Health Communication Commons^™

Drug Use And Harm Reduction: Community Readiness As Pathway To Well-Being And Reintegration, Lauretta Ekanem Omale

Dissertations

Drug abuse negatively impacts the life and well-being of those who use drugs; this harm often extends to their loved ones, communities, and society. One presumptive set of psychological explanations for drug abuse is an addictive personality, a psychological susceptibility resulting from challenging family relationships, inadequate reinforcement, the absence of healthy role models, conflicting parental expectations, and a lack of love and respect. Harm reduction is a public health approach that focuses on minimizing the harmful effects of drugs and reducing judgment. It aims to meet people where they are in life and provide judgment-free, empathetic, supportive, and needed medical …

Empowering Spanish Heritage Learners Through A Community Informed, Online Medical Spanish Curriculum, Bonnie C. Holmes Ph.D., Kenneth Rhee Md

11th National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language

The lack of standardized medical Spanish curriculum leads to variable content and quality, often neglecting heritage language learners. Also, community engagement efforts seldom extend to curriculum development. Learn about a collaboration between Spanish faculty and a physician to create an innovative, virtual Spanish for healthcare curriculum that addresses these challenges.

Allergic Diseases In The Elderly, Gabriele Di Lorenzo, Marcello Melluso, Alessandro Rodolico, Aurelio Seidita

Translational Medicine @ UniSa

Recent increases in allergic diseases are thought to be caused by better hygiene, Westernized diets, air pollution, climate change, and other factors that influence host microbiota, a key player in the induction and maintenance of immunoregulatory circuits and tolerance. The increase of allergic diseases in the elderly is also related to additional factors, such as various comorbidities that may interfere with the development and the type of allergic reactions. Immunosenescence plays a central role in these reactions, altering microbiota responses and triggering inflammageing. In addition, in the elderly, there is a shift from Th1 to Th2 immunity, thus favoring allergic …

Redoxomics In Ageing And Neurodegenerative Disorders: From Bench To Clinics, Vittorio Calabrese, Ursula M. Jacob, Tilman Fritsch, Noemi Osakabe

Translational Medicine @ UniSa

There is no abstract for this article type.

Scale Of Assessment Of Caregiver Care Burden Of People With Dementia: A Systematic Review Of Literature, Veronica Strini, Angela Prendin, Valentina Cerrone, Roberta Schiavolin, Ilaria De Barbieri, Vincenzo Andretta, Luigi Fortino, Biagio Santella, Gianluigi Franci, Mario Capunzo, Giovanni Boccia

Translational Medicine @ UniSa

Cases of dementia have increased significantly in recent years. The family represents the main cornerstone of assistance to the elderly suffering from dementia, in particular the caregiver. Family members who take on the role of caregiver are subjected to physical, psychological, emotional, social and financial stress, which can be conceptualised with the term “burden”. The aim of this study was to investigate which tools are best suited to measure the type of burden based on the type of dementia for each caregiver. A literature search was undertaken in MEDLINE, CINHAL and The Cochrane Database in September 2022, including articles from …

Pediatric Dentists’ Considerations Concerning Obesity-Related Education For Parents Of Young Children: Who Should Educate About What, How And When?, Arianne Swanson Dds, Ms, James R. Boynton Dds, Ms, Larry B. Salzmann Dds, Yu-Ju Yang Dds, Marita R. Inglehart Dipl. Psych., Dr. Phil., Dr. Phil. Habil

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This study aimed to explore pediatric dentists' perspectives on obesity-related interventions for parents of young children. A web-based survey was administered to 210 American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry members. Findings revealed that respondents considered it important for various healthcare professionals, especially pediatricians and nurse practitioners, to engage in obesity-related parent education. Strong consensus existed on educating parents about the link between early childhood caries and diet, soft drink and fruit juice consumption, and healthy snacking. The study also found positive attitudes correlated with increased engagement in objective weight determination, data collection, and diet/nutrition counseling.

