SM Preventive Medicine and Public Health

Archive Articles

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A Public Health Concern: The Effect of Culture on Eating Disorders Remaining Mindful in General Medicine / Family Practice

What about eating disorders? According to the National Institute of Health (2016) article, Eating Disorders: “Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors. Obsessions with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder.

Nicholas A Kerna1,2* 


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A Public Health Concern: The Epidemic of Obesity in Children and Adolescents Unwise to Super Size!

Certain books, novels, movies, videos or documentaries go on to stand the test of time. Unbeknownst at the hour of their conception and time of their creation, they transform into traditional or cult classics worthy of being read or watched again and again.

Nicholas A Kerna1,2* 


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A Public Health Concern: The Mismatch of Medicine and Culture A Look at the Disparity in Access to and Delivery of Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care

How is Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care connected to and influenced by various sociocultural factors, such as gender, social class, race, and administrative cultures? This following commentary introduces each of these factors, and offers two exceptional resources on this subject for review and reflection.

Nicholas A Kerna1,2* 1College of Medicine, University of Science, Arts and Technology, Montserrat, BWI 2Department of Emergency Medicine / Urgent Care, Suriwongse Medical Center, Thailand


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A Public Health Concern: Special Considerations for the HIV Patient Psychological Cofactors to Consider

Each illness or disease gives rise to unique circumstances and challenges for both patient and practitioner.

Nicholas A Kerna1,2*


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A Public Health Concern: Identifying and Addressing Geriatric Syndromes Condition Critical

In the next fifty years, the older adult population in the United States alone is projected to more than double in size, from 31 million to 80 million.

Nicholas A Kerna1,2* 


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A Global Health Preventive Medicine Overture: Lycopene as an Anticancer and Carcinopreventive Agent in the Deterrence of Cervical Cancer Liking Lycopene

Cervical cancer is a global healthcare concern for all women; it respects no geographical boundaries. Cervical cancer involves substantial costs not only in treatment but also in productivity lost. Prevention and screening programs have helped slow the rising incidence of cervical cancer, but more needs to be done. Preventive measures by way of diet should be considered. Certain familiar natural food sources, especially the tomato, contain in abundance a bioactive compound, lycopene. Lycopene is a lipid-soluble compound, and constitutes more than 80% of total tomato carotenoids in fully red-ripe fruits [1]. Lycopene has demonstrated potent antioxidant properties as well as chemopreventive and anticancer properties [2]. Lycopene, being adequate and bioavailable in the tomato’s raw form, becomes enhanced and more bioactive when heated as in cooking. Adverse effects of lycopene are rare; in an overdose (or an allergic reaction) any adverse effects are easily reversible. The potential benefits and lack of adverse effects bode well for taking the next step in proposing research into using natural sources of lycopene, such as the tomato, on a global basis for preventing and reducing the incidence of cervical cancer.

Nicholas A Kerna1,2* 


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Epidemiological Consideration: The Epidemic of AMR; A Global Crisis A Final Call to Action

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is, worldwide, one of the most critical public health threats that humanity currently faces. AMR reduces clinical efficacy and increases treatment costs.

Nicholas A Kerna1,2* 


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Communication among Physicians and Allied Healthcare Associates: The Language of Numbers, and the Value of Biostatistics to the Medical Student, Physician, and Patient

Results of public health programs are enhanced through superior communication among project members. In public health, communication requires a medium of language. This medium could be verbal language, sign language, body language or, in the case of biostatistics, a language of numbers (derived mostly from the computation of formulae).

Nicholas A Kerna¹,²*

 

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Communication among Physicians and Allied Healthcare Associates: Precise Radiology Reports

The radiology report is one of the most vital diagnostic tools available to the physician. Therefore, the radiology report should be written in a consistent format containing basic, but necessary and essential, information.

Nicholas A Kerna¹,²*


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Communication among Physicians and Allied Healthcare Associates: The Role and Rank of Medical Terminology in Surgery, Public Health, and the History of Medicine

Throughout modern history, there has been increased use of individual and unit-specific terms that have ultimately led to a wide range of terminology that describes the same area

Nicholas A Kerna¹,²*


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Global Health Preventive Medicine Overture: Select Probiotic Use in the Prevention of Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea and the Treatment of C. Difficile and Distinct Tropical Diseases

Historically, in the absence of relevant independent scientific research, probiotics have become widely accepted and are being widely recommended and prescribed by healthcare providers and self-prescribed by patients and consumers. In antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), probiotics appear harmless while providing certain benefits. Probiotic use in particular situations and conditions should be considered for a global health proposal.

Nicholas A Kerna¹,²*


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Epidemiological Consideration: The Application of Quantitative Biology in the Analysis of Mortality Rates Affected by Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) combined with the lack of novel antibiotics poses an eminent threat to human survival and to the practicality of medical procedures that depend on antibiotics.

In the most basic terms, AMR will result in more untreatable illnesses and diseases subsequently accelerating mortality rates for those particular conditions. AMR will increase the cost of patient care and tax the already overburdened healthcare system, and will negatively impact individuals, families, and employers and the economy and society worldwide.

