Publications by authors named "Kara Mathewson"

To determine human papillomavirus and influenza vaccine coverage among young adults in the US and assess differences in vaccine uptake by college enrollment status, we conducted an online survey of young adults aged 18-26 (n = 417) using Survey Monkey, with recruitment occurring through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. We collected data on self-reported preventive health behaviors, including vaccine receipt, current college enrollment status, and other demographics. Overall, 49% of participants reported receiving at least one dose of human papillomavirus vaccine and 57% reported receiving at least one influenza vaccine over the past three years.

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For adequate provision of preventive services, there is an interplay between activities at the healthcare practice, healthcare provider, and patient levels of the clinical encounter. Commonly used health promotion and behavior theoretical models address some of these three levels, but none fully account for all three. Building off of key components of many existing theoretical models, including the Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behavior/Theory of Reasoned Action, Social Cognitive Theory, Social Ecological Model, and the Systems Model of Clinical Preventive Care, we describe the development of the P3 (Practice-, Provider-, and Patient-level) Model for preventive care interventions.

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Risk factors for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) progression after surgery are unclear, and additional prognostic factors are needed to inform treatment regimens and therapeutic targets. PDAC is characterized by advanced sclerosis of the extracellular matrix, and interactions between cancer cells, fibrillar collagen, and other stromal components play an integral role in progression. Changes in stromal collagen alignment have been shown to modulate cancer cell behavior and have important clinical value in other cancer types, but little is known about its role in PDAC and prognostic value.

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Stromal collagen alignment has been shown to have clinical significance in a variety of cancers and in other diseases accompanied by fibrosis. While much of the biological and clinical importance of collagen changes has been demonstrated using second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging in experimental settings, implementation into routine clinical pathology practice is currently prohibitive. To translate the assessment of collagen organization into routine pathology workflow, a surrogate visualization method needs to be examined.

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