How Low-income Status Interacts With New Mothers’ Awareness and Usage of the New Jersey Paid Family Leave Policy

New Jersey is one of only three states in the United States offering a paid maternity leave benefit beyond temporary disability insurance at the present time. Understanding the impact of state maternity leave policies on low-income mothers is of particular urgency, since previous research suggests this group is less likely to utilize paid leave than wealthier women. In addition, existing literature also suggests that in a poverty environment, with its already existing vulnerability to social, emotional, cognitive, and health impairments, rapid return to work postpartum may be particularly damaging to the physical and emotional health of both mothers and their babies. This study examines the effectiveness of the New Jersey law mandating payments to postpartum mothers who were employed before giving birth. Using a mixed methods approach, outcomes from high- and low-income mothers were compared regarding the usage and impact of Family Leave Insurance (FLI), New Jersey’s paid family leave policy. For the quantitative study, data from 497 postpartum mothers from the Center for Disease Control’s 2012 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data set were analyzed. For the qualitative study, three high- and three low-income mothers from the same New Jersey county were interviewed in depth, and six narrative profiles were constructed. Data from the qualitative and quantitative analyses were combined. Consistent with existing literature, quantitative results suggested poor FLI utilization. However, there was no significant association (p > .05) between low-income status (household income under $22,000) and FLI usage. A statistically significant (p < .05) association between FLI usage and postpartum depression in low-income mothers was noted. Qualitative findings supplemented and explained the quantitative results. The qualitative data suggested policy underutilization stemmed from poor public awareness due to inadequate publicity, lack of community education, and poor advisement on the part of human resource personnel and New Jersey Department of Labor of Workforce Development call-in center advisors. Results also suggest that if parameters of FLI and the awareness of the policy remain the same, the benefits existing research associates with paid maternity leave will not be fully reaped by New Jersey families

Factors Associated with Influenza Vaccine Uptake among Pregnant Women: Analysis of the 2015 Georgia Vital Events Information System Birth Worksheet

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Influenza is a public health concern each influenza season in the United States (US). Annually, about 50,000 people die due to influenza complications in the US. Pregnant women and children under the age of five are two of the most at-risk groups for influenza-related morbidity and mortality. Since 2004, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have recommended that women who will be pregnant during the influenza season get vaccinated. Vaccination of mothers also protects infants for up to the first six months of life through the active transfer of maternal antibodies in the womb. Vaccination during pregnancy is safe and is the most effective way for mothers to protect themselves and their infants from the influenza virus. PURPOSE: Vaccination rates among pregnant women in Georgia are low, despite the CDC, ACIP, and ACOG recommendation to be vaccinated for influenza during pregnancy. In 2013, only 23.7% of women in Georgia received an influenza vaccine before or during pregnancy, a number well below the national average of 55.3% for the same year. The purpose of this study is to determine which factors are positively associated with influenza vaccine uptake during 2 pregnancy in Georgia through an analysis of the 2015 Georgia Vital Events Information System (VEIS) Birth Worksheet. The author believes that by identifying which factors show an increase in vaccine uptake, clinicians will be able to beneficially direct vaccine promotion efforts among pregnant women in Georgia. METHODS: Secondary data from the 2015 VEIS Birth Worksheet was obtained from the Georgia Department of Public Health. 130,133 women between the ages of 18 – 49 completed a Birth Worksheet in 2015 and were included in the study. Variables used for regression analysis, descriptive analysis, and prevalence of vaccine uptake include: age, race, education level, perinatal region of residence, and receipt of prenatal care. An extensive review of existing literature was also conducted. RESULTS: The prevalence of influenza vaccine uptake among pregnant women varied across the variables. 13.39% of women who completed a Birth Worksheet in 2015 reported that they received an influenza vaccine during pregnancy. The prevalence of vaccine uptake was highest among white women (65.26%), women between the ages of 25 – 34 (60.16%), women with a college degree (51.03%), and women living in the Atlanta perinatal region (44.52%). Surprisingly, of all the Atlanta region respondents, only 10.32% received an influenza vaccine despite having the largest population of all the regions in Georgia. Almost all women who received an influenza vaccine during pregnancy also received prenatal care (98.48%). Of the 115,443 women who received prenatal care, 14.87% received an influenza vaccine

Factors Associated with Influenza Vaccine Uptake among Pregnant Women: Analysis of the 2015 Georgia Vital Events Information System Birth Worksheet

