Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gender In The Time Of Covid-19: Evaluating National Leadership And Covid-19 Fatalities, Leah C. Windsor, Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, Alistair J. Windsor, Robert Ostergard, Susan Allen, Courtney Burns, Jarod Giger, Reed Wood

Social Work Faculty Publications

In this paper we explore whether countries led by women have fared better during the COVID-19 pandemic than those led by men. Media and public health officials have lauded the perceived gender-related influence on policies and strategies for reducing the deleterious effects of the pandemic. We examine this proposition by analyzing COVID-19-related deaths globally across countries led by men and women. While we find some limited support for lower reported fatality rates in countries led by women, they are not statistically significant. Country cultural values offer more substantive explanation for COVID-19 outcomes. We offer several potential explanations for the pervasive …

The “Green Patent Paradox” And Fair Use: The Intellectual Property Solution To Fight Climate Change, Samuel Cayton

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law

As the climate crisis consistently worsens, the United States’ response to the crisis has proven inconsistent. Even with the United States likely to recommit to the Paris Climate Agreement, political tensions will likely further delay a climate response. The polarized characterization of the Green New Deal, the inaction of scientifically misguided conservatives, and the incessant proposal for middle ground approaches lacking the urgency needed to change course all contribute to this delay. While swift action from the federal government is needed, looking to the private sector to transition to sustainability is equally important. Specifically, patent protection is a strong intellectual …

Protocol For A Trial Assessing The Impacts Of School-Based Wash Interventions On Children’S Health Literacy, Handwashing, And Nutrition Status In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Stephanie O. Sangalang, Shelley Anne J. Medina, Zheina J. Ottong, Allen Lemuel G. Lemence, Donrey Totanes, John Cedrick Valencia, Patricia Andrea A. Singson, Mikaela Olaguera, Nelissa O. Prado, Roezel Mari Z. Ocaña, Rovin James F. Canja, Alfem John T. Benolirao, Shyrill Mae F. Mariano, Jergil Gyle Gavieres, Clarisse P. Aquino, Edison C. Latag, Maria Vianca Jasmin C. Anglo, Christian Borgemeister, Thoomas Kistemann

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Diarrhea, soil-transmitted helminth infection and malnutrition are leading causes of child mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). To reduce the prevalence of these diseases, effective interventions for adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) should be implemented. This paper describes the design of a cluster-randomized controlled trial that will compare the efficacy of four school-based WaSH interventions for improving children’s health literacy, handwashing, and nutrition. Interventions consisted of (1) WaSH policy reinforcement; (2) low-, medium-, or high-volume health education; (3) hygiene supplies; and (4) WaSH facilities (e.g., toilets, urinals, handwashing basins) improvements. We randomly allocated school clusters from the intervention …

Oral Rehydration Therapies In Senegal, Mali, And Sierra Leone: A Spatial Analysis Of Changes Over Time And Implications For Policy, Kirsten E. Wiens, Lauren E. Schaeffer, Samba O. Sow, Babacar Ndoye, Carrie Jo Cain, Mathew M. Baumann, Kimberly B. Johnson, Paulina A. Lindstedt, Brigette F. Blacker, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Woman and Child Health

Background: Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is a simple intervention that can prevent childhood deaths from severe diarrhea and dehydration. In a previous study, we mapped the use of ORS treatment subnationally and found that ORS coverage increased over time, while the use of home-made alternatives or recommended home fluids (RHF) decreased, in many countries. These patterns were particularly striking within Senegal, Mali, and Sierra Leone. It was unclear, however, whether ORS replaced RHF in these locations or if children were left untreated, and if these patterns were associated with health policy changes.
Methods: We used a Bayesian geostatistical model and …

Social Determinants Of Health: The Impact On Health Outcomes And Hospital Profitability, Danielle Mcpherson

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Hospitals are experiencing decreasing profitability due to increasing healthcare cost. In this paper, I demonstrate that there is financial value to hospitals by addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) as this strategy improves health outcomes and yields cost savings. I estimate the impact of SDOH on the health outcomes using an IV probit regression analysis and estimated the impact of health outcomes on cost using a basic linear regression. I estimate that improving SDOH by one standard deviation will result in hospital cost savings as follows: addressing Violent Crime will decrease hospital cost between 0.16% and 0.21%, addressing Supplemental Nutrition …

It’S All The Rage: An Animated Approach To Screening For Postpartum Depression, Amanda Gorham

