Disparities in colorectal cancer time-to-treatment and survival time associated with racial and economic residential segregation surrounding the diagnostic hospital, Georgia 2010-2015.

Purpose: To evaluate patient-level colorectal cancer outcomes in relation to residential income and racial segregation and composition of the neighborhood surrounding the diagnosing hospitals, and characterize presence of cancer-relevant diagnosis and treatment modalities that might contribute to these associations.

Methods: We utilized Georgia state cancer registry data (2010-2015), matching diagnosis information to hospital technology provided by the American Hospital Association and spatial information to the US Census. We modeled time-to-treatment and survival time, using Cox proportional hazards models, stratified by segregation.

Differentiating Black and Hispanic: outcome differences of segregated communities and police shootings in the USA, 2015-2020.

Background: Police shootings are unevenly spatially distributed, with substantive spikes throughout the USA. While minorities are disproportionately the victims of police force, social or structural factors associated with this distribution are not well understood. The objective of this work was to evaluate police shootings in relation to victim race or ethnicity and residential segregation and racial diversity.

All-cause mortality and residential racial and ethnic segregation and composition as experienced differently by individual-level race, ethnicity, and gender: Mortality disparities in american communities data.

Purpose: Use a large nationally representative population to evaluate whether differences in mortality in relation to residential racial and ethnic segregation and diversity varied by gender, and race or Hispanic ethnicity in the United States.

Methods: The Mortality Disparities in American Communities (MDAC) was used to evaluate mortality risk in relation to segregation. MDAC is a nationally representative record linkage of the 2008 American Community Survey data with mortality outcomes derived from the National Death Index through 2015.

Longer time-to-treatment but better survival for colorectal cancer patients presumptively not diagnosed in a hospital.

Purpose: To evaluate time-to-treatment and survival time in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients who presumptively were not diagnosed in a hospital.

Methods: Colorectal tumor-level data from Georgia Cancer Registry (GCR) was merged with American Hospital Association data for 2010-2015 using hospital identification number. Patients with tumors lacking a diagnosis hospital in the GCR were classified as presumptive non-hospital diagnosis (PNHD).

Racial disparities in colorectal cancer time-to-treatment and survival time in relation to diagnosing hospital cancer-related diagnostic and treatment capabilities.

Background: There is a need to understand structural issues, such as differential access to or utilization of technologies or capabilities, to better understand racial disparities in cancer outcomes. The objective of this work was to evaluate time-to-treatment and survival in relation to cancer-related diagnostic and treatment technologies of the diagnosing hospital.

Methods: Colorectal tumor-level data from George Cancer Registry was merged with hospital-level cancer technology data from the American Hospital Association (2010-2015).

Spatial Associations Between Land Use and Infectious Disease: Zika Virus in Colombia.

Land use boundaries represent human-physical interfaces where risk of vector-borne disease transmission is elevated. Land development practices, coupled with rural and urban land fragmentation, increases the likelihood that immunologically naïve humans will encounter infectious vectors at land use interfaces. This research consolidated land use classes from the GLC-SHARE dataset; calculated landscape metrics in linear (edge) density, proportion abundance, and patch density; and derived the incidence rate ratios of the Zika virus occurrence in Colombia, South America during 2016.

County-level socioeconomic factors and residential racial, Hispanic, poverty, and unemployment segregation associated with drug overdose deaths in the United States, 2013-2017.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate overdose death rates in relation to socioeconomic characteristics and measures of socioeconomic residential segregation at substate geography.

Methods: County overdose deaths were linked to socioeconomic characteristics that are related to social vulnerability. Dissimilarity and isolation segregation (comparing individual counties to the adjacent counties and state) and diversity were calculated for race, Hispanic ethnicity, poverty, and unemployment.

Complexity of the Basic Reproduction Number (R).

The basic reproduction number (R), also called the basic reproduction ratio or rate or the basic reproductive rate, is an epidemiologic metric used to describe the contagiousness or transmissibility of infectious agents. R is affected by numerous biological, sociobehavioral, and environmental factors that govern pathogen transmission and, therefore, is usually estimated with various types of complex mathematical models, which make R easily misrepresented, misinterpreted, and misapplied. R is not a biological constant for a pathogen, a rate over time, or a measure of disease severity, and R cannot be modified through vaccination campaigns.

