Public Health Commons^™

Drug-Overdose Death Rates: The Economic Misery Explanation And Its Alternatives, Barbara Blake Gonzalez, Richard Cebula, James V. Koch

Economics Faculty Publications

‘Deaths of despair’ is the most commonly cited explanation for the 151% increase in drug-overdose deaths that occurred in the USA between 2010 and 2018. We use panel data describing 84 Virginia cities and counties to assess the validity of the deaths of despair hypothesis and alternate explanations that focus on disability rates, travel time to work, urban vs. rural location, educational attainment, racial and ethnic characteristics, the influence of other health conditions such as obesity, and supply-side factors that include pill availability and pharmacy market shares. We find deaths of despair to be only a partial explanation for the …

A Case-Study Of Ovc Case Management Through The Zambia Family (Zamfam) Project, Lyson Phiri, Drosin Mulenga, Nancy Choka, Caila Brander, Nachela Chelwa, Nkomba Kayeyi

HIV and AIDS

Zambia’s HIV prevalence is estimated at 11% among adults aged 15–49 years and 1% among children younger than 15 years. An estimated 10% of Zambia’s population is at high risk of being orphaned or vulnerable due to the HIV epidemic. The Zambia Family (ZAMFAM) project aims to improve the care and resilience of vulnerable populations while supporting HIV epidemic control. ZAMFAM used a case management approach that tracks beneficiaries from identification to graduation. The Population Council conducted a qualitative case study to understand actors and perceptions, and document best practices. Program beneficiaries viewed the ZAMFAM program as having made a …

Brucellosis In Pakistan: A Neglected Zoonotic Disease, Meesha Iqbal, Zafar Fatmi, Mumtaz Ali Khan

Community Health Sciences

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease; endemic but neglected in the South Asian countries including Pakistan. It causes economic loss to the livestock sector and leads to systemic infection in humans. Brucellosis was neglected in Pakistan since long. According to the Staged Tool for the Elimination of Brucellosis (STEB), Pakistan carries a grim landscape of the disease with no structured control activities. This article describes the five-year national brucellosis control strategic plan (2018-2023) formulated by the government of Pakistan using the one-health approach for the prevention and control of disease across the country. The plan incorporates components of surveillance, research, diagnostic …

What Will It Take To Implement Health And Health-Related Sustainable Development Goals?, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Sameen Siddiqi, Wafa Aftab, Fahad Javaid Siddiqui, Luis Huicho, Roman Mogilevskii, Qamar Mahmood, Peter Friberg, Fawad Akbari

Woman and Child Health

No abstract provided.

Mapping Geographical Inequalities In Access To Drinking Water And Sanitation Facilities In Low-Income And Middle-Income Countries, 2000–17, Aniruddha Deshpande, Robert C. Reiner Jr, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Arianna Maever L. Amit, Local Burden Of Disease Wash Collaborators, 665 Co-Authors

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

Universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities is an essential human right, recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals as crucial for preventing disease and improving human wellbeing. Comprehensive, high-resolution estimates are important to inform progress towards achieving this goal. We aimed to produce high-resolution geospatial estimates of access to drinking water and sanitation facilities.

Methods

We used a Bayesian geostatistical model and data from 600 sources across more than 88 low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to estimate access to drinking water and sanitation facilities on continuous continent-wide surfaces from 2000 to 2017, and aggregated results to policy-relevant …

Racial Disparities In Air Pollution Burden And Covid-19 Deaths In Louisiana, Usa, In The Context Of Long-Term Changes In Fine Particulate Pollution, Kimberly A. Terrell, Wesley James

Faculty Publications

Black Americans in Louisiana are disproportionately dying from COVID-19, and environmental disparities may be contributing to this injustice. While Black communities in Louisiana's industrialized regions (e.g., Cancer Alley, Calcasieu Parish) have been overburdened with pollution for decades, this disparity has not been evaluated by using recent data. Here, we explore statewide relationships among air pollution burden, race, COVID-19 death rates, and other health/socioeconomic factors. Measures of pollution burden included satellite-derived particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and health risks from toxic air pollution (i.e., respiratory hazard [RH] and immunological hazard [IH], estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency). In addition, we evaluate changes …

Survey Of Airflow Around A Heated Manikin As A Simulated Aeromedical Evacuation Patient On A Litter With Computational Fluid Dynamics Models, George P. Lemmer

Theses and Dissertations

Aeromedical Evacuations remain the predominant method used to transport patients from forward deployed areas of operations to secure locations with more robust medical infrastructure. Transportation of chemical warfare casualties and infectious patients require additional attention to prevent cross contamination. Specific airflow characteristics paired with environmental control system settings are a gap in scholarly literature. Based on the available literature computational fluid dynamics models were created to simulate the airflow around a patient represented by human geometry using commercially available software. In order to compare simulated and experimental results a heated manikin was placed in the MURPHEE aerosol exposure chamber and …