How AMR affects treatment and outcome in certain bacterial infections can be described in narrative form, such as: Elevated AMR increases disease and death. However, this brief narrative reveals little about other cofactors or how adjusting one cofactor may affect another cofactor, several cofactors or all cofactors. Thus, it is more practical to develop a mathematical model that depicts such cofactors and their correlations to more readily recognize and more aptly access the effects of AMR on human mortality.

Nicholas A Kerna¹,²*


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Healing Hurt People: Breaking the Cycle of Violence through Golden Moment Trauma-Informed Interventions

Objective: To determine the feasibility of an intervention to prevent re-traumatization with young males of color who are victims of violence in an emergency room setting.

Method: Subjects were selected from a single emergency room after being stabbed, shot or beat up and then referred to peer intervention specialist and injury prevention coordinator who see the patient while in the emergency department and provide intense services during hospitalization and for six months to a year in the community afterwards. Participants were monitored for repeat ER visits, retaliation, repeat injury and re-arrests.

Results: Out of 29 participants there were zero repeat ER visits, re-injury, retaliation and reduction in PTSD symptomology with only two arrests for NON-violent offenses.

Conclusion: Preliminary results are positive. Additional work with a larger sample and control group is needed. The project has possibilities in the context of residency training and providing an excellent training experience.

Alisha Moreland*


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Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Their Underreporting in a Health Region of Portugal, From 2015 To 2017

Background: Although public health surveillance system data are widely used to describe the epidemiology of communicable disease, occurrence of sexually transmitted infections may be misrepresented by under reporting. Reporting of cases of notifiable sexually transmitted infections is important in the planning and evaluation of disease prevention and control programs, in the assurance of appropriate medical therapy, and in the detection of common-source outbreaks.

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between case-reporting of notifiable sexually transmitted infections in the Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System and the medical diagnosis recorded in Health Management Information System, of Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and the Tagus Valley.

Methods: Data on reported cases of notifiable sexually transmitted infections, in the geographical area covered by Arco Ribeirinho Health Centre Assembly, from January 2015 to December 2017, were obtained from the Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System at Arnaldo Sampaio Public Health. Data regard medical diagnosis in the same geographical area and time period were achieved in Health Management Information System, of Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and the Tagus Valley.

Results: From 2015 to 2017, 167 cases of sexually transmitted infections were notified in Arco Ribeirinho Health Centre Assembly. Twenty-eight percent of cases were syphilis, 25.7% of cases were gonorrhea, 18.5% of cases were VIH and 27.7% of cases were notified with at least one other STI. Most of reported cases were observed in Alto Seixalinho (27.5%), Baixa da Banheira (19.1%), and Montijo-Afonsoeiro (16.1%) counties.

Of 487 STIs medical diagnosis, 92 were reported to the National System Epidemiological Surveillance, corresponding to 65.7% of underreporting. The majority of these under-reported cases were for VHB and VHC (92.2%) and VIH (80.9%).

Conclusion: This study underlines the need to increase the percentage of STIs notified to the Health Authority.

Ana Pinto de Oliveira*, Catarina Oliveira and Lina Guarda


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Adolescent Smoking: The Relationship between Smoking and BMI throughout the Developmental Years

Background: Studies relating cigarette smoking and body weight yield conflicting results. Weight-lowering effects in women and men have been associated with smoking, however, no effects on weight have been proven. This study examined the association between cigarette smoking and relative weight in adolescent males and females as they age into young adults.

Methods: Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-a nationally representative survey conducted annually-was used for this analysis. The sample consists of 4,225 males and females observed annually from 1997 at age 12 to 17 through 2011 at age 27 to 31. Hierarchical Generalized Models (HGM) assesses the impact of smoking on the likelihood of having higher BMI controlling for demographic, household and environmental impacts. The second estimation considers the possibility that smoking is endogeneous and utilizes a multinomial instrument (IV) for smoking level.

Results: HGM models reveal a negative association between cigarette smoking and BMI for both males and females. Individuals who smoke more have lower BMI compared to infrequent or non-smokers. General health rating, region of residence and income were used instrument for smoking in a linear two-stage IV specification. The instrument is highly correlated with BMI and results mirror the HGM. Finally, models run on early, middle and advanced adolescents show that the relationship diminishes over time. The relationship between BMI and smoking decreases as female’s age, but increases for males.

Conclusion: Empirical models confirm an association cigarette consumption and BMI in both males and females. This negative relationship varies with age. It is important to identify health risks-obesity-and modifiable risk factors-smoking-that contribute to health disparities among adolescents. However, the increase in one risky behavior leading to the decrease in the prevalence of the other complicates the issue. The higher prevalence of frequent cigarette uses among both adolescents and young adults of lower BMI suggest that smoking could be used curb or suppress appetite.

Molly Jacobs


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Prevention from Ageing: A Brief Survey

This brief note reviews the major risk and preventative factors discovered so far. The purpose of the note is to bring the awareness of active health aging, prevention strategies and potential treatments.

Lianfen Qian*