Medicine and Health Commons^™

What You Don’T Know Can Hurt You: Early Life Course Racial Health Disparities In Undiagnosed Diabetes, Anna C. Bellatorre

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation addresses several issues related to racial health disparities in undiagnosed diabetes in American young adults in a three-article format. The first chapter examines rates of diabetes severity across age-matched samples of young adults from two large nationally representative studies. Although the purpose of this study was to explore the impact of nonresponse on prevalence estimates, I find that the prevalence discrepancies have less to do with which respondents are missing blood samples and more to do with the samples coming from initial samples that are not equivalent.

The second chapter uses an adaptation of the Stress Process Model …

Is Gaining, Losing Or Keeping A Self-Identified Fertility Problem Associated With Changes In Self-Esteem?, Elizabeth A. Richardson

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Because motherhood is an expected and valued identity in the United States, becoming a mother should lead to an increase in self-esteem and perceiving a problem becoming a mother should lead to a decrease in self-esteem. Little research has examined the combined experience of both identifying with a fertility problem and becoming a mother or not over time. Guided by identity theory framework, this study uses two waves of data from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB) to examine how change and stability in motherhood status and perceived fertility barrier status is associated with changes in self-esteem among women …

Nebraska Risk And Protective Factor Student Survey Results For 2014. Profile Report: State Of Nebraska, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention Surveillance System (SHARP)

This report summarizes the findings from the 2014 Nebraska Risk and Protective Factor Student Survey (NRPFSS). The 2014 survey represents the sixth implementation of the NRPFSS and the third implementation of the survey under the Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention (SHARP) Surveillance System.

The NRPFSS targets Nebraska students in grades 8, 10, and 12 with a goal of providing schools and communities with local-level data. As a result, the NRPFSS is implemented as a census survey, meaning that every public and non-public school with an eligible grade can choose to participate. Therefore data presented in this report are not …

State Of Nebraska 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention Surveillance System (SHARP)

No abstract provided.

Rural Latino Adolescent Health: Preliminary Examination Of Health Risks And Cultural Correlates, Timothy D. Nelson, Katherine M. Kidwell, Brian E. Armenta, Lisa J. Crockett, Gustavo Carlo, Les B. Whitbeck

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Latino adolescents living in rural settings may be at increased risk of health problems; however, data describing the health status of this population are limited. This study examined 60 rural Latino adolescents and found high rates of health risk, including at-risk/clinical results for hemoglobin A1C (23.3%), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (55%), systolic blood pressure (21.7%), and overweight/obesity (55%). Time in sedentary behaviors was high and physical activity was limited. Adolescent language use was associated with health risk status, with greater use of English associated with lower risk. Health psychologists could promote improved health by providing health behavior interventions to this underserved …

The Influence Of Incomer Status: The Role Of Rural Background, Knowledge Of Mental Health Services, Stigma, And Cultural Beliefs On Help-Seeking Attitudes, Sarah E. Herzberg

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of incomer status, rural background, knowledge and familiarity with mental health services, rural cultural beliefs about mental health and perceived stigma on help-seeking attitudes in a rural Southwest Iowa area. Participants were 106 rural residents over the age of 18 recruited from a rural health clinic. A multiple regression analysis was performed resulting in rural cultural beliefs about mental health being the only statistically significant predictor of help-seeking in the model. Individuals who indicated identifying with rural cultural beliefs were less likely to report positive help-seeking attitudes. Implications of the …

Prenatal Development: Annotated Bibliography, Victoria J. Molfese, Amanda Prokasky, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Ibrahim H. Acar, Xiaoqing Tu, Kate Sirota, Brian Keiser

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

For decades, researchers have investigated how events in the prenatal period impact women and their infants. These studies, particularly by researchers in the medical, neuroscience, and behavioral science fields, led to discoveries of important information regarding the prenatal events that were strongly associated with mortality (or death) and morbidity (or incidences of injury, pathology and abnormalities/anomalies, and neurobehavioral sequelae) in the neonatal and infancy periods. Among the many common findings from early research studies, two are particularly noteworthy. First, maternal and fetal risk conditions arising in the prenatal period do not do so in isolation. Sameroff and Chandler characterized this …

Homeless Youths’ Hiv Risk Behaviors With Strangers: Investigating The Importance Of Social Networks, Kimberly A. Tyler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between homeless youths’ HIV risk behaviors with strangers and risk and protective characteristics of their social networks. Data were from the Social Network and Homeless Youth Project. A total of 249 youth aged 14 to 21 years were interviewed over 15 months in three Midwestern cities in the United States using a systematic sampling strategy. Multivariate results revealed that homeless youth with a greater average number of network members who engaged in more drug risk behaviors and who pressured them into precarious behaviors at least once were more likely to …

Volunteer Programming Impact On Long-Term Care Facilities, Paul P. Falkowski

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this present study was to examine the direct and indirect effects between the organizational structure of a long-term care facility, the amount of volunteers at the facility, the activities in which volunteers engage while at the facility and daily average number of hours care staff spend with nursing home residents. The time care staff spends with residents has been directly linked to the quality of care provided by the facility. This time is measured by calculating nursing hours per patient and it includes only nursing staff hours.The data for this study come from the National Nursing Home …

Adolescent Depressive Symptoms And Substance Use: The Mediating Influence Of Health Service Utilization, Sarah E. Malone

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A large number of American adolescents suffer from depression and the consequences have been shown to be detrimental to their well-being. Adolescent substance use is also an increasing social problem due to the high usage rates and negative lifelong consequences for users. This paper explores the relationships between victimization, substance use, psychological health service utilization, and depressive symptoms in a sample of 4,757 adolescents. Using two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the results revealed a positive relationship between victimization and adolescent depressive symptoms, even after controlling for several demographic variables and previous …

Nebraska Youth Tobacco Survey 2012/2013, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention Surveillance System (SHARP)

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Risk And Protective Factor Student Survey Results For 2012. Profile Report: State Of Nebraska, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention Surveillance System (SHARP)

No abstract provided.

State Of Nebraska 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention Surveillance System (SHARP)

No abstract provided.

Infertility Help Seeking And Social Support: Do Conventional Theories Explain Internet Behaviors And Outcomes, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation uses data from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB), a nationally representative sample, to assess factors associated with face-to-face and internet help seeking (study 1) and perceived social support (study 2).  In study one, I examine whether the General Help Seeking Model, a theory that has been used to explain in-person help seeking, generalizes to internet help seeking. I assess four types of help seeking:  (1) no help seeking, (2) only internet help seeking, (3)only medical help seeking, and (4) both online and medical help seeking.  Results suggest that online help seeking is differentiated from in person …

Understanding How Race/Ethnicity And Gender Define Age-Trajectories Of Disability: An Intersectionality Approach, David F. Warner, Tyson H. Brown

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

A number of studies have demonstrated wide disparities in health among racial/ethnic groups and by gender, yet few have examined how race/ethnicity and gender intersect or combine to affect the health of older adults. The tendency of prior research to treat race/ethnicity and gender separately has potentially obscured important differences in how health is produced and maintained, undermining efforts to eliminate health disparities. The current study extends previous research by taking an intersectionality approach (Mullings & Schulz, 2006), grounded in life course theory, conceptualizing and modeling trajectories of functional limitations as dynamic life course processes that are jointly and simultaneously …

Self-Esteem And Mastery Trajectories In High School By Social Class And Gender, Christina D. Falci

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Using longitudinal data from 769 white adolescents in the Midwest, this research applies a social structure and personality perspective to examine variation in self-esteem and mastery trajectories by gender and SES across the high school years. Analyses reveal that high SES adolescents experience significantly steeper gains in self-esteem and mastery compared to low SES adolescents, resulting in the reversal of SES differences in self-esteem and the emergence of significant SES differences in mastery. Pre-existing gender differences in self-esteem narrow between the 9^th and 12^th grade because self-esteem increases at a faster rate among girls than boys during high …

The Relationship Between Breastfeeding And Child Care For Working Mothers In The United States, Patricia Wonch Hill

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Whether or not child care provider characteristics and factors related to the care giving environment impact breastfeeding duration for working mothers has not been systematically studied. In this dissertation, I use Ecological Health Promotion Theory to explore the relationship between child care and breastfeeding through three different analyses. First, I interviewed nine child care providers to assess their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about infant feeding and whether they vary on these factors across individuals and child care licensing types. Second, I conducted a small mail survey of 93 licensed child care providers in order to create a scale measuring attitudes …

Nebraska Risk And Protective Factor Student Survey Results For 2010. Profile Report: State Of Nebraska,, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention Surveillance System (SHARP)

No abstract provided.

Coping Styles And Sex Differences In Depressive Symptoms And Delinquent Behavior, Lisa A. Kort-Butler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Building on research that links gender to differences in well-being and differences in stress exposure and vulnerability, the current study examines how coping styles are gendered in ways that may contribute to sex differences in depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior. The study disaggregates stress measures to reflect gender differences in the experience of stress, examining whether avoidant, approach, and action coping condition the relationship between stress and well-being. Regression analyses were conducted using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results revealed sex differences and similarities. The interaction of avoidant coping and stress helped explain why girls had …

Gender Trajectories Of Adolescent Depressed Mood: The Dynamic Role Of Stressors And Resources, Christina D. Falci

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This research examines how gender variation in the trajectory of stressors and resources during high school shapes gender variation in the trajectory of depressed mood. Boys have steeper gains in depressed mood than girls during high school. Adolescents with increasing levels of school or work strain and declining levels of parental support or mastery were more likely to have an increasing trajectory of depressed mood; the effect of chronic work was stronger for boys than girls. Steeper declines in parental support and gains in work strain among boys relative to girls explain boy’s faster rate of increase in depressed mood …

Consumer Behavior In The Health Marketplace: A Symposium Proceedings: Contents, Schedule, And Preface, Ian Newman

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

This symposium grew out of informal departmental discussions seeking new ideas concerning the effectiveness of health education, particularly as it is applied to the purchase of health related products and services. Two specific objectives were established to guide the program: 1) to bring together a cross section of experts to discuss, each from his/her own perspective, issues of consumers and their behavior in purchasing health related goods and services. By providing a platform of notable speakers we hoped to achieve the second objective, to attract interested people from the university community, Lincoln, and surrounding communities. We hoped that new contacts …

The Adult As A Consumer Of Learning, Malcolm Knowles

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

What I would like to do is explore with you what I think we know (and I will try to separate what we know from what we speculate about, as far as I can) about the behavior in the marketplace of adults as learners. Those of you who are in health education will find relevance in terms of patient teaching, of public health education, and even in pre-service and in-service education of health educators. Those of you who are not in health education can make applications to your respective fields of work.