Examining the spatiotemporal evolution of vaccine refusal: nonmedical exemptions from vaccination in California, 2000-2013.

Background: Vaccine hesitancy continues to be an issue throughout the United States, as numerous vaccine hesitant parents are choosing to exempt their children from school-entry vaccination requirements for nonmedical reasons, despite the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. We conduct an analysis of how vaccine refusal, measured by the use of nonmedical exemptions (based on personal or religious beliefs) from vaccination (NMEs), evolved across space and over time in California.

Methods: Using school-entry data from the California Department of Public Health, we examined NMEs for students entering kindergarten in California from 2000 to 2013.

It could have been much worse: The Minnesota measles outbreak of 2017.

In 2017, Minnesota battled its largest measles outbreak in nearly 30 years, with 79 cases, most of them Somali-American children. In this study, we gathered vaccination and enrollment data for incoming kindergarteners in Minnesota over fall 2012-2016 from the Minnesota Department of Health. We also gathered the number of measles cases by county in 2017.

Change in Medical Exemptions From Immunization in California After Elimination of Personal Belief Exemptions.

This study evaluates the statewide change in medical exemptions in the first year under California Senate bill 277 and if medical exemptions increased in regions with high personal belief exemption use prior to its enactment.

Variation in Vaccination Data Available at School Entry Across the United States.

Objectives: To compile substate-level data on US school-age children's vaccination rates.

Methods: For states that did not have suitable data online, in 2015 we submitted information requests to the state health department and followed up with the state's Freedom of Information Act when necessary.

Results: The accessibility, scale, and types of vaccination data varied considerably.

A spatiotemporal analysis of non-medical exemptions from vaccination: California schools before and after SB277.

Childhood vaccination programs are considered one of the most beneficial public health programs in modern history. In the United States, the increasing use of non-medical exemptions (NMEs) from school entry vaccination requirements has garnered attention and scrutiny in the popular press, academic literature, and policy forums. In 2016, California law SB277 goes into effect, eliminating the NME option for students attending the state's public and private schools.

An approach for estimating vaccination coverage for communities using school-level data and population mobility information.

Childhood vaccination data are made available at a school level in some U.S. states.

Distribution and determinants of young child feeding practices in the East African region: demographic health survey data analysis from 2008-2011.

We utilized the most recent Demographic Health Survey data to explore the distribution of feeding practices and examine relationships between complementary feeding and socio-demographic and health behaviour indicators in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We based our analysis on complementary dietary diversity scores calculated for children 6-23 months old. Geographically, Kenya displayed clear division of children's diet diversity scores across its regions, unlike Uganda and Tanzania.

Sociodemographic Predictors of Vaccination Exemptions on the Basis of Personal Belief in California.

Objectives: We examined the variability in the percentage of students with personal belief exemptions (PBEs) from mandatory vaccinations in California schools and communities according to income, education, race, and school characteristics.

Methods: We used spatial lag models to analyze 2007-2013 PBE data from the California Department of Public Health. The analyses included school- and regional-level models, and separately examined the percentage of students with exemptions in 2013 and the change in percentages over time.

Diabetes, obesity, and recommended fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to food environment sub-types: a cross-sectional analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United States Census, and food establishment data.

Background: Social and spatial factors are an important part of individual and community health. The objectives were to identify food establishment sub-types and evaluate prevalence of diabetes, obesity, and recommended fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to these sub-types in the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used.

Geographic distribution and socio-economic determinants of women's nutritional status in Mali households.

Objective: Mali is one of the poorest countries in Africa, with 72% of its population surviving on less than $US 1.00 per day. Health and demographic indicators are bleak.

Sociodemographic determinants of growth among Malian adolescent females.

In Africa, research concerning the social determinants of poor nutritional status has typically focused on children under 5 years of age and has used defined categorical boundaries based on international reference standards. In this article, stunting and wasting of 1,157 Malian adolescent girls is measured through both categorical and continuous data. The focus on adolescent girls is significant because there is relatively little literature examining this group, and because adolescence marks the time when girls gain greater workload responsibilities, autonomy of food choices, and, as a result of the adolescent growth spurt, require the greatest amount of caloric intake respective to their weight since infancy.