Medicine and Health Commons^™

A Modern Plague: U.S. Racial And Ethnic Vaccination Disparities During The 2009 H1n1 Influenza Pandemic, Andrew E. Burger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

On June 11, 2009 the World Health Organization announced that a novel strain of H1N1 influenza was being classified a Phase 6 pandemic, the highest level of alarm indicating that the disease was present worldwide and its spread was inevitable. While seasonal influenza epidemics occur annually, the 2009 H1N1 strain was the first novel pandemic influenza since the 1968 Hong Kong flu. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic provides a case study of how the U.S. population responded to an emergent and potentially lethal infectious disease. The richness and variety of public health data presents an opportunity to examine predictors of vaccination …

A Military Chronic Pain Interdisciplinary Outpatient Program’S (Iop) Approach To Reducing Pain And Disability And Increasing Functional Ability, Paris N. Mcdonald

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

The present study employed self-report measures to assess pain intensity, self-report perception of disability, and patient activation, and objective functional measures to explore the outcomes of a military interdisciplinary chronic pain intensive outpatient program. Seventy-three Active Duty Service Members (SM) with chronic pain completed baseline measures (pre-IOP) and graduation day measures, 60 SMs completed one-month follow-up measures, and 28 completed three-month follow-up measures. Results indicated that self-report pain levels decreased from pre-IOP to graduation day. The decrease was maintained; however, no additional significant decrease in pain occurred following program completion. Further, participant’s self-reported perception of disability due to back pain …

Influence Of Physicians’ Beliefs On Propensity To Include Religion/Spirituality In Patient Interactions, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

This study examines physicians’ beliefs, their perceptions of whether religion impacts health outcomes, and their propensity to discuss religion/spirituality with patients. It is not uncommon for patients to want religious/spiritual conversations, but the occurrence is infrequent. This study adds to knowledge regarding which physicians include these topics. Using a nationally representative sample of physicians and a mediated bi-factor structural equation model, the author finds that “religious and spiritual” physicians connect religion and patient health more than other religious/spiritual orientations. As a result, “religious and spiritual” physicians include religion/spirituality most often (indirect path). After this variation is accounted for, “spiritual but …

Doctors As Migration Brokers In The Mandatory Medical Screenings Of Immigrants To The United States, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Applicants for legal permanent residency in the United States are required to pass a medical screening. Most of these applicants are already living in the United States on non-immigrant and temporary visas and are screened by civil surgeons, physicians designated by the government to look for infectious diseases, incomplete immunization records, and signs that the immigrant will pose a threat or become a public charge. Little is known about the work of these 4000+ physicians, who play a key role as migration brokers in a context where migration control has devolved to non-state actors. I present quantitative analysis of a …

The Social Provision Of Healthcare To Migrants In The Us And In China, Van C. Tran, Katharine M. Donato

Publications and Research

This article develops a comparative analysis of healthcare provision to migrants in the US and in China. It proceeds in three parts. First, we begin by describing the growth of the unauthorized population and trace the evolution of social provision of healthcare to immigrants, highlighting the restrictive nature of federal social provisions and greater autonomy of state and local governments in redefining eligibility criteria in the US. Second, we examine the impact of legal status on healthcare access and utilization among Mexicans, using original data from the 2007 Hispanic Healthcare Survey and the Mexican Migration Project. We find that unauthorized …

Measuring Women's Empowerment In Sub-Saharan Africa: Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses Of The Demographic And Health Surveys, Ibitola O. Asaolu, Halimatou Alaofè, Jayleen K. L. Gunn, Akosua K. Adu, Amanda J. Monroy, John E. Ehiri, Mary H. Hayden, Kacey C. Ernst

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Women's status and empowerment influence health, nutrition, and socioeconomic status of women and their children. Despite its benefits, however, research on women's empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is limited in scope and geography. Empowerment is variably defined and data for comparison across regions is often limited. The objective of the current study was to identify domains of empowerment from a widely available data source, Demographic and Health Surveys, across multiple regions in SSA.

