Publications by authors named "Kristina P Vatcheva"

Background: Missing observations within the univariate time series are common in real-life and cause analytical problems in the flow of the analysis. Imputation of missing values is an inevitable step in every incomplete univariate time series. Most of the existing studies focus on comparing the distributions of imputed data.

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Objective: A high office blood pressure (BP) is associated with cognitive decline. However, evidence of 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring is limited, and no studies have investigated whether longitudinal changes in 24-h BP are associated with cognitive decline. We aimed to test whether higher longitudinal changes in 24-h ambulatory BP measurements are associated with cognitive decline.

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Background: Evidence shows that high 24-h blood pressure (BP) variability increases cardiovascular risk. We investigated whether 24-h BP variability relates to mortality and cardiovascular risk due to inherent variability and/or hypertensive loads in 24-h BP.

Methods: A total of 1,050 participants from the Maracaibo Aging Study (mean age, 66 years; women, 67.

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Background: Hospital length of stay (LOS) is a key indicator of hospital care management efficiency, cost of care, and hospital planning. Hospital LOS is often used as a measure of a post-medical procedure outcome, as a guide to the benefit of a treatment of interest, or as an important risk factor for adverse events. Therefore, understanding hospital LOS variability is always an important healthcare focus.

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At the beginning of August 2020, the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas experienced a rapid increase of coronavirus disease 2019 (abbreviated as COVID-19) cases and deaths. This study aims to determine the optimal levels of effective social distancing and testing to slow the virus spread at the outset of the pandemic. We use an age-stratified eight compartment epidemiological model to depict COVID-19 transmission in the community and within households.

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Background Excess visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is a primary driver for the cardiometabolic complications of obesity; VAT-associated cardiovascular disease risk varies by race, but most studies have been done on Non-Hispanics. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical and metabolic correlates of VAT, its association with subclinical atherosclerosis, and the factors affecting this association in Mexican Americans. Methods and Results Participants (n=527) were drawn from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC), on whom a carotid ultrasound to assess carotid intima media thickness and a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan to assess for VAT were obtained.

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Background: Despite the United States having one of the leading health care systems in the world, underserved minority communities face significant access challenges. These communities can benefit from telehealth innovations that promise to improve health care access and, consequently, health outcomes. However, little is known about the attitudes toward telehealth in these communities, an essential first step toward effective adoption and use.

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Aims: Over 1/3 of Americans have prediabetes, while 9.4% have type 2 diabetes. The aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence of prediabetes in Mexican Americans, with known 28.

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Despite strong evidence for the use of statins for patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), statin prescription is still suboptimal. We aimed to determine the rates and factors that influence statin prescription using national survey data. This is a cross-sectional retrospective study on 8,468 patients with clinical ASCVD who were drawn from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from years 2011 to 2015.

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Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered as the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome, whose criteria are risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of NAFLD, its association with subclinical atherosclerosis, and factors that may account for this association in Mexican Americans. In a population-based cross-sectional sample drawn from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort in Texas, carotid intima media thickness (cIMT), an indicator of subclinical atherosclerosis, was measured.

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Introduction: Hispanic men have higher rates of illness and death from various chronic conditions than do non-Hispanic men. We aimed to characterize the health of Mexican American men living on the US-Mexico border in South Texas and elucidate indications of chronic disease in young men.

Methods: We sampled all male participants from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort, an ongoing population-based cohort of Mexican Americans in Brownsville, Texas.

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The adverse impact of ignoring multicollinearity on findings and data interpretation in regression analysis is very well documented in the statistical literature. The failure to identify and report multicollinearity could result in misleading interpretations of the results. A review of epidemiological literature in PubMed from January 2004 to December 2013, illustrated the need for a greater attention to identifying and minimizing the effect of multicollinearity in analysis of data from epidemiologic studies.

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Liver cirrhosis is a leading cause of death in Hispanics and Hispanics who live in South Texas have the highest incidence of liver cancer in the United States. We aimed at determining the prevalence and associated risk factors of cirrhosis in this population. Clinical and demographic variables were extracted for 2466 participants in the community-based Cameron County Hispanic Cohort in South Texas.

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Background: Disease patterns in Mexican American health-disparity populations differ from larger US populations.

Aims: This study is aimed to determine frequency of gastrointestinal cancers in Mexican Americans.

Methods: We analyzed self-reported data from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort where we find high rates of risk factors for cancer: obesity (48.

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Introduction: We examined the prevalence of depression, obesity, and metabolic syndrome and associations between them in a population-based representative cohort of Mexican Americans living on the United States-Mexico border.

Method: The sample in this cross-sectional analysis consisted of 1,768 Mexican American adults (≥ 18 years of age) assessed between the years 2004 and 2010, with whom we tested our central hypothesis of a significant relationship between obesity and depression. Depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CES-D) with a cutoff score of ≥ 16 for depression and a cutoff score of ≥ 27 for severe depression.

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Objective: To evaluate the relationship between total and differential White Blood Cell (WBC) counts with time to transition to type 2 diabetes in Mexican Americans using prospective data from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC).

Results: Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models revealed that obese Mexican-American cohort participants whose total WBC or granulocyte count increased over time had 1.39 and 1.

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Globally half of all diabetes mellitus is undiagnosed. We sought to determine the extent and characteristics of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes in Mexican Americans residing in the United States. This disadvantaged population with 50% lifetime risk of diabetes is a microcosm of the current pandemic.

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The goal of the current analysis is to examine relationships between smoking status and anxiety and depression among adults of Mexican heritage to inform the development of culturally relevant smoking cessations efforts. Mexican heritage residents (N=1,791) of the city of Brownsville, TX, aged 18 years or older, enrolled in the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort, were selected through two stage cluster sampling of randomly selected census tracts from the first and third quartile of SES using Census 2000. Among current smokers, anxiety and depression scores were highest among women who had not completed high school (p<0.

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Background: Data on the influence of obesity on atherosclerosis in Hispanics are inconsistent, possibly related to varying cardiometabolic risk among obese individuals. We aimed to determine the association of obesity and cardiometabolic risk with subclinical atherosclerosis in Mexican-Americans.

Methods And Results: Participants (n=503) were drawn from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort.

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Background: Resting ischemic electrocardiographic abnormalities have been associated with cardiovascular mortality. Simple markers of abnormal autonomic tone have also been associated with diabetes, obesity, and the metabolic syndrome in some populations. Data on these electrocardiographic abnormalities and correlations with coronary risk factors are lacking among Mexican Americans wherein these conditions are prevalent.

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Introduction: Diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia are common chronic diseases among Hispanics, a group projected to comprise 30% of the US population by 2050. Mexican Americans are the largest ethnically distinct subgroup among Hispanics. We assessed the prevalence of and risk factors for undiagnosed and untreated diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia among Mexican Americans in Cameron County, Texas.

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Background: Framingham risk scores (FRS) were validated in a mostly Caucasian population. Evaluation of subclinical atherosclerosis by carotid ultrasound may improve ascertainment of risk in nonwhite populations. This study aimed to evaluate carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and carotid plaquing among Mexican Americans, and to correlate these markers with coronary risk factors and the FRS.

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