Epidemiology Commons^™

The Effect Of Fiber And Omega-6:Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio On Asthma And Asthma-Related Symptoms In An Adult U.S. Population, Korie As Nelson

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Asthma is one of the most common diseases in the world affecting more than 10% of adults in many westernized countries and 339 million globally. Studies have shown a positive association between increased dietary fiber and improvement in asthma-related inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids have also been shown to help mitigate inflammation in general. No identified studies have looked at the synergistic effect of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids alone and as a ratio with fiber on asthma, lung function, and respiratory morbidities. A positive association could mean that dietary interventions of fiber and fatty acids could significantly improve asthma and …

The Epidemiology Of Clostridioides Difficile In Nebraska - A Descriptive Study Between 2018-2020, Storm Keffer

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Objectives: Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) is a common but challenging infection both financially and medically. Due to these difficulties, Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) caused by C. diff is a mandatory reportable disease in Nebraska and as such has been a priority disease targeted by various disease control practices across many hospitals. All CDI laboratory results are reported electronically through the Nebraska Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). However, capturing and conceptualizing the true burden of CDIs in Nebraska has not been adequately accomplished since monitoring of CDIs began. The objective of this study is to examine the trends of …

Covid-19: Exploring The Probability Of Disease Extinction - A Modeling And Simulation Study, Donald Porchia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

There are two distinct topics considered in this dissertation. The first is the formulation of a compartmental model using reactive social distancing in which disease transmission changes as a function of the state variables of the model; in this case, the cumulative incidence. The model assumes a single strain epidemic of Covid-19 in the United States and is used to estimate the cumulative number of deaths due to the epidemic where incidence data is used to calibrate and validate the model. The second topic concerns the use of the stochastic threshold to determine disease persistence or extinction. The Covid-19 pandemic …

Mathematical Models Of Covid-19, Kate Faria

Honors Program Theses and Projects

For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major public health issue, affecting the lives of most people around the world. With both people’s health and the economy at great risks, governments rushed to control the spread of the virus. Containment measures were heavily enforced worldwide until a vaccine was developed and distributed. Although researchers today know more about the characteristics of the virus, a lot of work still needs to be done in order to completely remove the disease from the population. However, this is true for most of the infectious diseases in existence, including Influenza, …

On The Front Line: Uri's Response To Covid-19 And The Role Of The Student-Run Emergency Medical Services, Michael C. Brennan

Senior Honors Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of society, including universities, and we are just beginning to understand its impacts. This project looks at how universities have responded to the pandemic by focusing on the University of Rhode Island, the largest university in the state of Rhode Island. A key aspect of this project is a timeline that documents the policies implemented by URI leadership and relevant policies adopted by the State of Rhode Island. The timeline also includes data about the number of cases at URI and state-wide, as well as figures for the number of students in isolation …

Does Social Support Moderate The Association Between Income And Food Security Status Among Seniors Living In Southern Nevada?, Adugna Teka Siweya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Income is the strongest predictor of food insecurity among seniors, and social support also an essential factor to help mitigate the effects of food insecurity. However, little is known about the potential role that social support may play as a moderator of the association between income and food insecurity. Thus, we aim to examine social support as a moderator for the relationship between income and food insecurity among seniors. Methods: Logistic regression models were used to analyze data collected in 2019 from seniors residing in Southern Nevada. Predictors of food insecurity, sociodemographic factors, social support variables, and income and …

The Migration Of Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii From The Battlefields Of Iraq And Afghanistan To The Healthcare Facilities Of The Veterans Health Administration, Jeffery Rogers

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) pose a great threat to health across the globe. That threat is also felt in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Wounded warriors returning home from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan may have brought with them MDROs, such as the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii, as they have transitioned from military service into the VHA facilities. This study investigates the interconnectedness of military service in the Department of Defense (DoD) and a lifetime of care at VHA through a longitudinal tracking of a linked cohort of combat veterans with battlefield injuries and subsequent MDR infections of A. baumannii. …

Particulate Matter Exposure And Community-Acquired Pneumonia Mortality Among Hospitalized Adults With Pneumococcal Pneumonia: Incidence Study (Happi) Participants., Jack Anthony Pfeiffer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of air pollution as an agent of elevated morbidity and mortality has come under increasingly intense scrutiny in recent years. As the body of literature grows, so too does our understanding of how extensive the harm of such pollutants can be. Particulate matter (PM) particularly harmful due to its small size, ability to travel great distance while airborne, and capacity to infiltrate numerous bodily systems, often to the detriment of those exposed. Besides being associated with increased mortality risk in more heavily exposed populations, PM exposure has also been associated with complications in the respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous …

Prevalence And Mortality Of Epilepsies With Convulsive And Non-Convulsive Seizures In Kilifi, Kenya, Symon M. Kariuki, Anthony Ngugi, Martha Z. Kombe, Michael Kazungu, Eddie Chengo, Rachael Odhiambo, Amek Nyaguara, Brian G. Neville, Charles Rjc Newton

Population Health, East Africa

Objectives: The prevalence of all epilepsies (both convulsive and non-convulsive seizures) in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMIC), particularly sub-Saharan Africa is unknown. Under estimation of non-convulsive ep- ilepsies in data from these countries may lead to inadequate and sub-optimal allocation of resources to control and prevent epilepsy. We determined the prevalence of all types of epilepsies and compared the mortality be- tween convulsive seizures and non-convulsive seizures in a resource limited rural area in Kenya.

Methods: Trained clinicians identified cases of epilepsy in a randomly selected sample of 4,441 residents in the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System site …

Association Between Dietary Inflammatory Index, Dietary Patterns, Plant-Based Dietary Index And The Risk Of Obesity, Yoko B. Wang, Nitin Shivappa, James R. Hébert Scd, Amanda J. Page, Yohannes Adama Melaku

Faculty Publications

Evidence on the association between various dietary constructs and obesity risk is limited. This study aims to investigate the longitudinal relationship between different diet indices and dietary patterns with the risk of obesity. Non-obese participants (n = 787) in the North West Adelaide Health Study were followed from 2010 to 2015. The dietary inflammatory index (DII®), plant-based dietary index (PDI) and factor-derived dietary pattern scores were computed based on food frequency questionnaire data. We found the incidence of obesity was 7.62% at the 5-year follow up. In the adjusted model, results from multivariable log-binomial logistic regression showed that a prudent …

Diet Quality And Risk Of Lung Cancer In The Multiethnic Cohort Study, Song-Yi Park, Carol J. Boushey, Yurii B. Shvetsov, Michael David Wirth Msph,Ph.D., Nitin Shivappa Ph.D., James R. Hébert Sc.D., Christopher A. Haiman, Lynee R. Wilkens, Loic Le Marchand

Faculty Publications

Diet quality, assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010), the alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMED) score, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score, and the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®), was examined in relation to risk of lung cancer in the Multiethnic Cohort Study. The analysis included 179,318 African Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese Americans, Latinos, and Whites aged 45–75 years, with 5350 incident lung cancer cases during an average follow-up of 17.5 ± 5.4 years. In multivariable Cox models comprehensively adjusted for cigarette smoking, the hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for the highest vs. lowest …

Association Between Appendicular Skeletal Muscle Index And Leukocyte Telomere Length In Adults: A Study From National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (Nhanes) 1999-2002, Lingzhi Chen, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Xiuxun Dong, Jinjing Ming

Faculty Publications

Background

A higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with shorter telomeres. The loss of muscle mass with aging is associated with adverse outcomes. The appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMI) is currently used to quantify muscle mass.

Objective

We investigated the association of the ASMI with leukocyte telomere length in adult Americans.

Methods

This cross-sectional study used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2002 dataset. Body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Low muscle mass was defined using sex-specific thresholds of the appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (ASMI). The telomere-to-single-copy gene ratio (T/S ratio) was converted to …

Investigating The Association Between Adolescent Polysubstance Use, Crime, And Violence In The United States, Christian Nwabueze

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The lifetime prevalence of alcohol in the United States is 8% and lifetime prevalence of illicit drug use is about 2-3%. Substance use is common among adolescents and polysubstance use is becoming a public health threat.

The prevalence of adolescent physical dating violence was 8.2%, the prevalence of adolescent sexual violence was also 8.2% while the prevalence of dual adolescent physical and sexual violence was 2.6%. Compared to those who used only single substances, adolescents who did not use any substance were 60% less likely (OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.24 – 0.74) to experience physical dating violence, 50% …

The Effects Of Differences In Vaccination Rates Across Socioeconomic Groups On The Size Of Measles Outbreaks, Elizabeth Hunter, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

Vaccination rates are often presented at the level of a country or region. However, within those areas there might be geographic or demographic pockets that have higher or lower vaccination rates. We use an agent-based model designed to simulate the spread of measles in Irish towns to examine if the effectiveness of vaccination rates to reduce disease at a population level is sensitive to the uniformity of vaccinations across socioeconomic groups. We find that when vaccinations are not applied evenly across socioeconomic groups we see more outbreaks and outbreaks with larger magnitudes.

