Epidemiology Commons^™

Invasive Pneumococcal Serotype 3 Disease Despite Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine-23, B. Frank Parker Jr, Forest W. Arnold

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Pneumococcal disease has a high global morbidity and mortality. We report a case of a 63-year old female with a history of vaccination with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine-23 (PPSV-23) who was transferred to a tertiary care facility with fever and seizures due to an unknown etiology. The diagnosis of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) was based the identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the blood (culture; serogroup 3) and cerebrospinal fluid (antigen), and the finding of purulence under pressure at craniotomy. The pneumococcal vaccine should provide protection from IPD. The findings reported here display that IPD can overcome immunity proffered by the pneumococcal …

Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Associated With Inflammation In Japanese Men, Ayaka Kotemori, Norie Sawada, Motoki Iwasaki, Taiki Yamaji, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Junko Ishihara, Manami Inoue, Shoichiro Tsugane

Faculty Publications

Background: Dietary components are known to affect chronic low-grade inflammation status. The dietary inflammatory index (DII®) was developed to measure the potential impact of a diet on an individual's inflammatory status, and it has been validated mainly in Western countries.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the validity of the energy-adjusted DII (E-DIITM) using high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentration in Japanese men and women.

Methods: In total, 6,474 volunteers from a cancer-screening program (3,825 men and 2,649 women) completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and their hs-CRP concentrations were evaluated. E-DII scores were calculated on the basis of 30 food …

Mental Health Affects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mia Kepler

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Over the past year worldwide everyone has experienced the Covid-19 pandemic in one way or another. As time evolves during the pandemic mental health is getting worse every day. People are experiencing feelings of loneliness and uneasiness. Mental health professionals are trying to find solutions to this major issue in today's society. Change is needed to prevent people's mental health from worsening during these unprecedented times and to help the people who are already suffering.

Change In Dietary Inflammatory Index Score Is Associated With Control Of Long-Term Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity In A Japanese Cohort: The Tomorrow Study, Yoshinari Matsumoto, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Yuko Sugioka, Masahiro Tada, Tadashi Okano, Kenji Mamoto, Kentaro Inui, Daiki Habu, James R. Hébert Scd, Tatsuya Koike

Faculty Publications

Background: The dietary inflammatory index (DII®), a quantitative measure of the inflammatory potential of daily food and nutrient intake, and associations between a variety of health outcomes have been reported. However, the association between DII score and disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is unclear. Therefore, this study was designed to test whether higher DII score contributes to disease activity and as a corollary, y, whether reducing DII score helps to achieve or maintain low disease activity or remission in patients with RA.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis using 6 years of data (from 2011 to 2017) …

Effects Of News And Threat Perceptions On Americans’ Covid-19 Precautionary Behaviors, Riva Tukachinsky Forster, Megan A. Vendemia

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Our study examines the relationship between news exposure at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, personal threat beliefs, beliefs about others’ threat perceptions, and participation in precautionary actions. A survey of 377 U.S . adults revealed a significant main effect of news exposure on various precautionary behaviors (e.g., facial mask wear, physical distancing). Personal threat beliefs and beliefs about others’ threat perceptions serve as unique mechanisms mediating the effect of news on specific CDC-recommended and less socially desirable actions. These findings can guide news sources covering health crises in a socially responsible manner.

Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Related To Heart Failure Risk And Cardiac Function: A Case-Control Study In Heart Failure Patients, Jalal Moludi, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Soghra Alisgharzadeh, James R. Hébert Scd, Mohammad Alizadeh

Faculty Publications

Aims: Previous studies suggest that diet and inflammation are important risk factors for heart failure (HF); however, the associations remain unclear. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) was established to measure the inflammatory capacity of individuals' diet. This study aimed to explore the DII in HF subjects compared with controls. Methods and Results: We conducted a case–control (116 cases and 113 controls) study that recruited in the similar clinics. DII scores were calculated based on dietary intakes. N-Terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels and ejection fraction (EF) were assessed in both groups. In order to analyze DII scores with HF as …

To Preprint Or Not To Preprint, Forest W. Arnold, Kimberley A. Buckner, Alex Glynn, Jessica Petrey, Jose Bordon

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.