Methods: Demographic and Health Surveys from nineteen countries representing four African regions were used for the analysis. A total of 26 indicators across different dimensions (economic, …

Long-Term Care Needs In The Context Of Poverty And Population Aging: The Case Of Older Persons In Myanmar, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, John Knodel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Myanmar is one of the poorest and least healthy countries in Southeast Asia. As elsewhere in the region, population aging is occurring. Yet the government welfare and health systems have done little to address the long-term care (LTC) needs of the increasing number of older persons thus leaving families to cope on their own. Our study, based on the 2012 Myanmar Aging Survey, documents the LTC needs of persons aged 60 and older and how they are met within the context of the family. Nearly 40% of persons in their early 60s and 90% of those 80 and older reported …

The Core Relation Between Hospitality (Philoxenia), Dignity And Vulnerability In Orthodox Christian Bioethics: A Contribution To Global Bioethics, Rabee Toumi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a pluralistic world, reaching consensus in matters of bioethics has proved to be difficult, especially with the political polarization that nurtures inimical differences. This dissertation argues that a middle ground can be identified between the plurality of value systems in contemporary bioethics based on an anthropological approach. This middle ground that reflects commonalities of the human condition can be explored in relation to the foundational principles of Orthodox Christian anthropology. To identify this middle ground the analysis discusses the core relation between hospitality, dignity, and vulnerability as a contribution to global bioethics.

In general, based on Orthodox Christian theology …

Lovie: The Story Of A Southern Midwife And An Unlikely Friendship By Lisa Yarger (Review), Rebecca Adkins Fletcher

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Trends And Disparities In Leave Use Under California's Paid Family Leave Program: New Evidence From Administrative Data, Sarah H. Bana, Kelly Bedard, Maya Rossin-Slater

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We use novel administrative data to study trends and disparities in usage of California's first-in-the-nation paid family leave (PFL) program. We show that take-up for both bonding with a new child and caring for an ill family member increased over 2005–2014. Most women combine PFL with maternity leave from the State Disability Insurance system, resulting in leaves longer than 6 weeks. Most men take less than the full 6 weeks of PFL. Individuals in the lowest earnings quartile and in small firms are the least likely to take leave. There are important differences in take-up across industries, especially for men.

Better Magazine: A Digital Mental Health & Wellness Publication For Women, Katherine Czeriwnski

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Better is an online publication that explores young adult women’s mental health and wellness. The publication showcases women’s journeys with mental wellness and provides helpful information and resources for maintaining and improving readers’ mental health. The phrase “mental health” too often carries negative connotations or is simplified to just mental illness. The purpose of the magazine is, in part, to educate people and show that mental health includes more than illness, even though treatment is a large component of mental health. Through personal accounts of mental health and service pieces to help readers, Better is a resource for improving mental …

Pornography As A Public Health Issue: Promoting Violence And Exploitation Of Children, Youth, And Adults, Elisabeth Taylor

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The pornography industry is expanding exponentially as a result of ongoing technological advances. The ability to stream videos over the internet and the ubiquity of the smart phone have meant that pornography producers are able to use algorithms to target potential consumers, to cultivate new sexual tastes and to deliver content to a more diverse audience over mobile devices. The advent of virtual reality pornography with interactive sex toys and sex robots imbued with artificial intelligence promises to unleash a further step-change in the extent to which pornography influences ‘real-world’ sexual culture. The critical analysis of pornography undertaken over decades …

Military Factors Associated With Smoking In Veterans, Sara E. Golden, Sujata Thakurta, Christopher G. Slatore, Hyeyoung Woo, Donald R. Sullivan

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: Given the high prevalence of smoking among Veterans and the economic, social, and clinical implications, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to smoking in order to focus efforts to mitigate these factors and improve smoking cessation efforts among Veterans. The availability of research on smoking in Veterans compared with civilians is limited given the military-specific differences in their life course. We aimed to identify military-specific factors combined with sociodemographic factors for ever smoking and current smoking among Veterans to inform future interventions. Materials and Methods: We used data from the 2010 National Survey of Veterans, the …

