Public Health Commons^™

Violence Related Injuries Among Individuals Admitted To A Level I Trauma Center In Atlanta, 2011-2013, Fahruk O. Akinleye, Gemechu Gerbi, Omar Danner, Elaine Archie-Booker, Stephanie Miles-Richardson

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: Violence related injuries (VRIs) are a major public health problem in the United States (US). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), homicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the US and the third leading cause of death among persons aged 15-24 years old. Among African Americans aged 10-34, homicide is the leading cause of death and is the fifth leading cause of death among those 35-44 years old. One form of homicide that can result in injury resulting in death is firearm violence. The objective of this study is to assess the rates …

Emergency Medical Services And Public Policy In Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, John Buyske

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project seeks to explore the realities of the emergency medical system in the Durban area, particularly relative to government policy. It contextualizes its findings within the literature on public policy. Data for the project was collected via nine in-depth interviews with various professionals working in the field of emergency medical services, as well as a survey of fourteen citizens conducted in the peri-urban township of Cato Manor. This data was analyzed using qualitative methods. While every participant had different views and a different perspective on emergency services, some recurring themes and trends became evident, allowing for conclusions to be …

For A Public-Private Partnership To Achieve Migrant Health Equality In Morocco: A Cross-Analysis Of Integration Policies And Migrant Peer Educator Programs, Victoria Anders

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since the Moroccan Ministry in Charge of Moroccans Living Abroad and Migration Affairs (MRE) released its National Strategy on Immigration and Asylum in December 2014, MRE has put forth various policies and action plans to improve migrant integration in Morocco, including the need for their integration into the national healthcare system. Before that, most of the needs of the growing migrant population in Morocco were provided for by civil society and non-governmental organizations, who worked with severely underserved and isolated migrants often fearful and distrusting of the government and authorities. To overcome this resentment, these organizations had to develop community …

Pubh 3611h - Honors Thesis Seminar I, Ashley D. Walker

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

Provides the student with the opportunity to develop a research topic, research committee formation, and first draft of research proposal.

Developing Novel Machine Learning Algorithms To Improve Sedentary Assessment For Youth Health Enhancement., Gowtham Kumar Golla, Jordan A. Carlson, Jun Huan, Jacqueline Kerr, Tarrah Mitchell, Kelsey Borner

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Sedentary behavior of youth is an important determinant of health. However, better measures are needed to improve understanding of this relationship and the mechanisms at play, as well as to evaluate health promotion interventions. Wearable accelerometers are considered as the standard for assessing physical activity in research, but do not perform well for assessing posture (i.e., sitting vs. standing), a critical component of sedentary behavior. The machine learning algorithms that we propose for assessing sedentary behavior will allow us to re-examine existing accelerometer data to better understand the association between sedentary time and health in various populations. We collected two …

Burnout Et Dépression, Entre Normal Et Pathologique? Histoire D’Une Différenciation Hasardeuse, Bianchi Renzo, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

Initial described in the 1970s, the burnout syndrome has been difficult to characterize. It has been difficult to distinguish it from both clinical and subclinical depressive syndromes. In this chapter, we present a logical analysis of the distinction between burnout and depression. We synthesize the results of studies that bear on that distinction. We find that methodological and the historical separation of two lines of research as well as the lack of articulation between dimensional and categorical approaches to psychopathology.

Intersecting Motivations For Leaving Abusive Relationships, Substance Abuse, And Transactional Sex Among Hiv High-Risk Women, Naomi S. David, Sophia A. Hussen, Dawn L. Comeau, Ameeta S. Kalokhe

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: Women bear a significant burden of the HIV epidemic in the United States. Women classified as ‘HIV high-risk’ often bring co-existing histories of intimate partner violence (IPV), drug use, and transactional sex. To help inform future comprehensive HIV prevention strategies, we aimed to explore common motivating reasons and barriers to leaving and/or terminating engagement in each of these riskpromoting situations.

