic preference for infibulated genitalia was also mentioned. The study also found that the health …

Technical Assistance And Training For Procosi Operations Research Program, Bolivia, Fernando Gonzales Salguero, Ricardo Vernon

Reproductive Health

In September 1999, PROCOSI, a Bolivian network of 24 nongovernmental organizations that provide health services, invited the Population Council Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) program to provide technical assistance for designing and conducting operations research aimed at increasing the quality and impact of their reproductive health programs. In collaboration with PROCOSI, FRONTIERS conducted four training workshops on design of operations research projects, qualitative research methods, utilization and dissemination of research results, and preparing research reports. Technical assistance on other topics, such as developing research instruments, creating databases, and using EpiInfo for transcribing and analyzing data was provided on-site to each …

Enquêtes D'Acceptation De Paiment Destinées À Déterminer Les Prix Des Produits Et Services Dans Le Domaine De La Santé De La Reproduction : Manuel De L'Utilisateur, Karen G. Fleischman Foreit, James R. Foreit

Reproductive Health

Les enquêtes d’acceptation de paiement (willingness to pay—WTP) permettent aux directeurs de programmes de simuler les changements intervenant dans la demande en raison des prix sans les modifier réellement, ce qui leur donne un moyen de prendre des décisions relatives à la détermination des prix sur la base d’informations empiriques. Le présent document décrit une méthode d’enquête simple qui donne une estimation de l’acceptation de paiement par les clients pour les biens et services, ce qui permet aux directeurs de prendre des décisions rationnelles dans ce domaine. Il présente les avantages et les précautions à prendre lors d’une enquête WTP. …

The Effectiveness Of Back Belts As A Control Measure For Occupational Low Back Pain In A Retail Hardware Chain, Nick Merdith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of the mandatory introduction of back belts on the incidence, days lost and cost of occupational low back injuries resulting from manual handling in 11 retail hardware chain. The study was of a non-experimental before-and-after design with all retail employees in Western Australia being included in a retrospective cohort. The pre-intervention period extended for 21 months and included 2,265,933 work hours with 647 full-time equivalent positions, while the intervention period was 32 months for 4,411,352 hours worked and 827 full-time equivalent positions. Workers' compensation claims for all occupational injuries occurring …

Cancer Information Seeking Preferences Among Health Professionals Serving American Indians In Minnesota, North Dakota, And Wisconsin, K. Knutsen, R. Strickland, J. Matloub, P. Remington, J. Kaur

Native Health Database Full Text

This article identifies cancer information resources used by health professionals in tribal health departments or Indian Health Service clinics serving American Indian communities in Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota.

2005 Navajo Middle And High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey Report, Primary Navajo Yrsb Team

Native Health Database Full Text

From 1997 to 2005, the Navajo Youth Risk Behavior Surveilance System (YRBS) was implemented to be used to monitor health-risk behaviors among youth in middle and high schools. Unhealthy risk behaviors can lead to unhealthy health conditions or injuries, and could enventually lead to health or social problems as chronic diseases, disability and drug or alcohol addictions.

Monstrous Impersonation: A Critique Of Consent-Based Justifications For Hard Paternalism, Thaddeus Mason Pope

Faculty Scholarship

Restricting a person's substantially voluntary, self-regarding conduct primarily for the sake of that person is hard paternalism. Particularly in the public health context, scholars, legislators, and judges are devoting increasing attention to discussing the conditions and circumstances under which hard paternalism is justified. One popular type of argument for the justifiability of hard paternalism takes its normative warrant from the consent of the restricted person.

In this Article, I argue that scholars and policymakers should abandon consent-based arguments for the justifiability of hard paternalism. Such arguments are torn between incoherence and lacking moral force. Very few consent-based arguments successfully resolve …

Is Public Health Paternalism Really Never Justified? A Response To Joel Feinberg, Thaddeus Mason Pope

Faculty Scholarship

n the preeminent scholarly legal treatise on paternalism, The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law: Harm to Self, Joel Feinberg argues that hard paternalism is never justified because it is superfluous; all reasonable restriction of self-regarding conduct can be justified on (more palatable) soft paternalistic grounds.