Doctoral Dissertations

Postpartum depression presents a complication for mothers which can, in some cases, be severe and even life-threatening. Instruments commonly used to screen for this psychological condition have been challenged by an extensive body of literature, with many mothers being unidentified and even untreated for their symptoms. The presented research introduces a newly developed screening instrument for detecting probable postpartum depression using text-free scenario-based animations, based on the lived experience of the condition as qualified by empirical research and the existing body of literature. Developed items were controlled for quality via Think Aloud Protocol and alignment studies with subject matter experts …

Essays On Rehospitalization Under The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, Yangyuna Yang

Theses & Dissertations

The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), a part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to penalize hospitals with excess readmissions. The following conditions/procedures with high 30-day readmission rates were included in the program: Acute Myocardial Infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, total hip arthroplasty and/or total knee arthroplasty, and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). More research needs to be done regarding the national impact of the program. In addition, the risk factors of newly targeted CABG needs to be investigated robustly. Lastly, besides evaluating the risk of readmissions before …

Regional Integration: Physician Perceptions On Electronic Medical Record Use And Impact In South West Ontario, Sadiq Raji

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Regional initiatives in the health care context in Canada are typically organized and administered along geographic boundaries or operational units. Regional integration of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) has been continuing across Canadian provinces in recent years, yet the use and impact of regionally integrated EMRs are not routinely assessed and questions remain about their impact on and use in physicians’ practices. Are stated goals of simplifying connections and sharing of electronic health information collected and managed by many health services providers being met? What are physicians’ perspectives on the use and impact of regionally integrated EMR? In this thesis, I …

Global Burden Of Cardiovascular Diseases And Risk Factors, 1990-2019: Update From The Gbd 2019 Study, Gregory A. Roth, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Gbd-Nhlbi-Jacc Global Burden Of Cardiovascular Diseases Writing Group, 608 Co-Authors

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019. GBD, an ongoing multinational collaboration to provide comparable and consistent estimates of population health over time, used all available population-level data sources on incidence, prevalence, case fatality, mortality, and health risks to produce estimates for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019.

Prevalent cases …

Fair Treatment

In The Loop

Initiatives in DePaul's College of Computing and Digital Media are addressing racial inequity in health care. One initiative is looking at Black maternal health. Another is trying to build models and requirements of what should be automated to consider racial inequity first.

Health Care And Education Access Of Transnational Children In Mexico, Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Laura Juarez

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

Between 2001 and 2018, more than 5.5 million Mexican migrants were removed from the United States or returned to Mexico with their families as immigration enforcement escalated. Learning how this transition affected the access to health and education services of their children –also referred to as “the invisibles”– is a policy-relevant topic for both the United States and Mexico. Using representative data on 7.6 million Mexican and U.S.-born children from the 2015 Mexican Intercensal Survey, we provide evidence on the education and health care access gaps between these two groups and on the factors potentially responsible for the barriers encountered …

Impact Of Endangered Animal Protection Rights, Policies, And Practices On Zoonotic Disease Spread, Daniella Fedak-Lengel

Honors Projects

Building on field research in Costa Rica and Belize, this honors project analyzes environmental and endangered animal protection policies, rights, and practices in Central America and the Caribbean, and assesses the impact of veterinary science and biological research and practice, particularly conservation biology, on animal welfare concerns. Informed by the recent surge in awareness regarding zoonoses and zoonotic disease transmission, prevention and control, resulting from the current global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, the project assesses the need for new and innovative types of collaboration, particularly involving conservation biologists, environmental scientists, public health experts, law and policy makers, and global trade and …

Covid-19 Educational Inequities: Shining A Light On Disparities In A Graduate School Of Social Work, Jason Jabbari, Dan Ferris, Tyler Frank, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

In the wake of COVID-19, universities and schools of social work face unprecedented challenges and uncertainty in aligning their academic models with public heath protocols and best practices, while prioritizing the safety and well-being of their students. In order to best respond to these challenges and uncertainty, more research is needed to advance a greater understanding of (1) what challenges students face, (2) who is most at risk and impacted by these challenges, and (3) how universities can best support students. Through a survey administered during the spring 2020 semester at a large research university in the Midwest, we explored …

Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Housing Instability During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Yung Chun, Stephen Roll, Selina Miller, Hedwig Lee, Savannah Larimore, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Stable and adequate housing is critical in the midst of a pandemic; without housing, individuals and families cannot shelter in place to prevent the spread of disease. Understanding and combating housing hardships in vulnerable populations is therefore essential to a sound public health response. This study aims to explore the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts on housing-related hardships across racial/ethnic groups in the United States as well as the extent to which these disparities are mediated by households’ broader economic circumstances; namely, their pre-pandemic liquid asset levels and the experience of COVID-19-related job and income losses. Using a national survey of over …

