Epidemiology Commons^™

Community-Acquired Pneumonia Pathogenesis In Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Julio A. Ramirez, Rodrigo Cavallazzi

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.

Prospective Analysis Of Food Consumption And Nutritional Status And The Impact On The Dietary Inflammatory Index In Women With Breast Cancer During Chemotherapy, Isis Danyelle Dias Custódio, Fernanda De Paula Franco, Eduarda Da Costa Marinho, Taísa Sabrina Silva Pereira, Mariana Tavares Miranda Lima, Maria Del Carmen Bisi Molina, Nitin Shivappa, James R. Hébert, Carlos Eduardo Paiva, Yara Cristina De Paiva Maia

Faculty Publications

Considering the implications of adverse effects of chemotherapy (CT) and the potential impact of diet on patients’ recovery, this study aimed to prospectively evaluate the association between the consumption of food groups, patients’ Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) scores, and their nutritional status. Anthropometric and dietary assessments of 55 women with breast cancer (BC) were performed at three time points. T0 is the time point after the first CT cycle, T1 is the time point after the intermediate CT cycle, and T2 is the time point after the last CT cycle. We identified a significant increase in weight, body mass index, …

Inflammation And Acute Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposures Among A Cohort Of Youth With Type 1 Diabetes, Robin C. Puett, Jeff D. Yanosky, Murray A. Mittleman, Jessica Montresor-Lopez, Ronny A. Bell, Tessa L. Crumee, Dana Dabeleae, Lawrence M. Dolan, Ralph B. D'Agostino Jr, Santica M. Marcovina, Catherine Pihokeri, Kristi Reynolds, Elaine Urbina, Angela D. Liese

Faculty Publications

Background: Evidence remains equivocal regarding the association of inflammation, a precursor to cardiovascular disease, and acute exposures to ambient air pollution from traffic-related particulate matter. Though youth with type 1 diabetes are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, the relationship of inflammation and ambient air pollution exposures in this population has received little attention.

Objectives: Using five geographically diverse US sites from the racially- and ethnically-diverse SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Cohort, we examined the relationship of acute exposures to PM2.5 mass, Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling System (ADMS)-Roads traffic-related PM concentrations near roadways, and elemental carbon (EC) with biomarkers of inflammation …

Exploring The Hispanic Health Paradox In Mental Health Outcomes: Evidence From The Us-Mexico Border, Laryssa Mykyta, Suad Ghaddar, Leonel Vela

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Research has established that Hispanic immigrants experience better health outcomes than their US-born counterparts. However, it is unclear whether the immigrant advantage holds for mental health. The purpose of this study is to examine mental health disparities by nativity status in an underserved Hispanic population along the southern border.

Methods: We collected data (N=713, weighted 733,644 adults) in four counties (90% Hispanic) along the Texas-Mexico border from March through August 2018 utilizing a dual-frame sampling design (random-digit dial telephone survey and field survey in randomly-selected colonias). We assessed several mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, poor mental health …

Plasma Cysteine/Cystine And Glutathione/Glutathione Disulfide Redox Potentials In Hiv And Copd Patients., Walter H. Watson, Jeffrey D. Ritzenthaler, Paula Peyrani, Timothy L. Wiemken, Stephen P. Furmanek, Andrea Reyes-Vega, Tom J. Burke, Yuxuan Zheng, Julio A. Ramirez, Jesse Roman

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is prevalent in patients infected with HIV. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that systemic oxidation correlates with loss of lung function in subjects with COPD, and that HIV infection can contribute to creating such an environment. Subjects were recruited at the University of Louisville in the following groups: HIV-infected (n = 36), COPD (n = 32), HIV and COPD (n = 28), and uninfected controls with normal lung function (n = 34). HIV infection was assessed by viral load and CD4 cell counts. Pulmonary function was determined by spirometry …

Statistical Methods Useful In Clinical Simulation And Medical Education Scholarship, Zuber D. Mulla, J. Hector Aranda, Donovan Rojas, Sanja Kupesic Plavsic

Marshall Journal of Medicine

The objective of this paper is to introduce selected statistical and epidemiologic topics that are of interest to interdisciplinary teams of healthcare quality professionals, educators, technical staff, and researchers who participate in clinical simulation scholarship. Four research vignettes in the setting of a hypothetical clinical simulation training workshop are presented. The first vignette illustrates the utility of exact logistic regression when analyzing a small dataset. The second underscores the importance of using an appropriate method to account for the repeated measurement of an outcome. The third illustrates the use of the intraclass correlation coefficient to measure inter-rater reliability. The final …

Is There Less Opioid Abuse In States Where Marijuana Has Been Decriminalized, Either For Medicinal Or Recreational Use? A Clin-Iq, Aaron M. Wendelboe, Richard Mathew, Tana Chongsuwat, Elizabeth Rainwater, Mark A. Wendelboe, Elizabeth Wickersham Md, Ann F. Chou