Setting The Foundation For A Lifetime Of Oral Health, Samuel Blanchard Dds, Ms

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

In this Children’s Dental Health Month article, the Michigan Academy of Pediatric Dentistry emphasizes the crucial role of relationships and trust in pediatric dentistry. Highlighting the significance of collaborative efforts between dental societies, the commentary discusses the impact of professional connections on patient care. The author shares personal insights on transitioning in their career, underscoring the value of cultivated relationships. The age-1 dental visit is highlighted as a powerful preventive measure to establish rapport and empower parents with oral health knowledge. The article emphasizes the enduring benefits of building connections in promoting lifelong oral health.

Improving Spiritual Care Competency Among Intensive Care Unit Nurses: Promoting Holistic Patient Care Towards End-Of-Life, Joanne Nguyen, Dana Bagis

Nursing | Senior Theses

Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses play a crucial role in providing physiological stabilizing care in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, often marked by constant changes and variability in complex patients. Despite their specialization, the aspect of spiritual care tends to be overlooked, particularly in the context of end-of-life care. This is significant because previous studies have shown that a lack of spiritual care leads to poorer health outcomes, decreased coping, increased depression, and diminished quality of life for patients. This research proposal aims to investigate the spiritual care competency among ICU nurses who partake in spiritual care-based training, with the …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

The Role Of The Nurse In The Management Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Narrative Review, Luigi Ruggiero, Vincenzo Andretta, Carlo Soldaini, Ivan Fricano, Marco Mancusi, Annamaria Sellitti, Josephine Vastarella, Antonella Santonicola

Translational Medicine @ UniSa

rritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is characterized by chronic symptoms of abdominal pain in association with changes in bowel habits. Abdominal pain is the most debilitating symptom for IBS patients, and its management is one of the greatest challenges for gastroenterologists. In recent years more evidence has arisen about an increasingly central role of the nurse in the management of gastrointestinal diseases including IBS. The aim of this narrative review is to analyse the latest evidence on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of IBS patients with a specific focus on the role of the nurse in its management.

Changes In The Information Uses And Gratifications Of Virtual Communications For Kansas State Research And Extension Agents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Katie E. Messerla, Katherine J. Starzec, Brandie Disberger, Elaine Johannes

Journal of Applied Communications

Kansas State Research and Extension (KSRE) staff have experienced many changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic such as remote work requirements and technology adaptations. The purpose of this study was to determine changes in the use of virtual communications used by K-State Research and Extension agents’ internal communications as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was guided by uses and gratifications theory to understand Extension agents’ intensity of use of virtual communications channels for internal communications and the effectiveness of virtual communication channels for workplace communication needs. Through a quantitative Qualtrics survey (n = 99) with a …

Minnesota State Parks And Trails’ Use Of Facebook To Communicate Health And Safety Information During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Garrett M. Steede, Sahil S. Kamat

Journal of Applied Communications

During the COVID-19 pandemic, state park visitation increased to levels above previous years. While navigating the pandemic, natural resource communicators took to social media to communicate about how COVID-19 was impacting park services and operations. We examined how the Minnesota State Parks and Trails (MSPT) engaged in health communication using Facebook over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used quantitative content analysis to measure content and engagement on the N = 105 posts made by the MSPT from 2020 - 2022 regarding COVID-19. Results provide an understanding as to how natural resource communicators engaged in health communication …

What Now: The Role Of Attitude And Communicative Actions When Making Decisions During A Disease Crisis, Ashley Mcleod-Morin, Lauri Baker, Angela B. Lindsey, Lisa K. Lundy, Ricky Telg

Journal of Applied Communications

During a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations often communicate about a risk to encourage people to take particular protective actions, and the decision-making process about protective actions can be especially complex. It is important to determine how organizations can encourage specific behaviors and, as such, this study sought to investigate how attitudes and communicative actions influenced behavior related to recommendations from the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the purpose of this study, an online quantitative survey was distributed to United States residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from this study reveal that attitude and transmission and …

Exploring The Social Media Health Information Seeking Patterns Of Rural Residents To Provide Communication Strategies For Extension, Catherine Sanders, Kristin Gibson, Allison R. Byrd, Tatevik Markosyan, Alexa J. Lamm

Journal of Applied Communications

Communication capacity development is critical for Extension professionals, who work to bring agricultural and health research to the public. With social media being an almost ubiquitous communication channel, it has immense potential as a health communication resource for diverse and rural audiences. The current study, guided by an audience segmentation framework, explored the health communication patterns on social media of rural Georgia residents across demographic characteristics through a non-probability opt-in sampling online survey. Cluster analyses of social media users revealed three distinct groups: low, medium, and high users. Descriptive characteristics of each cluster were presented, to guide Extension health communication …

Implementation Of Implicit Bias Training In A Doctor Of Nurse Practitioner Program, Macdana Selecon

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Implicit bias in healthcare delivery refers to the unconscious mental associations healthcare providers make about patients from various social groups. Numerous studies suggest implicit bias contributes to health disparities primarily amongst marginalized groups. Furthermore, patients report a lower quality of communication from healthcare providers with higher implicit racial bias. In 2021, Assembly Bill 1407 (Nurses: Implicit Bias Courses Act) was passed to address the negative impact of bias on patient outcomes and requires California nursing schools to provide implicit bias training for nursing students.

Problem: All graduate nursing programs do not provide implicit bias (IB) training. As a result, …

A New And Effective Procedure For Advanced Oral Cancer Therapy: The Potential Of A Cancer Stem Cell Assay In Guiding Chemotherapy, Francesca Spirito, Pier Paolo Claudio, Candace M. Howard, Jagan Valluri, Krista L. Denning, Lorenzo Lo Muzio, Antonio Cortese

Translational Medicine @ UniSa

Introduction Ineffective anticancer therapy can result in unnecessary toxicity and the development of resistant clones. Many types of solid tumors, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, have been found to contain a small population of cancer stem cells (CSCs) that contribute to tumor propagation, maintenance, and treatment resistance. Materials and Methods Selectively enriched CSCs from primary cancer cell cultures can be used in a chemosensitivity assay for a functional test (ChemoID) that uses patients’ live tumor cells to indicate which chemotherapy agent (or “combinations”) will kill not only the bulk of tumor cells but also the CSCs that are …

Enhancing Recovery With The Use Of Animals, Christina Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Avenues is a program designed to help adults lead happier and more productive lives by overcoming mental health and chemical dependency challenges. The problem is, participants are not fully prepared for independent living following these programs. The plan was to provide participants a therapeutic approach to gaining hands-on experience while combating symptoms of mental illness with the use of animals, with hopes that participants would be better prepared for life after leaving the program. If the project met the expected outcome, the agency would see a lower rate of participants returning to the program and a higher success rate of …

How Does Parents’ Social Support Impact Children’S Health Practice? Examining A Mediating Role Of Health Knowledge, Paulin Tay Straughan, Chengwei Xu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background: Family environmental factors play a vital role in shaping children’s health practices (e.g., obesity prevention). It is still unclear how parents’ social support affects children’s obesity-related health practices. The present study argues that whether parents’ social support positively associates with children’s obesity-related health practice depends on if it could promote parents’ obesity-related health knowledge. Thus, we hypothesize that health knowledge mediates the relationship between parents’ social support and children’s health practice regarding weight management. Methods: To test the hypothesis, we conducted a questionnaire survey and collected a nationally representative sample of 1488 household responses in Singapore. The survey included …

Argumentation For Critical Heterogenous Political Discussions: Constructing A Rebuttal, Rebecca Oliver

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity seeks to explain to undergraduate students how to craft a proper attack and defense in argumentation and debate, persuasion, or political communication courses. The activity teaches students 1) the parts of a basic argument structure and 2) how to construct a rebuttal using a basic argument structure. Students will argue against their true political typology by selecting an opposing typology from the Pew Research Typology Quiz. Broadly, this exercise is designed to encourage students to engage in dialogues with people who disagree with their political positionality. Specifically, the activity accomplishes this by teaching students the value of basic …

Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication, Daniel L. Foster, Ashley D. Garcia

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Drawing objects and concepts, such as cats, trees, love, democracy, and family, is probably the last activity students expect to do in a communication course. Although this sounds like an introductory art activity, creating visual representations provides a nuanced understanding of the encoding and decoding processes. Encoding and decoding are the most hidden and often the most unfamiliar and complex fundamental components of communication for students to comprehend. By engaging in this activity, students translate their decoding process into drawings, which serve as personal artifacts representative of their encoding and decoding. Students come to better conceptualize this cognitive process with …