Oral Health Prevention Interventions Targeting the Latinx Population in United States: A Scoping Review

Oral Health Prevention Interventions Targeting the Latinx Population in United States: A Scoping Review Anyi A. Rodriguez, Dept. of Forensic Science, with Dr. Dina Tamar Garcia, VCU Health Behavior and Policy The Latinx population is the second-largest ethnic group in the United States (U.S.). This large and growing population is disproportionately impacted by oral diseases, including Early Childhood Caries (ECC) and periodontitis. They also face several barriers accessing dental care such as lacking a regular source of care, being uninsured/underinsured, and language barriers. Despite the high oral health needs and barriers to dental care present within this population, little has been done to understand the current state of the literature concerning research related to this population. To address this gap in the literature, a scoping review of literature regarding oral health behavior and intervention studies targeting the U.S. Latinx population was conducted following the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and the Tricco et al. (2018) Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Review Guidelines. Four scholarly databases (Embase, Ovid Medline, DOSS, CINAHL) were searched from inception to December 13, 2019 for peer-reviewed articles published in English or Spanish. Four reviewers independently screened articles at the title-abstract level using Rayyan QCRI software. Articles were included if they focused on the Latinx population in the United States and mentioned oral health. Conflicting decisions were resolved by consensus between the reviewers. A total of 3096 articles were identified through the scholarly databases, of which 31 were duplicates. Initial results from the abstract selection phase yielded 208 of 3065 articles for full-length article review. Articles were excluded because they did not focus on the U.S. Latinx population or mentioned oral health, had a biological focus, or were formats other than research studies (e.g. reviews, editorials, conference abstracts). Full-text review of the articles is currently underway, to be followed by data charting using REDCap. Studies will then be summarized using qualitative synthesis. Results from the scoping review will inform the direction of future oral health prevention intervention research.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1384/thumbnail.jp

Blocking Mixed-Level Factorials with SAS

Orthogonal array screening designs for mixed-level or asymmetric factorials have recently become popular. Tables of designs and software for creating these designs are readily available to practitioners. However, confounded block designs for mixed-level factorials are not as popular partly due to the fact that software for creating these designs has not been well publicized. Classical methods for creating confounded-block mixed-level factorials normally described in textbooks utilize modular arithmetic or finite fields. In the recent literature optimal design theory has also been proposed as method for creating these designs. Although no examples are shown in the online documentation, both classical and optimal confounded-block mixed-level factorials can be easily created using SAS data step programming in conjunction with proc plan, proc factex or proc optex. In this article we show examples of creating these designs in SAS, and we compare the properties of designs created by classical methods and optimal design theory

Establishing a Community-Academic Partnership to Investigate the Sociopolitical Context of Oral Care Among Refugees Resettled in Richmond, Virginia

Establishing a Community-Academic Partnership to Investigate the Sociopolitical Context of Oral Care Among Refugees Resettled in Richmond, Virginia Tatiana Brown, Depts. of Anthropology, Medical Humanities, & Mathematics, with Dr. Dina Garcia, Dept. of Health Behavior and Policy This study has established a community-academic partnership between four organizations and VCU Health Behavior and Policy’s Kalpulli Research Team to investigate the sociopolitical context of oral health needs among refugees resettling in Richmond, Virginia. In the year 2018, 1,689 refugees resettled in the state of Virginia; 47.7 percent of this population reported oral health needs during their initial health assessment screening. Despite the oral health needs present within this population, little is known about the facilitators and barriers to dental care access for this population post-resettlement. Creating a partnership with two local resettlement agencies (e.g., the International Rescue Committee, Commonwealth Catholic Charities), the Department of Social Services (DSS), and VA Department of Health’s Newcomer (Refugee) Health Program, in addition to having a transdisciplinary research team, enable the development of a holistic representation within, and of, the refugee community. The use of semi-structured interviews is the strongest approach to build the research team’s understanding of community perceptions towards access to oral health care, refugee health workers’ identified barriers to equitable care, and providers’ attitudes towards treating the refugee and Medicaid population. Community partners are key in shaping study recruitment, determining which interview questions will be most salient, and creating an effective intervention from the results. This partnership plans to create two collaborative interventions: a process map to help refugees better navigate establishing care with local providers and “oral care cards” in the top three refugee languages (Arabic, Farsi/Dhari, and Swahili) to be distributed through dental providers in the area.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1356/thumbnail.jp

