Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Covid-19 Experiences, Behaviors, Beliefs, And Well-Being Among Students And Employees At A University In Rural Appalachia: A Cross-Sectional Study, Lauren Wisnieski, Kimberly A. Carney, Jenny L. Thornley

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: In response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, most universities experienced drastic operational changes with shifts to online learning, work-from-home policies, and social distancing measures. These changes have caused concern for social isolation and mental health.

Purpose: This cross-sectional study explores differences in COVID-19 experiences, behaviors, beliefs, and well-being among students and employees (faculty and staff) at a rural Appalachian university.

Methods: Data were collected with an online anonymous survey in September-October 2020 using convenience sampling. The survey measured multiple domains including COVID-19-related 1) beliefs, 2) symptoms and diagnoses, 3) exposure and preventive behavior, and 4) social, mental, and …

Comparisons Of Cooking, Dietary, And Food Safety Characteristics Of Food Secure And Food Insecure Sophomores At A University In Appalachia, Hannah Boone, Melissa D. Gutschall, Alisha Farris, Kimberly Fasczewski, Don Holbert, Laura Mcarthur

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Food insecurity means lacking access to adequate, nutritious, and safe food. Collegiate food insecurity rates at ten Appalachian campuses range from 22.4% to 51.8%, and have been associated with unfavorable health and academic outcomes.

Purpose: This study compared cooking, dietary, and food safety characteristics of food secure (FS) and food insecure (FI) sophomores at a university in Appalachia in the context of the USDA definition of food security.

Methods: Data were collected using an online questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential procedures compared FS and FI sophomores (p < 0.05).

Results: Participants (n = 226) were 65.0% females, 76.1% …

Access To And Use Of Technology For Health: Comparisons Between Appalachian Kentuckians And The General U.S. Population, Robin C. Vanderpool, Lindsay R. Stradtman, Anna Gaysynsky, Quan Chen, Meghan Johnson, Bin Huang

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Technology may increase the availability of health information and enable health promoting behaviors. However, lack of access to and use of technology may also exacerbate disparities, particularly in rural communities with limited Internet access.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare Internet access, device ownership, and use of technology for health between Appalachian Kentuckians and the general U.S. population.
Methods: Findings from the 2017 Assessing the Health Status of Kentucky (ASK) survey were compared to national estimates from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5, Cycle 1 (2017), with a particular focus on degree of rurality. …

Risk Factors Associated With Passenger Vehicle Fatal Rollover Crashes In West Virginia, 2001-2018, Yuni Tang, Toni Marie Rudisill, Ruchi Bhandari

Journal of Appalachian Health

Background: Rollover crashes cause more injuries and fatalities than other types of motor vehicle crashes. West Virginia (WV) has high rates of drug overdose deaths and motor vehicle crash fatality. However, no studies have investigated risk factors associated with fatal rollover crashes in WV.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to evaluate whether drug use and other risk factors are associated with fatal rollover crash fatalities in WV.

Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized the Fatality Analysis Reporting System dataset from passenger vehicle crashes involving WV drivers ≥ 16 years of age with known drug test results who died within …

Perceived Hearing Loss And Availability Of Audiologists In Appalachia, Charles B. Pudrith, Ellyn Grider, Blythe Kitner

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: There is a high demand for audiologists throughout the United States. Previous research has supported an additional demand for these providers within Appalachia.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine if Appalachia has a disproportionally high demand for audiologists compared to the rest of the United States.

Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective study was performed with population data from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the American Academy of Audiology, and the United States Census Bureau. County-level population-weighted averages of individuals with perceived hearing loss and number of audiologists per capita were compared between Appalachian and non-Appalachian counties. …

Recent Advances In Wearable Sensing Technologies, Alfredo J. Perez, Sherali Zeadally

Information Science Faculty Publications

Wearable sensing technologies are having a worldwide impact on the creation of novel business opportunities and application services that are benefiting the common citizen. By using these technologies, people have transformed the way they live, interact with each other and their surroundings, their daily routines, and how they monitor their health conditions. We review recent advances in the area of wearable sensing technologies, focusing on aspects such as sensor technologies, communication infrastructures, service infrastructures, security, and privacy. We also review the use of consumer wearables during the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus …

Refining Your Results With Alma Analytics, Julene L. Jones, Mary Ellen Willemsen

Library Presentations

Analyzing your data is important for all aspects of efficient library operations. We will be sharing some ideas to help you effectively gather and analyze your data using Alma Analytics. After our presentation, you will know how and why to create bins, and how to save a filter for reuse in another analysis. We will also be sharing a couple of useful yet complicated formulas that are not included in Alma documentation.

