Leveraging secondary data for evaluation: Planning the expansion of the Illinois asthma partnership to reduce pediatric asthma related emergency department visits.

Government partnerships with community-based and healthcare organizations have historically increased the impact of public health programs. In order to strengthen and expand the Illinois Asthma Partnership (IAP), external evaluators determined the degree to which local rates of Pediatric Asthma Related Emergency Department (PARED) visits aligned with local hospital Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA), asthma prioritization, and IAP engagement. The majority of counties with high PARED rates also had high levels of concentrated disadvantage.

Associations between severe obesity and depression: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2006.

Introduction: My objectives were to investigate the association between obesity and depression in a representative sample of American adults, investigate sex and severity of obesity as modifiers of the association between depression and body mass index, determine whether large waist circumference is associated with depression, and explore whether specific health behaviors and poor physical health are possible mediators of the association between obesity and depression, if found.

Methods: The sample consisted of 3,599 nonpregnant adults aged 20 years or older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2006. I operationalized obesity as body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference from the anthropometric measurements of participants and current depression from Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores.

Cross-cultural comparison of the perceptions and experiences of dementia care mapping "mappers" in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Objective: Survey results from 161 respondents trained in dementia care mapping (DCM) in the United States and United Kingdom (82 and 79 respondents, respectively) addressed the following: (a) To what extent are mappers using DCM? (b) How satisfied are mappers with DCM? (c) What affect does DCM have on mappers' attitudes toward their dementia practice? and (d) What challenges are encountered by mappers in the use of DCM?

Method: Analyses using odds ratios were used to make international and training-level (basic vs. advanced) comparisons.

Results: Differences across countries were found in use of DCM and lack of satisfaction using DCM codes.

Variation in the associations of education, occupation, income, and assets with functional limitations in older Mexican Americans.

Purpose: The primary aim was to examine the particular components of socioeconomic status that may be associated with functional limitation among older Mexican American men and women.

Methods: Using baseline data from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly, the education, past occupation, household income, and assets of those with and without limitations in activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and those scoring 9 versus < 9 on the performance oriented mobility assessment (POMA) were compared.

Results: Not completing at least 12 years of education was associated with a two-fold higher likelihood of having an IADL limitation, but not significantly associated with other indicators of functional limitation.