Publications by authors named "Megan Jensen"

Objectives: To determine whether the risk of nursing home-to-nursing home transfer is higher among long-term nursing home residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), or serious mental illness (SMI), and/or Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), relative to residents without these clinical diagnoses, and to assess the factors associated with transfer overall and for residents with these diagnoses.

Design: Cross-sectional cohort study of nursing home residents in 2019.

Setting And Participants: Michigan long-term nursing home residents identified from the Minimum Data Set.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Millions of people are exposed to landscape fire smoke (LFS) globally, and inhalation of LFS particulate matter (PM) is associated with poor respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes. However, how LFS affects respiratory and cardiovascular function is less well understood.

Objective: We aimed to characterize the pathophysiologic effects of representative LFS airway exposure on respiratory and cardiac function and on asthma outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Landscape fire smoke (LFS) contains several hazardous air pollutants that are known to be detrimental to human health. People with asthma are more vulnerable to the health impact of LFS than general populations. The aim of this review is to investigate the effectiveness of personal strategies to reduce the effect of LFS on asthma-related outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: A systematic review and meta-analysis from 2013 reported increased risks of congenital malformations, neonatal death and neonatal hospitalization amongst infants born to women with asthma compared to infants born to mothers without asthma.

Objective: Our objective was to update the evidence on the associations between maternal asthma and adverse neonatal outcomes.

Search Strategy: We performed an English-language MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and COCHRANE search with the terms (asthma or wheeze) and (pregnan* or perinat* or obstet*).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Conceptualizing and testing factors that contribute to the success of community-academic partnerships are critical to understanding their contributions to the health and well-being of communities. Most measures to date focus on factors that contribute to the development of partnerships, and only a few have been adequately tested and validated. The Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) study followed a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and a multiphase process that included the construction and pilot testing of a questionnaire, and a national survey to validate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire in long-standing CBPR partnerships (existing ≥ six years).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) study team effectively used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to recruit 55 long-standing CBPR partnerships to participate in an online questionnaire to assess factors associated with partnership success. Our recruitment was guided by interconnected values of collaboration, transparency, and relationship-building to maintain fidelity to CBPR principles throughout the process. We operationalized these values into a series of strategies to recruit partnerships and sustain their involvement, including establishing primary points of contact, offering incentives for completion, personalizing recruitment materials, and practicing flexibility in our approach.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: While sustainability is crucial to the success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on what defines sustainability and what characterizes sustainability-promoting practices in long-standing (in existence 6 years or longer) CBPR partnerships.

Objectives: The aim of this article is to explore the definition of sustainability, as well as practices that influence sustainability from the perspectives of academic and community experts in long-standing CBPR partnerships.

Methods: This qualitative analysis is part of Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success, a participatory mixed methods validity study that examined "success" and its contributing factors in long-standing CBPR partnerships.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Partnerships that effectively engage in certain key structural and process functions are more likely to meet their research goals and contribute to longer-term health equity outcomes. Ongoing evaluation of partnerships' level of achievement of these key functions, along with their fidelity to the guiding principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), is therefore essential to understand how they can achieve desired partnership outcomes. This article describes the validated Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) Questionnaire and the use of an accompanying Facilitation Guide in helping members of CBPR partnerships evaluate their partnership's state of development and interpret findings to improve its structure, processes, and outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Individuals with asthma experienced severe and prolonged symptoms after the Australian 2019 to 2020 landscape fire. Many of these symptoms, such as throat irritation, occur in the upper airway. This suggests that laryngeal hypersensitivity contributes to persistent symptoms after smoke exposure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The foreign body response to implanted materials often complicates the functionality of sensitive biomedical devices. For cochlear implants, this response can reduce device performance, battery life and preservation of residual acoustic hearing. As a permanent and passive solution to the foreign body response, this work investigates ultra-low-fouling poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate) (pCBMA) thin film hydrogels that are simultaneously photo-grafted and photo-polymerized onto polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose was to determine the differences/correlations in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) loading variables and bilateral asymmetries between injured/uninjured legs and among ascending/descending phases of double-leg squats and jumping/landing phases of countermovement jumps (CMJ) in the collegiate athletes following ACL reconstruction (ACLR). Fourteen collegiate athletes performed squats and CMJ 6-14 months following ACLR. The bilateral knee/hip flexion angles, peak vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) and knee extension moments (KEM), and kinetic asymmetries were calculated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Bilateral vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) and knee extension moment asymmetries are commonly observed during jumping and landing tasks following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions (ACLR) in collegiate athletes. Kinetic asymmetries during landings are associated with increased ACL re-injury risk. Efforts have been made to predict bilateral kinetic asymmetries using trunk kinematics during squats but not during jump-landings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The 2019/2020 Australian landscape fires (bushfires) resulted in prolonged extreme air pollution; little is known about the effects on breastfeeding women and their infants. This study aimed to examine the impact of prolonged landscape fires on infant feeding methods and assess the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and elements in breast milk samples.

