Public Health Commons^™

Relationship Between Live-In Grandparents And Grandchild’S Health And Well-Being In Palestinian Refugees In Lebanon, Olfat B. Sheikomar, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Nadine R. Sahyoun

Faculty Publications

Grandparents (GP) play influential roles in grandchildren’s health, behavior, and life. However, this relationship has not been examined in the Arab region. This study assesses whether the presence of GP in the household is associated with grandchildren’s health and wellbeing. Health status was determined by a child experiencing chronic health conditions or an acute illness, and wellbeing was determined based on school attendance and child labor. Data were collected through surveys conducted in 2010 and 2015 of representative samples of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. Multivariate logistic regression showed that, even after controlling for potential confounders, including the presence of …

Engagement Journalism In Action: Supporting New Yorkers With Long Covid, Sarah Luft

Capstones

What do asthma and long COVID have in common? 1 in 13 U.S. adults are living with them. This report is a recap of my efforts to address the information needs of New Yorkers with long COVID as a student in CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism engagement program. For my final project, I partnered with THE CITY, a nonprofit news outlet serving New Yorkers, to expand the MISSING THEM project. The report details the what, why, and how of my engagement reporting process, including a community engagement framework, a service journalism series, and lessons to carry forward. You …

Crisisready's Novel Framework For Transdisciplinary Translation: Case-Studies In Wildfire And Hurricane Response, Andrew Schroeder, Caleb Dresser, Akash Yadav, Jennifer Chan, Shenyue Jia, Caroline Buckee, Satchit Balsari

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

Extreme weather events including wildfires and hurricanes are becoming increasingly hazardous due to climate change, and often result in transient or permanent population displacements. Disaster-related disruptions in infrastructure, workforce, wages, and social networks can combine with population displacements to result in interruptions in health care access and prolonged impacts on morbidity and mortality. The data needed to make health systems and emergency management approaches more resilient to these hazards, and more responsive to the needs of affected populations, are sequestered in silos across private corporations and public agencies. In two case studies, we describe how our research team at CrisisReady …

An Updated Look At Mental Health Services In American Public And Private Prisons, Lieren E. Tyira

Student Theses

People residing in American prisons have the legal right to mental health care while incarcerated (Justia, 2021). This is important, as the prevalence of mental disorders is high in this population (Prins, 2014), and incarceration is a psychologically damaging experience, which hinders a person’s success at rehabilitation. Numerous of issues related to the mental health services (MHSs) in both public and private prison facilities have been reported in recent years, which warrants systematic exploration. The little existing research comparing the presence of MHSs in these facilities has produced mixed results, it uses out-of-date datasets, and none has explored MHSs in …

Investigating The Relationships Between Concentrated Disadvantage, Place Connectivity, And Covid-19 Fatality In The United States Over Time, Fengrui Jing, Zhenlong Liu, Shan Qiao, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background Concentrated disadvantaged areas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 outbreak in the United States (US). Meanwhile, highly connected areas may contribute to higher human movement, leading to higher COVID-19 cases and deaths. This study examined the associations between concentrated disadvantage, place connectivity, and COVID-19 fatality in the US over time. Methods Concentrated disadvantage was assessed based on the spatial concentration of residents with low socioeconomic status. Place connectivity was defined as the normalized number of shared Twitter users between the county and all other counties in the contiguous US in a year (Y = 2019). COVID-19 fatality was measured …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Personal Health Care Challenges Experienced By Iranian Divorcees, Farzaneh Golboni, Zainab Alimoradi, Bengt Fridlund, Liselott Årestedt, Mark Griffiths, Anders Broström, Amir Hajiagha Pakpour Ahp

The Qualitative Report

Divorce, nowadays an increasingly more prevalent life event in Iran, can create poor general health among Iranian women, possibly due to bigger challenges for health-related behaviors. The aim was to explore challenges to achieve health-related behaviors as experienced by divorced Iranian women acting as household-heads. An inductive exploratory design based on qualitative content analysis was utilized. Twenty strategically selected divorced women acting as household-heads in Tehran were interviewed between September 2019 and January 2020. The divorced women experienced individual-centered and social and environmental-centered challenges concerning their health-related behaviors. Lack of competence, lack of personal control, and lack of emotional support …