Methods: Between August and November 2014, in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 HIV high-risk women in Atlanta, Georgia who had experienced IPV in the previous 12 months, and used drugs and/or engaged in transactional sex in the previous five …

Performance Of Point-Of-Care Cd4 Testing Technologies In Resource-Constrained Settings: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Minh D. Pham, Paul A. Agius, Lorena Romero, Peter Mcglynn, David Anderson, Suzanne M. Crowe, Stanley Luchters

Population Health, East Africa

Background: Point-of-care (POC) CD4 testing increases patient accessibility to assessment of antiretroviral therapy eligibility. This review evaluates field performance in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) of currently available POC CD4 technologies.

Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched for field studies published between January 2005 and January 2015 of six POC CD4 platforms: PointCare NOW™, Alere Pima™ CD4, Daktari™ CD4 Counter, CyFlow® CD4 miniPOC, BD FACSPresto™, and MyT4™ CD4. Due to limited data availability, meta-analysis was conducted only for diagnostic performance of Pima at a threshold of 350 cells/μl, applying a bivariate multi-level random-effects modelling approach. A covariate extended model was …

Epidemiology Of Hpv Genotypes Among Hiv Positive Women In Kenya: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Sonia Menon, Aibibula Wusiman, Marie Claude Boily, Mbabazi Kariisa, Hillary Mabeya, Stanley Luchters, Frode Forland, Rodolfo Rossi, Steven Callens, Davy Vanden Broeck

Population Health, East Africa

Background: There is a scarcity of data on the distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in the HIV positive population and in invasive cervical cancer (ICC) in Kenya. This may be different from genotypes found in abnormal cytology. Yet, with the advent of preventive HPV vaccines that target HPV 16 and 18, and the nonavalent vaccine targeting 90% of all ICC cases, such HPV genotype distribution data are indispensable for predicting the impact of vaccination and HPV screening on prevention. Even with a successful vaccination program, vaccinated women will still require screening to detect those who will develop ICC from …

Hiv/Aids Prevention: Educating Future Generations, Carmella Williams

All Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover if implementing more educational interventions on HIV/AIDS would lead to lower incidents of HIV/AIDS among youth. A quantitative research design was used to determine the level of knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of high school students in regard to HIV/AIDS. The targeted population were youth ages 14-18 years old, which are generally high school students who are at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Participants in this study were students from Human Resources Development Institute’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program at Harper High School in Chicago, Illinois. The researcher administered questionnaires to the students at Harper …

Recent Strategies To Improve Community Case Management Of Diarrhea Among Children Under Five In Developing Countries, Fauziah Rabbani, Aysha Zahidie

Community Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Availability, Affordability, And Consumption Of Fruits And Vegetables In 18 Countries Across Income Levels: Findings From The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (Pure) Study., Victoria Miller, Salim Yusuf, Clara K. Chow, Mahshid Dehgha, Daniel J. Corsi, Karen Lock, Barry Popkin, Sumathy Rangarajan, Rasha Khatib, Scott A. Lear, Prem Mony, Manmeet Kaur, Viswanathan Mohan, Krishnapillai Vijayakumar, Rajeev Gupta, Annamarie Kruger, Lungiswa Tsolekile, Noushin Mohammadifard, Omar Rahman, Annika Rosengren, Alvaro Avezum, Andrés Orlandini, Noorhassim Ismail, Patricio Lopez-Jaramillo, Afzalhussein Yusufali, Kubilay Karsidag, Romaina Iqbal, Jephat Chifamba, Solange Martinez Oakley, Farnaza Ariffin, Katarzyna Zatonska, Paul Poirier, Li Wei, Bo Jian, Chen Hui, Liuxu Xu, Bai Xiulin, Koon Teo, Andrew Mente

Community Health Sciences

BACKGROUND:

Several international guidelines recommend the consumption of two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables per day, but their intake is thought to be low worldwide. We aimed to determine the extent to which such low intake is related to availability and affordability.