In this article, I argue that Feinberg's strategy seems to work only because he "stretches" soft paternalism to justify liberty limitation that is properly described as hard paternalism. I expose Feinberg's strained appeals, and argue for honesty and transparency regarding the bases for paternalistic liberty limitation. If the rationale for public health restrictions on …

A Pilot Randomized, Controlled Trial Of An In-Home Drinking Water Intervention Among Hiv + Persons, John M. Colford, Sona R. Saha, Timothy J. Wade, Catherine C. Wright, Mai Vu, Sandra Charles, Peter Jensen, Alan Hubbard, Deborah A. Levy, Joseph N. S. Eisenberg

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Although immunocompromised persons may be at increased risk for gastrointestinal illnesses, no trials investigating drinking water treatment and gastrointestinal illness in such patients have been published. Earlier results from San Francisco suggested an association (OR 6.76) between tap water and cryptosporidiosis among HIV + persons. The authors conducted a randomized, triple-blinded intervention trial of home water treatment in San Francisco, California, from April 2000 to May 2001. Fifty HIV-positive patients were randomized to externally identical active (N = 24) or sham (N = 26) treatment devices. The active device contained a filter and UV light; the sham provided no treatment. …

Understanding The Hiv/Sti Risks And Prevention Needs Of Men Who Have Sex With Men In Nairobi, Kenya, Washington Onyango-Ouma, Harriet Birungi, Scott Geibel

HIV and AIDS

Despite increasing awareness of the role men who have sex with men (MSM) can play in the dynamics of HIV transmission in Africa, research on MSM in Kenya has been limited. In response to this gap, researchers from the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nairobi and the Horizons and FRONTIERS programs of the Population Council undertook a study of MSM in Nairobi. The overall goals of the study were to understand the extent to which MSM are at risk of HIV and other STIs, identify the factors associated with risk behaviors, and identify MSM sexual health needs …

Clioquinol And Pyrrolidine Dithiocarbamate Complex With Copper To Form Proteasome Inhibitors And Apoptosis Inducers In Human Breast Cancer Cells, Kenyon G. Daniel, Di Chen, Shirley Orlu, Qiuzhi Cui, Fred R. Miller, Q Ping Dou

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Introduction

A physiological feature of many tumor tissues and cells is the tendency to accumulate high concentrations of copper. While the precise role of copper in tumors is cryptic, copper, but not other trace metals, is required for angiogenesis. We have recently reported that organic copper-containing compounds, including 8-hydroxyquinoline-copper(II) and 5,7-dichloro-8-hydroxyquinoline-copper(II), comprise a novel class of proteasome inhibitors and tumor cell apoptosis inducers. In the current study, we investigate whether clioquinol (CQ), an analog of 8-hydroxyquinoline and an Alzheimer's disease drug, and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), a known copper-binding compound and antioxidant, can interact with copper to form cancer-specific proteasome …

Ecology, Morality And Synergism, Thomas Power

Articles

This short essay looks at the views of unorthodox members of three professions. Richard Douthwaite an anti-growth economist, James Lovelock a "mythical" scientist, and Yoneji Masuda, a Japanese guru of the Information Technology age. All three assume a re-orientation of human thinking. Douthwaite's "moral society", Lovelock's "ecological society" and Masuda's "synergistic society" have little basis in reality, despite their intrinsic appeal. Despite the "high knowledge consumption" of an information age, predicted by Masuda, history teaches us that knowledge has always been used by man to gain power and not to better the lot of mankind. There is no reason to …

The Un And The Responsibility To Practice Public Health, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

International Trade Agreements: Vehicle For Better Public Health?, David P. Fidler, Jason Sapsin, Ann Marie Kimball

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Trends In The Timing Of First Marriage Among Men And Women In The Developing World, Barbara Mensch, Susheela Singh, John B. Casterline

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The timing of first union merits investigation not only because of the close temporal link between marriage and the onset of childbearing, but also because the age when men and women marry has implications for the organization of family life and for gender relations within society. This paper begins by reviewing the contributions of various social science disciplines to an understanding of the timing of marriage. Using current status data from 73 countries provided by the United Nations Population Division and retrospective data from 52 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 1990 and 2001, we then examine recent trends in …

The Causes Of Stalling Fertility Transitions, John Bongaarts

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

An examination of fertility trends in countries with multiple DHS surveys found that in the 1990s fertility stalled in mid-transition in seven countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Peru, and Turkey. An analysis of trends in the determinants of fertility revealed a systematic pattern of leveling off or near leveling in a number of determinants, including contraceptive use, the demand for contraception, and wanted fertility. Findings suggest no major deterioration in contraceptive access during the stall, but levels of unmet need and unwanted fertility are relatively high and improvements in access to family planning methods would therefore be desirable. …

Building Assets For Safe, Productive Lives: A Report On A Workshop On Adolescent Girls' Livelihoods, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

For the 1.5 billion adolescents currently living in developing countries (325 million of them living on less than US$1 a day), the transition to becoming economically productive is particularly pivotal. Girls face numerous challenges in making this transition successfully, since in many settings females have less access than males to critical resources such as secondary school education, credit, land, training, and technology, and their labor is often unrecognized and unremunerated. A growing number of organizations and institutions have been using a livelihoods approach (which centers around the capabilities, assets, and activities required for gaining a means of living) to reach …

Trends In The Timing Of First Marriage Among Men And Women In The Developing World [Arabic], Barbara Mensch, Susheela Singh, John B. Casterline

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The timing of first union merits investigation not only because of the close temporal link between marriage and the onset of childbearing, but also because the age when men and women marry has implications for the organization of family life and for gender relations within society. This paper begins by reviewing the contributions of various social science disciplines to an understanding of the timing of marriage. Using current status data from 73 countries provided by the United Nations Population Division and retrospective data from 52 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 1990 and 2001, we then examine recent trends in …

Accelerating Reproductive And Child Health Program Development: The Navrongo Initiative In Ghana, James F. Phillips, Ayaga A. Bawah, Fred N. Binka

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Successive global health and development agendas have been embraced by African governments—Alma Ata in 1978, the Bamako Initiative in 1987, the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, and more recently the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—only to be followed by widespread implementation failure. This paper presents an approach to program development in Ghana that is using research to accelerate policy implementation. Originally launched in 1994 as a participatory pilot project of the Navrongo Health Research Centre, a controlled experimental study was initiated in 1996 to assess the fertility and child-survival impact of alternative community health and family planning service …

The Effect Of Community Nurses And Health Volunteers On Child Mortality: The Navrongo Community Health And Family Planning Project, Brian Wells Pence, Philomena Nyarko, James F. Phillips, Cornelius Debpuur

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This report presents the child mortality impact of a trial of primary health-care service-delivery strategies in rural Ghana. After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, under-five mortality in areas with village-based community-nurse services fell by 16 percent during the five years of program implementation compared with mortality before the intervention. Reductions were observed in infant (6 percent), early child (20 percent), and late child (41 percent) mortality. Community involvement and training of a local health volunteer were associated with an 11 percent increase in mortality, primarily driven by a 124 percent increase in early child mortality. Areas with both nurses and volunteers …

Poverty And Children's Schooling In Urban And Rural Senegal [Arabic], Mark R. Montgomery, Paul C. Hewett

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This paper presents findings of an investigation into the effects of living standards and relative poverty on children’s schooling in urban and rural areas of Senegal. To measure living standards, we apply a multiple-indicator, multiple-cause (MIMIC) factor-analytic model to a set of proxy variables collected in the 2000 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and extract an estimate of the relative standard of living for each household. Using this estimate, we find that in Senegal’s urban areas, living standards exert substantial influence on three measures of schooling: Whether a child has ever attended school; whether he or she has completed at least …

