Public Health Commons^™

Comparison Of Sexually Transmitted Infections And Adverse Perinatal Outcomes In Underserved Pregnant Patients Before Vs During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Texas, Irene A Stafford, Jennie O Coselli, Danielle F Wilson, Courtney Y Wang, Baha M Sibai

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This cohort study assesses the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and associated adverse perinatal outcomes among underserved pregnant patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in a public health system in Southeastern Texas.

What After Bcg Fails In Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer?, M Hammad Ather

Section of Urology

No abstract provided.

A Large-Scale Transcriptome-Wide Association Study (Twas) Of 10 Blood Cell Phenotypes Reveals Complexities Of Twas Fine-Mapping, Amanda L Tapia, Bryce T Rowland, Jonathan D Rosen, Michael Preuss, Kris Young, Misa Graff, Hélène Choquet, David J Couper, Steve Buyske, Stephanie A Bien, Eric Jorgenson, Charles Kooperberg, Ruth J F Loos, Alanna C Morrison, Kari E North, Bing Yu, Alexander P Reiner, Yun Li, Laura M Raffield

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Hematological measures are important intermediate clinical phenotypes for many acute and chronic diseases and are highly heritable. Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of loci containing trait-associated variants, the causal genes underlying these associations are often uncertain. To better understand the underlying genetic regulatory mechanisms, we performed a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) to systematically investigate the association between genetically predicted gene expression and hematological measures in 54,542 Europeans from the Genetic Epidemiology Research on Aging cohort. We found 239 significant gene-trait associations with hematological measures; we replicated 71 associations at p < 0.05 in a TWAS meta-analysis consisting of up to 35,900 Europeans from the Women's Health Initiative, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, and BioMe Biobank. Additionally, we attempted to refine this list of candidate genes by performing conditional analyses, adjusting for individual variants previously associated with hematological measures, and performed further fine-mapping of TWAS loci. To facilitate interpretation of our findings, we designed an R Shiny application to interactively visualize our TWAS results by integrating them with additional genetic data sources (GWAS, TWAS from multiple reference panels, conditional analyses, known GWAS variants, etc.). Our results and application highlight frequently overlooked TWAS challenges and illustrate the complexity of TWAS fine-mapping.

Genetic Errors Of Immunity Distinguish Pediatric Nonmalignant Lymphoproliferative Disorders, Lisa R Forbes, Olive S Eckstein, Nitya Gulati, Erin C Peckham-Gregory, Nmazuo W Ozuah, Joseph Lubega, Nader K El-Mallawany, Jennifer E Agrusa, M Cecilia Poli, Tiphanie P Vogel, Natalia S Chaimowitz, Nicholas L Rider, Emily M Mace, Jordan S Orange, Jason W Caldwell, Juan C Aldave-Becerra, Stephen Jolles, Francesco Saettini, Hey J Chong, Asbjorg Stray-Pedersen, Helen E Heslop, Kala Y Kamdar, R Helen Rouce, Donna M Muzny, Shalini N Jhangiani, Richard A Gibbs, Zeynep H Coban-Akdemir, James R Lupski, Kenneth L Mcclain, Carl E Allen, Ivan K Chinn

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Pediatric nonmalignant lymphoproliferative disorders (PLPDs) are clinically and genetically heterogeneous. Long-standing immune dysregulation and lymphoproliferation in children may be life-threatening, and a paucity of data exists to guide evaluation and treatment of children with PLPD.

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to ascertain the spectrum of genomic immunologic defects in PLPD. Secondary objectives included characterization of clinical outcomes and associations between genetic diagnoses and those outcomes.

METHODS: PLPD was defined by persistent lymphadenopathy, lymph organ involvement, or lymphocytic infiltration for more than 3 months, with or without chronic or significant Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. Fifty-one subjects from …

Spatial Epidemiology: An Empirical Framework For Syndemics Research, Shikhar Shrestha, Cici X C Bauer, Brian Hendricks, Thomas J Stopka

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Syndemics framework describes two or more co-occurring epidemics that synergistically interact with each other and the complex structural social forces that sustain them leading to excess disease burden. The term syndemic was first used to describe the interaction between substance abuse, violence, and AIDS by Merrill Singer. A broader range of syndemic studies has since emerged describing the framework's applicability to other public health scenarios. With syndemic theory garnering significant attention, the focus is shifting towards developing robust empirical analytical approaches. Unfortunately, the complex nature of the disease-disease interactions nested within several social contexts complicates empirical analyses. In answering the …