Aligning Food Environments With Institutional Values: A Mixed Methods Study Of Oregon Health Care Organizations, Elizaveta Walker

Dissertations and Theses

A major driver of the obesity epidemic is obesogenic food environments, characterized by nutrient-poor and energy-dense foods that saturate the collective physical, economic and sociocultural conditions that influence nutritional status. Food environments in organizations such as hospitals and public health agencies warrant special consideration given their health-focused mission. Improving food environments within health care settings has been highlighted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as one of seven key strategies to prevent obesity. However, most of the refereed literature examining healthy food environment policies (HFEPs) within hospitals focuses on the inpatient dietary environment, leaving a paucity of …

Assessing The Vulnerability Of Monterey Bay Area Seniors To Covid-19, Ethan A. Quaranta, Gerhard L. Gross

Culture, Society, and Praxis

This paper assesses the vulnerability of seniors residing in the Monterey Bay Tri-County Region to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to weakened immune systems, seniors are the most at-risk members of our community to COVID-19, and have a death rate that is three times higher than the overall death rate to COVID-19. Using standard ambulance response times from each hospital throughout the area, our objective is to determine what proportion of Tri-County seniors aged 65 and over, including those who are in nursing homes, are living independently, and cannot afford health care, were within an adequate travel time to the hospital. …

Aging Strong For All: Examining Aging Equity In The City Of Boston, Jan Mutchler, Caitlin Coyle, Nidya Velasco Roldán, Paul Watanabe, Cedric Woods, Lorna Rivera, Quito Swan, Elena Stone, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The experience of being and becoming older differs substantially based on one’s race, ethnicity, and gender. In the City of Boston, it has never been more critical to strategically pursue greater equity in the aging experience of residents. According to data from the US Census Bureau, the number of Boston residents aged 60 or older increased by more than a third just since 2010 and persons of color now make up half of Boston’s older adults. As well, stakeholders share a growing recognition of the powerful ways in which inequity, racism and discrimination shape health outcomes and the aging experience, …

Downeast Maine Mat Expansion Project: Year 2 Data Summary, Mary Lindsey Smith Phd, Evelyn Ali Bs, Tyler Egeland Ba

Substance Use Research & Evaluation

This report summarizes the Year 2 activities of the Healthy Acadia Downeast Maine MAT Expansion Project. Through a collaborative effort of Healthy Acadia, its providers, the Downeast Substance Treatment Network and Downeast Substance Use Response Coalition, the project utilized multiple evidence-based strategies to combat opioid use disorder (OUD) in Downeast Maine.

FMI: M. Lindsey Smith, PhD, m.lindsey.smith@maine.edu

Narrowing The Wealth And Income Gap In Poland, China, And The United States, Cyndy Carboo, Zhiling Song, Jiawei Feng, Xudong Zhu

School of Professional Studies

With the widespread of globalization, the wealth gap continues to widen globally. Due to the enormous differences in national conditions and political systems of various countries, this article selects China, the United States, and Poland as the research objects, and uses a specific time unit as the benchmark, and mainly focuses on the four directions of medical care, education, job opportunities, and pensions. A reader could understand the correlation between the wealth gap and multiple factors deeply in this article. This article analyzes the impact of income disparity on these three countries and proposes solutions to help narrow the gap …

The Impact Of Special Interest Groups On The Federal Dietary Guidelines: Consequences For American Health, Dory Mcmillan

School of Professional Studies

This research paper explores the impact of relationships between lobbyists and both the USDA and HSS, and the impact these relationships have on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that the agencies work together to create. The paper focuses specifically on the information the guidelines present in regard to red meat consumption, and the impacts this may have on American health, and healthcare costs associated. It was hypothesized that a relationship would be found between special interest groups and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and/or the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Research found there was a relationship between special …

Healthy Food Portal Business Plan And Its Function Model, Alena Raupova

School of Professional Studies

Business planning is a tool of paramount importance in the process of company management, on the efficiency of which the future functioning of the enterprise depends. Formation of a business plan enables the team to productively and competently use existing funds and resources in their work and apply planning as a very effective management mechanism (Hamm, 2016).

