Epidemiology Commons^™

Federal Disaster Declarations And Denials: Analyzing Spatial Equity In The Implementation Of The Stafford Act, Richard Salkowe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Federal disaster declarations are authorized by the president under the provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988. Prior studies have found varying levels of political influence associated with the declaration process. Factors including electoral votes, reelection years, congressional committee appointments, geographic location, and party favoritism have been implicated in claims of inequity associated with the distribution of federal disaster assistance. Compounding these concerns is evidence of recurring problems associated with disparities in the long-term recovery from disasters based on social and economic factors. This dissertation is a response to the call for further …

Historical Health Conditions In Major Us Cities: The Hue Data Set, Carlos Villareal, Brian Bettenhausen, Eric Hanss, Jonathan Hersh

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

The Historical Urban Ecological data set is a new resource detailing health and environmental conditions within seven major U.S. cities during the study period from 1830 to 1930. Researchers collected and digitized ward-level data from annual reports of municipal departments that detail the epidemiological, economic, and demographic conditions within each city. They then drafted new geographic information system data to link the tabular records to ward geographies. These data provide a new foundation to revisit questions surrounding the urban mortality transition and the growth of U.S. cities.

Frailty And Depression: A Latent Trait Analysis, Matthew Lohman

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Frailty, a state indicating vulnerability to poor health outcomes, is a common condition in later life. However, research and intervention progress is hindered by the current lack of a consensus frailty definition and poor understanding of relationships between frailty and depression. Objectives: The goal of this research is to understand the interrelationships between frailty and depression among older adults. Specifically, this project aims 1) to examine the construct overlap between depression and three definitions of frailty (biological syndrome, medical burdens, and functional domains), 2) to determine the degree to which this overlap varies by age, gender, race/ethnicity and other …

Socioeconomic And Demographic Factors Modify The Association Between Informal Caregiving And Health In The Sandwich Generation, Elizabeth K. Do, Steven A. Cohen, Monique J. Brown Ph.D., Mph

Faculty Publications

Background

Nearly 50 million Americans provide informal care to an older relative or friend. Many are members of the “sandwich generation”, providing care for elderly parents and children simultaneously. Although evidence suggests that the negative health consequences of caregiving are more severe for sandwiched caregivers, little is known about how these associations vary by sociodemographic factors.

Methods

We abstracted data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to determine how the association between caregiving and health varies by sociodemographic factors, using ordinal logistic regression with interaction terms and stratification by number of children, income, and race/ethnicity.

Results

The association between …

Assessing The Impact Of Family Status, Family Cohesion, And Acculturation On Youth Violence Among Immigrant Latinos, Susan Lin, Sean D. Cleary, Mark Edberg

GW Research Days 2014

Background/Objectives: Latino youth violence is an emerging public health concern. The objective is to assess the impact of family status, family cohesion, and acculturation on youth violence among Latino immigrants in Langley Park, MD compared with a control community in Culmore, VA.

Methods: Constructs were generated from survey questions to represent family support and cohesion, acculturation, and youth violence. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were modeled to evaluate the relationships between family support and cohesion, acculturation, and violence, after adjusting for confounders.

Results: After controlling for covariates, family support consistently reduced victimization (PE = ‐0.02, SE = 0.01, t = …

Venue-Based Recruitment Of Women At Elevated Risk For Hiv: An Hiv Prevention Trials Network Study, Danielle F. Haley, Carol E. Golin, Wafaa M. El-Sadr, James P. Hughes, Jing Wang, Irene Kuo, +13 Additional Authors

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

Background: The challenge of identifying and recruiting U.S. women at elevated risk for HIV acquisition impedes prevention studies and services. HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 064 was a U.S. multisite, longitudinal cohort study designed to estimate HIV incidence among women living in communities with prevalent HIV and poverty. Venue-based sampling (VBS) methodologies and participant and venue characteristics are described.

