Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Barriers To Medicare Hospice Utilization: A Qualitative Study Of Maine's Medicare Hospice Providers, Judith B. Tupper Dhed, Ches, Cpps

Disability & Aging

This report, prepared for the Maine Hospice Council and funded by the Carpenter Foundation, presents findings of a qualitative study of barriers to hospice utilization. This study includes the perspectives of all 26 Medicare certified hospice providers in Maine. Significant findings of the qualitative study include: A continuing need to educate the general public about hospice and the Medicare benefit. Maine health care providers have low referral rates to the hospice programs and often misunderstand the regulations and guidelines of the hospice benefit. The referral process to hospice programs is based on fragile systems of communication, fraught with potential miscues, …

Public Health Campaigns To Change Industry Practices That Damage Health: An Analysis Of 12 Case Studies, Nicholas Freudenberg, Sarah Picard Bradley, Monica Serrano

Publications and Research

Industry practices such as advertising, production of unsafe products, and efforts to defeat health legislation play a major role in current patterns of U.S. ill health. Changing these practices may be a promising strategy to promote health. The authors analyze 12 campaigns designed to modify the health-related practices of U.S. corporations in the alcohol, automobile, food and beverage, firearms, pharmaceutical, and tobacco industries. The objectives are to examine the interactions between advocacy campaigns and industry opponents; explore the roles of government, researchers, and media; and identify characteristics of campaigns that are effective in changing health-damaging practices. The authors compared campaigns …

Addressing Potential Conflicts Of Interest Arising From The Multiple Roles Of Colorado’S Community Centered Boards, Maureen Booth Mrp, Ma, Eileen Griffin Jd

Disability & Aging

This document summarizes the information we gathered, our analysis of potential conflicts of interest, and recommendations for addressing opportunities for improvement. The information we gathered is based on document review, input from stakeholders, and a review of practices in four other states.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 83, No. 19, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news

Loop Analysis Of Causal Feedback In Epidemiology: An Illustration Relating To Urban Neighborhoods And Resident Depressive Experiences, Alexis Dinno

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

The causal feedback implied by urban neighborhood conditions that shape human health experiences, that in turn shape neighborhood conditions through a complex causal web, raises a challenge for traditional epidemiological causal analyses. This article introduces the loop analysis method, and builds off of a core loop model linking neighborhood property vacancy rate, resident depressive symptoms, rate of neighborhood death, and rate of neighborhood exit in a feedback network. I justify and apply loop analysis to the specific example of depressive symptoms and abandoned urban residential property to show how inquiries into the behavior of causal systems can answer different kinds …

Diagnostic Classifications And Resource Utilization Of Decedents Served By The Department Of Veterans Affairs, Sonia A. Duffy, Laurel Copeland, Faith Hopp, Robert J. Zalenski

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Given the volume and cost of inpatient care during the last year of life, there is a critical need to identify patterns of dying as a means of planning end-of-life care services, especially for the growing number of older persons who receive services from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Methods: A retrospective computerized record review was conducted of 20,933 VHA patients who died as inpatients between October 1, 2001 and September 30, 2002. Diagnoses were aggregated into one of five classification patterns of death and analyzed in terms of health care resource utilization (mean number of inpatient days and …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 83, No. 8, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

Lead-Contaminated Candies In Southern Nevada, Shawn Gerstenberger, Glenn Savage, Clayton Sellers, Keith Zupnik, Emmanuel C. Gorospe

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Lead-contaminated candies from Latin America are beginning to gain attention in the public media1,2 and in the medical literature.3–5 These candies come from a number of sources and are manufactured outside Food and Drug Administration regulatory control. In 2005, we sampled 50 imported Latin American candies sold in Southern Nevada. A total of 20 (40%) tested positive with an average lead content of 1.46  0.27 mg/kg in the candies’ wrappers and straws, based on standard Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry methodology. Given these results, the Southern Nevada Health District issued a cease-and-desist order on February 13, 2006, to local …