Trainer Appropriation And Transfer Of A New Prevention Approach In Material Handling Based On Action Principles, Denys Denis, Maud Gonella, Marie Comeau, Martin Lauzier

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Mise en contexte et objectif

Prenant acte du constat d’échec des formations à la manutention axées sur l’enseignement exclusif de la technique sécuritaire « dos droit – genoux fléchis », une nouvelle approche d’intervention dite « stratégie intégrée de prévention en manutention » (SIPM) a été proposée en 2011. Son originalité repose, entre autres, sur l’utilisation de neuf principes d’action permettant de comprendre et de commenter la richesse des techniques de manutention utilisées naturellement par les manutentionnaires dans leur milieu de travail. L’étude a pour objectif central d’évaluer l’appropriation et le transfert de la SIPM par un groupe d’intervenants formés …

Correction To: Medical Neglect As A Contributor To Poorly Controlled Asthma In Childhood., Barbara L Knox, Francois M Luyet, Debra Esernio-Jenssen

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s40653-019-00290-0.].

It's The Little Things: A Community Resource For Strengthening Social Connections, Caitlin Coyle, Shayna Gleason, Cindy Bui

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we prioritize connection for ourselves and the people around us. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the national reckoning with systemic racism has made people more aware and appreciative of their relationships and has made some painfully aware of how distant and disconnected they are. While the evidence is clear that social isolation is bad for health and well-being, the evidence base of solutions is far less so. Thus, this report sought to harness the energy, creativity, and progressive thinking of cities and towns in Massachusetts by documenting their efforts to keep people …

Building Implementation Science In Nutrition, Andrea M. Warren, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Rahul Rawat

Faculty Publications

The field of nutrition has been investing in the development of many nutrition-specific and -sensitive policies and programs aimed at improving population-level malnutrition in all its forms. When there is a need to learn about a new system, programmatic context, or target population to understand how to effectively deploy an intervention to help improve nutrition, it is important to be able to ask a broad range of questions, both in topic and in scope. Our aim is to provide a simple and conceptually clear definition and principles to elaborate the science of implementation for nutrition to distinguish it from other …

Health Insurance Coverage In The Gulf Coast States After Affordable Care Act By Rural And Urban Area Between 2009 And 2017, Hosik Min, Kenneth Hudson

Florida Public Health Review

Background: Although health insurance coverage for adults in each of the Gulf Coast States and the rest of the country increased after implementing the Affordable Care Act, the coverage rates in the Gulf Coast region remained lower to rural residents, compared to those in the rest of the Nation. Purpose: This study aimed to update the changes of health insurance coverage in all states and the Gulf Coast states, confirm the significance of the health policy on insurance coverage by analyzing Louisiana, and examine the relationships between socio-demographic variables and rural/urban area by using interaction variables. Methods: …

Improving Reproductive Health And Family Planning Outcomes Among Out-Of-School Adolescents And Youth In The Philippines, Breakthrough Research, De La Salle University

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Breakthrough RESEARCH, in collaboration with De La Salle University’s Social Development Research Center (DLSU-SDRC) in Manila, conducted a targeted qualitative research study to facilitate social and behavior change approaches for out-of-school ages 15 to 19 for positive reproductive health and family planning behavior change. Research in three regions of the Philippines generated evidence for the design of intervention approaches to be most effective for four priority behaviors: delay of sexual debut, use of modern contraceptive methods, care-seeking in the first trimester for pregnant youth, and birth spacing of three to five years to prevent short birth intervals.

Informing Social And Behavior Change Programs: Using Social Listening And Social Monitoring, Breakthrough Research

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief offers practical guidance on social listening and social (media) monitoring as tools to inform social and behavior change programs, intended for global and regional program implementers, evaluators, and donors in USAID priority countries. This brief explains how social listening and social monitoring can be important tools for collecting information about target audiences’ knowledge and attitudes, as well as their exposure and responses to particular interventions. Using applied examples in Francophone West Africa, it illustrates social and social monitoring steps, provides examples of lessons, and identifies how these methods can be applied to social and behavior change programming. People …

Views That Matter: Race And Opinions On Climate Change Of Boston Area Residents, Lorena M. Estrada-Martínez, Paul Watanabe, Katsyris Rivera-Kientz

Sustainable Solutions Lab

A growing body of research finds that climate change places a disproportionate burden on communities of color in the United States. In spite of this evidence, important discussions taking place about climate change- such as how it is experienced, which policy solutions are most critical, and how we can prepare for and adapt to its impacts- often leave out the voices of the very communities most affected. In Massachusetts, for instance, numerous statewide surveys have gathered information about residents ' attitudes and beliefs about climate change, but to date, no studies have been designed to include the views of a …

Hs-4100 - Global Health Issues, Jose Nanin

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus includes OER materials and college policies for a fully online course that takes a comprehensive look at global health issues. In this course, the assessment of health issues are analyzed from various perspectives including geographic, ethnic, religious, human rights, socioeconomic, social, cultural, and political influences. Students learn about global environmental causes and consequences of infectious diseases, major diseases, mental illness, natural disasters, malnutrition, drug and alcohol addiction, violence and injuries.