Business Models For Post-Crisis Information Ecosystems, Antje Mays

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Since early 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted activity across business, education, research, and communities. Public health safety precautions have forced drastic reductions in economic and educational activity, resulting in widespread economic uncertainty and sizeable budget cuts. With library budgets already declining since the 2001-2002 recession following the dotcom crash and more steeply since the 2007-2009 Great Recession spawned by the financial crash, the pandemic has accelerated trends that were already underway. Libraries’ reduced purchasing power places the information ecosystem at risk of contraction in the race to contain costs. While economic contexts and publishing forms have changed considerably. …

"Minor Setback, Major Comeback": A Multilevel Approach To The Development Of Academic Resilience, Brandi Frisby, Jessalyn I. Vallade

Information Science Faculty Publications

This study examined communicative processes at multiple levels that may influence students’ academic resilience through transitions. Participant interviews (N = 23) revealed that at the individual level, students develop a resilient mindset and effective academic strategies, engage in self-care, and compartmentalize. At the relational level, students rely on teachers to demonstrate positive teaching behaviors, receive academic and emotional support from a variety of sources, and find role models to inspire resilience. Finally, students reported that the campus community gave opportunities to build support networks and access campus resources, but identified threats to effective use of these resilience-building opportunities. Finally, …

Maximizing Good: An Inquiry-Based Approach To Minimal Description For Online Archives, Sarah Dorpinghaus, Cory Lampert, Rebecca Pattillo, Kyna Herzinger

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Minimal descriptive practices have been embraced by archives over the past fifteen years for their efficiency and practicality. This paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of minimal description within the context of digitized collections and evaluates them against the assumptions made by cultural heritage professionals. It considers whether minimal description provides digitized collections with sufficient metadata to meet MPLP’s user-centered goals of improving access, sufficient context to ensure collections are understandable within their digital environments, and sufficient framework to facilitate data exchange across systems, all while considering MPLP within archival ecosystems that impact labor and resource allocation. The authors offer …

“We Just Need The Developer To Develop”: Entrepreneurialism, Financialization And Urban Redevelopment In Lexington, Kentucky, Kevin Ward, Andrew Wood

Geography Faculty Publications

Since the 1980s US city governments have increased their use of more speculative means of financing economic redevelopment. This has involved experimenting with a variety of financial and taxation instruments as a way of growing their economies and redeveloping their built environments. This very general tendency, of course, masks how some cities have done well through the use of these instruments while others have not. The work to date has tended to pivot around a “winner-loser dichotomy”, which emphasises either the capacity of US cities to be able to experiment and speculate through the use of one financial instrument or …

Smartphone Use And Psychological Well-Being Among College Students In China: A Qualitative Assessment, Cheng Dai, Zixue Tai, Shan Ni

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

Background: Problematic smartphone use is widespread, and college-age youth faces an especially high risk of its associated consequences. While a promising body of research has emerged in recent years in this area, the domination of quantitative inquiries can be fruitfully and conceptually complemented by perspectives informed through qualitative research. Toward that end, this study aimed to interrogate the myriad behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological tendencies as a side effect of college students’ engagement with the smartphone in their everyday lived experience through in-depth interviews.

Methods: We recruited 70 participants from seven college campuses hailing from different geographic regions in China, and …

Improving The Methodology For Identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment In Intellectually High-Functioning Adults Using The Nih Toolbox Cognition Battery, Grant L. Iverson, Justin E. Karr

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: Low scores on neuropsychological tests are considered objective evidence of mild cognitive impairment. In clinical practice and research, it can be challenging to identify a cognitive deficit or mild cognitive impairment in high-functioning people because they are much less likely to obtain low test scores. This study was designed to improve the methodology for identifying mild cognitive impairment in adults who have above average or superior intellectual abilities.