Depression And Quality Of Life Among Adults With Asthma Presence In Nevada, Elizabeth D. Kahane

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Asthma is a lung disease that causes coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, and breathlessness. It is often controlled by medication use and avoidance of environmental triggers. It is a leading chronic, non-communicable disease affecting over 19 million adults in the United States (CDC, 2020a). Asthma and severe asthma have been shown to negatively affect mental health and quality of life among adults including limiting physical activity, lowering sleep quality, exacerbating economic challenges, missing work, and increasing healthcare use (Stanescu, et al., 2019). Approximately 8% of adult Nevadans reported current asthma symptoms and 12.6% reported having a diagnosis during their lifetime (CDC, …

Food Insecurity And Adiposity Among Children And Adults Nhanes 2015-2016, Denise Vidal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Obesity is a preventable disease that has been associated with many adverse health outcomes. A possible factor that may influence adiposity development is food insecurity. Although several epidemiological studies have been conducted examining the association between food insecurity and adiposity among children and adults, results have been inconsistent. Objective: This cross-sectional study investigates the relationship between food insecurity and adiposity among children and adults using recent data from a representative sample of the US population. Methods: We examined 3,391 adults and 2,837 children from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2015-2016. Household food insecurity was assessed using …

Adherence To Mediterranean Diet Among Adolescents Attending Public Schools In North Lebanon, Rosy Mitri, Fouad Ziade

BAU Journal - Health and Wellbeing

The Mediterranean diet (MD) is a model of a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle. Adherence to the MD has been correlated with a reduction in many metabolic disorders including cancers. The factors associated with adolescents’ adherence to the MD in North Lebanon using the KIDMED index have never been explored. The objective of this study was to examine the factors associated with the Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence among a sample of Lebanese adolescents. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the city of Tripoli, North Lebanon. A total of 298 students, aged 11-18 years, were randomly selected from public schools in …

Epigenome-Wide Association Study Of Kidney Function Identifies Trans-Ethnic And Ethnic-Specific Loci, Charles E. Breeze, Anna Batorsky, Mi Kyeong Lee, Mindy D. Szeto, Xiaoguang Xu, Daniel L. Mccartney, Rong Jiang, Amit Patki, Holly J. Kramer, James M. Eales, Laura Raffield, Leslie Lange, Ethan Lange, Peter Durda, Yongmei Liu, Russ P. Tracy, David Van Den Berg, Nhlbi Trans-Omics For Precision Medicine (Topmed) Consortium, Topmed Mesa Multi-Omics Working Group, Kathryn L. Evans, William E. Kraus, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation (DNAm) is associated with gene regulation and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function. Decreased eGFR is more common among US Hispanics and African Americans. The causes for this are poorly understood. We aimed to identify trans-ethnic and ethnic-specific differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with eGFR using an agnostic, genome-wide approach.

METHODS: The study included up to 5428 participants from multi-ethnic studies for discovery and 8109 participants for replication. We tested the associations between whole blood DNAm and eGFR using beta values from Illumina 450K or EPIC arrays. Ethnicity-stratified analyses were performed using linear …

Prevalence And Impacts Of Musculoskeletal Pain Among The Elderly Living In The East Coast Region Of Peninsular Malaysia, Muhammad Kamil Che Hasan, Nur Nabila Izzati Asmera, Suliza Sulaiman, Mohd Said Nurumal, Nik Noor Kaussar Nik Mohd Hatta

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: Musculoskeletal pain commonly affects the elderly, but the extent of this problem within the Malaysian community remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and impact of musculoskeletal pain among the elderly living in the community.

Methods: Elderly individuals aged 60 years and above with musculoskeletal pain and intact cognition were recruited for this study. Musculoskeletal pain was scored using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, and functional ability was assessed via the Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale. Mental wellbeing was evaluated using the Short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing scale, and risk of falling was determined via …

Prevalence And Associated Factors Of Urinary Incontinence Among Elderly In Pekanbaru, Indonesia, Wulan Sari

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: The proportion of the elderly in Riau Province was 4.8% higher than that (4.2%) in 2011. Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common health problem among the elderly. This study aims to determine the prevalence and associated factors for UI among the elderly (≥60 years).

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 20 public health centers in Pekanbaru City in 2018. A total of 351 elderly meeting the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, obesity, depression, cognitive impairment, smoking status, history of chronic cough, and history of lower abdominal surgery served as the independent …