Coh-2000 - Community Health Interventions, Jose Nanin

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus includes OER materials and college policies for a fully online course that exposes students to a range of health promotion and disease prevention and management strategies used by health specialists to address community health challenges. Through readings and videos, as well as online course assignments and discussions, students learn about planning and designing interventions to improve the health of specific priority populations and communities-at-large.

Modeling The Impact Of Inclusion Of Family Planning Services In Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme, Justin Archer, Gillian Eva, Augustine Ankomah, Saumya Ramarao, Kamil Fuseini, Anne Coolen, Stephen Duku, Benjamin Bellows

Reproductive Health

While access to and uptake of modern family planning (FP) in Ghana has steadily risen over the last decade, the modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) among all women reached only 22% in 2019 with 30% of women still reporting unmet need. To increase FP uptake via mitigation of cost barriers among women with unmet need, the Government of Ghana is seeking to integrate claims-based FP services into the National Health Insurance Scheme benefits package. The impact of these activities has the potential to be significant with the proportion of women accessing modern FP shifting dramatically to public facilities over the …

Documenting Lessons From An Integrated Social And Behavior Change Program Linked To Integrated Health Services In Zambia, Breakthrough Research

Reproductive Health

This program brief documents lessons for social and behavior change programmers implementing multi-health, community-based programs with integrated health services. An iterative process by Breakthrough ACTION Zambia, from October 2018 through March 2019, identified four design concepts with strong feasibility and potential for impact and expansion. These four concepts were refined in Breakthrough ACTION Zambia provinces and districts in collaboration with implementing partners and the Ministry of Health Department of Health Promotion, with final intervention design and implementation processes determined in close collaboration with the Ministry.

Implementation Evaluation Of A Professional Development Program For Comprehensive School Physical Activity Leaders, Russell L. Carson, Ann Pulling Kuhn, Justin B. Moore, Darla M. Castelli, Aaron Beighle, Katie L. Hodgin, Brian Dauenhauer

Kinesiology and Health Promotion Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to conduct an implementation monitoring evaluation of a yearlong comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) professional development program across eight multi-state physical education (PE) teacher cohorts. Mixed-method data were collected during a three-year implementation period via workshop attendance sheets and evaluations, post-workshop implementation plans and artifacts, and follow-up phone interviews to enumerate and evaluate the program’s process of recruitment, reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, and context. Recruitment strategies reached a total of 234 PE teacher attendees across eight workshops, with 77 PE teachers (primarily female, elementary, public school teachers) completing all program requirements. …

Publicly Funded Contraceptive Care Services In Alabama (2017), Center For Applied Reasearch And Evaluation In Women's Health, East Tennessee State University

Center for Applied Research and Evaluation (CARE) in Women's Health Reports

State-wide clinic survey findings from Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) family planning clinics in Alabama. Findings include: contraceptive patient characteristics, contraceptive method provision, clinic policies and practices, and other markers of contraceptive care.

Publicly Funded Contraceptive Care Services In South Carolina (2017), Center For Applied Reasearch And Evaluation In Women's Health, East Tennessee State University

Center for Applied Research and Evaluation (CARE) in Women's Health Reports

State-wide clinic survey findings from Federally Qualified Health Center and Department of Health and Environmental Control family planning clinics in South Carolina. Findings include: contraceptive patient characteristics, contraceptive method provision, clinic policies and practices, and other markers of contraceptive care.

E-Cigarette Availability, Price Promotions And Marketing At The Point-Of Sale In The Contiguous United States (2014-2015): National Estimates And Multilevel Correlates, Heather D'Angelo, Shyanika W. Rose, Shelley D. Golden, Tara Queen, Kurt M. Ribisl

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) sales and use have increased rapidly, yet point-of-sale e-cigarette availability and marketing is understudied. We estimated changes in e-cigarette availability and marketing among tobacco retailers in the U.S., and associations with neighborhood characteristics. A national sample of tobacco retailers in the Contiguous U.S. was audited in 2014 and 2015 (n = 1,905 and n = 2,126, respectively) to observe e-cigarette availability and marketing (signs, ads, displays and promotions) and generate national prevalence estimates. Store, neighborhood and state level correlates of 2015 e-cigarette availability, price promotions and exterior advertising were analyzed using multilevel mixed-effects generalized linear models. E-cigarettes …