Let me start by developing a little historical …

The Stanford Heart Disease Prevention Program, Nathan Maccoby

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

This afternoon I want to tell you about the results of a major study we have been doing as a part of the Stanford Heart Disease Prevention Program. The Stanford Heart Disease Prevention Program is an interdisciplinary project directed by Dr. John W. Farquhar, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and I am co-director. This paper was really co-authored by fifteen people as part of an interdisciplinary team. With a group of different people like this, we had to spend a significant amount of time trying to teach each other our respective professional languages. Initially, communication within our group was …

Whose Behavior In What Health Marketplace?, Leon S. Robertson

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

A number of behavioral scientists and health educators have been engaged for some time in attempts to explain and/or influence human behavior regarding health and illness. Behavior directed toward preserving health is called health behavior.1 Behavior subsequent to the perception of symptoms and directed toward diagnosis and treatment is called illness behavior.

It has been suggested that techniques used to market products and services can be used to help individuals fulfill their needs in both prevention and amelioration of illness as well as in the alleviation of other social problems. In this paper I shall review some principles that have …

Some Lessons From The Feeling Good Television Series, James W. Swinehart

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

There has been a lot of discussion recently, in the press and elsewhere, about the need for more preventive health action on the part of the public. This concern was the basis for the Feeling Good project. The original proposal was for 26 one-hour programs to be broadcast weekly on Public Broadcasting Systems (PBS). When we were about 6 programs into the series, however, the decision was made to stop after the first 11 one-hour shows, take a two-month break to retool and return with 13 half-hour shows.

Leon Robertson talked about some of the problems with using education as …

Consumer Behavior In The Health Marketplace: Emphasis On Access To Care, Lu Ann Aday

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

The particular aspect of "consumer behavior in the health marketplace" I should like to emphasize is the problem of access to medical care.

Health care policy makers, planners, administrators, and medical care consumers themselves are increasingly voicing their concern that access to the medical care system should be improved. A plethora of programs has been launched during the past decade with the expressed objective of achieving equity of access to medical care in the United States.

Some of these programs are directed at increasing the buying power or medical knowledge of the health care consumer-e.g., Medicaid, Medicare, national health insurance, …

Selling Health To The Public, Godfrey M. Hochbaum

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

Let me confess at the outset that I feel uncomfortable with the title given to my presentation, "Selling Health to the Public," and that I feel equally uncomfortable with such terms as, "marketing health," "the health marketplace," or any others that equate the health area with the marketplace.

These terms have become quite popular in recent years because the presumed success of Madison Avenue and the methods and gimmicks of commercial sales promotion easily tempt health professionals to adopt these same methods and gimmicks in the cause of health education.

I feel uncomfortable with these terms and with what they …

Some Determinants Of Post-Purchase Satisfaction Among Medical Care Consumers, Lawrence Wortzel

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

Consumer behavior in the health marketplace is an interesting subject. One of the interesting things about studying medical care is that different people experience different results after having the same health care. For example, in the Massachusetts presidential primary that took place some time ago, one of the voting machines somehow got hooked up to an X-ray device, and, as a result, three voters were exposed to doses of radiation. One of the exposed was a conservative, one was a liberal, and one was an independent. They were immediately rushed to one of the major Boston medical centers where a …

New Themes In Innovation Research: Implications For Consumer Health Behavior, Gerald Zaltman

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

Whenever I am called upon to make prescriptive statements to a group which can't easily hold me accountable for the consequences, I am always reminded of the story of the chicken and the pig. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, a chicken and a pig were walking down the street one day and came upon a restaurant that had a big sign in the window, "Special Today: Bacon and Eggs." The chicken got all excited and said, "Isn't that great, they are featuring us together." The pig looked kind of dour and said, "That's okay for …

Consumer Behavior: An Epidemiological Perspective, Thomas J. Prendergast

Consumer Behavior in the Health Marketplace: Symposium Proceedings

My interest is epidemiology and preventive medicine. Epidemiology is the study of disease distributions in man. Preventive medicine is the attempt to avoid acquiring the risk factors of diseases by individuals, which can be called "primary prevention." Also it is the attempt to avoid development of diseases among those who have risk factors, and that is known as secondary prevention. Quite clearly there is much concern about epidemiology as the basis for preventive medicine and about preventive medicine as a potentially cheaper and easier way to provide quality medicine. Health education is a clear dimension of preventive medicine.

We have …