METHODS:

We assessed fruit and vegetable consumption using data from country-specific, validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, which enrolled participants from communities in 18 countries between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2013. We documented household income data from participants in these communities; we also recorded the diversity …

Comparing Effectiveness Of Active And Passive Client Follow-Up Approaches In Sustaining The Continued Use Of Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives (Larc) In Rural Punjab: A Multicentre, Non-Inferiority Trial, Waqas Hameed, Syed Khurram Azmat, Moazzam Ali, Muhammad Ishaque, Ghazunfer Abbas, Erik Munroe, Rebecca Harrison, Wajahat Hussain Shamsi, Ghulam Mustafa, Omar Farooq Khan

Community Health Sciences

Background: The use of long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods is very low in Pakistan with high discontinuation rates mainly attributed to method-related side effects. Mixed evidence is available on the effectiveness of different client follow-up approaches used to ensure method continuation. We compared the effectiveness of active and passive follow-up approaches in sustaining the use of LARC-and within 'active' follow-up, we further compared a telephone versus home-based approach in rural Punjab, Pakistan.
Methods: This was a 12-month multicentre non-inferiority trial conducted in twenty-two (16 rural- and 6 urban-based) franchised reproductive healthcare facilities in district Chakwal of Punjab province, between November …

Does Actual Overweight Or Perception Of Overweight Elevate Suicide Risk In Bullied Vs. Non-Bullied Students?, Ashley Kalle, Yunmi Chungs, Wonksuk Yoo

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: For individuals in Georgia aged 10-14 and 15-24, suicide is the third leading cause of death. Those who are overweight are often bullied by their peers, and being bullying can lead to higher risks of suicidality. There is, however, mixed evidence about the relationship between high weight and suicide. Weight perception may be a stronger predictor of suicide than actual weight. The aim of the present study was to examine, in a national sample of high school students, the interaction between weight and bullying on suicide outcomes.

Methods: A secondary data analysis was performed with data from the 2015 …

Evaluation Of The Jefferson Family Medicine Associates’ Diabetes Information And Support For Your Health (Dish) Program [Presentation], Amy Cunningham, Phd, Mph

Population Health Science Program Doctoral Dissertations

Type 2 diabetes is increasing in incidence and prevalence, and contributes to significant morbidity, mortality, and costs. Type 2 diabetes management is complex and requires continual patient self-management. However, many physicians lack the time and training to deliver comprehensive diabetes self-management training to their patients, and only 56.8% of individuals with Type 2 diabetes have received formal diabetes education.

Group medical visits (GMVs), which combine one-on-one clinical consultations and group self-management education, have emerged as a promising vehicle for supporting type 2 diabetes management. This dissertation used a quasi-experimental nonequivalent groups design to evaluate the four-session Diabetes Information and Support …

Community Schools: A Public Health Opportunity, Catherine Diamond

Dissertations and Theses

Community schools link students, families, and communities to educate children and strengthen neighborhoods. They have become a popular model for education in many U.S. cities in part because they build on community assets and address multiple determinants of educational disadvantage. Since community schools seek to have an impact on populations, not just the students enrolled, they provide an opportunity to improve community health. It has been proposed that community schools influence the health and education of the area residents through three pathways: building trust, establishing norms, and linking people to networks and services. However, no research has been published exploring …

An Evaluation Of The Effect Of Abortion Laws On The Timing Of Abortion, Elizabeth Fuentes

Dissertations and Theses

A record number of restrictive abortion laws, particularly those known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP), have been passed in US states in the past half-decade. TRAP laws differ from abortion laws that target patients, such as parental involvement and waiting period policies, because they are often expensive, difficult, or impossible for providers to comply with, resulting in the reduction or elimination of abortion services. This can result in farther travel to and higher costs of abortion services for patients; however, there are no studies assessing whether one consequence of reduced geographic accessibility of abortion services is delays in …

Patient And Family Engagement In Addressing Hospital Patient Safety Concerns: Experiences, Attitudes And Patient Safety Engagement Comfort Levels Of Recently Hospitalized Patients, Catherine M. Besthoff

Dissertations and Theses

Introduction

Patient engagement involves the behaviors of patients, family members, and health professionals (i.e., doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff) in a collaborative partnership to improve health and healthcare. It also constitutes organizational structures policies and procedures designed to foster and promote the active inclusion of patients and family members in health services delivery. Patient engagement is associated with enriched patient experience, patient safety and clinical effectiveness. An evidence base is essential for its translation from a conceptual framework to tangible programs that can be pragmatically implemented in healthcare delivery systems. However, little is known about how individual level factors, …

