Plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, is enzootic among rodents in the western United States. Humans... more Plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, is enzootic among rodents in the western United States. Humans can be infected through 1) the bite of an infected flea carried by a rodent or, rarely, other animals, 2) direct contact with contaminated tissues, or 3) in rare cases, inhalation of respiratory secretions from infected persons or animals. In September 2010, the Oregon Health Authority reported the first two cases of human plague in Oregon since 1995 and the only two U.S. cases in 2010. Both illnesses began on August 21. The patients, aged 17 and 42 years, lived in the same household and might have been exposed to plague by infected fleas from one of their dogs; that dog was found to be seropositive for Y. pestis by the passive hemagglutination-inhibition assay (dilution of 1:64). One patient acknowledged sleeping in the same bed with the dog during the 2 weeks before illness onset. Both patients had
日本赤十字九州国際看護大学紀要 = Bulletin of the Japanese Red Cross Kyushu International College of Nursing = 日本赤十字九州国際看護大学紀要 = Bulletin of the Japanese Red Cross Kyushu International College of Nursing, Mar 31, 2021
The authors organized a lay health worker (LHW) outreach program with Vietnamese women that produ... more The authors organized a lay health worker (LHW) outreach program with Vietnamese women that produced significant increases in Pap testing. The program was conducted by five partner agencies and 50 LHWs and involved 1,005 women. This article reports on the roles of the agencies and coordinators, the selection of LHWs, the processes LHWs used in identifying and recruiting participants, the ways they conducted their outreach work, and their strategies for maintaining participation. The article also reports on the LHWs’ perspectives about how they benefited and what they found to be most rewarding and challenging about being a LHW. Based on the analysis of this information, the authors present a conceptual framework for understanding how different contextual factors shape the processes and capacity-building benefits of LHW outreach, describing four contextual domains that shape LHW outreach: the sociocultural domain and organizational domain, which overlap in the programmatic domain, all of which are framed by the structural domain. This analysis provides an approach for understanding how lay health work is shaped by a broader context.
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), 2022
In Indonesia, as in many low and middle-income countries, hypertension is a significant health is... more In Indonesia, as in many low and middle-income countries, hypertension is a significant health issue. Community health nurses need to identify those with early onset of hypertension by promoting frequent blood pressure (BP) checks, even among those with normal BP. Positive deviance approaches focus on identifying people who undertake uncommon preventive actions. Among middle-aged women in rural West Java, Indonesia, we aimed to identify covariates of the positive deviant practice of having one's BP checked at least once every three months even when having normal BP. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey recruiting participants at health centers. Our structured questionnaire measured socio-demographic characteristics, frequency of BP checks, BMI, beliefs and practices. We used binomial logistic regression to identify covariates. Among 520 participants, 265 had normal BP, and of those 156 had obtained frequent BP checks, making them positive deviants. For women with normal BP, significant covariates of obtaining frequent BP checks were: 1) having BMI ≥25.0 (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) =2.57, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.39-4.78), 2) greater tendency to seek health information (AOR=1.13, 95% CI=1.03-1.24), 3) receiving less support from family members (AOR=0.87, 95% CI=0.77-0.97), and 4) receiving greater support from health volunteers (AOR=1.12, 95% CI=1.01-1.23). Positive deviants were more likely to be proactive because of the convergence of their own individual-level tendencies to learn about their health, family-level conditions that allowed for greater autonomy, and community-level capacity of health volunteers to provide them with support. Community health nurses should focus simultaneously on activating individual-level, family-level, and community-level capacity to prevent hypertension.
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2005
Despite large communities living in informal zones around major cities in Syria, there is current... more Despite large communities living in informal zones around major cities in Syria, there is currently no information on the health and environmental situations in these areas. From May to August 2004, the Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies (SCTS) conducted the first household survey aiming to provide a baseline map of main health problems and exposures affecting these communities in Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria (2,500,000 inhabitants). Information on 1,021 participants randomly selected using stratified cluster sampling were available (46% males, mean age 34+/-11.7, age range 18-65 years, response rate 86%), including self-reported health/disability, exposures, and saliva cotinine measurement. Some positive findings include better than expected access to electricity, piped water, city sewage, and the use of propane for cooking. Particular areas of concern include high fertility rates, overcrowded housing conditions, and gender inequality in education and work. Household features likely to reflect negatively on residents' health include the use of diesel chimneys for heating and lack of smoking restrictions. Overall, residents of informal zones suffer from substantial physical and mental health problems and are exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution. All seem to affect women and the elderly disproportionately, while men are more affected by smoking, occupational respiratory exposures, and injuries. Both infectious and non-infectious respiratory outcomes were very common among study participants. Chronic and degenerative disease, including CVD and joint problems, were a source of substantial morbidity among the studied communities. This study highlights major health and environmental specificities of marginalized populations living in Aleppo, where women seem to bear a disproportionate burden of poor health and disability. Smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke seem among the major exposures facing these populations.