Efficacy And Safety Of Covid-19 Convalescent Plasma In Hospitalized Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Mila B Ortigoza, Hyunah Yoon, Keith S Goldfeld, Andrea B Troxel, Johanna P Daily, Yinxiang Wu, Yi Li, Danni Wu, Gia F Cobb, Gillian Baptiste, Mary O'Keeffe, Marilou O Corpuz, Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, Amee Amin, Ioannis M Zacharioudakis, Dushyantha T Jayaweera, Yanyun Wu, Julie V Philley, Megan S Devine, Mahalia S Desruisseaux, Alessandro D Santin, Shweta Anjan, Reeba Mathew, Bela Patel, Masayuki Nigo, Rabi Upadhyay, Tania Kupferman, Andrew N Dentino, Rahul Nanchal, Christian A Merlo, David N Hager, Kartik Chandran, Jonathan R Lai, Johanna Rivera, Chowdhury R Bikash, Gorka Lasso, Timothy P Hilbert, Monika Paroder, Andrea A Asencio, Mengling Liu, Eva Petkova, Alexander Bragat, Reza Shaker, David D Mcpherson, Ralph L Sacco, Marla J Keller, Corita R Grudzen, Judith S Hochman, Liise-Anne Pirofski, Lalitha Parameswaran, Anthony T Corcoran, Abhinav Rohatgi, Marta W Wronska, Xinyuan Wu, Ranjini Srinivasan, Fang-Ming Deng, Thomas D Filardo, Jay Pendse, Simone B Blaser, Olga Whyte, Jacqueline M Gallagher, Ololade E Thomas, Danibel Ramos, Caroline L Sturm-Reganato, Charlotte C Fong, Ivy M Daus, Arianne Gisselle Payoen, Joseph T Chiofolo, Mark T Friedman, Ding Wen Wu, Jessica L Jacobson, Jeffrey G Schneider, Uzma N Sarwar, Henry E Wang, Ryan M Huebinger, Goutham Dronavalli, Yu Bai, Carolyn Z Grimes, Karen W Eldin, Virginia E Umana, Jessica G Martin, Timothy R Heath, Fatimah O Bello, Daru Lane Ransford, Maudry Laurent-Rolle, Sheela V Shenoi, Oscar Bate Akide-Ndunge, Bipin Thapa, Jennifer L Peterson, Kelly Knauf, Shivani U Patel, Laura L Cheney, Christopher A Tormey, Jeanne E Hendrickson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: There is clinical equipoise for COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) use in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the safety and efficacy of CCP compared with placebo in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 receiving noninvasive supplemental oxygen.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: CONTAIN COVID-19, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of CCP in hospitalized adults with COVID-19, was conducted at 21 US hospitals from April 17, 2020, to March 15, 2021. The trial enrolled 941 participants who were hospitalized for 3 or less days or presented 7 or less days after symptom onset and required noninvasive oxygen supplementation.

INTERVENTIONS: A unit of …

Snp Characteristics And Validation Success In Genome Wide Association Studies, Olga Y Gorlova, Xiangjun Xiao, Spiridon Tsavachidis, Christopher I Amos, Ivan P Gorlov

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Genome wide association studies (GWASs) have identified tens of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with human diseases and characteristics. A significant fraction of GWAS findings can be false positives. The gold standard for true positives is an independent validation. The goal of this study was to identify SNP features associated with validation success. Summary statistics from the Catalog of Published GWASs were used in the analysis. Since our goal was an analysis of reproducibility, we focused on the diseases/phenotypes targeted by at least 10 GWASs. GWASs were arranged in discovery-validation pairs based on the time of publication, with …

Sars-Cov-2 Anti-Spike Antibodies After Vaccination In Pediatric Heart Transplantation: A First Report, Joseph A Spinner, Christopher L Julien, Lily Olayinka, William J Dreyer, Claire E Bocchini, Flor M Munoz, Sridevi Devaraj

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data regarding the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in children after solid organ transplant.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the SARS-CoV-2 Anti-Spike IgG antibodies measured following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination at our pediatric heart transplant (HTx) center.