Estimation Of P(X > Y) When X And Y Are Dependent Random Variables Using Different Bivariate Sampling Schemes, Hani M. Samawi, Amal Helu, Haresh Rochani, Jingjing Yin, Daniel Linder

Biostatistics: Faculty Publications

The stress-strength models have been intensively investigated in the literature in regards of estimating the reliability θ = P (X > Y) using parametric and nonparametric approaches under different sampling schemes when X and Y are independent random variables. In this paper, we consider the problem of estimating θ when (X, Y) are dependent random variables with a bivariate underlying distribution. The empirical and kernel estimates of θ = P (X > Y), based on bivariate ranked set sampling (BVRSS) are considered, when (X, Y) are paired dependent continuous random variables. The estimators obtained are compared to their counterpart, bivariate simple random …

The Effects Of Job Characteristics On Home Care Workers’ Well-Being And Job Performance: Understanding The Psychosocial Effects Of Relational Care, Emily C. Franzosa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Home care workers are the lowest-paid and most precarious segment of the health care industry. Although these workers provide critical, non-medical support that allows elderly and disabled individuals to remain in their homes, the workforce is highly unstable, due to low wages, a lack of supportive benefits like health coverage, paid leave and retirement support, poor working conditions and a physically and emotionally demanding workload. But a lack of consensus around the nature and value of home care has made “quality”, in terms of both jobs and care provision, difficult to define, measure or improve. While home care is a …

Providing Care For Many In The Context Of Few Resources: Secondary Traumatic Stress, Burnout And Moral Distress Experienced By Healthcare Providers In Rural Uganda, Lauren Michelle Dewey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the context of the global nursing shortage, and particularly in low-resource settings, nurses are at an increased risk for work-related stress problems like secondary traumatic stress (STS), burnout, and moral distress. These three work-related mental health consequences, sometimes associated with absenteeism and intent to leave the profession, could potentially contribute further to the shortage of nurses. This two-part study is a longitudinal examination of the work-related mental health consequences experienced by healthcare providers in rural Uganda. In Study 1, participants (n=208; 159 students and 49 experienced health workers) completed self-report, psychosocial measures at baseline and 134 of the students …

The Effects Of Health-Related Fitness On School Attendance In New York City 6th-8th Grade Youth, Emily M. D'Agostino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Only 42% of youth ages 6-11 in the United States meet the World Health Organization’s recommendation for ≥60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity. Estimates for adolescents ages 12-19 are even lower, ranging from 8-17%. Literature suggests low levels of youth health-related fitness (fitness) may negatively impact attendance, potentially due to reduced physical and psychosocial wellness. Nationally, 10-15% of (5-7.5 million) students are chronically absent, meaning that they miss ≥10% of the school year (or ≥20 days of school per year). Moreover, 20-30% of students in high-poverty, urban school districts do not attend school regularly (≥6 days …

Perceptions Of Fidelity And Adaptation In Evidence-Informed Interventions By Women Of Color Sexuality Health Educators, Sara C. Flowers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sexuality health educators (SHEs) adapt interventions to the participants’ needs in the dissemination and implementation of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programming. However, there is a lack of understanding of how, why and when SHEs make such adaptations. Success or failure of the transfer of prevention technology to practitioners occurs by determining community capacities and preparedness to adopt/adapt high-impact interventions to effectively manage implementation. Experts argue for evidence-informed interventions (EII), as opposed to evidence-based interventions (EBI), as the best way to incorporate research in applied settings. EBIs are solely guided by recommendations from current evidence, whereas EIIs recognize and incorporate the …

A Friend In Deed, Laura Meader

Colby Magazine

Children in need of surgery, refugee families, victims of abuse—Jacques Hermant steps up

Implementing An Mhealth System For Substance Use Disorders In Primary Care: A Mixed Methods Study Of Clinicians’ Initial Expectations And First Year Experiences, Marie-Louise Mares, David H. Gustafson, Joseph E. Glass, Andrew Quanbeck, Helene Mcdowell, Fiona Mctavish, Amy K. Atwood, Lisa A. Marsch, Chanetelle Thomas, Dhavan Shah, Randall Brown, Andrew Isham, Mary Jane Nealon, Victoria Ward

