Publications by authors named "Whitney S Brakefield"

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to identify and describe the literature on the use of geospatial data in pediatric asthma research.

Introduction: Asthma is one of the most common pediatric chronic diseases in the United States, disproportionately affecting low-income patients. Asthma exacerbations may be triggered by local environmental factors, such as air pollution or exposure to indoor allergens.

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Background: Obesity is a global epidemic causing at least 2.8 million deaths per year. This complex disease is associated with significant socioeconomic burden, reduced work productivity, unemployment, and other social determinants of health (SDOH) disparities.

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Background: Many researchers have aimed to develop chronic health surveillance systems to assist in public health decision-making. Several digital health solutions created lack the ability to explain their decisions and actions to human users.

Objective: This study sought to (1) expand our existing Urban Population Health Observatory (UPHO) system by incorporating a semantics layer; (2) cohesively employ machine learning and semantic/logical inference to provide measurable evidence and detect pathways leading to undesirable health outcomes; (3) provide clinical use case scenarios and design case studies to identify socioenvironmental determinants of health associated with the prevalence of obesity, and (4) design a dashboard that demonstrates the use of UPHO in the context of obesity surveillance using the provided scenarios.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has placed massive socio-psychological, health, and economic burdens including deaths on countless lives; however, it has disproportionally impacted certain populations. Co-occurring Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) disparities and other underlying determinants have exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic. This literature review sought to (1) examine literature focused on SDoH and COVID-19 outcomes ie, infectivity, hospitalization, and death rates among marginalized communities; and (2) identify SDoH disparities associated with COVID-19 outcomes.

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Background: COVID-19 is impacting people worldwide and is currently a leading cause of death in many countries. Underlying factors, including Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), could contribute to these statistics. Our prior work has explored associations between SDoH and several adverse health outcomes (eg, asthma and obesity).

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Hemophilia is a rare inherited bleeding disorder characterized by the blood's inability to clot and could result in potentially life-threatening spontaneous bleeding into joints, organs, and tissues. Moreover, long-term management of this chronic disease is complex and costly. Current scientific evidence demonstrates that personalized digital health technologies could promote and facilitate the self-management of chronic diseases.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is broadly undercutting global health and economies, while disproportionally impacting socially disadvantaged populations. An impactful pandemic surveillance solution must draw from multi-dimensional integration of social determinants of health (SDoH) to contextually inform traditional epidemiological factors. In this article, we describe an Urban Public Health Observatory (UPHO) model which we have put into action in a mid-sized U.

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Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Whitney S Brakefield"

  • - Whitney S. Brakefield's research primarily focuses on the intersection of social determinants of health (SDoH), geospatial data, and chronic disease management, emphasizing their impact on vulnerable populations, particularly in relation to childhood asthma and adult obesity.
  • - Key findings highlight the importance of integrating geospatial data in understanding health outcomes and disparities, as evidenced by studies on pediatric asthma and the association between neighborhood factors and obesity in Tennessee.
  • - Brakefield advocates for the development of urban population health observatories and machine learning applications to improve decision-making in public health, particularly in the context of pandemic preparedness and responses, as seen in her work during the COVID-19 pandemic.