Despite global efforts to monitor, mitigate against, and prevent trash (mismanaged solid waste) p... more Despite global efforts to monitor, mitigate against, and prevent trash (mismanaged solid waste) pollution, no harmonized trash typology system has been widely adopted worldwide. This impedes the merging of datasets and comparative analyses. We addressed this problem by 1) assessing the state of trash typology and comparability, 2) developing a standardized and harmonized framework of relational tables and tools, and 3) informing practitioners about challenges and potential solutions. We analyzed 68 trash survey lists to assess similarities and differences in classification. We created comprehensive harmonized hierarchical tables and alias tables for item and material classes. On average, the 68 survey lists had 20.8% of item classes in common and 29.9% of material classes in common. Multiple correspondence analysis showed that the 68 surveys were not significantly different regarding organization type, ecosystem focus, or substrate focus. We built the Trash Taxonomy Tool (TTT) web-b...
Vietnamese-American women who regu-larly see Vietnamese-American physicians are less likely to ob... more Vietnamese-American women who regu-larly see Vietnamese-American physicians are less likely to obtain Pap tests, perhaps because of the physicians ' limited training in preventive medicine and the women's discomfort receiv-ing Pap tests from male physicians. To address this problem, during 2001±
Background: In 2016, the World Health Organization recommended salt reduction strategies. In most... more Background: In 2016, the World Health Organization recommended salt reduction strategies. In most low- and middle-income countries, little is known about what causes people to reduce their salt intake. Aim: In rural West Java, Indonesia, we conducted a cross-sectional survey to describe self-reported salt reduction practices among middle-aged Muslims with hypertension (n = 447) and to identify correlates of salt reduction. Methods: We developed a questionnaire with Likert scales to measure self-reported frequency of efforts to reduce salt intake, and degree of agreement/disagreement with 51 statements about variables hypothesized to influence salt reduction practices. We compared groups using t-tests and one-way ANOVAs. Through one-factor confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, we identified correlates of salt reduction practices. Results: About 45% of participants reported regularly reducing their salt intake; only 12.8% reported never attempting. Men reporte...
Asian American and Pacific Islander journal of health, 2003
OBJECTIVES In this paper, we assess the state of scientific study of cancer among Thais, one of t... more OBJECTIVES In this paper, we assess the state of scientific study of cancer among Thais, one of the most underserved AAPI populations. METHODS We reviewed published literature and a database of Federally-funded research in the United States. RESULTS We found virtually no cancer-related research on the Thai population in the U.S. A review of the international literature, including studies conducted in Thailand, shows that Thais are at significant risk for developing lung, liver, colorectal, breast, and cervical cancers. CONCLUSIONS Given the sizable Thai population in the U.S. and the high likelihood that this population has been suffering from cancer, we recommend that Thais be classified separately in cancer registries and that they receive culturally meaningful outreach and support.
While the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health are widely known, a less recognized impact... more While the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health are widely known, a less recognized impact of tobacco product use and disposal is environmental pollution. This review discusses the current literature related to cigarette and e-cigarette contamination in the context of environmental sources and impacts, with a focus on the documented influences on biota, ranging from bacteria to mammals. Cigarette butts and electronic cigarette components can leach contaminants into soil, water, and air. Cellulose acetate cigarette filters comprising the butts are minimally degradable and are a source of bulk plastic and microplastic pollution, especially in aquatic ecosystems where they tend to accumulate. Cigarette combustion and aerosol production during e-cigarette use result in air contamination from sidestream, exhaled, and thirdhand pathways. The chemical byproducts of tobacco product use contaminate wastewater effluents, landfill leachates, and urban storm drains. The widespread detect...
Plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, is enzootic among rodents in the western United States. Humans... more Plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, is enzootic among rodents in the western United States. Humans can be infected through 1) the bite of an infected flea carried by a rodent or, rarely, other animals, 2) direct contact with contaminated tissues, or 3) in rare cases, inhalation of respiratory secretions from infected persons or animals. In September 2010, the Oregon Health Authority reported the first two cases of human plague in Oregon since 1995 and the only two U.S. cases in 2010. Both illnesses began on August 21. The patients, aged 17 and 42 years, lived in the same household and might have been exposed to plague by infected fleas from one of their dogs; that dog was found to be seropositive for Y. pestis by the passive hemagglutination-inhibition assay (dilution of 1:64). One patient acknowledged sleeping in the same bed with the dog during the 2 weeks before illness onset. Both patients had
日本赤十字九州国際看護大学紀要 = Bulletin of the Japanese Red Cross Kyushu International College of Nursing = 日本赤十字九州国際看護大学紀要 = Bulletin of the Japanese Red Cross Kyushu International College of Nursing, Mar 31, 2021
The authors organized a lay health worker (LHW) outreach program with Vietnamese women that produ... more The authors organized a lay health worker (LHW) outreach program with Vietnamese women that produced significant increases in Pap testing. The program was conducted by five partner agencies and 50 LHWs and involved 1,005 women. This article reports on the roles of the agencies and coordinators, the selection of LHWs, the processes LHWs used in identifying and recruiting participants, the ways they conducted their outreach work, and their strategies for maintaining participation. The article also reports on the LHWs’ perspectives about how they benefited and what they found to be most rewarding and challenging about being a LHW. Based on the analysis of this information, the authors present a conceptual framework for understanding how different contextual factors shape the processes and capacity-building benefits of LHW outreach, describing four contextual domains that shape LHW outreach: the sociocultural domain and organizational domain, which overlap in the programmatic domain, all of which are framed by the structural domain. This analysis provides an approach for understanding how lay health work is shaped by a broader context.
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), 2022
In Indonesia, as in many low and middle-income countries, hypertension is a significant health is... more In Indonesia, as in many low and middle-income countries, hypertension is a significant health issue. Community health nurses need to identify those with early onset of hypertension by promoting frequent blood pressure (BP) checks, even among those with normal BP. Positive deviance approaches focus on identifying people who undertake uncommon preventive actions. Among middle-aged women in rural West Java, Indonesia, we aimed to identify covariates of the positive deviant practice of having one's BP checked at least once every three months even when having normal BP. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey recruiting participants at health centers. Our structured questionnaire measured socio-demographic characteristics, frequency of BP checks, BMI, beliefs and practices. We used binomial logistic regression to identify covariates. Among 520 participants, 265 had normal BP, and of those 156 had obtained frequent BP checks, making them positive deviants. For women with normal BP, significant covariates of obtaining frequent BP checks were: 1) having BMI ≥25.0 (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) =2.57, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.39-4.78), 2) greater tendency to seek health information (AOR=1.13, 95% CI=1.03-1.24), 3) receiving less support from family members (AOR=0.87, 95% CI=0.77-0.97), and 4) receiving greater support from health volunteers (AOR=1.12, 95% CI=1.01-1.23). Positive deviants were more likely to be proactive because of the convergence of their own individual-level tendencies to learn about their health, family-level conditions that allowed for greater autonomy, and community-level capacity of health volunteers to provide them with support. Community health nurses should focus simultaneously on activating individual-level, family-level, and community-level capacity to prevent hypertension.
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2005
Despite large communities living in informal zones around major cities in Syria, there is current... more Despite large communities living in informal zones around major cities in Syria, there is currently no information on the health and environmental situations in these areas. From May to August 2004, the Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies (SCTS) conducted the first household survey aiming to provide a baseline map of main health problems and exposures affecting these communities in Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria (2,500,000 inhabitants). Information on 1,021 participants randomly selected using stratified cluster sampling were available (46% males, mean age 34+/-11.7, age range 18-65 years, response rate 86%), including self-reported health/disability, exposures, and saliva cotinine measurement. Some positive findings include better than expected access to electricity, piped water, city sewage, and the use of propane for cooking. Particular areas of concern include high fertility rates, overcrowded housing conditions, and gender inequality in education and work. Household features likely to reflect negatively on residents' health include the use of diesel chimneys for heating and lack of smoking restrictions. Overall, residents of informal zones suffer from substantial physical and mental health problems and are exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution. All seem to affect women and the elderly disproportionately, while men are more affected by smoking, occupational respiratory exposures, and injuries. Both infectious and non-infectious respiratory outcomes were very common among study participants. Chronic and degenerative disease, including CVD and joint problems, were a source of substantial morbidity among the studied communities. This study highlights major health and environmental specificities of marginalized populations living in Aleppo, where women seem to bear a disproportionate burden of poor health and disability. Smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke seem among the major exposures facing these populations.