Method: Participants completed the National Institutes of Health Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB). The sample included 384 adults between the ages of 20 and …

On Estimating Personality Traits Of Us Supreme Court Justices, Ryan C. Black, Ryan J. Owens, Justin Wedeking, Patrick C. Wohlfarth

Political Science Faculty Publications

Psychological scholarship on personality is uniting with political science to redefine existing theories. This is clearly the case with research on judicial behavior and the US Supreme Court. But if this new approach is to survive and thrive, it must employ measures equal to the task. We show that Supreme Court Individual Personality Estimates, which seek to estimate justices’ personalities by examining their concurring opinions, suffer from a number of important methodological deficits that critically limit their usefulness. We briefly discuss what kinds of improved personality measures scholars should use instead and offer an improved set of estimates for one …

The Value Of Values-Based Supply Chains: Farmer Perspective, Hikaru Hanawa Peterson, Gail Feenstra, Marcia Ostrom, Keiko Tanaka, Christy Anderson Brekken, Gwenael Engelskirchen

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

In the last few decades, the emergence of mid-scale, intermediated marketing channels that fall between commodity and direct markets has attracted growing interest from scholars for their potential to preserve small and mid-sized farms while scaling up alternative agrifood sourcing. When such mid-scale supply chains are formed among multiple business partners with shared ethics or values related to the qualities of the food and the business relationships along the supply chain, they may be termed "values-based supply chains (VBSCs)." Most of the research on VBSCs to date has relied primarily on a case study approach that investigates the performance of …

Do Americans Perceive Diverse Judges As Inherently Biased, Yoshikuni Ono, Michael A. Zilis

Political Science Faculty Publications

Although women and minorities hold an increasing share of judgships in the United States, they remain underrepresented. We explore Americans’ perceptions of the bias of women and minority judges – one of the possible challenges to creating a diverse bench. We argue that prejudice against these groups manifests in a subtle way, in the belief that diverse judges cannot fairly adjudicate controversies that involve their ingroup. To test our theory, we use a list experiment specifically developed to minimize social desirability effects. We find that many respondents rate female and Hispanic judges to be biased decision makers. Our results highlight …

Effect Sizes And Intra-Cluster Correlation Coefficients Measured From The Green Dot High School Study For Guiding Sample Size Calculations When Designing Future Violence Prevention Cluster Randomized Trials In School Settings, Md. Tofial Azam, Heather M. Bush, Ann L. Coker, Philip M. Westgate

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Purpose: Cluster randomized controlled trials (cRCTs) are popular in school-based research designs where schools are randomized to different trial arms. To help guide future study planning, we provide information on anticipated effect sizes and intra-cluster correlation coefficients (ICCs), as well as school sizes, for dating violence (DV) and interpersonal violence outcomes based on data from a cRCT which evaluated the bystander-based violence intervention ‘Green Dot’.

Methods: We utilized data from 25 schools from the Green Dot High School study. Effect size and ICC values corresponding to dating and interpersonal violence outcomes are obtained from linear mixed effect models. We …

Driving Habits, Cognition, And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Middle-Aged And Older Adults With Hiv, Josiah J. Robinson, Tess Walker, Cierra Hopkins, Brittany Bradley, Peggy Mckie, Jennifer S. Frank, Caitlin N. Pope, Pariya L. Fazeli, David E. Vance

Graduate Center for Gerontology Faculty Publications

Cognitive impairment is known to increase with aging in people living with HIV (PLWH). Impairment in cognitive domains required for safe driving may put PLWH at risk for poor driving outcomes, decreased mobility, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study described the driving behaviors of middle-aged and older PLWH and examined correlations between driving behaviors and cognitive functioning (Aim 1), and driving behaviors and HRQoL domains (Aim 2). A sample of 260 PLWH ages 40 and older completed a comprehensive assessment including a battery of cognitive tests, an HRQoL measure, and a measure of self-reported driving habits. Associations between …

Sustaining Cross-Departmental Programmatic Change For Reparative Description At The University Of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center, Megan M. Mummey

Library Presentations

No abstract provided.