Timing Of Term Elective Cesarean Section And Adverse Neonatal Outcomes: A Multi-Center Retrospective Cohort Study, Ayah Al Bizri, Nansi Boghossian, Anwar Nassar, Pascale Nakad, Dina Jaber, Rabih Chahine, Gaby Fallakha, Gjaotj Makhoul, Khalid Yunis

Faculty Publications

Background Rate of cesarean section (CS), including elective CS has globally increased. Studies have found that term elective CS before 39 weeks of gestation is associated with increased risk of adverse respiratory outcomes.

Objective To determine the rate of elective CS and examine the association between timing of elective term CS and adverse neonatal outcomes in a large population of Lebanese women.

Methods A Multi-Center Study was conducted using data from the National Collaborative Perinatal Neonatal Network database. Simple and multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the association between timing of term elective CS and adverse neonatal outcomes. …

Age And Sex Are Associated With The Plasma Lipidome: Findings From The Goldn Study, Emily Slade, Marguerite R. Irvin, Kevin Xie, Donna K. Arnett, Steven A. Claas, Tobias Kind, David W. Fardo, Gregory A. Graf

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background
Developing an understanding of the biochemistry of aging in both sexes is critical for managing disease throughout the lifespan. Lipidomic associations with age and sex have been reported, but prior studies are limited by measurements in serum rather than plasma or by participants taking lipid-lowering medications.

Methods
Our study included lipidomic data from 980 participants aged 18–87 years old from the Genetics of Lipid-Lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN). Participants were off lipid-lowering medications for at least 4 weeks, and signal intensities of 413 known lipid species were measured in plasma. We examined linear age and sex associations with …

Ua19/16/2 Women's Basketball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases, photos and game statistics for WKU women's basketball team in 2021.

Ua19/16/2 Basketball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases, photos and game statistics for WKU basketball team from January to July 2021.

Interplay Between Social Media Use, Sleep Quality, And Mental Health In Youth: A Systematic Review, Rea Alonzo, Junayd Hussain, Saverio Stranges, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

Social media applications are increasingly prominent among youth. This systematic review provides a comprehensive assessment of the literature on the relationship between active social media use, sleep quality, and common mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression, and psychological distress) among youth. MEDLINE, PsychINFO, EMBASE and Scopus were searched for observational studies investigating this relationship among youth (aged 16–25). Thirty-six cross-sectional studies and six prospective cohort studies met the inclusion criteria. Among cross-sectional studies, significant associations between excessive social media use with poor mental health outcomes (n = 33), poor sleep quality (n = 24), and significant associations between poor sleep quality …

Quality Of Diabetes Care In Blended Fee-For-Service And Blended Capitation Payment Systems., Mary Aderayo Bamimore, Rose Anne Devlin, Gregory S Zaric, Amit X Garg, Sisira Sarma

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

OBJECTIVES: In the middle to late 2000s, many family physicians switched from a Family Health Group (FHG; a blended fee-for-service model) to a Family Health Organization (FHO; a blended capitation model) in Ontario, Canada. The evidence on the link between physician remuneration schemes and quality of diabetes care is mixed in the literature. We examined whether physicians who switched from the FHG to FHO model provided better care for individuals living with diabetes relative to those who remained in the FHG model.