Despite global efforts to monitor, mitigate against, and prevent trash (mismanaged solid waste) p... more Despite global efforts to monitor, mitigate against, and prevent trash (mismanaged solid waste) pollution, no harmonized trash typology system has been widely adopted worldwide. This impedes the merging of datasets and comparative analyses. We addressed this problem by 1) assessing the state of trash typology and comparability, 2) developing a standardized and harmonized framework of relational tables and tools, and 3) informing practitioners about challenges and potential solutions. We analyzed 68 trash survey lists to assess similarities and differences in classification. We created comprehensive harmonized hierarchical tables and alias tables for item and material classes. On average, the 68 survey lists had 20.8% of item classes in common and 29.9% of material classes in common. Multiple correspondence analysis showed that the 68 surveys were not significantly different regarding organization type, ecosystem focus, or substrate focus. We built the Trash Taxonomy Tool (TTT) web-b...
Vietnamese-American women who regu-larly see Vietnamese-American physicians are less likely to ob... more Vietnamese-American women who regu-larly see Vietnamese-American physicians are less likely to obtain Pap tests, perhaps because of the physicians ' limited training in preventive medicine and the women's discomfort receiv-ing Pap tests from male physicians. To address this problem, during 2001±
Background: In 2016, the World Health Organization recommended salt reduction strategies. In most... more Background: In 2016, the World Health Organization recommended salt reduction strategies. In most low- and middle-income countries, little is known about what causes people to reduce their salt intake. Aim: In rural West Java, Indonesia, we conducted a cross-sectional survey to describe self-reported salt reduction practices among middle-aged Muslims with hypertension (n = 447) and to identify correlates of salt reduction. Methods: We developed a questionnaire with Likert scales to measure self-reported frequency of efforts to reduce salt intake, and degree of agreement/disagreement with 51 statements about variables hypothesized to influence salt reduction practices. We compared groups using t-tests and one-way ANOVAs. Through one-factor confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, we identified correlates of salt reduction practices. Results: About 45% of participants reported regularly reducing their salt intake; only 12.8% reported never attempting. Men reporte...
Asian American and Pacific Islander journal of health, 2003
OBJECTIVES In this paper, we assess the state of scientific study of cancer among Thais, one of t... more OBJECTIVES In this paper, we assess the state of scientific study of cancer among Thais, one of the most underserved AAPI populations. METHODS We reviewed published literature and a database of Federally-funded research in the United States. RESULTS We found virtually no cancer-related research on the Thai population in the U.S. A review of the international literature, including studies conducted in Thailand, shows that Thais are at significant risk for developing lung, liver, colorectal, breast, and cervical cancers. CONCLUSIONS Given the sizable Thai population in the U.S. and the high likelihood that this population has been suffering from cancer, we recommend that Thais be classified separately in cancer registries and that they receive culturally meaningful outreach and support.
While the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health are widely known, a less recognized impact... more While the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health are widely known, a less recognized impact of tobacco product use and disposal is environmental pollution. This review discusses the current literature related to cigarette and e-cigarette contamination in the context of environmental sources and impacts, with a focus on the documented influences on biota, ranging from bacteria to mammals. Cigarette butts and electronic cigarette components can leach contaminants into soil, water, and air. Cellulose acetate cigarette filters comprising the butts are minimally degradable and are a source of bulk plastic and microplastic pollution, especially in aquatic ecosystems where they tend to accumulate. Cigarette combustion and aerosol production during e-cigarette use result in air contamination from sidestream, exhaled, and thirdhand pathways. The chemical byproducts of tobacco product use contaminate wastewater effluents, landfill leachates, and urban storm drains. The widespread detect...
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