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Influenza is a public health concern each influenza season in the United States (US). Annually, about 50,000 people die due to influenza complications in the US. Pregnant women and children under the age of five are two of the most at-risk groups for influenza-related morbidity and mortality. Since 2004, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have recommended that women who will be pregnant during the influenza season get vaccinated. Vaccination of mothers also protects infants for up to the first six months of life through the active transfer of maternal antibodies in the womb. Vaccination during pregnancy is safe and is the most effective way for mothers to protect themselves and their infants from the influenza virus. PURPOSE: Vaccination rates among pregnant women in Georgia are low, despite the CDC, ACIP, and ACOG recommendation to be vaccinated for influenza during pregnancy. In 2013, only 23.7% of women in Georgia received an influenza vaccine before or during pregnancy, a number well below the national average of 55.3% for the same year. The purpose of this study is to determine which factors are positively associated with influenza vaccine uptake during 2 pregnancy in Georgia through an analysis of the 2015 Georgia Vital Events Information System (VEIS) Birth Worksheet. The author believes that by identifying which factors show an increase in vaccine uptake, clinicians will be able to beneficially direct vaccine promotion efforts among pregnant women in Georgia. METHODS: Secondary data from the 2015 VEIS Birth Worksheet was obtained from the Georgia Department of Public Health. 130,133 women between the ages of 18 – 49 completed a Birth Worksheet in 2015 and were included in the study. Variables used for regression analysis, descriptive analysis, and prevalence of vaccine uptake include: age, race, education level, perinatal region of residence, and receipt of prenatal care. An extensive review of existing literature was also conducted. RESULTS: The prevalence of influenza vaccine uptake among pregnant women varied across the variables. 13.39% of women who completed a Birth Worksheet in 2015 reported that they received an influenza vaccine during pregnancy. The prevalence of vaccine uptake was highest among white women (65.26%), women between the ages of 25 – 34 (60.16%), women with a college degree (51.03%), and women living in the Atlanta perinatal region (44.52%). Surprisingly, of all the Atlanta region respondents, only 10.32% received an influenza vaccine despite having the largest population of all the regions in Georgia. Almost all women who received an influenza vaccine during pregnancy also received prenatal care (98.48%). Of the 115,443 women who received prenatal care, 14.87% received an influenza vaccine

On the Complexity of the Equivalence Problem for Probabilistic Automata

Checking two probabilistic automata for equivalence has been shown to be a key problem for efficiently establishing various behavioural and anonymity properties of probabilistic systems. In recent experiments a randomised equivalence test based on polynomial identity testing outperformed deterministic algorithms. In this paper we show that polynomial identity testing yields efficient algorithms for various generalisations of the equivalence problem. First, we provide a randomized NC procedure that also outputs a counterexample trace in case of inequivalence. Second, we show how to check for equivalence two probabilistic automata with (cumulative) rewards. Our algorithm runs in deterministic polynomial time, if the number of reward counters is fixed. Finally we show that the equivalence problem for probabilistic visibly pushdown automata is logspace equivalent to the Arithmetic Circuit Identity Testing problem, which is to decide whether a polynomial represented by an arithmetic circuit is identically zero.Comment: technical report for a FoSSaCS'12 pape

The Association Between Inadequate Gestational Weight Gain and Infant Death Among U.S. Infants Born 2004-2008

Infant mortality is of great public health importance and its prevalence is often used as a summary indicator of a population's reproductive health status. Programmatic and policy focus on prematurity and birth weight stems largely from their known relationship to infant mortality and morbidity. A large body of literature exists linking poor gestational weight gain to prematurity and low birth weight, but its association with infant mortality is less well understood. Few nationally representative studies have examined infant death as an important pregnancy outcome of inadequate gestational weight gain and even fewer have explored its psychosocial and demographic correlates. As a measure of healthy gestational weight gain, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published guidelines which provide a recommended weight gain for each category of pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI). Informed by the Biomedical and Biopsychosocial models, this study examined the association between the IOM measure of inadequate gestational weight gain and risk of infant mortality by conducting secondary analyses of the 2005 Birth Cohort Linked Birth-Infant Death Data File (Cohort Linked File) and Phase 5 of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). An analysis of 160,011 women who participated in PRAMS between 2004 and 2008 was used to replicate the IOM guidelines and examine the link between gestational weight gain and risks of infant mortality within four months of birth. The PRAMS dataset was also used to analyze the association between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, weight gain, and infant death, as well as the influence of maternal stress on gestational weight gain. A separate analysis of 2,046,725 infants in the 2005 cohort linked file was conducted to quantify the risk of infant death associated with inadequate gestational weight gain as well as cause-specific mortality. Results from logistic and proportional hazards regression analyses suggest there is a substantial and significant association between inadequate gestational weight gain and infant death; however weight gain beyond the recommended amount may be protective. Inadequate gestational weight gain was associated with infant death from disorders relating to short gestation, fetal malnutrition, respiratory conditions, and birth defects. Receipt of adequate prenatal care was protective against inadequate gestational weight gain, but a positive association was not found between inadequate gestational weight gain and maternal stress. Implications for public health programs, policy, and future research are presented

A method for implementing lock-free shared data structures

We are interested in implementing data structures on shared memory multiprocessors. A natural model for these machines is an asynchronous parallel machine, in which the processors are subject to arbitrary delays. On such machines, it is desirable for algorithms to be {\em lock-free}, that is, they must allow concurrent access to data without using mutual exclusion. Efficient lock-free implementations are known for some specific data structures, but these algorithms do not generalize well to other structures. For most data structures, the only previously known lock-free algorithm is due to Herlihy. Herlihy presents a simple methodology to create a lock-free implementation of a general data structure, but his approach can be very expensive. We present a technique that provides the semantics of exclusive access to data without using mutual exclusion. Using this technique, we devise the {\em caching method}, a general method of implementing lock-free data structures that is provably better than Herlihy's methodology for many well-known data structures. The cost of one operation using the caching method is proportional to $T \log T$, where $T$ is the sequential cost of the operation. Under Herlihy's methodology, the cost is proportional to $T + C$, where $C$ is the time needed to make a logical copy of the data structure. For many data structures, such as arrays and {\em well connected} pointer-based structures (e.g., a doubly linked list), the best known value for $C$ is proportional to the size of the structure, making the copying time much larger than the sequential cost of an operation. The new method can also allow {\em concurrent updates} to the data structure; Herlihy's methodology cannot. A correct lock-free implementation can be derived from a correct sequential implementation in a straightforward manner using this method. The method is also flexible; a programmer can change many of the details of the default implementation to optimize for a particular pattern of data structure use