Methods: From May - December 2020, women with asthma, who were feeding their infants during the fires, were recruited from an existing cohort.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Building cohesion while working apart.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background:: While sustainability is crucial to the success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on what defines sustainability and what characterizes sustainability-promoting practices in long-standing (in existence ≥ 6 years) CBPR partnerships.

Objectives:: The aim of this article is to explore the definition of sustainability, as well as practices that influence sustainability from the perspectives of academic and community experts in long-standing CBPR partnerships.

Methods:: This qualitative analysis is part of Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS), a participatory mixed methods validity study that examined “success” and its contributing factors in long-standing CBPR partnerships.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Little is known about the physical and mental health impact of exposure to landscape fire smoke in women with asthma. This study examined the health impacts and information-seeking behaviours of women with asthma exposed to the 2019/2020 Australian fires, including women who were pregnant.

Methods: Women with asthma were recruited from the Breathing for Life Trial in Australia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Discontinuation of, and non-adherence to, inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) for asthma treatment is a significant issue in pregnancy. This study characterized beliefs about medicines in pregnant women with asthma and investigated associations with ICS adherence.

Methods: Pregnant women with relatively mild asthma ( = 302) were grouped according to ICS use and self-reported adherence (≥80% doses taken).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Physiologic changes during pregnancy have implications for both upper and lower airway function. Upper airway resistance increases, and total lung capacity decreases. Upper airway symptoms increase; some women develop pregnancy-induced rhinitis and there is an increased prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing compared to prepregnancy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The Pediatric Acute Care Cardiology Collaborative (PAC3) is a learning network focused on improving acute care cardiology patient outcomes. Data submission timeliness is a vulnerability for PAC3 and most clinical registries, directly affecting collaborative benchmarking, quality improvement (QI) and research projects.

Objective: PAC3 conducted a collaborative-wide QI project addressing data timeliness and efficiency.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the genetic links to the structure of the brain's folds by analyzing data from 40,169 individuals using MRI scans from the UK Biobank.
  • Researchers found 388 associations between regional brain folding and 77 genetic loci, with genes in these areas tied to brain development and functioning.
  • The findings also include an interactive 3D visualization to help explore these associations, emphasizing their potential for studying brain health and neuropsychiatric conditions in the future.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

As part of the Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) study, we investigated the relationship between benefits and costs of participation in long-standing community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships using social exchange theory as a theoretical framework. Three major findings were identified: (1) the concept of benefits and costs operating as a ratio, where individual benefits must outweigh costs for participation, applies to early stages of CBPR partnership formation; (2) as CBPR partnerships develop, the benefits and costs of participation include each other's needs and the needs of the group as a whole; and (3) there is a shift in the relationship of benefits and costs over time in long-standing CBPR partnerships, in which partners no longer think in terms of costs but rather investments that contribute to mutual benefits.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of cochlear implant (CI) biomaterials on the function of macrophages and fibroblasts, two key mediators of the foreign body response (FBR) and to determine how these materials influence fibrous tissue growth and new bone formation within the cochlea.

Methods: Macrophages and fibroblasts were cultured on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and platinum substrates and human CI electrodes in vitro. Cell count, cell proliferation, cytokine production, and cell adhesion were measured.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Children with asthma are at risk of acute exacerbations triggered mainly by viral infections. A diet high in fruit and vegetables (F&V), a rich source of carotenoids, may improve innate immune responses in children with asthma. Children with asthma (3−11 years) with a history of exacerbations and low F&V intake (≤3 serves/d) were randomly assigned to a high F&V diet or control (usual diet) for 6 months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Asthma exacerbations in pregnancy are associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. We aimed to determine whether fractional exhaled nitric oxide ( )-based asthma management improves perinatal outcomes compared to usual care.

Methods: The Breathing for Life Trial was a multicentre, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial conducted in six hospital antenatal clinics, which compared asthma management guided by (adjustment of asthma treatment according to exhaled nitric oxide and symptoms each 6-12 weeks) to usual care (no treatment adjustment as part of the trial).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wildfires are increasing and cause health effects. The immediate and ongoing health impacts of prolonged wildfire smoke exposure in severe asthma are unknown. This longitudinal study examined the experiences and health impacts of prolonged wildfire (bushfire) smoke exposure in adults with severe asthma during the 2019/2020 Australian bushfire period.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF