Publications by authors named "Ponce N"

Prior research demonstrates that local government spending on social policies, excluding health care, is linked to improved population health. Whether such spending is associated with better access to primary care and reduced acute care utilization remains unclear. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated the associations between county-level social spending and individual-level health care utilization among low-income Medicare beneficiaries, aged ≥65 years, from 2016 to 2018.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The use of green solvents, citric acid (CA), and natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) for the obtention of pectin from wastes (pulp and peel) of was studied. The NADES used comprised citric acid-glucose-water (N1) or lactic acid-glucose-water (N2). The fractions rich in pectin obtained after exposure to NADES showed lower yield (≈4 g/100 g CA vs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neurodegenerative pathologies such as age-related macular degeneration currently have no cure or effective treatment. In this type of disease, the presence of amyloid-β peptides, oxidative stress, and inflammation trigger dysregulation of retinal pigment epithelial cells and progression toward the death of these cells, resulting in a loss of vision. The production of amyloid-β peptides, oxidative stress, and inflammation can be triggered in response to viral infections.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We examined peer-reviewed publications analyzing data from the English GP Patient Survey (GPPS), U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to explore how the health of sexual minority populations varies across settings and subgroups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Plastination is a groundbreaking method for preserving biological materials, allowing for the long-term storage of everything from whole bodies to thin tissue slices, improving biosecurity in research.* -
  • The dentogingival junction (DGJ) is made up of important tissues related to teeth, but traditional methods for studying it often miss key components like enamel; micro-plastination offers a better way to visualize these structures.* -
  • By using micro-thin slices and histological staining, researchers can effectively study the complex anatomy of the DGJ, making micro-plastination a valuable tool for examining hard-to-access areas in anatomical studies.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To investigate the relationship of predisposing, enabling, need, and immigration-related factors to tele-mental health services utilization among California adults, we conducted a secondary analysis of two waves of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) collected between 2015 and 2018 (N = 78,345). A series of logistic regression models were conducted to examine correlates and predictors to tele-mental health services use. Approximately 1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Access to accurate Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) social drivers of health (SDOH) data is crucial for understanding health needs and shaping effective public health strategies. However, this data often gets obscured within broader racial and ethnic categories making NHPI issues invisible. Moreover, NHPI communities face barriers when published data formats are inaccessible to community-based organization staff.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nanomaterial-mediated antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) emerges as a promising treatment against antibiotic-resistant bacterial biofilms. Specifically, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO NPs) are being investigated as photosensitizers in aPDT to address biofilm related diseases. To enhance their photocatalytic performance in the visible spectral range for biomedical applications, various strategies have been adopted, including reduction of TiO NPs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This Research Letter describes the increasing trend of almost-constant social media use among California adolescents and the association with serious psychological distress, focusing on the influence of familial and experiential factors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

During gestation, maternal blood flow to the umbilical cord and placenta increases, facilitating efficient nutrient absorption, waste elimination, and effective gas exchange for the developing fetus. However, the effects of exposure to wood smoke during this period on these processes are unknown. We hypothesize that exposure to PM2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The Latino health paradox is the phenomenon whereby recent Latino immigrants have, on average, better health outcomes on some indicators than Latino immigrants who have lived in the United States longer and US-born Latinos and non-Latino Whites. This study examined whether the paradox holds after accounting for health care access and utilization.

Methods: The 2019-2020 National Health Interview Survey data were used.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We examined self-reported inability to access to needed medical care and reasons for not accessing medical care among US-representative adult Medicaid enrollees, disaggregated across 10 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander ethnic groups. Chinese (-4.54 percentage points [PP], P < .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Making data accessible to communities is essential for developing community-driven solutions to address health inequities. In this analytic essay, we highlight the importance of democratizing data for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs)-diverse populations that historically have had little access to their data-in the context of achieving equity in health and the social drivers of health. We provide a framework for evaluating community accessibility of data, which includes concepts of data availability, salience, cost, and report back.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates cellular immunity responses against SARS-CoV-2 among patients in Córdoba, Argentina, during two distinct waves of the pandemic that featured different viral variants and social behavior.
  • Findings reveal a disruption in lymphocyte populations, specifically noting an increase in B cells and a decrease in CD3 T cells compared to healthy donors, with a more significant reduction in Tregs among severe cases.
  • Results suggest a potential new biomarker, the CD8/CD8 index, for predicting disease progression, as it correlated with increased severity while also showing altered effector cytokine production in T cell populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To examine whether gentrification exposure is associated with future hypertension and diabetes control.

Methods: Linking records from an integrated health care system to census-tract characteristics, we identified adults with hypertension and/or diabetes residing in stably low-SES census tracts in 2014 (n = 69,524). We tested associations of census tract gentrification occurring between 2015 and 2019 with participants' disease control in 2019.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Building fair, equitable, and beneficial partnerships between institutions collaborating in research in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and high-income countries (HIC) has become an integral part of research capacity building in global health in recent years. In this paper, we offer an example of an academic collaboration between the University of California Los Angeles, Center for Health Policy and Research (UCLA CHPR) and the University of Philippines, Manila, College of Public Health (UPM CPH) that sought to build an equitable partnership between research institutions. The partnership was built on a project to build capacity for research and produce data for policy action for the prevention and care of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through primary healthcare in the Philippines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Policy Points Despite decades of research exposing health disparities between populations and communities in the US, health equity goals remain largely unfulfilled. We argue these failures call for applying an equity lens in the way we approach data systems, from collection and analysis to interpretation and distribution. Hence, health equity requires data equity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Unaffordable housing is associated with adverse health-related outcomes, but little is known about the associations between moving due to unaffordable housing and health-related outcomes.

Objective: To characterize the association of recent cost-driven residential moves with health-related outcomes.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study involved a weighted multivariable regression analysis of California Health Interview Survey data from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2017.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Despite having worse healthcare access and other social disadvantages, immigrants have, on average, better health outcomes than U.S.-born individuals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates the effects of cytokine storms in COVID-19 patients from Córdoba, Argentina, comparing data from the first two waves of the pandemic to understand links between demographics, comorbidities, and disease outcomes.
  • Results showed that patients during the second wave were younger and had fewer comorbidities, with distinct cytokine and chemokine profiles, while pre-existing conditions did not significantly impact cytokine levels.
  • The research identified specific inflammatory markers, such as IL-6 and C-reactive protein, that could help predict patient outcomes, particularly differentiating between mortality and recovery during the first wave of infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

B cells, follicular helper T (Tfh) cells and follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells are part of a circuit that may play a role in the development or progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). With the aim of providing further insight into this topic, here we evaluated the frequency of different subsets of Tfh and Tfr in untreated and long-term treated RA patients from a cohort of Argentina, and their potential association with particular human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class-II variants and disease activity. We observed that the frequency of total Tfh cells as well as of particular Tfh subsets and Tfr cells were increased in seropositive untreated RA patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF