Public Health Commons^™

Electronic Word Of Mouth On Twitter About Physical Activity In The United States: Exploratory Infodemiology Study, Ni Zhang, Shelly Campo, Kathleen F. Janz, Petya Eckler, Jingzhen Yang, Linda G. Snetselaar, Alessio Signorini

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background:
Twitter is a widely used social medium. However, its application in promoting health behaviors is understudied.
Objective:
In order to provide insights into designing health marketing interventions to promote physical activity on Twitter, this exploratory infodemiology study applied both social cognitive theory and the path model of online word of mouth to examine the distribution of different electronic word of mouth (eWOM) characteristics among personal tweets about physical activity in the United States.
Methods:
This study used 113 keywords to retrieve 1 million public tweets about physical activity in the United States posted between January 1 and March 31, …

Medicaid Home- And Community-Based Services Programs Enacted By The Aca: Expanding Opportunities One Step At A Time, Carol O'Shaughnessy

National Health Policy Forum

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) enacted the most significant opportunities for optional state expansion of Medicaid-financed home- and community-based services (HCBS) since 1981, when Congress enacted the section 1915(c) waiver program. Three of the ACA provisions, the Balancing Incentive Program (BIP), the Community First Choice (CFC) state plan option, and the health home state plan option, offer states enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds as long as they meet federal requirements. The ACA also expanded two HCBS programs established under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) by extending the Money Follows the Person (MFP) Rebalancing …

Medicaid Home- And Community-Based Services Programs Enacted By The Aca: Expanding Opportunities One Step At A Time, Carol O'Shaughnessy

National Health Policy Forum

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) enacted the most significant opportunities for optional state expansion of Medicaid-financed home- and community-based services (HCBS) since 1981, when Congress enacted the section 1915(c) waiver program. Three of the ACA provisions, the Balancing Incentive Program (BIP), the Community First Choice (CFC) state plan option, and the health home state plan option, offer states enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds as long as they meet federal requirements. The ACA also expanded two HCBS programs established under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) by extending the Money Follows the Person (MFP) Rebalancing …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: News & Publications (2011-2018)

• Preventive Interventions

College Of Public Health News, Georgia Southern University

College of Public Health: News & Publications

• Preventive Interventions

How Medicaid Expansions And Future Community Health Center Funding Will Shape Capacity To Meet The Nation's Primary Care Needs, Leighton C. Ku, Julia Zur, Emily Jones, Peter Shin, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

A new report by Drs. L. Ku, J. Zur, E. Jones, P. Shin and S. Rosenbaum examines the impact of federal and state policy decisions on community health centers and their ability to continue providing primary care to the nation's poorest residents. The report estimates that under a worst-case scenario the nation's health centers would be forced to contract, leaving an estimated 1 million low-income people without access to health care services by 2020.

Diet And Toenail Arsenic Concentrations In A New Hampshire Population With Arsenic-Containing Water, Kathryn L. Cottingham, Roxanne Karimi, Joann F. Gruber, M Scot Zens, Vicki Sayarath, Carol L. Folt, Tracy Punshon, J. Steven Morris, Margaret R. Karagas

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: Limited data exist on the contribution of dietary sources of arsenic to an individual's total exposure, particularly in populations with exposure via drinking water. Here, the association between diet and toenail arsenic concentrations (a long-term biomarker of exposure) was evaluated for individuals with measured household tap water arsenic. Foods known to be high in arsenic, including rice and seafood, were of particular interest.

Methods: Associations between toenail arsenic and consumption of 120 individual diet items were quantified using general linear models that also accounted for household tap water arsenic and potentially confounding factors (e.g., age, caloric intake, sex, smoking) …

Strengths And Limitations Of The Design Of Helen Keller International’S Childsight® Program Based On Lessons Learned Through The Implementation In Vietnam, 2011-2013, Bradley J. Owen

Capstone Collection

The ophthalmology sector in Vietnam currently faces many challenges. The Asia- Pacific Region, including Vietnam, is reported to have the most cases of uncorrected refractive error in the world at approximately 62 million people. A 2009 study implemented by the World Health Organization also concluded that the Western Pacific region, including Southeast Asia, has 3.98% of the population suffering from uncorrected refractive error, with an estimated cost to the region’s GDP of 111 billion dollars, or .86% of regional GDP (Smith, et al. 2009). In Vietnam alone it is estimated that one in five children suffer from some form of …