Stakeholder Perceptions of Health Needs in Refugee Populations in the Greater Richmond Area

Stakeholder Perceptions of Health Needs in Refugee Populations in the Greater Richmond Area Ashley Koo, Depts. of Medical Anthropology and Chemistry, Matt Tessama, and Tatiana Brown, with Dr. Dina Garcia, Dept. of Health Behavior and Policy A refugee is a person outside of the country of his or her nationality who is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on her race, religion, nationality, or membership in a certain social group. The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees estimates that in 2018, approximately 22,500 refugees were resettled in the U.S. with 1,805 arrived in Virginia. Many of these refugees face multiple health challenges post-resettlement, particularly in oral health. Although these oral health needs are a recognized concern, there is very little information to support what the specific facilitators and barriers to dental care access is for this population. The long-term objective of this study is to identify the largest gaps in healthcare access for refugee populations, and plan an intervention to bridge these gaps through local clinics. The health and oral health needs of refugees post-resettlement can be determined through one-on-one semi-structured interviews with health liaisons. The participants will be recruited from a list of organizations involved in refugee resettlement and employment, including the Virginia Department of Health, Commonwealth Catholic Charities, ReEstablish Richmond and the International Rescue Committee. The interviews will allow stakeholders to share their experience serving the refugee community, their perspective on health needs that are present in this population and ideas on how to address these needs. The interviews will be audiotaped and then transcribed via research participants and stored in the password-protected MAXQDA software. There exists a link between dental/ oral health and overall health: untreated dental cavities can lead to cardiovascular issues and can be fatal. Intervention within the community is needed to increase healthcare access; analyzing stakeholder perspectives will allow greater understanding of what inequities exist for refugee populations in the Greater Richmond area.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1374/thumbnail.jp

Relationships between Lower-body Power, Sprint and Change of Direction Speed among Collegiate Basketball Players by Sex

International Journal of Exercise Science 15(6): 974-984, 2022. The purpose of this study was to determine if significant relationships exist between absolute and relative lower-body power and selected measures of speed among male and female collegiate basketball players. Archived performance testing data from 29 (male = 14; female = 15) NCAA division II collegiate basketball players were used for this analysis. These measures included lane agility, 10-yard sprint, and shuttle run time (sec). A Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to determine if significant relationships existed between measures of lower-body power and linear sprint time, change of direction speed (CODS), and shuttle performance. Statistical significance was set a priori at p ≤ 0.05. A significant large correlation was found between absolute power and lane agility (r = 0.54, p = 0.05) among male players. No significant correlations were found between absolute or relative power for 10-yard sprint times, lane agility, or shuttle run performance (p \u3e 0.05). Females showed no significant correlations between relative power and lane agility (r = -0.25, p = 0.37) or 10-yard sprint (r = -0.47, p = 0.08), but did show a significant large correlation (r = -0.64, p = 0.01) between relative power and shuttle run performance. Generating high amounts of relative power is vital in intermittent team sports such as basketball. In particular, this study provided evidence that relative power in female collegiate basketball players is significantly related to shuttle run ability

‘Off With Their Heads’: British Prime Ministers and the Power to Dismiss

The British prime minister’s power to appoint and dismiss ministers is probably his most important single power. This article explores how prime ministers from Macmillan to Blair have used that power. The article considers the criteria that prime ministers use when choosing to appoint or dismiss individuals from office before examining the calculations and miscalculations that prime ministers have made in practice. Finally, the article analyses the way that prime ministers have exercised, in particular, their power to dismiss and finds that Thatcher was far more likely than others to sack cabinet colleagues on ideological or policy grounds. The article emphasizes that prime ministers’ relationships with especially powerful ministers – ‘big beasts of the jungle’ – are crucial to an understanding of British government at the top.</jats:p