Intended And Unintended Effects Of E-Cigarette Taxes On Youth Tobacco Use, Rahi Abouk, Charles J. Courtemanche, Dhaval Dave, Bo Feng, Abigail S. Friedman, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Michael F. Pesko, Joseph J. Sabia, Samuel Safford

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

Over the past decade, rising youth use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has prompted aggressive regulation by state and local governments. Between 2010 and 2019, ten states and two large counties adopted ENDS taxes. Applying a continuous treatment difference-in-differences approach to data from two large national datasets (Monitoring the Future and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System), this study explores the impact of ENDS taxes on youth tobacco use. We find that ENDS taxes reduce youth e-cigarette consumption, with estimated e-cigarette tax elasticities of -0.06 to -0.21. However, we estimate sizable positive cigarette cross-tax elasticities, suggesting …

How Students And Principals Understand Classdojo: Emerging Insights, Daniela Kruel Digiacomo, Spencer P. Greenhalgh, Sarah C. Barriage

Information Science Faculty Publications

ClassDojo is a classroom communication and behavior management app intended to “bring every family into [the] classroom” (www.classdojo.com). The features of the platform include a points system to facilitate classroom management, instant teacher-parent communication (on the individual or class level), and student portfolios (among others). While ClassDojo claims to be used in over 95% of schools in the United States, there is little known about how students or principals interact with and understand the platform’s features and data. Drawing upon a mixed-methods study in a small state in the Southeastern United States, this article offers empirically driven insight …

Review Of: Appalachians For Medicaid Website, Kendra Barker Dnp

Journal of Appalachian Health

The Journal of Appalachian Health is committed to reviewing published media that relates to contemporary concepts affecting the health of Appalachia. Access to care and the health disparities we face have a direct effect on our experience of illness. Dr. Kendra Barker reviews the website: Appalachians for Medicaid.

Geospatial Analysis Of Rurality And Food Banks In Appalachian Ohio, Cooper T. Johnson, Rebecca Fischbein, Kristin Baughman

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Food insecurity is a problem for individuals across Ohio, including those living in Appalachia. Adequate access to resources that help combat food insecurity is important for these populations.

Purpose: To examine how rurality relates to food insecurity and need for food resources, as well as availability of those resources including food pantries and soup kitchens, in 15 northern Ohio Appalachian counties.

Methods: A cross-sectional study with a geographical analysis was conducted using data from the American Community Survey census data, County Health Rankings data, and regional foodbank websites.

Results: Rural counties had a higher ratio of potential clients per …

Triple Negative Breast Cancer In An Appalachian Region: Exponential Tumor Grade Increase With Age Of Diagnosis, Gina Sizemore, Toni Marie Rudisill

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive breast cancer with decreased five-year survival, increased risk for recurrence, and higher risk for metastases. Unlike other breast cancers, it has no targeted treatment and has heterogeneous genetics which make classification and treatment difficult.

Purpose: The purpose of our research was to compare triple negative breast cancer to non-triple negative breast cancer to identify key epidemiologic factors that might lead to improved basic science directives for biomarkers, treatments, and classification.

Methods: The state cancer registry was used to provide the first West Virginia state-wide population evaluation of triple negative breast cancer.

Results: …

Addressing Diabetes Distress In Self-Management Programs: Results Of A Randomized Feasibility Study, Ranjita Misra, Samantha Shawley-Brzoska, Raihan Khan, Brenna O. Kirk, Sijin Wen, Usha Sambamoorthi

Journal of Appalachian Health

Background: West Virginia ranks 1st nationally in the prevalence of hypertension (HTN; 43.8%) and diabetes (16.2%). Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are distressed over physical and psychological burden of disease self-management.