RESULTS: Among patients (median age 17.1 years) in whom antibody testing was performed (median 118 days post-vaccine completion), a SARS-CoV-2 Anti-Spike IgG antibody was detected in 28 of 40 (70%) post-HTx recipients (median antibody level 10.9 AU/ml). Neutropenia, diabetes mellitus, and previous use of rituximab were associated with absence of a detectable antibody. All 7 post-HTx patients with a …

Evaluating Older Adults With Cognitive Dysfunction: A Qualitative Study With Emergency Clinicians, Anita N Chary, Noelle Castilla-Ojo, Christopher Joshi, Ilianna Santangelo, Christopher R Carpenter, Kei Ouchi, Aanand D Naik, Shan W Liu, Maura Kennedy

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Evaluating older adults with cognitive dysfunction in emergency departments (EDs) requires obtaining collateral information from sources other than the patient. Understanding the challenges emergency clinicians face in obtaining collateral information can inform development of interventions to improve geriatric emergency care and, more specifically, detection of ED delirium. The objective was to understand emergency clinicians' experiences obtaining collateral information on older adults with cognitive dysfunction, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: From February to May 2021, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 22 emergency physicians and advanced practice providers from two urban academic hospitals and …

Operational Effect Of Covid-19 On Surgical Care At A Tertiary Pediatric Hospital, Andrew M Ferry, Rami P Dibbs, Amanda Ward, Veronica Velez, Sarah L Ringold, Nakeisha M Archer, Janet M Winebar, Dean B Andropoulos, Larry H Hollier

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The detrimental effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have profoundly disrupted surgical care at health care facilities worldwide. At our tertiary pediatric hospital, we made substantial adjustments to surgical suite utilization and staff member scheduling to account for reductions in surgical volume, increased demand for staff members in other sectors of the hospital, and the highly infectious properties of the virus. Perioperative leaders took advantage of the pandemic's disruption to clinical activities to design and implement a new procedure-scheduling process to rectify the inefficiencies that had accumulated as the previous system evolved. The implementation of said directives was …

Clinical Influenza Testing Practices In Hospitalized Children At United States Medical Centers, 2015-2018., Mark W. Tenforde, Angela P. Campbell, Marian G. Michaels, Christopher J. Harrison, Eileen J. Klein, Janet A. Englund, Rangaraj Selvarangan, Natasha B. Halasa, Laura S. Stewart, Geoffrey A. Weinberg, John V. Williams, Peter G. Szilagyi, Mary A. Staat, Julie A. Boom, Leila C. Sahni, Monica N. Singer, Parvin H. Azimi, Richard K. Zimmerman, Monica M. Mcneal, H Keipp Talbot, Arnold S. Monto, Emily T. Martin, Manjusha Gaglani, Fernanda P. Silveira, Donald B. Middleton, Jill M. Ferdinands, Melissa A. Rolfes

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

At nine US hospitals that enrolled children hospitalized with acute respiratory illness (ARI) during 2015-2016 through 2017-2018 influenza seasons, 50% of children with ARI received clinician-initiated testing for influenza and 35% of cases went undiagnosed due to lack of clinician-initiated testing. Marked heterogeneity in testing practice was observed across sites.

Common Genetic Variants Contribute To Risk Of Transposition Of The Great Arteries, Doris Škorić-Milosavljević, Rafik Tadros, Fernanda M Bosada, Federico Tessadori, Jan Hendrik Van Weerd, Odilia I Woudstra, Fleur V Y Tjong, Najim Lahrouchi, Fanny Bajolle, Heather J Cordell, A J Agopian, Gillian M Blue, Daniela Q C M Barge-Schaapveld, Marc Gewillig, Christoph Preuss, Elisabeth M Lodder, Phil Barnett, Aho Ilgun, Leander Beekman, Karel Van Duijvenboden, Regina Bokenkamp, Martina Müller-Nurasyid, Hubert W Vliegen, Thelma C Konings, Joost P Van Melle, Arie P J Van Dijk, Roland R J Van Kimmenade, Jolien W Roos-Hesselink, Gertjan T Sieswerda, Folkert Meijboom, Hashim Abdul-Khaliq, Felix Berger, Sven Dittrich, Marc-Phillip Hitz, Julia Moosmann, Frank-Thomas Riede, Stephan Schubert, Pilar Galan, Mark Lathrop, Hans M Munter, Ammar Al-Chalabi, Christopher E Shaw, Pamela J Shaw, Karen E Morrison, Jan H Veldink, Leonard H Van Den Berg, Sylvia Evans, Marcelo A Nobrega, Ivy Aneas, Milena Radivojkov-Blagojević, Thomas Meitinger, Erwin Oechslin, Tapas Mondal, Lynn Bergin, John F Smythe, Luis Altamirano-Diaz, Jane Lougheed, Berto J Bouma, Marie-A Chaix, Jennie Kline, Anne S Bassett, Gregor Andelfinger, Roel L F Van Der Palen, Patrice Bouvagnet, Sally-Ann B Clur, Jeroen Breckpot, Wilhelmina S Kerstjens-Frederikse, David S Winlaw, Ulrike M M Bauer, Seema Mital, Elizabeth Goldmuntz, Bernard Keavney, Damien Bonnet, Barbara J Mulder, Michael W T Tanck, Jeroen Bakkers, Vincent M Christoffels, Cornelis J Boogerd, Alex V Postma, Connie R Bezzina

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

RATIONALE: Dextro-transposition of the great arteries (D-TGA) is a severe congenital heart defect which affects approximately 1 in 4,000 live births. While there are several reports of D-TGA patients with rare variants in individual genes, the majority of D-TGA cases remain genetically elusive. Familial recurrence patterns and the observation that most cases with D-TGA are sporadic suggest a polygenic inheritance for the disorder, yet this remains unexplored.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to study the role of common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in risk for D-TGA.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a genome-wide association study in an international set of 1,237 patients …

Active Living After Cancer: Adaptation And Evaluation Of A Community-Based Physical Activity Program For Minority And Medically Underserved Breast Cancer Survivors, Irene M Tami-Maury, Yue Liao, Maria L Rangel, Leticia A Gatus, Eileen H Shinn, Ashley Alexander, Karen Basen-Engquist

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: An expanding body of research documents the benefits of physical activity for cancer survivors' physical functioning and quality of life, but few successful models provide community-based physical activity programs to cancer survivors. This report presents an evaluation of Active Living After Cancer, an evidence-based physical activity program for breast cancer survivors, adapted for community delivery to minority and medically underserved survivors.

METHODS: Survivors were recruited from health care and community settings. The program consisted of 12 weekly group sessions providing training in cognitive and behavioral skills for behavior change, brief physical activity, and cancer survivorship-related content. At the baseline …

Clonal Hematopoiesis Mutations In Patients With Lung Cancer Are Associated With Lung Cancer Risk Factors, Wei Hong, Ang Li, Yanhong Liu, Xiangjun Xiao, David C Christiani, Rayjean J Hung, James Mckay, John Field, Christopher I Amos, Chao Cheng

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) is a phenomenon caused by expansion of white blood cells descended from a single hematopoietic stem cell. While CH can be associated with leukemia and some solid tumors, the relationship between CH and lung cancer remains largely unknown. To help clarify this relationship, we analyzed whole-exome sequencing (WES) data from 1,958 lung cancer cases and controls. Potential CH mutations were identified by a set of hierarchical filtering criteria in different exonic regions, and the associations between the number of CH mutations and clinical traits were investigated. Family history of lung cancer (FHLC) may exert diverse influences on …

New Approaches For Testing Non-Inferiority For Three-Arm Trials With Poisson Distributed Outcomes, Samiran Ghosh, Erina Paul, Shrabanti Chowdhury, Ram C Tiwari

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

With the availability of limited resources, innovation for improved statistical method for the design and analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is of paramount importance for newer and better treatment discovery for any therapeutic area. Although clinical efficacy is almost always the primary evaluating criteria to measure any beneficial effect of a treatment, there are several important other factors (e.g., side effects, cost burden, less debilitating, less intensive, etc.), which can permit some less efficacious treatment options favorable to a subgroup of patients. This leads to non-inferiority (NI) testing. The objective of NI trial is to show that an experimental …

Emergence Of Clinical Clostridioides Difficile Isolates With Decreased Susceptibility To Vancomycin, Charles Darkoh, Kadiatou Keita, Chioma Odo, Micah Oyaro, Eric L Brown, Cesar A Arias, Blake M Hanson, Herbert L Dupont

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a leading cause of hospital-associated antibiotic-related diarrhea and deaths worldwide. Vancomycin is one of the few antibiotics recommended for both nonsevere and severe CDI cases. We sought to determine whether vancomycin nonsusceptible C. difficile strains are circulating in the patient population.

METHODS: Stool samples from patients with CDI were collected from 438 and 98 patients at a large university hospital in Houston, Texas, and Nairobi, Kenya, respectively. The stools were examined for the presence of vancomycin and metronidazole nonsusceptible C. difficile using broth dilution culture, Etest (BioMérieux, France), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), whole-genome sequencing, …

Associations Between Resources And Practices Of Ild Centers And Outcomes In Patients With Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Data From The Ipf-Pro Registry, Joao A De Andrade, Tejaswini Kulkarni, Megan L Neely, Anne S Hellkamp, Amy Hajari Case, Daniel A Culver, Kalpalatha Guntupalli, Shaun Bender, Craig S Conoscenti, Laurie D Snyder, Ipf-Pro Registry Investigators

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Performance benchmarks for the management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have not been established. We used data from the IPF-PRO Registry, an observational registry of patients with IPF managed at sites across the US, to examine associations between the characteristics of the enrolling sites and patient outcomes.

METHODS: An online survey was used to collect information on the resources, operations, and self-assessment practices of IPF-PRO Registry sites that enrolled ≥ 10 patients. Site variability in 1-year event rates of clinically relevant outcomes, including death, death or lung transplant, and hospitalization, was assessed. Models were adjusted for differences in patient …

Rare Coding Variants In 35 Genes Associate With Circulating Lipid Levels-A Multi-Ancestry Analysis Of 170,000 Exomes, George Hindy, Peter Dornbos, Mark D Chaffin, Dajiang J Liu, Minxian Wang, Margaret Sunitha Selvaraj, David Zhang, Joseph Park, Carlos A Aguilar-Salinas, Lucinda Antonacci-Fulton, Diego Ardissino, Donna K Arnett, Stella Aslibekyan, Gil Atzmon, Christie M Ballantyne, Francisco Barajas-Olmos, Nir Barzilai, Lewis C Becker, Lawrence F Bielak, Joshua C Bis, John Blangero, Eric Boerwinkle, Lori L Bonnycastle, Erwin Bottinger, Donald W Bowden, Matthew J Bown, Jennifer A Brody, Jai G Broome, Noël P Burtt, Brian E Cade, Federico Centeno-Cruz, Edmund Chan, Yi-Cheng Chang, Yii-Der I Chen, Ching-Yu Cheng, Won Jung Choi, Rajiv Chowdhury, Cecilia Contreras-Cubas, Emilio J Córdova, Adolfo Correa, L Adrienne Cupples, Joanne E Curran, John Danesh, Paul S De Vries, Ralph A Defronzo, Harsha Doddapaneni, Ravindranath Duggirala, Susan K Dutcher, Patrick T Ellinor, Leslie S Emery, Jose C Florez, Myriam Fornage, Barry I Freedman, Valentin Fuster, Ma Eugenia Garay-Sevilla, Humberto García-Ortiz, Soren Germer, Richard A Gibbs, Christian Gieger, Benjamin Glaser, Clicerio Gonzalez, Maria Elena Gonzalez-Villalpando, Mariaelisa Graff, Sarah E Graham, Niels Grarup, Leif C Groop, Xiuqing Guo, Namrata Gupta, Sohee Han, Craig L Hanis, Torben Hansen, Jiang He, Nancy L Heard-Costa, Yi-Jen Hung, Mi Yeong Hwang, Marguerite R Irvin, Sergio Islas-Andrade, Gail P Jarvik, Hyun Min Kang, Sharon L R Kardia, Tanika Kelly, Eimear E Kenny, Alyna T Khan, Bong-Jo Kim, Ryan W Kim, Young Jin Kim, Heikki A Koistinen, Charles Kooperberg, Johanna Kuusisto, Soo Heon Kwak, Markku Laakso, Leslie A Lange, Jiwon Lee, Juyoung Lee, Seonwook Lee, Donna M Lehman, Rozenn N Lemaitre, Allan Linneberg, Jianjun Liu, Ruth J F Loos, Steven A Lubitz, Valeriya Lyssenko, Ronald C W Ma, Lisa Warsinger Martin, Angélica Martínez-Hernández, Rasika A Mathias, Stephen T Mcgarvey, Ruth Mcpherson, James B Meigs, Thomas Meitinger, Olle Melander, Elvia Mendoza-Caamal, Ginger A Metcalf, Xuenan Mi, Karen L Mohlke, May E Montasser, Jee-Young Moon, Hortensia Moreno-Macías, Alanna C Morrison, Donna M Muzny, Sarah C Nelson, Peter M Nilsson, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Marju Orho-Melander, Lorena Orozco, Colin N A Palmer, Nicholette D Palmer, Cheol Joo Park, Kyong Soo Park, Oluf Pedersen, Juan M Peralta, Patricia A Peyser, Wendy S Post, Michael Preuss, Bruce M Psaty, Qibin Qi, D C Rao, Susan Redline, Alexander P Reiner, Cristina Revilla-Monsalve, Stephen S Rich, Nilesh Samani, Heribert Schunkert, Claudia Schurmann, Daekwan Seo, Jeong-Sun Seo, Xueling Sim, Rob Sladek, Kerrin S Small, Wing Yee So, Adrienne M Stilp, E Shyong Tai, Claudia H T Tam, Kent D Taylor, Yik Ying Teo, Farook Thameem, Brian Tomlinson, Michael Y Tsai, Tiinamaija Tuomi, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Teresa Tusié-Luna, Miriam S Udler, Rob M Van Dam, Ramachandran S Vasan, Karine A Viaud Martinez, Fei Fei Wang, Xuzhi Wang, Hugh Watkins, Daniel E Weeks, James G Wilson, Daniel R Witte, Tien-Yin Wong, Lisa R Yanek, Amp-T2d-Genes, Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium, Nhlbi Trans-Omics For Precision Medicine (Topmed) Consortium, Nhlbi Topmed Lipids Working Group, Sekar Kathiresan, Daniel J Rader, Jerome I Rotter, Michael Boehnke, Mark I Mccarthy, Cristen J Willer, Pradeep Natarajan, Jason A Flannick, Amit V Khera, Gina M Peloso

