Publications by authors named "Amita Toprani"

Objective: We explored associations between occupation and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk behaviors including: attempted weight loss, physical activity, smoking, and restaurant meal and sugary beverage consumption.

Methods: We used NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013 to 2014 data, and coded free-text, occupational question responses using 2010 US Census Bureau Classification. CVD risk behaviors were compared across occupational categories, using regression to adjust for demographics.

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Background: Preventing child falls from windows is easily accomplished by installing inexpensive window-limiting devices but window falls remain a common cause of child injuries. This article describes the history and evolution of the New York City (NYC) window guard rule,which requires building owners to install window guards in apartments housing children aged ≤10 years. The NYC window guard rule was the first directive of its kind in the USA when it was adopted in 1976, and it has led to a dramatic and long-lasting reduction in child window fall-related injuries and deaths.

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Residing in a high-poverty area has consistently been associated with higher mortality rates, but the association between poverty and mortality can change over time. We examine the association between neighborhood poverty and mortality in New York City (NYC) during 1990-2010 to document mortality disparity changes over time and determine causes of death for which disparities are greatest. We used NYC and New York state mortality data for years 1990, 2000, and 2010 to calculate all-cause and cause-specific age-adjusted death rates (AADRs) by census tract poverty (CTP), which is the proportion of persons in a census tract living below the federal poverty threshold.

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Objectives: Perinatal mortality prevention strategies that target fetal deaths often utilize vital records data sets shown to contain critical quality deficiencies. To understand the causes of deficient data, we linked survey responses of fetal death reporters with facility fetal death data quality indicators.

Methods: In 2011, we surveyed the person most responsible for fetal death reporting at New York City healthcare facilities on their attitudes, barriers, and practices regarding reporting.

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In late October 2014, Ebola virus disease (Ebola) was diagnosed in a humanitarian aid worker who recently returned from West Africa to New York City (NYC). The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) actively monitored three close contacts of the patient and 114 health care personnel. No secondary cases of Ebola were detected.

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This study aims to describe factors associated with the number of past abortions obtained by New York City (NYC) abortion patients in 2010. We calculated rates of first and repeat abortion by age, race/ethnicity, and neighborhood-level poverty and the mean number of self-reported past abortions by age, race/ethnicity, neighborhood-level poverty, number of living children, education, payment method, marital status, and nativity. We used negative binomial regression to predict number of past abortions by patient characteristics.

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National birth registration guidelines were revised in 2003 to improve data quality; however, few studies have evaluated the impact on local jurisdictions and their data users. In New York City (NYC), approximately 125,000 births are registered annually with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and data are used routinely by the department's maternal and child health (MCH) programs. In order to better meet MCH program needs, we used Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to assess birth data usefulness, simplicity, data quality, timeliness and representativeness.

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Context: New York City (NYC) mandates reporting of all abortion procedures. These reports enable tracking of abortion incidence and underpin programs, policy, and research. Since January 2011, the majority of abortion facilities must report electronically.

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Between 1992 and 2004, 118 cases of malaria were reported to the Louisiana Office of Public Health. Case surveillance data were collected in response to these case reports. These data are presented and analyzed here.

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