Quantifying The Decrease In Emergency Department Imaging Utilization During The Covid-19 Pandemic At A Multicenter Healthcare System In Ohio, Keval D. Parikh, Nikhil H. Ramaiya, Elias G. Kikano, Sree Harsha Tirumani, Jonathan Pierce, Carl Butcher, Jeffrey L. Sunshine, Donna M. Plecha

Faculty Scholarship

PURPOSE: To illustrate the change in emergency department (ED) imaging utilization at a multicenter health system in the state of Ohio during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A retrospective observational study was conducted assessing ED imaging volumes between March 1, 2020, and May 11, 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis. A rolling 7-day total value was used for volume tracking and comparison. Total imaging utilization in the ED was compared with new COVID-19 cases in our region. Utilization was first categorized by modality and then by plain films and computed tomography (CT) scans grouped by body part. CT imaging of the chest …

Barriers And Facilitators In Implementing A Pilot, Pragmatic, Telemedicine-Delivered Healthy Lifestyle Program For Obesity Management In A Rural, Academic Obesity Clinic, John A. Batsis, Auden C. Mcclure, Aaron B. Weintraub, Diane Sette, Sivan Rotenberg, Courtney J. Stevens, Diane Gilbert-Diamond, David Kotz, Stephen Bartels, Summer B. Cook, Richard I. Rothstein

Dartmouth Scholarship

Few evidence-based strategies are specifically tailored for disparity populations such as rural adults. Two-way video-conferencing using telemedicine can potentially surmount geographic barriers that impede participation in high-intensity treatment programs offering frequent visits to clinic facilities. We aimed to understand barriers and facilitators of implementing a telemedicine-delivered tertiary-care, rural academic weight-loss program for the management of obesity.

Life Expectancy And Active Life Expectancy By Disability Status In Older U.S. Adults, Haomiao Jia, Erica I. Lubetkin

Publications and Research

Objectives

The Medicare Health Outcome Survey (HOS) is the largest longitudinal survey of the U.S. community-dwelling elderly population. This study estimated total life expectancy, active life expectancy (ALE), and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) by disability status among HOS participants.

Methods

Data were from the Medicare HOS Cohort 15 (baseline 2012, follow-up 2014). We included respondents aged ≥ 65 years (n = 164,597). Participants’ disability status was assessed based on the following six activities of daily living (ADL): bathing, dressing, eating, getting in or out of chairs, walking, and using the toilet. The multi-state models were used to estimate life expectancy, …

Covid-19, Lockdown, And The Dynamics Of Subjective Well-Being, Terence C. Cheng, Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide novel evidence on how the COVID-19 global health and economic crisis is affecting overall life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction using data from a monthly longitudinal survey of middle-aged and older Singaporeans. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we document large declines in overall life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction during the COVID-19 outbreak, except satisfaction with health. These declines coincide with the introduction of a nationwide lockdown, with life satisfaction remaining below its pre-pandemic levels even after the lockdown is lifted. We also find that individuals who report a drop in household income during the COVID-19 outbreak experience a decline in …

The Value Of Insolvency Law In The Covid‐19 Crisis, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The COVID-19 pandemic not only has generated a social, humanitarian and public health crisis but it has also led to the worst recession the world’s economy has experienced since the Great Depression.283 As a response to the economic challenges generated by the COVID-19 crisis, many countries are responding with a variety of legal and economic measures that seek to support businesses, employees, and households

Sex/Gender Differences In Serial Position Profiles In Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Healthy Controls, Emnet Z. Gammada

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease disproportionately affects more women, but paradoxically, men have a higher incidence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Researchers have suggested that women’s verbal memory advantage across the lifespan reflects better premorbid skills, which then require more neurodegeneration to manifest early clinical impairment. To date, measurement of sex differences in verbal memory have used total list scores. We proposed that a granular examination of serial position effects (SPE) in list-learning can refine the source of sex/gender differences.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of participants with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Healthy Controls (HC) was examined from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging …

Health Outcomes Of Tourism Development: A Longitudinal Study Of The Impact Of Tourism Arrivals On Residents’ Health, Maksim Godovykh, Jorge Ridderstaat

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study investigates the influence of the number of tourism arrivals on the physical health of local people in one of the most-visited destinations in the world. Although the literature traditionally describes the economic, social, and cultural impacts of tourism, there is a gap related to the effects of tourism on residents' health. The methodology involves applying the limited-information maximum likelihood instrumental variable approach. The results demonstrate that tourism arrivals negatively influence residents’ health in the short term, yet have positive impacts on long-term health outcomes. The study contributes to the theory and practice by offering a new approach to …