Facebook As A Social Outreach And Advocacy Tool In Intersex/Dsd Groups, Emelie J. Ali Ms

Publications and Research

My project includes a netnography of a Facebook intersex group called Families and Friends of Intersex People. I observed the group’s forms of communication within the group and which topics they discussed. It appears one of the major concerns the group has is the use of nonconsensual, sex assignment surgery on infants to “correct” their body to match a gender identity. I have also discovered a link between being intersex and affiliated with the LGBT+ community. Since the 20th century, intersex people have been stigmatized due to their assumed ability to engage in sexual, same-sex relations. I have concluded that …

Book Review: Surrogacy: A Human Rights Violation By Renate Klein, Sheela Saravanan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

"I Was Not Sick And I Didn't Need To Recover": Methadone Maintenance Treatment (Mmt) As A Refuge From Criminalization, David Frank

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) has been undergoing a cultural and epistemological shift away from an approach that emphasized client stabilization and a reduction of social harms towards one grounded in values associated with the recovery movement. These changes include promoting a view of addiction grounded in the disease model as well as efforts to make abstinence and ancillary services such as recovery coaching/counseling, programs emphasizing proper citizenship, and concern for clients’ spirituality necessary parts of the program. As such, the increasing use of recovery as the dominant conceptual framework for MMT represents a change in how methadone, MMT, and those …

Original Parts: Aging And Reckoning With Cystic Fibrosis Related Kidney Disease, Alexandra Ch Nowakowski

Patient Experience Journal

Kidney disease increasingly impacts people with cystic fibrosis (CF) as adult patients continue to survive longer. Yet the literature on CF related kidney disease focuses little on amplifying the voices of people aging with the condition. This article presents perspectives on CF related kidney disease from a medical sociologist who is themselves managing these issues. It (1) gives an overview of relevant literature and trends in epidemiological data on kidney disease and CF, (2) details the author’s own process of adjusting to progressive changes in renal function, and (3) outlines opportunities for clinicians to make a positive impact for patients …

Where Trying To Conceive Becomes A Community Effort: A Digital Ethnography Of Online Infertility Forums, Megan Burns

Sociology Honors Papers

Online forums for women using in vitro fertilization (IVF), or similar assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), provide a useful setting to further evaluate and understand women’s expectations of motherhood, the relationship infertile women have with physicians and biomedicine, and their interactions on the forums. Some critics of ARTs consider them a tool of oppression in a pronatalist state. The pressure and desire to become a biological mother leads the women with access to these technologies to use them regardless. Through digital ethnographic research on four online ART forums, this research examines the intersection of altruism and self-interest in the ways forum-users …

The Impact Of Prosthetics On Amputee Quality Of Life, Courtney Tabor

Liberal Arts Capstones

After someone has a limb amputated, their lifestyle must be rearranged to accommodate for the loss of the limb. This can include adjusting to an inability to do tasks that used to come easily and a drastic reduction in mobility. They may now require assistance with caring for themselves. As a side effect, amputees often experience a significant level of depression and anxiety related to their situation. A selection of literature was analyzed for the physiological, psychological, and sociological effects of losing a limb, and then for the ways in which a prosthetic limb would alleviate some of these issues. …

The Opioid Epidemic In West Virginia, Nicholas Bowden, Rachel Merino, Sruthi Katamneni, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

The rate of overdose-related to the use of licit and illicit opioids has drastically increased over the last decade in the U.S. The epicenter being West Virginia the highest rates of overdoses accounting for 41.5 deaths for 100,000 people among the 33,091 deaths in 2015. The number of people injecting drugs has increased from 36% in 2005 to 54% in 2015. The total U.S cost of prescription opioid abuse in 2011 has been estimated at $25 billion, and criminal-justice-system costs to $5.1 billion. The reasons for this opioid epidemic incidence in WV have been a combination of sociocultural factors, a …