Epidemiology Commons^™

Continuum Of A Declining Trend In Correct Self-Perception Of Body Weight Among American Adults, Amber Morgan

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Background: Over the past few decades, the prevalence of obesity in the United States has steadily increased with the proportion of obese Americans projected to be about fifty percent in 2030. With more than half of adults being overweight or obese (OW/OB), an increasing number of adults failed to accurately perceive body weight, which may be a major barrier to weight loss strategies, thus, presenting a substantial challenge to prevention efforts. The objective of this study was to assess the dynamic trend of body weight related self-perception among American adults and provide recommendations for improving obesity prevention strategies.

Methods …

Effects Of Serum Levels Of Vitamin A And Precursors On Colorectal Cancer Mortlaity, Chimuanya Okoli

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Objective: To examine the relationship between serum levels of Vitamin A and precursors on Colorectal cancer mortality. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted with 14,358 adults who participated in NHANES III. Data was collected via in home interviews and visits by participants to a mobile examination centre for blood sample collection. Characteristics such as family income, educational attainment, marital status, race and ethnicity, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, self reported health, type of resident, body size, cancer status at base line, vegetable consumption and fruit juice consumption were examined. Hazard ratio estimates for all-cause and cancer-related deaths among individuals with …

Analysis Of Relapse In Leukemia Patients With Missing Data Using An Extension Of The Em Algorithm, Braydon Schaible

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Introduction: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are two types of acute leukemia. When complete remission of leukemia has not been achieved or the disease refracts to its stage in initial chemotherapy, relapse occurs. Leukemia has poor prognosis for patients with relapse. This sample included AML and ALL patients. The purpose of this study was to use and extension of the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm in order to find significant factors that affect the occurrence of relapse in leukemia patients with missing data.

Methods: The EM logistic model consists of three steps. First, the initial logistic regression intercept …

Association Between Fruit And Vegetable Consumption And Sleep Quantity In Pregnant Women, Kassandra Snook

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

The National Sleep Foundation recommends an average sleep time duration of 7-9 hours per day for adults aged 18-64 years old. Unfortunately, women are prone to encounter sleep disruptions during pregnancy that can prevent them from the recommended amount of sleep. Poor sleep during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for birth complications, including low birth weight and stillbirth. Studies have found that sleeping less and poor sleep quality is associated with lower consumption of fruits and vegetables and good sleep quality/adequate sleep is associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption. The objective of this study was to determine …

Effect Of Natural Products Against Growth Of Three Allergenic And Toxigenic Molds, Brittany Loadholt, Teyaijah Givens, Nosa Lloyd Nwaonumah, Bushra Shah, Atin Adhikari

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Dampness and fungal exposures in buildings are widespread, with estimates ranging from 18% to 50% of buildings being affected. Of the 21.8 million people reported to have asthma in the USA, approximately 4.6 million cases are attributable to dampness and mold exposure in the home. Consequent national annual cost of asthma is about $3.5 billion. Several fungal genera from damp environments were reported to be associated with allergy and/or asthma and some species can release mycotoxins in the environment. Although there are several mold inhibitor or disinfectant solutions and sprays available in the market for cleaning and inhibiting mold growth, …

Ebola And Social Media, Kathryn C. Finch

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

We were interested in knowing the impact of social media during the 2014-2015 West Africa Ebola epidemic. The aim of this systematic review is to provide clinicians, public health practitioners and policy-makers with a comprehensive overview of the up-to-date literature on Ebola and social media. We critically appraised the quality and utility of these studies, and identified the gaps in our current understanding that invite further research efforts. In particular, we focused on the research questions and the methods of the studies: a) What were the research questions of a given study? b) What study design and research methods were …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern students assess characteristics for weight underestimation of children with obesity

Improving The Inference Of Some Experiemtal Studies By Using Ranked Auxiliary Covariates, Rajai Jabrah

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In many studies, the measurement of sampling units according to the response variable is costly or time consuming, however, it is possible to rank sampling units according to baseline auxiliary covariates, which are available, easily obtainable, and cost efficient. In these cases, when estimating the population mean, Ranked Set Sampling (RSS) can be a more efficient sampling method than the Simple Random Sampling (SRS) method. In this dissertation, we propose a modified approach of the RSS method to allocate units into an experimental study, aimed to compare two or more groups.

Ranked auxiliary covariates, which are typically correlated with the …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern Professor Recognized for Outstanding Contribution

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern Examines the Association between Arthritis and Depression

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern Examines the role of Adiposity

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern Examined Rural-Urban Differences in Perceptions of Child Overweight

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern Examines Social Media Reactions
• Georgia Southern Alumni as ASPPH/CDC Allan Rosenfield Fellow

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern study shows overweight and obese teens think they’re ‘just fine’

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern Questions the Validity of Avoidable Mortality

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Georgia Southern Models the Effect of School Closures

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Misperception of Child’s Body Weight
• U.S. Undergraduate Education in Public Health

Variations In Public Health Governance, Jeffery A. Jones, Ankit Bangar, Patrick Chang, Yelena N. Tarasenko

Epidemiology: Faculty Presentations (2000-2018)

Background: Studies of public health departments have found mixed results regarding the relevance of governance through local boards of health (LBOHs). Some studies find that LBOHs can be an important component in higher performance by local health departments. Other analyses, however, find no advantage for local health departments having or not having a LBOH. The hypothesis was that a typology of LBOHs nationwide can define different types of LBOHs based on their powers and responsibilities.

Methods: Using national profile sample data from the National Association of Local Boards of Health, LBOHs were categorized using 34 variables based on four domains …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Acceptability and Feasibility of Physical Activity Assessment Methods

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Evaluation of Diverse Community Asthma Interventions

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Converting Big Data into Public Health
• Evaluation of Diverse Community Asthma Interventions

Examination Of Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Ovarian Cancer Stage Of Diagnosis, Surgery Treatment And Survival: Multilevel Analysis Of 2001-2012 Seer Data, Chen Chen

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Context. Racial/ethnic disparities in cancer outcomes are major public health concerns. Ovarian cancer is the tenth most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. Identifying individual- and contextual-level factors contributing to racial/ethnic disparities in ovarian cancer stage of diagnosis, surgery treatment and survival is necessary for reducing and eliminating these disparities.

Objective. The study aims to examine racial/ethnic disparities in ovarian cancer diagnosis, surgery treatment and survival outcomes; to explore individual- and contextual-level factors contributing to these disparities, and to examine the trend of ovarian cancer racial/ethnic disparities from 2001 to 2012.

Methods. The …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Ebola and Social Media

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Dr. Tarasenko named Exceptional Reviewer
• Parental Perceptions

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• HPV Vaccine

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Diabetes and Colorectal Cancer Screening

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Cholera Transmission Dynamic Models

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Impaired Verbal Memory

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Cost-Effectiveness of Alternate Strategies

Cholera Transmission Dynamic Models For Public Health Practitioners, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung

Epidemiology: Faculty Publications (2002-2018)

Great progress has been made in mathematical models of cholera transmission dynamics in recent years. However, little impact, if any, has been made by models upon public health decision-making and day-to-day routine of epidemiologists. This paper provides a brief introduction to the basics of ordinary differential equation models of cholera transmission dynamics. We discuss a basic model adapted from Codeço (2001), and how it can be modified to incorporate different hypotheses, including the importance of asymptomatic or inapparent infections, and hyperinfectious V. choleraeand human-to-human transmission. We highlight three important challenges of cholera models: (1) model misspecification and parameter uncertainty, …