The goal of this final project is to develop a business plan for a healthy nutrition portal for Bellyful LLC. Bellyful is based in Boston, USA, and the portal will be its first product. Our client is interested in researching the prospects of …

Worst Time Being Poor? The Hunger Problem In U.S. During Covid-19 Pandemic, Yuanhang Hu

School of Professional Studies

Food insecurity is deeply rooted in American society during and before the COVID-19 pandemic. Food Insecurity usually associates with economic indicators, such as unemployment rate, income level, etc. Currently, there are two main tools to fight the war of hunger. The first one is the government food assistance programs. And the second one is food pantries from the private sectors of the community. Both tools are facing numerous challenges due to COVID-19. The purpose of this article is to provide rational reasons to persuade the government to enhance the benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and use administrative …

Rcap Solutions Breach Management - Case Study, Eugene Adu-Gyamfi, Gio Al Muarrawi, Kwame Ofori

School of Professional Studies

Companies get hacked every day, and our in-scope company for this case study, RCAP Solution, was not an exception. Security incidents have increased both in volume and range in recent years, and cyber-attacks have become more sophisticated than ever before. There are so many reasons that drive this fact; one is that our infrastructure was not protected efficiently, but also attackers have become more knowledgeable in initiating advanced attacks at a scale. Additionally, the entrance of emerging technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, and the internet of things, added additional complexity to the already complex scene. Cybercriminals are using various …

A Web-Based Ai Assistant Application Using Python And Javascript, Viet Le, Tej Bahadur, Jainee Shah, Roushan Ara

School of Professional Studies

Our research is mainly based on a chatbot which is powered by Artificial Intelligence. Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google’s Now and Amazon’s Alexa are currently fast-growing and widely integrated with many smart devices. These assistants are built with the primary purpose of being personal assistants for every individual user in certain contexts. In this research, we would highlight the development process of the chatbots, features, problems, case studies and limitations.

This research delivers the information, helps developers to build answer bots and integrate chatbots with business accounts. The aim is to assist users and allow transactions …

Cost, Coverage, And The Underuse Of Medications Among People With Cf, Semret Seyoum, Marsha Regenstein, Lea Nolan

Health Policy and Management Issue Briefs

No abstract provided.

The Killingly Mascot Case Study, Jordan Lumpkins

School of Professional Studies

In the summer of 2019, in Killingly, Connecticut the local Board of Education voted to retire the "Redmen" mascot name it had used for nearly a century. This legislation was widely opposed and received extensive media coverage. Within a few months, the town experienced a massive political referendum where several local Board of Education members and Councilmen were replaced by single issue politicians promising to reinstate the "Redmen" name. Now holding a majority on the Board of Education, these Board members made Killingly the first school in U.S. history to reinstate a mascot after being deemed "derogatory."

It is the …

How Museum Utilize Social Media On Communication, Jiake Han

School of Professional Studies

With the development of Internet, social media became more and more popular among people. Many industries realize the importance of social media in business. Traditionally, museum concentrates more on personal visual experience, which is hard to be replaced by online media. However, museums now also put more concentrate on social media platform because it expands the way of engagement. Especially, for Coronavirus, many organizations including museums have to close. Therefore, museums have to depend more on social media platforms to communicate with audiences. This research aims at finding how different kind of social media help museum communicate and engage with …

Cvs Covid-19 Screening Website: Test Automation, Savya Rawat

School of Professional Studies

CVS Pharmacy is an American retail corporation, also known as, and originally named, the Consumer Value Store owned by CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. CVS Pharmacy is currently the largest pharmacy chain in the United States by number of locations over 9,600 and total prescription revenue. CVS sells prescription drugs and a wide assortment of general merchandise, including over-the-counter drugs.

Now, coming to the reason why I have selected CVS pharmacy’s website cvs.com as my case study topic is because of CVS’s response to the covid-19 pandemic’s no-cost testing strategy. Whole of the world is suffering …

The Practical Applications Of Video Games Beyond Entertainment, Jack Martin

School of Professional Studies

Much of the attention directed toward video games is focused on their role as entertainment. However, researchers have found that video games can have other, more practical uses for society. This thesis is designed to examine three specific examples of the practical applications of video games: video games in education, video games as accessible technology, and the social uses of video games. This project is based on pre-existing research conducted by professionals studying the aforementioned subtopics. Anecdotal stories from educators, people with disabilities, and developers are also discussed. The thesis explores specific examples of video games being used practically, and …

Transparency And Yielding Of Law Officers Reform (Taylor) Act Of 2020: Proposal For Police Reform, Marwa Alnaal, Matthew L. Anderson, Hannah Brier, Mollie Campbell, Rose Wine

School of Professional Studies

The Transparency and Yielding of Law Officers Reform Act of 2020 (TAYLOR) proposes an example bill for law enforcement reform. During the summer of 2020, the United States witnessed civilian demonstrations nationwide calling for a change to policing. Our proposal is hoping to heed that call, offering a foundation for change that police forces and localities across the United States can utilize to rebuild trust and accountability.

The goal of the TAYLOR Act is not to defund the police; but rather, TAYLOR rethinks the priorities of the police. There can be no denying that the relationship of trust and security …