Rapid Differentiation Between Livestock-Associated And Livestock-Independent Staphylococcus Aureus Cc398 Clades, Marc Stegger, Cindy M. Liu, Jesper Larsen, Katerina Soldanova, Maliha Aziz, Tania Contente-Cuomo, Andreas Petersen, Stien Vandendriessche, Judy N. Jiménez, Caterina Mammina, Alex Van Belkum, Saara Salmenlinna, Frederic Laurent, Robert L. Skov, Anders R. Larsen, Paal S. Andersen, Lance B. Price

Environmental and Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Staphylococcus aureus clonal complex 398 (CC398) isolates cluster into two distinct phylogenetic clades based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) revealing a basal human clade and a more derived livestock clade. The scn and tet(M) genes are strongly associated with the human and the livestock clade, respectively, due to loss and acquisition of mobile genetic elements. We present canonical single-nucleotide polymorphism (canSNP) assays that differentiate the two major host-associated S. aureus CC398 clades and a duplex PCR assay for detection of scn and tet(M). The canSNP assays correctly placed 88 S. aureusCC398 isolates from a reference collection into …

College Of Public Health News, Georgia Southern University

College of Public Health: News & Publications

• Association of Cardiac Events with Coronary Artery Disease

Chronic Malnutrition In Guatemala, Nicholas Bishop, Susan Mcilvaine

CwiC-PH

Poster includes:

• What is chronic malnutrition and what causes it?
• Why address malnutrition?
• Addressing the problem

New Health Delivery Networks: Merging Public Health And Health Care Systems, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Incomplete coordination between medical care and public health delivery systems can result in significant missed opportunities for improving population health and constraining overall resource use. This lecture uses insight from the field of public health services and systems research (PHSSR) to examine: (1) why medical care and public health systems often fail to connect; (2) what are the potential health and economic consequences of these failures; and (3) what are the opportunities for connecting medical care and public health delivery to improve population health.

Recessions, Risks And Reforms: Changes In Inter-Organizational Activities To Improve Public Health, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Research Objective: The Affordable Care Act created new incentives for hospitals, insurers, employers, public health agencies, and others to contribute to activities designed to promote health and prevent disease an injury. At the same time, the economic recession has constrained government and private sector spending on health and health care, necessitating changes in the scope and scale of public health delivery. This study uses data from the 1998-2012 National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems to examine: (1) the extent and nature of change in inter-organizational contributions to public health activities, with a focus on hospitals, insurers, employers, and primary …

Who Benefits From Public Health Spending And How Long Does It Take: Estimating Community-Specific Spending Effects, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Objectives: Spending on public health and prevention strategies varies widely across states and communities. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) authorized the largest expansion in federal public health spending in decades, with the goals of improving population health and helping to moderate growth in medical care spending. To produce evidence needed to inform these investments, this study (1) estimates the effects of public health spending patterns within communities on preventable mortality and subsequent medical care spending; and (2) uses the methods of local instrumental variables developed by Heckman and Vytlacil and Basu to estimate how the …

Emergency Department Utilization Among Recently Released Prisoners: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Suyanpeng Zhang, Allie Silverman, Sze Chaun Suen, Christina Andrews, Brian Chen

Faculty Publications

Background: The population of ex-prisoners returning to their communities is large. Morbidity and mortality is increased during the period following release. Understanding utilization of emergency services by this population may inform interventions to reduce adverse outcomes. We examined Emergency Department utilization among a cohort of recently released prisoners.

