Community Health Commons^™

Mater: Innovative Programs For Maternal Addiction Education Treatment And Research, Meghan Gannon Phd Msph

Population Health Matters (Formerly Health Policy Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Ptsd Symptom Severities, Interpersonal Traumas, And Benzodiazepines Are Associated With Substance-Related Problems In Trauma Patients, Jeffrey Guina, Ramzi W. Nahhas, Adam J. Goldberg, Seth Farnsworth

Population and Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Trauma is commonly associated with substance-related problems, yet associations between specific substances and specific posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSSs) are understudied. We hypothesized that substance-related problems are associated with PTSS severities, interpersonal traumas, and benzodiazepine prescriptions. Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey methodology in a consecutive sample of adult outpatients with trauma histories (n = 472), we used logistic regression to examine substance-related problems in general (primary, confirmatory analysis), as well as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug problems specifically (secondary, exploratory analyses) in relation to demographics, trauma type, PTSSs, and benzodiazepine prescriptions. Results: After adjusting for multiple testing, several factors …

Dietary And Physical Activity Acculturation And Weight Status In Chinese College Students, Yanni Zhang

Dissertations and Theses

This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between length of residence in the United States (U.S.) and dietary and physical activity acculturation, and the relationships between dietary and physical activity acculturation and weight status in 55 Chinese college students. Length of residence in the U.S. was positively associated with larger portion size, greater amount of physical activity, and change in BMI in male participants. Adoption of a Western diet was associated with weight gain. Portion size change was positively associated with BMI change. Lunch size change was positively correlated with BMI change in males while negatively correlated with BMI change in …

Using The Theory Of Planned Behavior To Predict Executives’ Intentions To Hire Psychologists In Federally Qualified Health Centers, Robert M. Tolliver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Health psychologists with training in integrated care are ideal candidates to work in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). However, despite the large documented need for more behavioral health providers in FQHCs, psychologists are underrepresented in this setting compared to other behavioral health professions. The purpose of this study was to: 1) examine the specific beliefs that are most relevant to executives’ intentions to hire psychologists, 2) determine how executives’ perceived control over hiring psychologists varies by several demographic variables, and 3) examine how well the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) predicts executives’ intentions to hire psychologists. Method: Executives (N …

Acute Poisonings From Synthetic Cannabinoids — 50 U.S. Toxicology Investigators Consortium Registry Sites, 2010–2015, Anne M. Riederer, Sharan L. Campleman, Robert G. Carlson, Edward W. Boyer, Alex F. Manini, Paul M. Wax, Jeffrey A. Brent

Population and Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

What is already known about this topic? Acute intoxications by synthetic cannabinoids appear to be increasing in the United States. Synthetic cannabinoids are two to 100 times more potent than Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in cannabis; acute exposure is associated with a range of mild to severe neuropsychiatric, cardiovascular, renal, and other effects. What is added by this report? During 2010–2015, among 456 cases of synthetic cannabinoid intoxication among patients treated by U.S. medical toxicologists, 277 (61%) had reports of synthetic cannabinoids as the sole toxicologic agent. Three deaths were recorded, one with synthetic cannabinoids given as the sole agent …

Addressing Health Disparities Among Homeless In Alachua County Through Community-Based Participatory Research., Meron Hirpa, Omar Iqbal, Haider Ali, Sama I. Ilyas, Nabeel Iqbal, Jeena A. Kar, Tiffany Splatt, Brendan Shortley, Nancy Hardt

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Introduction. In states such as Florida that did not expand Medicaid, a large number of economically disadvantaged individuals do not qualify for subsidies to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ². This leaves the health needs of Florida’s homeless population largely unaddressed. Nearly 48.1% of Alachua County’s homeless population has disabling conditions ¹⁶. This confirms a pressing need to understand the homeless population's healthcare needs, knowledge, and barriers in accessing healthcare. Methods. We used a Community-Based Participatory Research model in conducting health fairs and needs assessment surveys, incentivizing participation, and providing education about existing resources. …

Violence Against Pregnant Women With Disabilities, Ari K. Mwachofi

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background

Each year, violence is perpetrated against 1.5 million US women, of whom 324,000 are pregnant. Violence in pregnancy has adverse effects on maternal and infant health. Although there are 4.7 million childbearing age women with disabilities, and their pregnancy rates are growing, there is very little information about violence against pregnant women with disabilities.

Objectives

The study questions are: Are there differences in pre- and in-pregnancy violence experiences of women with and without disabilities? Is disability a significant predictor of pre- and in-pregnancy violence against women?

Methods

The study uses data from the 2009 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System …

Use Of Smokeless Tobacco In Medical Students And Hypertension, Sumera Aziz Ali

Community Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

“When ‘Bad’ Is ‘Good’”: Identifying Personal Communication And Sentiment In Drug-Related Tweets, Raminta Daniulaityte, Lu Chen, Francois R. Lamy, Robert G. Carlson, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit Sheth

Population and Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: To harness the full potential of social media for epidemiological surveillance of drug abuse trends, the field needs a greater level of automation in processing and analyzing social media content. Objectives: The objective of the study is to describe the development of supervised machine-learning techniques for the eDrugTrends platform to automatically classify tweets by type/source of communication (personal, official/media, retail) and sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) expressed in cannabis- and synthetic cannabinoid-related tweets. Methods: Tweets were collected using Twitter streaming Application Programming Interface and filtered through the eDrugTrends platform using keywords related to cannabis, marijuana edibles, marijuana concentrates, and synthetic …

Improved Estimation Of Optimal Cut-Off Point Associated With Youden Index Using Ranked Set Sampling, Jingjing Yin, Hani M. Samawi, Daniel Linder

Biostatistics: Faculty Publications

A diagnostic cut-off point of a biomarker measurement is needed for classifying a random subject to be either diseased or healthy. However, the cut-off point is usually unknown and needs to be estimated by some optimization criteria. One important criterion is the Youden index, which has been widely adopted in practice. The Youden index, which is defined as the maximum of (sensitivity + specificity −1), directly measures the largest total diagnostic accuracy a biomarker can achieve. Therefore, it is desirable to estimate the optimal cut-off point associated with the Youden index. Sometimes, taking the actual measurements of a biomarker is …

Stretching The Boundaries Of Medical Education: A Case Of Medical College Embracing Humanities And Social Sciences In Medical Education, Kulsoom Ghias, Kausar S. Khan, Rukhsana Ali, Shireen Azfar, Rashida Ahmed

Community Health Sciences

Objective:

Aga Khan University, a private medical college, had a vision of producing physicians who are not only scientifically competent, but also socially sensitive, the latter by exposure of medical students to a broad-based curriculum. The objective of this study was to identify the genesis of broad-based education and its integration into the undergraduate medical education program as the Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) course.

Methods:

A qualitative methodology was used for this study. Sources of data included document review and in-depth key informant interviews. Nvivo software was utilized to extract themes.

Results:

The study revealed the process of operationalization …

Introduction To The Special Section: Positive Developmental Strategies For Engaging Emerging Adults And Improving Outcomes, Janet S. Walker, Celeste Seibel, Sharice Jackson, John D. Ossowski

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

As compared to any other age cohort in the US population, young people in late adolescence and early adulthood have a higher rate of unmet need for mental health services. Not only are these young people (from about 16 to 25 years old, and referred to here as “emerging adults”) more likely to experience a serious mental health condition (SMHC), but they are also less likely to engage in services. Furthermore, when emerging adults do engage in services, they face multiple barriers to service continuity, particularly as they come up to “milestone” ages at 18, 21, and 24.

There is …

Calcium Phosphate As A Key Material For Socially Responsible Tissue Engineering, Vuk Uskoković, Victoria M. Wu

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Socially responsible technologies are designed while taking into consideration the socioeconomic, geopolitical and environmental limitations of regions in which they will be implemented. In the medical context, this involves making therapeutic platforms more accessible and affordable to patients in poor regions of the world wherein a given disease is endemic. This often necessitates going against the reigning trend of making therapeutic nanoparticles ever more structurally complex and expensive. However, studies aimed at simplifying materials and formulations while maintaining the functionality and therapeutic response of their more complex counterparts seldom provoke a significant interest in the scientific community. In this review …

Prep Advocacy Project: Increasing The Adoption Of Pre-­Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) In San Luis Obispo County, Leona Rajaee

Journalism

The following study investigates the need for Pre­exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County in order to develop an effective health outreach and advocacy program that could increase the adoption of PrEP treatment and in turn decrease new HIV transmissions in the community studied. The sponsor of this study is the Access Support Network (ASN), a non­profit organization that provides supportive services for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. ASN launched this study after observing the effectiveness of PrEP in metropolitan cities. At the same time, ASN also noticed a rise in new HIV transmissions, particularly among injecting drug users …

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?: Food Inequlaity And Black Americans, Christina Foster

Capstone Collection

Food insecurity is an issue that plagues many people throughout the world. It only requires a brief search on the United Nation’s (U.N.) World Hunger Map to determine that this is indeed a worldwide crisis. Conversely, within the United States, the issue of hunger is often treated as “minimal” in comparison to other countries. A deeper inquiry into hunger within the U.S. reveals an even more disturbing connection: the role of white supremacy and systemic racism in regard to hunger. Academic research pertaining to food access is quite recent. Be that as it may, it is of no surprise that …

Variation In Restaurant Sanitary Scores In New York City, Kyle Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether restaurants that are homogenous in nature would exhibit substantially different hygiene scores based on the underlying consumer learning behaviors present in the neighborhoods in which the restaurants are located.

Assessing Understanding Of Sexual Assault Resources And Response Among Health Sciences Students, Michelle M. Pappalardo

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Background: The widely published statistic of 1 in 5 represents the number of women on college campuses who have been sexually assaulted (White House Office of the Press Secretary, 2014). Many colleges and universities have been attempting to address the sensitive topic of sexual assault for quite some time; however, sexual violence still remains prevalent on campuses throughout the United States (Allen, Ridgeway, & Swan, 2015). Many of the roadblocks an institution faces in its efforts may stem from a lack of understanding of the true nature of student attitudes surrounding the topic of sexual assault. The specific needs of …

Optimism Bias In Fitness, Katrielle Marx

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The people of the United States of America have been concerned with the population’s overweight and obesity rate for a while. The purpose of this study was to find out if optimism bias had an influence on fitness. Optimism bias is overestimating the likelihood of positive events and underestimate the likelihood of negative events happening in one’s life. This study created a fitness optimism scale and used a set of fitness assessments and exercise questions to correlate with the fitness optimism bias. There were 105 students who participated in this study, 82 females and 23 males with a mean age …

Comparative Organizational Assessments And Partenship Potential For Sekou Pou Nanm-Yo And Asirans Community Counseling Center, Lauren M. Mawe

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper assesses the organizational capacity of two small Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Port-Au-Prince Haiti. Each NGO has a staff of under 15 members. At the time of the assessment, they were both in early stages of their development, with one in its first year of operations, and the other in its fifth year. Both embody grassroots, community organizations because of their connections to the communities in which they work, their willingness to travel to those communities, and their predominantly Haitian staff. The fieldwork included interviews, focus groups, and three months of participant observation and work with these organizations. In …

Facilitating Effective Communication Between First Responders And Older Adults During Fall Incidents: An Educational Intervention, Krystin M. Beeman, Erica L. Berger, Isabel A. Cabezas, Nicole M. Mathews

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

PURPOSE. The purpose of this project was to provide first responders with communication strategies for older adults that may help when responding to fall- related calls. General information was also provided to First Responders on working with older adults with a focus on the aging process, fall risk factors, and communications strategies.

METHODS. A series of educational sessions to first responders at a local fire district were developed and presented by occupational therapy students. Materials were developed by presenters from evidence-based resources and tailored to the target population. Each presentation focused on statistics about older adults, the aging process, fall …