Understanding Alcohol Use Discourse And Stigma Patterns In Perinatal Care On Twitter, Fritz Culp, Yuqi Wu, Dezhi Wu, Yang Ren, Phyllis Raynor, Peiyin Hung, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Kacey Eichelberger

Faculty Publications

(1) Background: perinatal alcohol use generates a variety of health risks. Social media platforms discuss fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and other widespread outcomes, providing personalized user-generated content about the perceptions and behaviors related to alcohol use during pregnancy. Data collected from Twitter underscores various narrative structures and sentiments in tweets that reflect large-scale discourses and foster societal stigmas; (2) Methods: We extracted alcohol-related tweets from May 2019 to October 2021 using an official Twitter search API based on a set of keywords provided by our clinical team. Our exploratory study utilized thematic content analysis and inductive qualitative coding methods …

The Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Associated With Subclinical Mastitis In Lactating European Women, Myriam C. Afeiche, Alison Iroz, Frank Thielecke, Antoino C. De Castro, Gregory Lefebvre, Colleen F. Draper, Cecilia Martiínez-Costa, Maria Jose Costeira, Mireille Vanpee, Claude Billeaud, Jean-Charles Picaud, Daryl Lim Kah Hian, Guimei Liu, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Tinu M. Samuel

Faculty Publications

Subclinical mastitis (SCM) is an inflammatory state of the lactating mammary gland, which is asymptomatic and may have negative consequences for child growth. The objectives of this study were to: (1) test the association between the dietary inflammatory index (DII®) and SCM and (2) assess the differences in nutrient intakes between women without SCM and those with SCM. One hundred and seventy-seven women with available data on human milk (HM) sodium potassium ratio (Na:K) and dietary intake data were included for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between nutrient intake and the DII score in relation …

Identifying Community-Engaged Translational Research Collaboration Experience And Health Interests Of Community-Based Organizations Outside Of Metropolitan Atlanta, Breanna B. Greteman, Latrice Rollins, Ph.D., Msw, Allisen Penn, Alison C. Berg, Eric J. Nehl, Nicole Llewellyn, Amber Weber, Melissa George, Darrell Sabbs, Mohamed Mubasher, Tabia H. Akintobi

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: While rural health research has increased over the last two decades, there is limited understanding of the self-reported health priorities and research interests of rural and suburban community-based representatives and residents. These insights can be used to inform more successful intervention strategies that are responsive to the lived experiences of local residents and leaders who are the gatekeepers to buy-in and sustainability of community engaged research. The Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance, a collaboration between four academic institutions includes a Community Engagement Program (CE) designed to facilitate community-academic research partnerships. This study aimed to assess the health priorities, …

Alleviating Hidden Hunger: An Infallible Bridge To Improved Health And Nutrition, Jai K. Das, Zahra Ali Padhani

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

No abstract provided.

A Five-Country Study Of Front- And Back-Of-Package Nutrition Label Awareness And Use: Patterns And Correlates From The 2018 International Food Policy Study, Jasmin Bhawra, Sharon I. Kirkpatrick, Marissa G. Hall, Lana Vanderlee, Jim Thrasher Ph.D., Ma, Ms, Alejandra Jáuregui De La Mota, David Hammond

Faculty Publications

Objective:

This study aimed to identify correlates of nutrition label awareness and use, particularly subgroup differences among consumers. Two label types were assessed: (1) nutrition facts tables (NFt) in Australia, Canada, Mexico, UK, and USA and (2) front-of-package (FOP) labels, including mandatory Guideline Daily Amounts (Mexico), voluntary Health Star Ratings (Australia) and voluntary Traffic Lights (UK). Design:

Respondents were recruited using Nielsen Consumer Insights Global Panel (n 21 586) and completed online surveys in November–December 2018. Linear regression and generalised linear mixed models examined differences in label use and awareness between countries and label type based on sociodemographic, knowledge-related and …

Understanding The Interconnection Between Public Health And Political Behaviors In A Politically Polarized Context: The Impact Of Race, Political Attitudes, And Policy Factors On The Us Covid-19 Pandemic Response., Florent Nkouaga