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Large-scale gene sequencing studies for complex traits have the potential to identify causal genes with therapeutic implications. We performed gene-based association testing of blood lipid levels with rare (minor allele frequency < 1%) predicted damaging coding variation by using sequence data from >170,000 individuals from multiple ancestries: 97,493 European, 30,025 South Asian, 16,507 African, 16,440 Hispanic/Latino, 10,420 East Asian, and 1,182 Samoan. We identified 35 genes associated with circulating lipid levels; some of these genes have not been previously associated with lipid levels when using rare coding variation from population-based samples. We prioritize 32 genes in array-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci based on aggregations of rare coding variants; three (EVI5, …

A Focus On The Future Of Opioid Prescribing: Implementation Of A Virtual Opioid And Pain Management Module For Medical Students, Jenna R Adalbert, Asif M. Ilyas

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Background: The United States opioid epidemic is a devastating public health crisis fueled in part by physician prescribing. While the next generation of prescribers is crucial to the trajectory of the epidemic, medical school curricula designated to prepare students for opioid prescribing (OP) and pain management is often underdeveloped. In response to this deficit, we aimed to investigate the impact of an online opioid and pain management (OPM) educational intervention on fourth-year medical student knowledge, attitudes, and perceived competence.

Methods: Graduating students completing their final year of medical education at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University were sent …

Lineage Abundance Estimation For Sars-Cov-2 In Wastewater Using Transcriptome Quantification Techniques, Jasmijn A. Baaijens, Alessandro Zulli, Isabel M. Ott, Ioanna Nika, Mart J. Van Der Lugt, Mary E. Petrone, Tara Alpert, Joseph R. Fauver, Chaney C. Kalinich, Chantal B. F. Vogels, Mallery I. Breban, Claire Duvallet, Kyle A. Mcelroy, Newsha Ghaeli, Maxim Imakaev, Malaika F. Mckenzie-Bennett, Keith Robison, Alex Plocik, Rebecca Schilling, Martha Pierson, Rebecca Littlefield, Michelle L. Spencer, Birgitte B. Simen, Yale Sars-Cov-2 Genomic Surveillance Initiative, William P. Hanage, Nathan D. Grubaugh, Jordan Peccia, Michael Baym

