Browsing by Subject "health behavior"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Preventative Screening Use among Medically Underserved Patients from Central Appalachia
    (2015-01-05) Herzog, Mark
    Purpose: Previous research has demonstrated the potential for preventative health services to help address the existing health disparities in Central Appalachia. The Remote Area Medical Corps (RAM) Clinic in Wise County, Virginia provides a critical opportunity to understand preventative screening rates and factors affecting use for medically underserved patients in the region. This thesis contributes to existing regional research by being the first to survey a large, regional sample of underserved patients. Methods: Over the course of three days, 205 patients were surveyed using questions primarily taken from two national health surveys. Patient characteristics and screening rates were compared to national data from the US Census and previous analysis of national health surveys. In addition, multi-variable model selection was used to identify the best predictors of screening use for RAM patients. Results: RAM patients overwhelmingly have low rates of preventative screening use according to the United States Preventative Screening Task Force Guidelines. On average, patients were missing at least a third of the recommended screenings. Colon, breast and cervical cancer screening rates fall well below the national averages. Blood pressure, blood cholesterol and lung cancer screening use is low. Model selection results show the importance of a healthcare visit within the past year, access to a personal provider and a routine checkup. Conclusions: Low screening rates combined with the existing mortality disparities and established benefits of early screening demonstrate the need and potential of health care reform to improve regional preventative services use.
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    The Role of Self-Control, Social Support, and Reliance on Others in the Religiosity-Health Link
    (2015) Hopkin, Cameron

    Religious observance has been reliably shown to improve a wide variety of health outcomes across the lifespan. Significant work has already been done to find mediating processes that explain this relationship, but as yet no studies have been published that attempt to integrate these mediators into a single model to see if they all work together. The current study presents three possible mediators of the religiosity-health link: social support, self-control, and reliance on others. Participants were recruited from Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk worker system (N = 112) for a 14-day diary study in which all relevant constructs were measured on a daily basis, with daily health behaviors being the outcome. Social support, self-control, and reliance on others were all found to be simultaneous partial mediators of the religiosity-health link, though some questions remain as to the causal flow between religiosity and each of these mediators. It is concluded that each of these mechanisms is related to religiosity and in turn aid in the pursuit of superior health.

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    Validation of the Food-Linked Virtual Response task.
    (J Health Psychol, 2015-07-30) Pascoe, Elizabeth A; Richman, Laura Smart; Kort, Daniel
    This research validates a computerized dietary selection task (Food-Linked Virtual Response or FLVR) for use in studies of food consumption. In two studies, FLVR task responses were compared with measures of health consciousness, mood, body mass index, personality, cognitive restraint toward food, and actual food selections from a buffet table. The FLVR task was associated with variables which typically predict healthy decision-making and was unrelated to mood or body mass index. Furthermore, the FLVR task predicted participants' unhealthy selections from the buffet, but not overall amount of food. The FLVR task is an inexpensive, valid, and easily administered option for assessing momentary dietary decisions.