METHODS: Using longitudinal health administrative data from 2006 to 2016, we investigated the impact of physicians switching from …

Modeling Covid-19 Infection Rates Using Sir And Arima Models, Janelle Domantay, Ilya Pivavaruk, Victor Taksheyev

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become of increasing interest to both monitor and predict the growth of its infection rates. In order to analyze the accuracy of epidemiological prediction, we consider two different models for prediction, the Susceptible Infected and Removed (SIR), and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models. Using a dataset of Clark County COVID-19 infections, we create various ARIMA and SIR models that attempt to predict the progression of COVID-19 infections whilst comparing these predictions to the dataset. We observed that the ARIMA model performed more accurately overall, having a much lower Root Mean …

Defining Septicemia Incidence And Mortality In South Carolina Through Access To Health Care, Behavioral Health, And Low Socio-Economic Status, Raeann Vossberg

Senior Theses

This study aims to provide an in-depth view of septicemia mortality and incidence in the state of South Carolina through the lenses of socio-economic factors, access to healthcare, and behavioral health factors. This study was conducted using data from the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, utilizing their Hospitalization, Inpatient, Emergency Department, and Outpatient data both separately and combined depending on the data point, along with additional data sources for support (see works cited). We hypothesize that the higher rates of septicemia mortality and incidence in the southeastern United States, as well as in South Carolina in particular, could …

The Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Associated With Low Muscle Mass And Low Muscle Function In Older Australians, Marlene Gojanovic, Kara L. Holloway-Kew, Natalie K. Hyde, Mohammadreza Mohebbi, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James R. Hébert Scd., Adrienne O'Neil, Julie A. Pasco

Faculty Publications

Age-associated chronic, low grade systemic inflammation has been recognised as an important contributing factor in the development of sarcopenia; importantly, diet may regulate this process. This cross-sectional study examined the association of diet-related inflammation with components of sarcopenia. Participants (n = 809) aged 60–95 years from the Geelong Osteoporosis Study were studied. Body composition was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. In this study, low appendicular lean mass (ALM/height2, kg/m2) was defined as T-score < −1 and low muscle function as Timed-Up-and-Go >10 s over 3 m (TUG > 10). Dietary inflammatory index (DII®) scores, based on specific foods and nutrients, were computed using dietary data collected from a …

The Pharmaceutical Industry Contributes To Public Health, Karl E. Peace, Mario Keko

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics And Cognitive Function Among Older Adults: Examining The Role Of Depression, Allison Sullivan, Mph

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: African American older adults have a greater risk of cognitive impairment compared to White older adults. While some research has established that neighborhoods are an important determinant of health, relatively little research has examined the relationship between perceived neighborhood characteristics and cognitive functioning among older adults. Moreover, little is known about how depression is implicated in the relationship between perceived neighborhood characteristics and cognitive functioning, and if racial differences exist. Thus, this thesis aims to determine the mediating and moderating role of depression in the association between perceived neighborhood characteristics and cognitive functioning in older African American and White …

The Financing Need For Expanding Paid Maternity Leave To Support Breastfeeding In The Informal Sector In The Philippines, Valerie Gilbert Ulep, Paul Zambrano, Janice Datu-Sanguyo, Mireya Vilar-Compte, Graciela Materuel Belismelis, Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Grace J. Carrol, Roger Mathisen

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

In low- and middle-income countries, almost three-fourths of women in the labour force lack maternity protection. In the Philippines, current laws do not guarantee paid maternity leave to workers in the informal economy. A non-contributory maternity cash transfer to informal sector workers could be used to promote social equity and economic productivity and could provide health benefits by helping mothers meet their breastfeeding goals. The objective of the study is to provide a realistic cost estimate and to assess the financial feasibility of implementing a publicly financed, non-contributory maternity cash transfer programme to the informal sector in the Philippines. Using …

Association Of Nsaids And Acetaminophen Prescriptions During Pregnancy With Autism Spectrum Disorders In The Child, Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury

Theses and Dissertations

Neurodevelopmental disorders in children including Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Intellectual disability (ID) are the topics of growing concern and recently many studies looked for the risk factors of these disorders. Although antidepressants and antiepileptics consumption during pregnancy have been reported to be associated with ASD, the effect of NSAID or acetaminophen, two most common drugs used during pregnancy, have been under researched. We conducted a prospective cohort study linking data from Medicaid, Department of Education, and Department of Disabilities and Special Needs with birth certificate data from mothers and children between 2010-2017. Beside exposure variables, NSAID and acetaminophen, and …