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Effectively monitoring the spread of SARS-CoV-2 mutants is essential to efforts to counter the ongoing pandemic. Predicting lineage abundance from wastewater, however, is technically challenging. We show that by sequencing SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater and applying algorithms initially used for transcriptome quantification, we can estimate lineage abundance in wastewater samples. We find high variability in signal among individual samples, but the overall trends match those observed from sequencing clinical samples. Thus, while clinical sequencing remains a more sensitive technique for population surveillance, wastewater sequencing can be used to monitor trends in mutant prevalence in situations where clinical sequencing is unavailable.

Quantifying The Impact Of Immune History And Variant On Sars-Cov-2 Viral Kinetics And Infection Rebound: A Retrospective Cohort Study, James A. Hay, Stephen M. Kissler, Joseph R. Fauver, Christina Mack, Caroline G. Tai, Radhika M. Samant, Sarah Connolly, Deverick J. Anderson, Gaurav Khullar, Matthew Mackay, Miral Patel, Shannan Kelly, April Manhertz, Isaac Eiter, Daisy Salgado, Tim Baker, Ben Howard, Joel T. Dudley, Christopher E. Mason, Manoj Nair, Yaoxing Huang, John Difiori, David D. Ho, Nathan D. Grubaugh, Yonatan H. Grad

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

BACKGROUND: The combined impact of immunity and SARS-CoV-2 variants on viral kinetics during infections has been unclear.

METHODS: We characterized 1,280 infections from the National Basketball Association occupational health cohort identified between June 2020 and January 2022 using serial RT-qPCR testing. Logistic regression and semi-mechanistic viral RNA kinetics models were used to quantify the effect of age, variant, symptom status, infection history, vaccination status and antibody titer to the founder SARS-CoV-2 strain on the duration of potential infectiousness and overall viral kinetics. The frequency of viral rebounds was quantified under multiple cycle threshold (Ct) value-based definitions.

RESULTS: Among individuals detected …

Access, Socioeconomic Environment, And Death From Covid-19 In Nebraska, He Bai, Michelle M. Schwedhelm, John-Martin Lowe, Rachel Lookadoo, Daniel R. Anderson, Abigail Lowe, James V. Lawler, M. Jana Broadhurst, David Brett-Major

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Our study assesses whether factors related to healthcare access in the first year of the pandemic affect mortality and length of stay (LOS). Our cohort study examined hospitalized patients at Nebraska Medicine between April and October 2020 who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 and had a charted sepsis related diagnostic code. Multivariate logistic was used to analyze the odds of mortality and linear regression was used to calculate the parameter estimates of LOS associated with COVID-19 status, age, gender, race/ethnicity, median household income, admission month, and residential distance from definitive care. Among 475 admissions, the odds of mortality is greater among …

Disparities In Awareness Of And Willingness To Participate In Cancer Clinical Trials Between African American And White Cancer Survivors, Gaurav Kumar, Jungyoon Kim, Paraskevi A. Farazi, Hongmei Wang, Dejun Su

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

BACKGROUND: Cancer clinical trials (CCTs) are essential for cancer care, yet the evidence is scarce when it comes to racial disparities in CCT participation among cancer survivors in the Midwest. This study aimed to 1) assess disparities in the awareness of and willingness to participate in CCTs between African American and White cancer survivors; and 2) compare perceptions about CCTs between the two racial groups.

METHODS: The study was based on cross-sectional data from the survey "Minority Patient Participation in Cancer Clinical Trials" that collected information from 147 Black and White cancer survivors from Nebraska between 2015 and 2016. Chi-square …

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Reinfection: A Case Series From A 12-Month Longitudinal Occupational Cohort, Christina D. Mack, Caroline Tai, Robby Sikka, Yonatan H. Grad, Lisa L. Maragakis, Nathan D. Grubaugh, Deverick J. Anderson, David Ho, Michael Merson, Radhika M. Samant, Joseph R. Fauver, James Barrett, Leroy Sims, John Difiori

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Findings are described in 7 patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 reinfection from the National Basketball Association 2020-2021 occupational testing cohort, including clinical details, antibody test results, genomic sequencing, and longitudinal reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction results. Reinfections were infrequent and varied in clinical presentation, viral dynamics, and immune response.