Political Science ETDs

This dissertation evaluates the interconnection between health and political behaviors in a polarized context such as the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic unveiled the current political polarization and the structural health disparities among racial communities. Using the system theory delineated by David Easton, this dissertation demonstrates that health attitudes and behaviors in the electorate can influence voting behaviors, as was the case with the 2020 US presidential election. An evaluation of the 2021 African American COVID-19 Vaccine Polls (AACVP), and the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Postelection Survey (CMPS) demonstrates that factors such as public health compliance, trust in federal health institutions, …

Proteomic Profiling Platforms Head To Head: Leveraging Genetics And Clinical Traits To Compare Aptamer- And Antibody-Based Methods, Daniel H. Katz, Jeremy M. Robbins, Shuliang Deng, Usman A. Tahir, Alexander G. Bick, Akhil Pampana, Zhi Yu, Debby Ngo, Mark D. Benson, Zsu-Zsu Chen, Daniel E. Cruz, Dongxiao Shen, Yan Gao, Claude Bouchard, Mark A. Sarzynski Facsm, Adolfo Correa, Pradeep Natarajan, James G. Wilson, Robert E. Gerszten

Faculty Publications

High-throughput proteomic profiling using antibody or aptamer-based affinity reagents is used increasingly in human studies. However, direct analyses to address the relative strengths and weaknesses of these platforms are lacking. We assessed findings from the SomaScan1.3K (N = 1301 reagents), the SomaScan5K platform (N = 4979 reagents), and the Olink Explore (N = 1472 reagents) profiling techniques in 568 adults from the Jackson Heart Study and 219 participants in the HERITAGE Family Study across four performance domains: precision, accuracy, analytic breadth, and phenotypic associations leveraging detailed clinical phenotyping and genetic data. Across these studies, we show evidence …

Nutritional Cooking Program With Girls Inc., Taunton, Ma, Chantel Almanzar

Honors Program Theses and Projects

As a member of the Institutional Review Board-approved research team comprised of Dr. Maura Rosenthal, Dr. Angela Bailey, and Christina Elderbee, I led a six-week community-based health program that included cooking lessons for girls aged 10 to 13. I taught girls how to prepare healthful foods that they may cook with their family and friends at home. The larger project, Building Equity Through Collaboration with Girl's Inc., aims to study the outcomes of girls’ participation in after school and summer camp programs in 2021 and 2022. One part of this research, which intends to learn more about girls' current and …

Initiating Entrepreneurship To Improve Health Amongst People In Lio Village During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study, Stella K. Triastari, Angelina Patricia Chandra, Andito M. Wibisono, Dewi Friska

ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement

Community development in Lio Village performed by Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia students aimed to improve the health status of villagers. Because economy correlates with health, an economic intervention may increase the health status of the people. Based on this, an entrepreneurship program was initiated as a part of a community development program. This study is qualitative study that was conducted between July 2020 and February 2021. The intervention consisted of asynchronous webinar sessions, workshops, and business competition. Data were gathered from post-test questionnaires through a Google form. The winners were chosen according to the business ideas and given …

Social Life Of Females With Persistent Covid-19 Symptoms: A Qualitative Study, Atefeh Aghaei, Ran Zhang, Slone Taylor, Cheuk-Chi Tam, Chih-Hsiang Yang, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Shan Qiao Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Persistent COVID-19 symptoms (long COVID) may bring challenges to long haulers' social lives. Females may endure more profound impacts given their special social roles and existing structural inequality. This study explores the effects of long COVID on the social life of female long haulers. We conducted semi-structured interviews via Zoom between April and June 2021 with 15 female long haulers in the United States, purposely recruited from Facebook and Slack groups and organization websites related to long COVID. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim with consent. The interview data were managed using MAXQDA and examined by thematic analysis. Long COVID …

Breast Cancer Diagnosis And Treatment During The Covid-19 Pandemic In A Nationwide, Insured Population, Jennifer L Caswell-Jin, Maryam N Shafaee, Lan Xiao, Mina Liu, Esther M John, Melissa L Bondy, Allison W Kurian

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Purpose: The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic led to reduced cancer screenings and delayed cancer surgeries. We used insurance claims data to understand how breast cancer incidence and treatment after diagnosis changed nationwide over the course of the pandemic.