Methods: This study investigated the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce diabetes distress and outcomes [glycemic control, blood pressure (BP)] among T2DM adults with comorbid HTN. Participants were randomized to a 12-week diabetes and hypertension self-management program versus a 3-month wait-listed control group. Trained health coaches and experts implemented the lifestyle program in a faith-based setting using an adapted evidence-based curriculum. Twenty adults with T2DM and HTN …

Establishing Peer Recovery Support Services To Address The Central Appalachian Opioid Epidemic: The West Virginia Peers Enhancing Education, Recovery, And Survival (Wv Peers) Pilot Program, Stephen M. Davis, Amanda Stover, Herb Linn, Jon Dower, Dan Mccawley, Erin Winstanley, Judith Feinberg

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Central Appalachia has been disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic and overdose fatalities. We developed West Virginia Peers Enhancing Education, Recovery, and Survival (WV PEERS), a program based on peer recovery support, to engage individuals using opioids and link them with a range of services.

Methods: Community partners providing services to individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) were identified and collaborations were formalized using a standardized memorandum of understanding. The program was structured to offer ongoing peer recovery support specialist (PRSS) services, not just a one-time referral. A website and cards describing the WV PEERS program were developed and …

Rural Re-Entry And Opioid Use: Identifying Health-Related Predictors Of Relapse Among Formerly Incarcerated Women In Appalachia, Joseph M. Calvert, Megan F. Dickson, Martha Tillson, Erika Pike, Michele Staton

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Despite improved knowledge of the health care needs of formerly incarcerated women, there exists a gap regarding the relationship between health, health care access, and relapse among rural women returning to the community during the opioid epidemic.

Purpose: With an emphasis on health care access, this study examined health-related factors associated with opioid relapse among women reentering the community in rural Appalachia.

Methods: As part of a larger study, 400 rural women reporting a history of substance use were recruited from three Appalachian jails in Kentucky. Analyses focused on participants reporting a history of illicit opioid use prior to …

Emergence Of Covid-19 And Patterns Of Early Transmission In An Appalachian Sub-Region, Abbey K. Mann, Timothy A. Joyner, Ingrid E. Luffman, Megan Quinn, William Tollefson, Ashley Frazier

Journal of Appalachian Health

Background: In mid-March 2020, very few cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in the Central Blue Ridge Region, an area in Appalachia that includes 47 jurisdictions across northeast Tennessee, western North Carolina, and southwest Virginia. Authors described the emergence of cases and outbreaks in the region between March 18 and June 11, 2020.

Methods: Data were collected from the health department websites of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia beginning in mid-March for an ongoing set of COVID-19 monitoring projects, including a newsletter for local healthcare providers and a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) dashboard. In Fall 2020, using these databases, authors …

Math Predictors Of Numeric Health And Non-Health Decision-Making Problems, Clarissa A. Thompson, Jennifer M. Taber, Charles J. Fitzsimmons, Pooja G. Sidney

Psychology Faculty Publications

People frequently encounter numeric information in medical and health contexts. In this paper, we investigated the math factors that are associated with decision-making accuracy in health and non-health contexts. This is an important endeavor given that there is relatively little cross-talk between math cognition researchers and those studying health decision making. Ninety adults (M = 37 years; 86% White; 51% male) answered hypothetical health decision-making problems, and 93 adults (M = 36 years; 75% White; 42% males) answered a non-health decision-making problem. All participants were recruited from an online panel. Each participant completed a battery of tasks involving objective math …

Longitudinal Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) Acceptability, Initiation And Adherence Among Criminal Justice-Involved Adults In The Usa: The Southern Prep Cohort Study (Specs) Protocol, Katherine Lemasters, Carrie B. Oser, Mariah Cowell, Katie Mollan, Kathryn Nowotny, Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein

Sociology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: HIV prevalence among criminal justice (CJ)-involved adults is five times higher than the general population. Following incarceration, CJ-involved individuals experience multilevel barriers to HIV prevention. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a widely available, daily medication efficacious in preventing HIV. Little is known about PrEP knowledge, acceptability, initiation and sustained use among CJ-involved persons or about how these outcomes vary by multilevel factors. The Southern Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Study (SPECS) will investigate barriers and facilitators for PrEP initiation and sustained use among CJ-involved adults, building a foundation for PrEP interventions for this underserved population.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: SPECS uses a mixed-methods sequential …