Exposure To Family Planning Messages And Teenage Pregnancy: Results From The 2017 Philippine National Demographic And Health Survey, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Arianna Maever L. Amit, Clinton S. Tang, Luis Miguel B. Co, Neil Andrew K. Aliazas, Sarah J. De Los Reyes, Raymundo S. Baquiran, Lourdes Bernadette S. Tanchanco

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

Teenage pregnancy is known to have physical, emotional, and psychosocial effects. Because of these risks, family planning and contraception messages have been disseminated in various forms of media, but their association with teenage pregnancy has not been studied previously in the Philippines. This study aims to examine the association between exposure to various family planning and contraception messages disseminated in various media channels and pregnancy among Filipino women aged 15–19. The study also intended to examine interactions between the different media channels where these family planning and contraception messages are being disseminated on their effect on teenage pregnancy.

Methods …

The Politics Of Drug Rehabilitation In The Philippines, Gideon Lasco, Lee Edson Yarcia

Development Studies Faculty Publications

The international consensus to end compulsory drug treatments and close forced rehabilitation facilities needs urgent transformation to country policies. In the Philippines, as with other countries in Asia, rehabilitation can be compulsory and is seen as the humane alternative to the “war on drugs.” In this paper, we present the landscape of rehabilitation and narrate the ways in which people who use drugs are forced to undergo treatment. We unpack the politics behind rehabilitation and explain the sociocultural foundations that support compulsory treatment. We argue that a transition to a human rights-based approach, including voluntary alternatives in community settings, is …

Mothers' Perceptions Of Their Children's Weight: Opportunity For Health Promotion In Kuwait, Abdullah Al-Taiar, Nawal Alqaoud, Reem Sharaf-Alddin, Muge Akpinar-Elci

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Mothers’ perceptions of their children’s weight remain mostly unknown in oil-rich countries of the Middle East.

Aims: To compare maternal perceptions of their children’s weight with actual body weight.

Methods: We used the Kuwait nutritional surveillance data for 5 consecutive years (2015-2019) (N = 5119), which were collected through face-to-face interviews with mothers of children aged 2-5 years attending vaccination centres.

Results: Of the 5119 mothers in the study, 163 (3.18%) and 332 (6.48%) had obese or overweight children, respectively. Among 4624 mothers who had normal weight children, 1350 (29.20%) perceived their children’s weight as …

Differential Gene Expression In Cord Blood Of Infants Diagnosed With Cerebral Palsy: A Pilot Analysis Of The Beam Cohort, Maria L V Dizon, Raye-Ann O Deregnier, Steven J Weiner, Michael W Varner, Dwight J Rouse, Maged M Costantine, Ronald J Wapner, John M Thorp, Sean C Blackwell, Nina K Ayala, Antonio F Saad, Steve N Caritis, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health And Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Beneficial Effects of Antenatal Magnesium clinical trial was conducted between 1997 and 2007, and demonstrated a significant reduction in cerebral palsy (CP) in preterm infants who were exposed to peripartum magnesium sulfate (MgSO4). However, the mechanism by which MgSO4 confers neuroprotection remains incompletely understood. Cord blood samples from this study were interrogated during an era when next-generation sequencing was not widely accessible and few gene expression differences or biomarkers were identified between treatment groups. Our goal was to use bulk RNA deep sequencing to identify differentially expressed genes comparing the following four groups: newborns who ultimately developed CP treated …

Exploring How Public Health Partnerships With Community-Based Organizations (Cbos) Can Be Leveraged For Health Promotion And Community Health., Senila Yasmin, Rayna Haque, Kaneza Kadambaya, Marzia Maliha, Maha Sheikh

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

The Academic Public Health Corps (APHC) works to support local public health in Massachusetts through varying models of collaboration. In the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, one initiative of the APHC has been to partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) to address vaccine hesitancy and improve overall community health. The purpose of this article is to share how the APHC partnered with CBOs in Massachusetts to address COVID-19 concerns within their respective communities, and present strategies to empower communities, share resources, and increase health promotion. The APHC partnered with 2 CBOs who received the Massachusetts COVID-19 Community Grants distributed by Health …

Health Workers On The Political Frontlines, Gideon Lasco

Development Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.