Methods: Using the Optum Research Database from January 2017 to March 2021, including approximately 19 million US adults with commercial health insurance, we identified new breast cancer diagnoses and first treatment after diagnosis. We compared breast cancer incidence and proportion of newly diagnosed patients receiving pre-operative systemic therapy pre-COVID, in the first 2 months of the COVID pandemic and in …

Listening To Voices From African American Communities In The Southern States About Covid-19 Vaccine Information And Communication: A Qualitative Study, Ran Zhang, Shan Qiao, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is one of the most promising measures to control the pandemic. However, some African American (AA) communities exhibit vaccination hesitancy due to mis- or disinformation. It is important to understand the challenges in accessing reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and to develop feasible health communication interventions based on voices from AA communities. We conducted 2 focus group discussions (FGDs) among 18 community stakeholders recruited from 3 counties in South Carolina on 8 October and 29 October 2021. The FGDs were conducted online via Zoom meetings. The FGD data were managed and thematically analyzed using NVivo …

Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Postpartum Care In The Greater Boston Area During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tianyue Mi, Peiyin Hung, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Alecia Mcgregor, Jinggui He, Jie Zhou

Faculty Publications

IMPORTANCE Racial and ethnic disparities in postpartum care access have been well identified in the United States. Such disparities could be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic because of amplified economic distress and compromised social capital among pregnant women who belong to racial or ethnic minority groups.

OBJECTIVE To examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with an increase in the existing racial and ethnic disparity in postpartum care access.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This was a retrospective cohort study using electronic health records data. Multinomial logistic regressions in an interrupted time series approach were used to assess monthly changes in …

"Are We Done?": The Minimization Of Covid-19 And The Individualization Of Health In The United States, Cassidy R. Boe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the death toll from Covid-19 in the United States exceeds 1 million in just over two years, more variants continue to emerge, threatening more waves of Covid-19 and ultimately, more deaths. Despite this, mask use continues to decline, and one third of Americans say that the pandemic is over. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been central in publicly disseminating biomedical knowledge using Twitter. The CDC’s Twitter account (@CDCgov) shares information related to the spread of Covid-19, including mitigation measures such as mask recommendations and vaccine information. I have conducted a narrative analysis of the replies …

Ageism, Eldercare, And Healthcare: An Examination Of Growing Old In Costa Rica, Akshaya Vijayasankar

Honors Theses

The world’s aging population and the Covid-19 pandemic have revealed the high level of ageism against older adults around the globe, which has resulted in an overall decreased quality of life for elders. Societies are now faced with the challenge of creating a suitable and equitable model of care to support their aging population. Despite the recent publication of the World Health Organization's Global Report on Ageism, there is still a large gap in the literature regarding ageism. This paper addresses the issues of institutional ageism in the eldercare and healthcare sector. I argue that Costa Rica serves as a …

Assessing The Coverage Of Us Cancer Center Primary Catchment Areas., Amy E Leader, Christopher Mcnair, Christina Yurick, Matthew Huesser, Elizabeth Schade, Emily E Stimmel, Caryn Lerman, Karen E Knudsen

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

Background: Cancer centers are expected to engage communities and reduce the burden of cancer in their catchment areas. However, the extent to which cancer centers adequately reach the entire US population is unknown. Methods: We surveyed all members of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (N ¼ 102 cancer centers) to document and map each cancer center’s primary catchment area. Catchment area descriptions were aggregated to the county level. Catchment area coverage scores were calculated for each county and choropleths generated representing coverage across the US. Similar analyses were used to overlay US population density, cancer incidence, and cancer-related mortality …

Infrastructure And Policies Supporting Physical Activity Habits: A Comparison Between The United States And Europe, Anisha Laddha

Honors College Theses

Most adults in the United States are not getting enough physical activity, and this is causing high rates of adverse health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the population. The rising costs of cardiovascular disease are a national problem that must be tackled from multiple perspectives. This literature review explores policies and infrastructure implemented in European countries with better health outcomes and higher physical activity levels in the population compared to the United States. The infrastructure in places such as Germany and Denmark is constructed to encourage physical activity in the form of active transportation such as walking …