Methods: Eligible women were recruited from 10 U.S. communities with prevalent HIV and poverty using VBS. Participant eligibility criteria included age 18–44 years, residing in a designated census tract/zip code, and self-report of at least one high-risk personal and/or male sexual …

The Impact Of Salsalate Treatment On Serum Levels Of Advanced Glycation End Products In Type 2 Diabetes., Joshua I Barzilay, Kathleen A. Jablonski, Vivian Fonseca, Steven E Shoelson, Allison B Goldfine, Christopher Strauch, Vincent M Monnier, Tinsal-T2d Research Consortium.

GW Biostatistics Center

OBJECTIVE Salsalate is a nonacetylated salicylate that lowers glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Here we examined whether salsalate also lowered serum-protein-bound levels of early and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that have been implicated in diabetic vascular complications. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Participants were from the Targeting Inflammation Using Salsalate for Type 2 Diabetes (TINSAL-T2D) study, which examined the impact of salsalate treatment on hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and a wide variety of other parameters. One hundred eighteen participants received salsalate, 3.5 g/day for 48 weeks, and 109 received placebo. Early glycation product levels (HbA1c and fructoselysine …

Genetic Risk Of Progression To Type 2 Diabetes And Response To Intensive Lifestyle Or Metformin In Prediabetic Women With And Without A History Of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus., Shannon D Sullivan, Kathleen A. Jablonski, Jose C Florez, Dana Dabelea, Paul W Franks, Sam Dagogo-Jack, Catherine Kim, William C Knowler, Costas A Christophi, Robert Ratner, Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group.

GW Biostatistics Center

OBJECTIVE The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) trial investigated rates of progression to diabetes among adults with prediabetes randomized to treatment with placebo, metformin, or intensive lifestyle intervention. Among women in the DPP, diabetes risk reduction with metformin was greater in women with prior gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) compared with women without GDM but with one or more previous live births.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We asked if genetic variability could account for these differences by comparing β-cell function and genetic risk scores (GRS), calculated from 34 diabetes-associated loci, between women with and without histories of GDM.

RESULTS β-Cell function was …

Metabolic Syndrome Components And Their Response To Lifestyle And Metformin Interventions Are Associated With Differences In Diabetes Risk In Persons With Impaired Glucose Tolerance, H. Florez, M. Temprosa, Trevor J. Orchard, Kieren J. Mather, Santica M. Marcovina, Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, Edward Horton, C. D. Saudek, F. X. Pi-Sunyer, R. E. Ratner, R. B. Goldberg

GW Biostatistics Center

Aims

To determine the association of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components with diabetes risk in participants with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and whether intervention-related changes in MetS lead to differences in diabetes incidence.

Methods

We used the National Cholesterol Education Program/Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP/ATP III) revised MetS definition at baseline and intervention-related changes of its components to predict incident diabetes using Cox models in 3234 Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) participants with IGT over an average follow-up of 3.2 years.

Results

In an intention-to-treat analysis, the demographic-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) for diabetes in those with MetS (vs. …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: News & Publications (2011-2018)

• HPV Vaccine

Forecasting The Spread Of Raccoon Rabies Using A Purpose-Specific Group Decision-Making Process., Aaron M. Anderson, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Richard B. Chipman, Todd C. Atwood, Tyler Cozzens, Frank Fillo, Robert Hale, Brody Hatch, Joanne Maki, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Erin E. Rees, Charles E. Rupprecht, Rowland Tinline, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Dennis Slate

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and USDA Wildlife Services (WS) have been involved in an oral rabies vaccination (ORV) program for raccoons (Procyon lotor) that has slowed the westward spread of raccoon rabies. The objective of this study was to forecast the spread of the disease if an ORV zone was not maintained. A group decision-making process was designed to address the forecasting problem and was implemented using a group of 15 experts and 4 support personnel at a meeting at the USDA National Wildlife Research Center. Ten expansion regions were constructed that described the spread of …

Heterogeneity, Not Randomness, Sets Challenges For Quantitative Genetics And Epidemiology: A Response To Davey Smith’S “Gloomy Prospect”, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers on Science in a Changing World

Social epidemiologist Davey Smith (2011) argues that epidemiologists should accept a gloomy prospect: considerable randomness at the individual level means that they should keep their focus on modifiable causes of disease at the population level. The difficulty epidemiology has had in moving from significant population-level risk factors to improved prediction of cases at an individual level is analogous to the lack of success in the search for systematic aspects of the non-shared environmental influences that human quantitative genetics claims overshadow common environmental influences (e.g., the family’s socioeconomic status which siblings have in common). This article responds to the argument and …

Elective Early Term Delivery And Adverse Infant Outcomes In A Population-Based Multiethnic Cohort, Jason Lee Salemi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The length of human pregnancy, arguably the most natural of physiological processes, is undergoing subtle but consequential modification in order to adapt to modern societal demands. The gestational age distribution of births in the United States has been shifting to lower gestational ages over the past two decades, parallel to a concomitant rise in obstetrical intervention in pregnancy. The result has been an increase in elective deliveries at 37-38 weeks (early term).

A population-based retrospective cohort study of over 616,000 live-born full-term singleton infants was conducted to investigate the association between elective early term delivery and subsequent infant morbidity, mortality, …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: News & Publications (2011-2018)

• Diabetes and Colorectal Cancer Screening

A Unification Of Mediation And Interaction: A Four-Way Decomposition, Tyler J. Vanderweele

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

It is shown that the overall effect of an exposure on an outcome, in the presence of a mediator with which the exposure may interact, can be decomposed into four components: (i) the effect of the exposure in the absence of the mediator, (ii) the interactive effect when the mediator is left to what it would be in the absence of exposure, (iii) a mediated interaction, and (iv) a pure mediated effect. These four components, respectively, correspond to the portion of the effect that is due to neither mediation nor interaction, to just interaction (but not mediation), to both mediation …

Patterns And Predictors Of Self-Medication In Northern Uganda., Moses Ocan, Freddie Bwanga, Godfrey S. Bbosa, Danstan Bagenda, Paul Waako, Jasper Ogwal-Okeng, Celestino Obua

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Self-medication with antimicrobial agents is a common form of self-care among patients globally with the prevalence and nature differing from country to country. Here we assessed the prevalence and predictors of antimicrobial self-medication in post-conflict northern Uganda. A cross-sectional study was carried out using structured interviews on 892 adult (≥18 years) participants. Information on drug name, prescriber, source, cost, quantity of drug obtained, and drug use was collected. Households were randomly selected using multistage cluster sampling method. One respondent who reported having an illness within three months in each household was recruited. In each household, information was obtained from only …

New Malignancies After Squamous Cell Carcinoma And Melanomas: A Population-Based Study From Norway, Trude E. Robsahm, Margaret R. Karagas, Judy R. Rees, Astri Syse

Dartmouth Scholarship

Skin cancer survivors experience an increased risk for subsequent malignancies but the associated risk factors are poorly understood. This study examined the risk of a new primary cancer following an initial skin cancer and assessed risk factors associated with second primary cancers.

Is Sickle Cell Trait As Benign As Is Usually Assumed?, Carroll Nicole Flansburg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Introduction Sickle cell trait carriers may experience sickling events, which can cause severe health problems. Some sickle cell haplotypes contain genetic modifiers that are associated with increased levels of fetal hemoglobin, which is resistant to sickling. The aim of this study is to determine if sickle cell trait individuals who do not carry these modifiers are more likely to experience sickling episodes than those who do carry the modifiers.

Methods: Participants were eligible for inclusion in this study if they were male, 18 years of age or older, a sickle cell trait carrier, and had previously played any level …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: News & Publications (2011-2018)

• Cholera Transmission Dynamic Models

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: News & Publications (2011-2018)

• Impaired Verbal Memory