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Opioid use, abuse, and associated mortality have reached an epidemic level. In some states, cannabis is being used to treat chronic pain. To examine the hypothesis that medical marijuana legislation may reduce adverse opioid-related outcomes if patients substitute cannabis for opioids for pain management, we conducted a clinical inquiry (Clin-IQ). We searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process, and Embase for studies using the search terms marijuana, cannabis, legal, marijuana smoking, medical marijuana, opioid-related disorders, cannabis use, medical cannabis, legal aspect, and opiate addiction. We included population-based articles published from January 1, 2012, through December 5, 2018, that assessed the relationship …

Identifiying High Risk Areas Of Zika Virus Infection By Meteorological Factors In Columbia, Lung-Chang Chien, Francisco Sy, Adriana Perez

Environmental & Global Health Faculty Research

Background Several Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreaks have occurred since October 2015. Because there is no effective treatment for ZIKV infection, developing an effective surveillance and warning system is currently a high priority to prevent ZIKV infection. Despite Aedes mosquitos having been known to spread ZIKV, the calculation approach is diverse, and only applied to local areas. This study used meteorological measurements to monitor ZIKV infection due to the high correlation between climate change and Aedes mosquitos and the convenience to obtain meteorological data from weather monitoring stations. Methods This study applied the Bayesian structured additive regression modeling approach to include …

The Association Between Dietary Inflammatory Index (Dii) And Cancer Risk In Korea: A Prospective Cohort Study Within The Koges-Hexa Study, Injeong Ryu, Minji Kwon, Cheongmin Sohn, Nitin Shivappa, James R. Hébert, Woori Na, Mi Kyung Kim

Faculty Publications

Several epidemiological studies have shown that there are consistently positive associations between dietary inflammatory index (DII (R)) scores and cancer incidence in Western populations. However, few DII-cancer studies have been conducted in East Asian populations. In a large cohort representative of the general Korean population, we investigated whether the DII is associated with overall cancer risk. A total of 163,660 participants (56,781 males and 106,879 females) had evaluable data for analyses. This follow-up study was carried out over the course of 7.9 years. DII scores were calculated based on Semi-Quantitative Food-Frequency Questionnaire (SQ-FFQ) data for 106 food items. Cancers were …

Determination Of Cannabinoids, Cathinones, And Synthetic Fentanyls Using Wastewater-Based Epidemiology, Catherine O'Rourke, Bikram Subedi

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Unregulated new psychoactive substances (NPS) in “pure” or “preparation” forms are designed to mimic the effects of controlled substances, and are introduced and reintroduced in the market as a cheap substitute for established regulated drugs in quick succession to loophole the law enforcement efforts on combating drugs. For example, carfentanil, a synthetic opioid activates the opioid receptors similar to morphine but it is astoundingly potent compared to a typical drug of abuse (100 times more potent than fentanyl and 10,000 times more powerful than morphine). Based on the cost- and time-intensive forensic analysis, National Drug Early Warning System reported the …

The Relationship Between Continuous Glucose Monitor (Cgm) Derived Metrics And Indices Of Glycemic Control, Ryan Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Both hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) and hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) are common among individuals with type 1 diabetes and are associated with severe medical complications, therefore it is essential that health care providers are able to accurately measure glycemic control. Measures derived from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) may provide more accurate measurements of glycemia than the commonly used HbA1c blood test.

Methods: Data from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) clinical trial to assess the efficacy of continuous glucose monitoring was used to estimate the ability of CGM composite scores to predict time in range, time in hyperglycemia and …

Hypertension And Hiv In An Urban Slum Setting, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Olga Tymejczyk

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Rapidly growing urban slum settings increasingly face co-occurring communicable and non-communicable health crises, against the backdrop of extreme poverty, and social and environmental vulnerability. In Haiti, sparse data suggest a growing burden of hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD), along with substantial prevalence of HIV, increasingly recognized as a major CVD risk factor. As life-saving antiretroviral treatment (ART) is extended to more people living with HIV (PLWH), their risk of CVD increases with longer life expectancy and possibly cumulative ART exposure. Pregnant HIV-positive women may face additional cardiovascular vulnerability, due to the risk of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia. Integration of …

Towards A People’S Social Epidemiology: Envisioning A More Inclusive And Equitable Future For Social Epi Research And Practice In The 21st Century, Ryan J. Petteway, Mahasin Mujahid, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Amani Allen

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social epidemiology has made critical contributions to understanding population health. However, translation of social epidemiology science into action remains a challenge, raising concerns about the impacts of the field beyond academia. With so much focus on issues related to social position, discrimination, racism, power, and privilege, there has been surprisingly little deliberation about the extent and value of social inclusion and equity within the field itself. Indeed, the challenge of translation/action might be more readily met through re-envisioning the role of the people within the research/practice enterprise—reimagining what “social” could, or even should, mean for the future of the field. …

Understanding And Use Of Food Labeling Systems Among Whites And Latinos In The United States And Among Mexicans: Results From The International Food Policy Study, 2017, Claudia Nieto, Alejandra Jauregui, Alejandra Contreras-Manzano, Edna Arillo-Santillan, Simon Barquera, Christine M. White, David Hammond, Jim Thrasher

Faculty Publications

Background Obesity and chronic diseases could be prevented through improved diet. Most governments require at least one type of food labeling system on packaged foods to communicate nutrition information and promote healthy eating. This study evaluated adult consumer understanding and use of nutrition labeling systems in the US and Mexico, the most obese countries in the world.

Methods Adults from online consumer panels in the US (Whites n = 2959; Latinos n = 667) and in Mexico (n = 3533) were shown five food labeling systems: 1. Nutrition Facts Table (NFT) that shows nutrients of concern per serving; 2. Guideline …

Enhancing Timeliness Of Drug Overdose Mortality Surveillance: A Machine Learning Approach, Patrick J. Ward, Peter J. Rock, Svetla Slavova, April M. Young, Terry L. Bunn, Ramakanth Kavuluru

Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Timely data is key to effective public health responses to epidemics. Drug overdose deaths are identified in surveillance systems through ICD-10 codes present on death certificates. ICD-10 coding takes time, but free-text information is available on death certificates prior to ICD-10 coding. The objective of this study was to develop a machine learning method to classify free-text death certificates as drug overdoses to provide faster drug overdose mortality surveillance.

METHODS: Using 2017–2018 Kentucky death certificate data, free-text fields were tokenized and features were created from these tokens using natural language processing (NLP). Word, bigram, and trigram features were created …

Trends In The Timeliness Of Hiv Diagnosis And Antiretroviral Treatment Initiation Before, During And After The “Treat All” Recommendation – New York City, 2006 - 2015, Mckaylee Robertson

Dissertations and Theses

BACKGROUND: Voluntary HIV testing followed by immediate antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation (universal testing and treatment) has become an integral part of strategies to eliminate HIV and control the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Minimizing the time from HIV infection to ART initiation is essential for universal test and treatment to be optimally effective. In New York City, an epicenter of the HIV epidemic, the ‘treat all’ recommendation, immediate treatment for all people diagnosed with HIV, was made in late 2011, and efforts to ‘treat all’ were contemporaneous with large scale HIV testing initiatives in NYC. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to …

Association Of Urine Levels Of C-Reactive Protein With Clinical Outcomes In Patients With Pneumonia: A Pilot Study, Subathra Marimuthu, Vidyulata Salunkhe, Stephen P. Furmanek, Leslie A Wolf

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Finding relevant biomarkers as a potential predictor of severity for patients hospitalized with community acquired pneumonia (CAP), in addition to the clinical scoring system, could advance progress towards more effective patient management. The inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein (CRP), which is elevated in the pathogenesis of many infectious diseases, may be a key biomarker target for CAP. Previous studies have shown that serum CRP may be a useful diagnostic marker for pneumonia in hospitalized patients with acute respiratory symptoms. The main aims of this study were to determine the correlation between serum and urine CRP levels in hospitalized patients with CAP, …

Using Empirical And Theoretical Approaches To Control Outbreaks Of An Emerging Disease (Swimmer’S Itch) In The Midwest Of The U.S.A., Gregory J. Sandland, James Peirce

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Differences In Duration Of Untreated Psychosis For Racial And Ethnic Minority Groups With First-Episode Psychosis: An Updated Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis., Nicole Schoer, Chen Wei Huang, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

PURPOSE: Ethnic minority groups with early psychosis may have longer treatment delays, potentially leading to poorer outcomes. We updated a previous systematic review of the literature on racial and ethnic differences in duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) among people with first-episode psychosis.

RESULTS: Six of 17 studies described significant differences across aggregated racial groups; however, the pooled estimates did not show differences across groups. Additional data from this update allowed for disaggregated analyses, finding that Black-African groups have a shorter DUP, whereas Black-Caribbean groups have longer DUP, relative to White groups.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the importance of in-depth research …

Individual- And Community- Level Associations With Healthcare Utilization Among A Health System, Emergency Department Population, Carlene A. Mayfield

Theses and Dissertations

AIM: The primary aim of this study was to examine individual-level and community- level characteristics associated with ambulatory or primary care utilization, emergency department (ED) utilization, and ED charges among a sample of ED patients.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE: Data for this cross-sectional study were obtained from three distinct sources: (i) electronic medical records (EMR); (ii) billing records; and (iii) the 2013-2017 American Community Survey (ACS). The individual-level EMR and billing sample included all adults residing in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina who visited an Atrium Health ED in 2017. The ACS sample included population and demographic estimates from Mecklenburg County’s 27 …