Is Health Literacy A Defined Risk Factor? A Literature Review Of Health Literacy As It Relates To Immigrant Populations In The U.S., Kelly Zdanuczyk

Sustainability and Social Justice

Throughout its lifespan the definition of health literacy in the United States has been ambiguous and disagreeable. This discrepancy has created disparity among health outcomes for vulnerable populations who are classified with lower degrees of health literacy and thus have a harder time interacting with the healthcare system. This paper will review published peer-reviewed literature on the topic of health literacy as it relates to immigrant populations in the United States and explore the ways in which low health literacy results in negative health outcomes. The literature review finds the discrepancies among health literacy, as it pertains to immigrant communities …

Pandemic And Substance Use: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Vanessa E. Ermilio

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Background: The COVID-19 Pandemic called individuals to stay at home which may have impacted individuals to become not only physically, but socially isolated as well. With social isolation, comes an increase in mental health complications which may lead to an increase in substance use. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential association between COVID-19 social isolation and substance use among college students.

Method: The present study’s data was collected from a public, four-year university located in Southern California. The survey was disseminated through instructors at the university and students were incentivized with extra course credit to participate. …

The Perception Of Technology On Continuous Health And Environmental Monitoring For Professional Drivers, Troy Suwondo

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Due to the sedentary nature of professional truck driving (among other high-risk behaviors and hazardous exposures) many suffer from acute and chronic health conditions. There are many potential hazards in the professional driving profession. Many of these hazards come from those that transport hazardous materials. Figuring out what health and environmental indicators are important to measure can be a way to minimize hazards. Continuous health monitoring technology may be an option to detect disease and alert professional drivers when vital signs indicate impending health crises. Before this can be implemented, it will be important to evaluate the perception of wearable …

Housing To Health: A Literature Review Analyzing Housing Pathways And Policy Initiatives, Evan P. Lesser

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Housing is a vital aspect of an individual’s ability to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. It is so integral that the United Nations has stated that housing is a human right and extends beyond just basic shelter where housing should provide a certain level of structural integrity of the infrastructure, security, affordability, and access to surrounding resources. Existing research studying the relationship between housing and health outcomes suggest those with poor housing exhibit higher levels of chronic conditions such as asthma, heart disease, and diabetes, and higher chances of accidents within the home. The goal of this literature review, which has …

Assessing Nutritional Health Knowledge In Sharing Clinic Patients With Diabetes, Minden Huntrods

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Effective diabetes prevention and management relies on nutritional behaviors, thus a basic level of health knowledge is important for patients with diabetes and their caregivers in their quest to acquire acute glycemic control and minimize negative health outcomes (Ley et al., 2014). The purpose of this study was to assess the nutrition-related health knowledge of patients living with diabetes who are seen at the UNMC Sharing Clinic by use of a verbal questionnaire. This nutritional health knowledge assessment was a quantitative, prospective, survey-based study utilizing descriptive statistics. Approximately 86% of patients were proficient in food group and nutritious foods knowledge …

International Approach Of Physical Activity And Health: Accomplishment And Challenges, Yuanlong Liu

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

No abstract provided.

Prevention Of Violence Against Women And Girls: A Cost-Effectiveness Study Across 6 Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Giulia Ferrari, Sergio Torres-Rueda, Esnat Chirwa, Andrew Gibbs, Stacey Orangi, Edwine Barasa, Theresa Tawiah, Rebecca Kyerewaa Dwommoh Prah, Rozina Karmaliani, Hussain Maqbool Ahmed Khuwaja

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Background: Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a human rights violation with social, economic, and health consequences for survivors, perpetrators, and society. Robust evidence on economic, social, and health impact, plus the cost of delivery of VAWG prevention, is critical to making the case for investment, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where health sector resources are highly constrained. We report on the costs and health impact of VAWG prevention in 6 countries.
Methods and findings: We conducted a trial-based cost-effectiveness analysis of VAWG prevention interventions using primary data from 5 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in sub-Saharan Africa …