Methods: We linked Rhode Island Department of Corrections records with electronic health record data from a large hospital system from 2007 to 2009 to analyze emergency department utilization for mental health disorders, substance use disorders and ambulatory care sensitive conditions by ex-prisoners in the year after release from prison in comparison to …

Rural Breast Cancer Patients And Survivors Perspectives Using Online Health Resources, Julie W. Merten, Kim Walsh-Childers, Lakeisha Rodman, Mary Ellen Young, Natalie Birchwood

Public Health Faculty Research and Scholarship

Background: Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women, with over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. These patients, survivors and their loved ones use the Internet to find information about breast cancer, search for treatment options and connect with support groups. For women in medically underserved areas, especially rural areas, the Internet could be one of their only sources of information.
Objective: The study investigates rural breast cancer patients’ and survivors’ motivations to seek online information, ability to use the Internet as a health information source, barriers to finding the information they …

Update On Public Health Financing & Economic Studies From The Phssr And Pbrn Programs, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

As part of the Public Health Financing Roundtable at APHA, this session provides an update on public health financing and economics studies underway through the Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR) Program and the Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRN) Program, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Household Wealth And Neurocognitive Development Disparities Among School-Aged Children In Nepal., Shivani A Patel, Laura E Murray-Kolb, Steven C Leclerq, Subarna K Khatry, James M. Tielsch, Joanne Katz, Parul Christian

Global Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Wealth disparities in child developmental outcomes are well documented in developed countries. We sought to (1) describe the extent of wealth-based neurocognitive development disparities and (2) examine potential mediating factors of disparities among a population-based cohort of children in rural Nepal.

METHODS: We investigated household wealth-based differences in intellectual, executive and motor function of n = 1692 children aged between 7 and 9 years in Nepal. Using linear mixed models, wealth-based differences were estimated before and after controlling for child and household demographic characteristics. We further examined wealth-based differences adjusted for three sets of mediators: child nutritional status, home …

Chhs November 2013 E-Newsletter, Vashon S. Wells, Editor, Dr. John Bonaguro, Dean, Wku College Of Health & Human Services

College of Health & Human Services Publications

No abstract provided.

The Need To Include Animal Protection In Public Health Policies, Aysha Akhtar

Animal Welfare Collection

Many critical public health issues require non-traditional approaches. Although many novel strategies are used, one approach not widely applied involves improving the treatment of animals. Emerging infectious diseases are pressing public health challenges that could benefit from improving the treatment of animals. Other human health issues, that overlap with animal treatment issues, and that warrant further exploration, are medical research and domestic violence. The diverse nature of these health issues and their connection with animal treatment suggest that there may be other similar intersections. Public health would benefit by including the treatment of animals as a topic of study and …

Molecular Detection Of Culture-Confirmed Bacterial Bloodstream Infections With Limited Enrichment Time, Miranda S. Moore, Chase D. Mccann, Jeanne Jordan

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

Conventional blood culturing using automated instrumentation with phenotypic identification requires a significant amount of time to generate results. This study investigated the speed and accuracy of results generated using PCR and pyrosequencing compared to the time required to obtain Gram stain results and final culture identification for cases of culture-confirmed bloodstream infections. Research and physician-ordered blood cultures were drawn concurrently. Aliquots of the incubating research blood culture fluid were removed hourly between 5 and 8 h, at 24 h, and again at 5 days. DNA was extracted from these 6 time point aliquots and analyzed by PCR and pyrosequencing for …

A Case For Refining The Who Global Strategy On Food Safety: Perspectives From India., Subbarao M Gavaravarapu, Katherine C Smith, Rajiv N Rimal

Prevention and Community Health Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Arborists Die After Falling, Kentucky Injury Prevention And Research Center

Kentucky Haz Alerts--Falls

To Prevent Arborists Injuries:

• Never allow an aerial lift to be used as a crane or material lifting device.
• All trees and limbs should be inspected for structural weakness such as rot, before work starts.
• Arborists should wear appropriate personal protective equipment while performing tree trimming activities.

Special Factors for Aerial Lifts:

• Do not exceed the boom and basket load limits specified by the manufacturer.
• When working from an aerial lift, use a body harness that is properly attached.

How Could, Should, And Would Physicians Use Facebook With Patients, Joy Peluchette, Katherine Karl, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

After reviewing the benefits and risks of social media, we examine online discussion boards to determine the thoughts of physicians and patients regarding the use of Facebook to communicate with one another about health-related issues. Of the 290 comments analyzed, we found 42 percent were opposed to physicians using Facebook. Additionally, most (51.7 were opposed to physicians being Facebook “friends” with patients. Most opponents expressed concerns about privacy and the need to maintain professional boundaries in the physician-patient relationship. We provide suggestions for how healthcare administrators can effectively manage their social media presence and provide assistance to physicians.