Collaboration Addresses Information And Education Needs Of An Urban Public Health Workforce, Deborah H. Charbonneau, Ellen B. Marks, Annette M. Healy, Carrie F. Croatt-Moore

Library Scholarly Publications

Addressing the health information needs of diverse, multiethnic, and multilingual communities can be both a challenge and an opportunity for libraries. The Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, is the only academic medical library in the Detroit area open to the public. The library provides services to many communities in southeastern Michigan. The diverse geographic area served by the library includes the nation’s highest concentration of Arab Americans. A review of the literature reveals that limited research has addressed how libraries can meet the health information needs of this target community. An understanding of …

The Health Implications Of Violence Against Women: Untangling The Complexities Of Actual And Chronic Effects: Part Two, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

No abstract provided.

Why De Minimis?, Matthew D. Adler

All Faculty Scholarship

De minimis cutoffs are a familiar feature of risk regulation. This includes the quantitative “individual risk” thresholds for fatality risks employed in many contexts by EPA, FDA, and other agencies, such as the 1-in-1 million lifetime cancer risk cutoff; extreme event cutoffs for addressing natural hazards, such as the 100-year-flood or 475-year-earthquake; de minimis failure probabilities for built structures; the exclusion of low-probability causal models; and other policymaking criteria. All these tests have a common structure, as I show in the Article. A de minimis test, broadly defined, tells the decisionmaker to determine whether the probability of some outcome is …

Super Size Me And The Conundrum Of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, And Class For The Contemporary Law-Genre Documentary Filmmaker, Regina Austin

All Faculty Scholarship

According to director Morgan Spurlock, the idea for "Super Size Me," the hugely popular documentary that explored the health impact of fast food, originated from a news report about Pelman v. McDonald’s, one of the fast food obesity cases. Over the course of his month-long McDonald’s binge, Spurlock became the literal embodiment of fast-food’s ill-effects on the seemingly generic American adult physique. Spurlock’s take on the subject, however, ignores the circumstances that contributed to the overweight conditions of the Pelman plaintiffs who were two black adolescent females who ate their fast food in the Bronx. One of them was homeless …

Maine State Employee Survey On Disability, Commission On Disability And Employment, Department Of Financial And Administrative Services Bureau Of Human Resources, Muskie School Of Public Service University Of Southern Maine

Disability & Aging

The Executive Order regarding Maine State Government as a Model Employer of people with disabilities was signed on February 24, 2006. The order included several action steps, including a survey of State employees to ascertain the prevalence of workers with disabilities in State employment.

Maine’s Bureau of Human Resources and the Commission on Disability and Employment were named to oversee this survey. The University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service administered the survey and analyzed results. Each of these three organizations are members of an Executive Order Working Group designed to overall all action steps under the Executive …

A Trade-Off Proposal For Funding Long-Term Care, Yung-Ping Chen

Gerontology Institute Publications

Long-term care can be a depressing subject. Most of us tend not to think about it. However, we cannot long avoid it as the 76 million baby boomers begin reaching older ages in a few short years. According to projections, in 40 years, those aged 65 to 84 (numbering 31.6 million in 2005) will more than double, and those 85 plus (about 5.1 million in 2005), who are more at risk of dependency, will more than triple (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 and 2006). Heavy reliance on Medicaid, already the second largest budget item in most states, would not appear viable. …

Oversight Hearings On Science And Environmental Regulatory Decisions, David Michaels

Health Policy and Management Congressional Testimonies

No abstract provided.

A Medical Mission: Healing Wounds, Improving Health, And Discovering Hope In Honduras, Michaela Maynard

Senior Honors Projects

According to the United Nations, less than one-sixth of the world’s population is made up of the industrialized world. In contrast, the developing world, consisting of approximately 125 low and middle-income countries, is home to about 5.1 billion people. It is in these developing counties that there is an insatiable need for improved public health. In January of 2007, I spent a week working in a medical clinic in Guaimaca, Honduras. I witnessed first hand the suffering, poverty, and injustice of one small town. Yet, what struck me the most was that despite the hardships and the lack of basic …

Well Child Health Care In Wales: A Change Of Setting, A Shift Of Power, Jennifer Herman

Inquiry Journal 2007

No abstract provided.

Defining Programmatic Access To Healthcare For People With Disabilities, Nancy R. Mudrick, Silvia Yee

Social Work - All Scholarship

People with disabilities face disability-related barriers that affect their receipt of health care. These often are discussed in terms of three categories: financial, structural, and programmatic barriers. Financial barriers may involve the lack of insurance, inability to pay for care, or coverage limitations for such items as durable medical equipment and medication. Structural barriers primarily arise from the architectural characteristics of health care delivery settings, such as parking location, building entrances, stairs and ramps, and bathrooms. Programmatic barriers are barriers involving the processes used to deliver health care. This category is the least understood, yet an important factor for access …

Building Community Research Capacity: Process Evaluation Of Community Training And Education In A Community-Based Participatory Research Program Serving A Predominately Puerto Rican Community, Laurene M. Tumiel-Berhalter, Victoria Mclaughlin-Diaz, John Vena, Carlos J. Crespo

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Education and training build community research capacity and have impact on improvements of health outcomes.

Objectives: This manuscript describes the training and educational approaches to building research capacity that were utilized in a community-based participatory research program serving a Puerto Rican population and identifies barriers and strategies for overcoming them.

Methods: A process evaluation identified a multitiered approach to training and education that was critical to reaching the broad community.

Results: This approach included four major categories providing a continuum of education and training opportunities: networking, methods training, on-the-job experience, and community education. Participation in these opportunities supported the …

Messages Of Maternity: The Relationship Of State And Ngo Institutions To Reproductive Health Services And The Construction Of Family In Jordan, Julia Shatz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project examines the ways in which family planning and reproductive health services and the institutions that provide them contribute to constructing definitions of family and motherhood in Jordan. The study is based on personal interviews conducted with representatives at six institutions – the Ministry of Health, the Higher Population Council, the Jordanian Association for Family Planning and Protection, Queen Zein Al Sharaf Institute for Development, the Arab Women’s Organization, and the Jordanian Women’s Union. This paper addresses the issues of family planning as a method of population control, the integrated medical and educational approach currently popular in family planning …

Dental Hygienists' Contributions To Improving The Nation's Oral Health Through School-Based Initiatives From 1970 Through 1999: A Historical Review, Gayle B. Mccombs, Cynthia C. Gadbury-Amyot, Rebecca S. Wilder, Karen O. Skaff, Margaret Lappan Green

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: The purpose of this literature review is to document the contributions dental hygienists have made over the past 3 decades to improve the nation's oral health. This historical review encompasses selected literature that acknowledged dental Hygienists' direct involvement in U.S. school-based or school-linked oral health programs from 1970-1999.

METHODS: Five researchers independently searched MEDLINE, PubMed, and other electronic databases to identify relevant literature for the years 1970-1999. The search aimed to locate articles authored by or that documented dental Hygienists' involvement as "service provider" in U.S. school-based oral health programs. For the purpose of this review, service provider was …

Caring For People With Alzheimer's Disease Or Dementia In Maine, Stuart Bratesman Mpp, Julie T. Fralich Mba, Catherine Mcguire Bs, Louise Olsen, Romaine Turyn

Disability & Aging

It is clear that caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia is a growing public health issue. Alzheimer’s is a progressively deteriorating disease that can last anywhere from 1 to 15 years. Families are the primary caregivers and will continue to need support to manage the care of their loved ones, to coordinate services within the long term care system and to maintain their own health and well-being.