Publications and Research

Background: Millions of Americans need but don’t receive treatment for substance use, and evidence suggests that addiction-focused interventions on smart phones could support their recovery. There is little research on implementation of addiction-related interventions in primary care, particularly in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) that provide primary care to underserved populations. We used mixed methods to examine three FQHCs’ implementation of Seva, a smart-phone app that offers patients online support/discussion, health-tracking, and tools for coping with cravings, and offers clinicians information about patients’ health tracking and relapses. We examined (a) clinicians’ initial perspectives about implementing Seva, and (b) the first …

The Effect Of Seasonality On Pulmonary Function Tests, Nicholas James Cotter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lung spirometry data from three working-class industry populations were analyzed using logistic and linear regression to see if seasonality adversely affected test outcomes. Populations included emergency responders, general industry, and shipwrights. The data was organized into allergy and non-allergy seasons using NOAA meteorological data and regression and logistic analysis was run on these separate populations to test for demographic and seasonal effects on lung spirometry test outcomes. The American Thoracic Society gold standard was as a point for determining impaired lung function (FEV₁/FVC > 0.80). It was found that seasonality imparted a slight linear effect on the predictive values …

Vulvodynia; An Under-Recognized Disease, Simona Roxana Georgescu, Cristina I. Mitran, Mădălina I. Mitran, Maria I. Sârbu, Mircea Tampa

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Vulvodynia is a chronic condition which affects an increasing number of women; it presents currently an incidence that is higher than had previously been estimated. Regarding pathogenesis, several (hormonal, infectious, inflammatory and psychological) factors have been proposed, but vulvodynia etiology remains still unclear. This disorder is a multifactorial condition with a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life, yet is difficult to diagnose (an under-estimated/ under-recognized affection). Certain medical investigations are required in order to exclude other diseases (the diagnosis of vulvodynia being one of exclusion), but anamnesis and physical examination are essential steps in the diagnosis.

Although many …

Pharmacy Use By Dual-Eligible Non-Elderly Veterans With Private Healthcare Insurance, Brian C. Lund, Mary E. Charlton, Alan N. West

Dartmouth Scholarship

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest nationally integrated healthcare system in the United States, operating 168 medical centers and more than 1000 community based outpatient clinics. However, many veterans seek care outside the VHA system, particularly when they are also covered by state or federal programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, or have access to private health insurance, often through employment. Concerted efforts have been made to facilitate communication and coordinate care between VHA and private sector healthcare, but concurrent use of these systems adds to an already fragmented U.S health care system.

Immunomodulators As Therapeutic Agents In Mitigating The Progression Of Parkinson's Disease, Bethany Grimmig, Josh Morganti, Kevin Nash, Paula C. Bickford

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that primarily afflicts the elderly. It is characterized by motor dysfunction due to extensive neuron loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta. There are multiple biological processes that are negatively impacted during the pathogenesis of PD, and are implicated in the cell death in this region. Neuroinflammation is evidently involved in PD pathology and mitigating the inflammatory cascade has been a therapeutic strategy. Age is the number one risk factor for PD and thus needs to be considered in the context of disease pathology. Here, we discuss the role of neuroinflammation within …

Bilan Du Programme De Contrôle De La Qualité De La Numération Des Fibres, Chantal Dion, Daniel Drolet, Gabrielle Chamberland, Claudette M. Dufresne, Julie Mccabe

Rapports de recherche scientifique

L’exposition aux fibres aéroportées en milieu de travail est mesurée à l’aide d’une technique de numération par microscopie optique à contraste de phase. La numération des fibres comporte un biais et une très grande variabilité qui peuvent être limités par de bonnes pratiques de contrôle de la qualité. Conformément aux exigences des méthodes officielles, québécoise et internationales, les laboratoires (ou les compteurs) effectuant de telles analyses doivent participer à un programme de contrôle de la qualité interlaboratoires sur des échantillons représentatifs de leurs activités afin d’évaluer le degré de fiabilité de leurs résultats.

Le présent rapport propose …