Browsing by Subject "predictors"
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Item Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action to Female Adolescent Sexual Behavior(2000-05-01) Gilbert-Cronen, Vanessa S.; Rene, Antonio; Goldfarb, Ronald H.; Urrutia-Rojas, XimenaGilbert-Cronen, Vanessa S., Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action to Female Adolescent Sexual Behavior. Doctor of Philosophy (Biomedical Sciences), May, 2000, 143pp., 25 tables, 8 illustrations, references, 170 titles. Objectives. This study evaluated the Theory of Reasoned Actions for its effectiveness in the prediction of the sexual intercourse intentions of a group of female high school adolescents. An expanded model which included a self-esteem measure was also assessed for its contribution to the model. Additionally, six-month follow up data was used to determine whether sexual intercourse intention predicted reported sexual behavior at follow-up. Methods. Data from the National Urban Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program (NUAPPP), a longitudinal study conducted in 1997 and 1998 was used for this study. Tenth grade adolescent high school females (n=235) from two sites in Texas were selected to conduct a partial test of the Theory of Reasoned Action. The TRA model constructs attitudes and subjective norm were operationalized so that beliefs about sexual intercourse, attitudes towards pregnancy, perceived sexual beliefs about friends and parental communication beliefs were evaluated for their individual and combined effectiveness in the prediction of sexual intercourse intention. Results. Logistic analysis of individual model components showed significant associations between sexual beliefs (OR=5.75; 95% CI = 2.75, 11.98), pregnancy attitudes (OR=3.14; 95% CI=1.53, 6.44) perceived friend’s beliefs (OR=3.97; 95% CI = 1.57, 10.04) and sexual intercourse intention. When combined as a model, only sexual beliefs remained a significant predictor of intention (OR=4.02; 95% CI=1.79, 9.04). Evaluation of external variables showed past behavior to be a significant predictor of sexual intercourse intention (OR=32.59; 95% CI=12.56, 84.53). Conclusions. This study found the Theory of Reasoned Action to be inadequate in the prediction of adolescent female sexual intercourse intentions. The facts that individual constructs were significant predictors indicates a need for further research to understand the relationships between attitudes, beliefs, intention and behavior.Item Associations Between Socioeconomic Statuses and Behavioral Risk Factors and Self-Reported Health Status(2005-05-01) Wu, Gang; Daisha Cipher; Shande Chen; Sejong BaeWu, Gang, Association Between Socioeconomic Statuses and Behavioral Risk Factors and Self-Reported Health Status. Master of Public Health (Biostatistics), May 2005, 70pp., 5 figures, 4 tables, references, 58 titles. Socioeconomic statuses (SES) and behavioral risk factors determine more than 70% of overall health outcome of American population. The effects of SES and behavioral risk factors on self-reported health status (SRHS) were studied using binary logistic regression models. Age group, education level, ethnicity, physical activities, cholesterol intake, smoking status, and drinking status were identified as significant predictors (p [less than] 0.05) to SRHS based on overall model. Significant predictors for each ethnic group varied based on the same model separated by ethnicity: White (insurance coverage, physical activities, smoking status, and drinking status), Black (gender, vegetable intake, and Hispanic (cholesterol intake). Ethnic disparities in SES and behavioral risk factors were discussed. The findings may have potential importance in public health intervention.Item Do Social Factors Influence the Severity of Diabetes among Hispanics in Fort Worth?: A Cross-Sectional Study(2004-05-01) Moayad, Neda Zandi; Hector Balcazar; Manuel Bayona; Sue LurieNeda Zandi Moayad, Do social factors influence the severity of Diabetes among Hispanics in Fort Worth? A cross-sectional study. Doctor of Public Health, May 2004, 91 pp., 5 tables, bibliography, 99 titles. The Latino population is the fastest growing ethnic group in Texas, representing more than 35% of the total population. There is evidence that diabetes among Latinos has increased considerably in recent years. The prevalence of type II diabetes in Latinos ages 45-74 is three times higher than in the non-Latino whites of the same age group. The goal of this research was to assess the importance of selected potential prognostic factors to severe type II diabetes in Latino patients. Among other findings, the results of this study show that family history of diabetes, place of birth and having spent childhood in Mexico, preferring Spanish as the spoken language, having been educated in Mexico, receiving food stamps, smoking, being overweight and obsess, acculturation and low family cohesiveness were associated with severe diabetes. These findings indicate that level of family cohesiveness and acculturation and other variables might be predictors of diabetes severity.Item Hooper Visual Organization Test (VOT) as a Predictor of Driving Status of Individuals with Dementia(2004-04-01) Budd, Margaret Anne; Doug A. Main; Susan FranksHooper Visual Organization Test (VOT) (Hooper, 1983) items were correlated with driving status of geriatric individuals with dementia to help screen for high-risk drivers. A retrospective review of 87 medical chart on patients, 60-91 years, who underwent a neurocognitive evaluation at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas, with a complete VOT, driving status, dementia diagnosis, and demographic descriptors (age, gender, marital status) were selected for analysis. Of the 55.2% participants who reported a current driving status, VOT scores ranged: 20.8% normal, 43.8% mildly impaired, 31.3% moderately impaired, and 4.2% severely impaired. An item analysis was followed by direct logistic regression analysis which correctly predicted 85% of the drivers and 74% of the nondrivers