Willow: Reaching Hiv-Positive African-American Women Through A Computer-Delivered Intervention, Charles H. Klein

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study evaluates the efficacy of Multimedia WiLLOW in enhancing HIV-protective sexual behaviors and psychosocial outcomes among HIV-positive African American women, including condom use for vaginal and anal sex, and psychosocial mediators associated with risk reduction practices. Using a community-based randomized controlled design, 168 participants completed a baseline and follow-up assessment as well as an exit satisfaction survey. Intervention participants reported significantly higher proportions of condom protected sex acts in the past 30 days (p=.002), with both HIV-negative (p=.040) and HIV-positive (p=.003) partners. They were also more likely to report 100% condom use (OR = .10; p=.030); a lower adjusted …

Decreased Pulmonary Function Measured In Children Exposed To High Environmental Relative Moldiness Index Homes, Stephen J. Vesper, Larry Wymer, Suzanne Kennedy, Linda Faye Grimsley

Faculty and Staff Publications

Background: Exposures to water-damaged homes/buildings has been linked to deficits in respiratory health. However, accurately quantifying this linkage has been difficult because of the methods used to assess water damage and respiratory health.

Purpose: The goal of this analysis was to determine the correlation between the water-damage, as defined by the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) value in an asthmatic child’s home, and the child’s pulmonary function measured by spirometry, “forced expiratory volume in one second, percent predicted” or FEV1%.

Methods: This analysis utilized data obtained from the “Heads-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana” (HEAL) study. The children (n= 109), 6 …

Incidence And Outcome Of Small For Gestational Age Fetuses: An Experience From A Secondary Care Hospital, Riffat Bano, Nousheen Asim, Ammara Mushtaq, Mehreen Adhi, Noureen Afzal

Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology

The objective of the study was to determine the frequency and outcome of Small for Gestational Age (SGA) foetuses, and its association with the mode of delivery, foetal birthweight, maternal age and gestational age. It was a hospital-based descriptive study, conducted at Aga Khan Hospital for Women, Karachi, from January 2009 to December 2010. Mode of deliveries, foetal birthweight, maternal age and gestational age of SGA foetuses were recorded and analszed. Of a total of 6024 deliveries during the study period, 722(11.98%) had SGA foetuses. Maternal age in such cased ranged between 20-40 years in 588(81.44%), while 406(56.23%) of these …

Public Health Considerations Of Launching Nuclear Waste To The Sun, Murray R. Berkowitz

PCOM Scholarly Works

The article discusses the public health aspects of disposing of radioactive nuclear waste by launching it to the sun. Disposing of radioactive nuclear waste by launching it to the sun remove the threats of exposure from leakage of a storage facility. The high temperatures will incinerate and consume all matter prior to its reaching the sun's corona.

Factors Associated With Pruritic Papular Eruption Of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection In The Antiretroviral Therapy Era, S. L. Chua, E. H. Amerson, K. S. Leslie, T. H. Mccalmont, P. E. Leboit, J. N. Martin, David Bangsberg, T. A. Maurer

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background—Pruritic papular eruption (PPE) of HIV is common in HIV-infected populations living in the tropics. Its aetiology has been attributed to insect bite reactions and it is reported to improve with antiretroviral therapy (ART). Its presence after at least 6 months of ART has been proposed as one of several markers of treatment failure.

Objectives—To determine factors associated with PPE in HIV-infected persons receiving ART.

Methods—A case–control study nested within a 500-person cohort from a teaching hospital in Mbarara, Uganda. Forty-five cases and 90 controls were enrolled. Cases had received ART for ≥ 15 months and had an itchy papular …

Health Promotions 2.0: The Future Of Wellness Programs In America, Rajiv Kumar

Center for Policy Research

In no small part because of technology, the way we live and work is being transformed. I believe that those of us who are interested in health policy can play an important role in guiding that transformation. I submit to you that unhealthy living is a social issue; that conditions such as obesity and diabetes are social diseases and that their prevalence is a social problem. If we have a social problem, then we need a social solution. I believe part of that solution can be found in the worksite health promotion and wellness programs that have taken root across …