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Shane Bevell, David Ashley, Lori Bachand, Grace Russell, Mamie Peers

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Final Report Technical Assistance To Improve Quality Oversight Of The Oklahoma Advantage Waiver, Maureen Booth, Louise Olsen

Disability & Aging

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Effects Of An Elective Abortion On Women's Mental Health, Marilyn Schneiderman

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this research project is to investigate evidence that an elective abortion affects a woman's mental health. Included are literature reviews and studies aimed at gathering information and quantifying these effects. Because this is a highly politicized and controversial topic, it has been difficult to find objective resources. Several areas are addressed: the difference between short vs. long-term effects on a woman's mental health subsequent to an elective abortion, evidence of delayed grief reaction and the link with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-Abortion Stress is defined and specific psychological sequelae are addressed such as grief, depression, anxiety and …

Addressing Gupt Rog: Narrative Prevention Counselling For Sti/Hiv Prevention—A Guide To Ayush And Allopathic Practitioners, Bonnie K. Nastasi, Niranjan Saggurti, Stephen L. Schensul, Ravi K. Verma, Meena Gandhi

HIV and AIDS

Although India has over 600,000 registered AYUSH practitioners who are engaged in homeopathic, Ayurvedic, and Unani systems of medicine, they have not been integrated into the country’s national health system. While practitioners of these systems of medicine treat all illnesses, they have a special niche in providing services to address men’s sexual health concerns (Gupt Rog). A project on Research and Intervention in Sexual Health: Theory to Action was undertaken by the International Institute for Population Sciences/Mumbai, the Population Council/New Delhi, and partners, in three slum communities in Mumbai, from 2001–07. The objective was to control the spread of sexually …

The Health Insurance Debate In Canada: Lessons For The United States?, Mary Anne Bobinski

Faculty Articles

This Essay begins with an intentionally ambiguous title. Are comparisons to Canada relevant and useful for policy-makers in the United States and, if so, what lessons can we learn? Part II of this Essay highlights some of the risks and benefits of cross-border comparisons between the United States and Canada. In Part III, I analyze some of the key data points often cited in comparing the two health care systems. Part IV explores the current Canadian debate about private health insurance. Finally, in Part V, I focus on the lessons from Canada for the health insurance debate in the United …

Learning From The Grandmothers: Incorporating Indigenous Principles Into Qualitative Research, Charlotte Loppie

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

In this article, the author describes the process she undertook to incorporate Indigenous principles into her doctoral research about the midlife health experiences of elder Aboriginal women in Nova Scotia, Canada. By employing qual- itative methods within the context of an Indigenous worldview, she gained knowledge of and developed competence in Aboriginal health research. The emergent partnership among Aboriginal community research facilitators, participating Mi’kmaq women, and the researcher provided many opportunities for the researcher to incorporate the paradigmatic and methodological traditions of Western science and Indigenous cultures. The application of these principles to this study might provide a useful example …

Social Support And Thriving Health: A New Approach To Understanding The Health Of Indigenous Canadians, Chantelle A.M. Richmond, Nancy A. Ross, Grace E. Egeland

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Objectives. We examined the importance of social support in promoting thriv- ing health among indigenous Canadians, a disadvantaged population.

Methods. We categorized the self-reported health status of 31 625 adult indig- enous Canadians as thriving (excellent, very good) or nonthriving (good, fair, poor). We measured social support with indices of positive interaction, emotional support, tangible support, and affection and intimacy. We used multivariable lo- gistic regression analyses to estimate odds of reporting thriving health, using social support as the key independent variable, and we controlled for educational attainment and labor force status.

Results. Compared with women reporting low levels of …

Disclosure Of Maternal Hiv Status To Children: To Tell Or Not To Tell . . . That Is The Question, Tanya L. Tompkins

Faculty Publications

HIV-infected mothers face the challenging decision of whether to disclose their serostatus to their children. From the perspective of both mother and child, we explored the process of disclosure, providing descriptive information and examining the relationships among disclosure, demographic variables, and child adjustment. Participants were 23 mothers and one of their noninfected children (9 to 16 years of age). Sixty-one percent of mothers disclosed. Consistent with previous research, disclosure was not related to child functioning. However, children sworn to secrecy demonstrated lower social competence and more externalizing problems. Differential disclosure, which occurred in one-third of the families, was associated with …