with an overall success rate of 80.5% (p=.001). The Wald criterion selected 4 VOT items as reliably predicting driving status: items 6 (hammer), 19 (teapot/pitcher), 22 (mouse), and 25 (block). Models run with gender and/or marital status was not reliably different. These 4 items may add to a brief screening test to identify drivers with dementia potentially at risk. In addition, the large number of current drivers scoring in the impaired range suggests that individuals, their families and others are not intervening with driving behavior, possibly placing the individuals and public at risk.Item Leading Predictors of COVID-19-Related Poor Mental Health in Adult Asian Indians: An Application of Extreme Gradient Boosting and Shapley Additive Explanations(MDPI, 2023-01-09) Ikram, Mohammad; Shaikh, Nazneen F.; Vishwanatha, Jamboor K.; Sambamoorthi, UshaDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in poor mental health among Asian Indians was observed in the United States. However, the leading predictors of poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Asian Indians remained unknown. A cross-sectional online survey was administered to self-identified Asian Indians aged 18 and older (N = 289). Survey collected information on demographic and socio-economic characteristics and the COVID-19 burden. Two novel machine learning techniques-eXtreme Gradient Boosting and Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were used to identify the leading predictors and explain their associations with poor mental health. A majority of the study participants were female (65.1%), below 50 years of age (73.3%), and had income >/= $75,000 (81.0%). The six leading predictors of poor mental health among Asian Indians were sleep disturbance, age, general health, income, wearing a mask, and self-reported discrimination. SHAP plots indicated that higher age, wearing a mask, and maintaining social distancing all the time were negatively associated with poor mental health while having sleep disturbance and imputed income levels were positively associated with poor mental health. The model performance metrics indicated high accuracy (0.77), precision (0.78), F1 score (0.77), recall (0.77), and AUROC (0.87). Nearly one in two adults reported poor mental health, and one in five reported sleep disturbance. Findings from our study suggest a paradoxical relationship between income and poor mental health; further studies are needed to confirm our study findings. Sleep disturbance and perceived discrimination can be targeted through tailored intervention to reduce the risk of poor mental health in Asian Indians.Item Predictors for the Severity of Asthma in the Hospital Setting. An Epidemiologic Study Based on Hospital Records from the Texas Health Care Information Council(2005-04-01) Marruffo, MarcoMarruffo, Marco, Predictors for the Severity of Asthma in the Hospital Setting. An Epidemiologic Study Based on Hospital Records from the Texas Health Care Information Council. Doctor of Public Health (Epidemiology), May 2005, 118 pp., 40 tables, 3 figures, bibliography, 62 titles. The purpose of this research was to identify and assess prognostic factors for severity and risk of death among 27,383 hospitalized asthma patients in the state of Texas during 2002, by using the public available Texas Hospital Inpatient data, collected by The Texas Health Care Information Council (TCHIC)(TCHIC, 2002). Data was analyzed by means of multinomial logistic regression using minor risk as the reference group. Among other results severe asthma cases were 20% more likely to be females, 20% more probability to have HIV/AIDS, 5.5 times more chance to be obese, 4.2 times more likely to have esophageal reflux, 1.7 times more likely to be hypertensive, and 11.8 times more likely to have diabetes as compared to those without severe asthma (p [less than] 0.001). Obese were 2.8, diabetics 3.3, those with urinary tract infection 2.3, those with fever 3.1 and those with congestive heart failure 7.5 times more likely to have major risk of death due to asthma (p [less than] 0.001). The results of this study can be used to identify high risk groups to plan and applied control measures for tertiary prevention of severity and death due to asthma.Item The Effects of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Body Mass Index on the Development of Osteoarthritis in Women(2001-05-01) Hathwar, Supriya; Sally Blakley; Steven Blair; Antonio ReneHathwar, Supriya, The Effect of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Body Mass Index on the Development of Osteoarthritis in Women, (ACLS 1970-1999). Master of Public Health (Epidemiology), May, 35 pp., 6 tables, references, 48 titles. Osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and knee is one of the most important causes of pain and disability affecting nearly 21 million people in the United States. Obesity is one of the primary causes of secondary osteoarthritis especially of the hip and knee. (Felson, 1992). The aim of this prospective cohort study is to determine whether higher levels of CRF reduce the risk of development of OA in women across different body mass index (BMI) levels. The study population consisted of 3847 women, ages 20-87, examined at the Cooper Clinic, Dallas, Texas between 1970 and 1999. There were 379 cases of physician-diagnosed OA during 31,657 woman-years of follow-up. After adjustment for age, exam year and health status, obesity and overweight were found to be significant predictors of OA in women. At all levels of CRF, the odds of developing OA increase as weight increases. In the overweight category, the odds of developing OA are 80% higher among the low-fit women [OR=1.8,95% CI (1.1-3.1)], and 60% higher among the moderately fit women [OR=1.6,95%CI (1.0-2.3)] compared to high fit, normal weight women. In the obese category, the low-fit and the high fit women had the same odds of developing OA (OR=2.6), while moderately fit women had lower odds of developing OA (OR=1.7). These data suggest that CRF is not a consistent predictor for development of OA in women.