Active Life Expectancy And Functional Limitations Among Older Cambodians: Results From A 2004 Survey, Zachary Zimmer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study’s aims are to: (1) determine the prevalence of functional limitations among older adults in Cambodia using activities of daily living (ADLs); (2) compare limitation prevalence with other countries in the region; (3) estimate active life expectancy; (4) examine standard correlates of functional status and assess whether they are associated with limitation in expected ways. Elderly Cambodians appear more likely to report limitations than their counterparts in neighboring countries. A contribution of the analysis is the examination of a basic measure of health among a population that until recently has been isolated from the rest of the world.

Population And Sustainability, Geoffrey Mcnicoll

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Sustainability refers to the preservation of human-valued natural capital—the resources that provide environmental services—at a level sufficient to assure the well-being of future generations. This Population Council working paper assess the effects on the total and per capita availability of those services. The degradation of environmental services—exemplified by the overuse of aquifers or (at a global level) of the atmospheric carbon sink—is a significant threat to sustainable development, one that is often exacerbated by population growth. The critical management issue in such cases is the design of effective governing institutions to restrain service demand and safeguard supply. Uncertainties arising from …

Education Of Adult Children And Mortality Of Their Elderly Parents In Taiwan, Zachary Zimmer, Linda G. Martin, Mary Beth Ofstedal, Yi-Li Chuang

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Research shows an older adult’s education is strongly associated with mortality. But in societies such as Taiwan, where families are highly integrated, the education of family members may be linked to survival. Such may be the case in settings where there are large gaps in levels of education across generations and high levels of resource transfers between family members. This Population Council study employs 14 years of longitudinal data from Taiwan to examine the combined effects of education of older adults and their adult children on mortality outcomes of older adults. Results indicate that educational levels of both parent and …

Heart Rate Variability In Non-Apneic Snorers And Controls Before And After Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, Gregory J. Gates, Susan E. Mateika, Jason H. Mateika

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

We hypothesized that sympathetic nervous system activity (SNSA) is increased and parasympathetic nervous system activity (PNSA) is decreased during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in non-apneic, otherwise healthy, snoring individuals compared to control. Moreover, we hypothesized that these alterations in snoring individuals would be more evident during non-snoring than snoring when compared to control.

Methods

To test these hypotheses, heart rate variability was used to measure PNSA and SNSA in 11 normotensive non-apneic snorers and 12 control subjects before and 7-days after adapting to nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP).

Results

Our results showed that SNSA was increased …

The Role Of Aromatase Inhibitors In Ameliorating Deleterious Effects Of Ovarian Stimulation On Outcome Of Infertility Treatment, Mohamed Fm Mitwally, Robert F. Casper, Michael P. Diamond

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Clinical utilization of ovulation stimulation to facilitate the ability of a couple to conceive has not only provided a valuable therapeutic approach, but has also yielded extensive information on the physiology of ovarian follicular recruitment, endometrial receptivity and early embryo competency. One of the consequences of the use of fertility enhancing agents for ovarian stimulation has been the creation of a hyperestrogenic state, which may influence each of these parameters. Use of aromatase inhibitors reduces hyperestrogenism inevitably attained during ovarian stimulation. In addition, the adjunct use of aromatase inhibitors during ovarian stimulation reduces amount of gonadotropins required for optimum …

Childhood Cancer Among Arab Americans In Southeast Michigan, Hadi Sawaf, Adonis Lorenzana, George Dombi, Merlin Hamre, Kendra Schwartz

FMPHS Faculty Publications

Cancer is relatively rare among children, yet it remains an important public concern. Childhood cancer ranks second as a cause of death after accidents. Population-based data such as Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute create an opportunity to study the effect of ethnic background on the incidence and mortality of cancer. Studies on migrants have been widely used to infer the relative importance of environmental factors versus inherited factors and have proved valuable in developing population-specific interventions. Unfortunately, information on cancer occurrence among Arab Americans is lacking because of incomplete reporting of nationality and …