Environmental health risk relationships, responsibility, and sources of information among Vietnamese Americans in coastal Mississippi

Statistical characterization of managerial risk factors: a case of state-run hospitals in India

Public healthcare institutions are the crucial component in the social and economic development of a nation, particularly India. However, public hospitals in India confront multiple operational risk factors that compromise patient satisfaction. Although all the risk factors are essentially critical, the impact potential of any risk factor is ultimately determined by its ability to induce other risk factors. The current research derives motivation from these scenarios and investigates the characteristics of crucial operational risk factors experienced in the public healthcare sector in a South Indian state. Extensive questionnaire-based surveys were conducted among civilians and healthcare professionals in two phases, i.e., prior to the COVID-19 crisis and during the COVID-19 crisis, for identifying significant risk factors. The collected data is analysed using statistical techniques like exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and partial least squares based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to characterise the inter-relationships between risk factors. The research discloses the translational effect of administrative/infrastructure constraints in public hospitals in compromising the operational performance indirectly through human-related issues rather than having a direct influence. More precisely, the presented model indicates that risk factors like the physical infrastructure limitations and shortage of staff will overburden the existing employees, resulting in human-related issues, including attitudinal issues of employees and community mistrusts and misbelieves. The results reveal seemingly resolvable budget allocation issues, but at the same time alarms the authorities to execute immediate countermeasures. Ultimately, this research seeks to empower public hospital administrators with interesting insights and managerial implications drawn from the statistical models.

Economic and mental health impacts of multiple adverse events: Hurricane Harvey, other flooding events, and the COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVES

To assess the economic and mental health impacts of COVID-19 in the presence of previous exposure to flooding events.

METHODS

Starting in April 2018, the Texas Flood Registry (TFR) invited residents to complete an online survey regarding their experiences with Hurricane Harvey and subsequent flooding events. Starting in April 2020, participants nationwide were invited to complete a brief online survey on their experiences during the pandemic. This study includes participants in the TFR (N = 20,754) and the COVID-19 Registry (N = 8568) through October 2020 (joint N = 2929). Logistic regression and generalized estimating equations were used to examine the relationship between exposure to flooding events and the economic and mental health impacts of COVID-19.

RESULTS

Among COVID-19 registrants, 21% experienced moderate to severe anxiety during the pandemic, and 7% and 12% of households had difficulty paying rent and bills, respectively. Approximately 17% of Black and 15% of Hispanic households had difficulty paying rent, compared to 5% of non-Hispanic white households. The odds of COVID-19 income loss are 1.20 (1.02, 1.40) times higher for those who previously had storm-related home damage compared to those who did not and 3.84 (3.25-4.55) times higher for those who experienced Harvey income loss compared to those who did not. For registrants for whom Harvey was a severe impact event, the odds of having more severe anxiety during the pandemic are 5.14 (4.02, 6.58) times higher than among registrants for whom Harvey was a no meaningful impact event.

CONCLUSIONS

Multiple crises can jointly and cumulatively shape health and wellbeing outcomes. This knowledge can help craft emergency preparation and intervention programs.

Cross-Cultural Environmental Research: Lessons from the Field

Environmental research with diverse stakeholders poses challenges for researchers, particularly when that research is also cross-cultural and/or cross-language. We argue that cross-cultural and/or cross-language environmental research requires translators and interpreters as active research partners, culture brokers and community partners to support research accountability and engagement, and that face-to-face surveys address challenges of other survey modes in cross-language and/or cross-cultural research. Drawing upon cross-cultural and cross-language environmental research with Vietnamese-American fishers on the U.S. Gulf Coast, we find that face-to-face surveys may promote response rate and allow for clarification, particularly for participants with language and cultural barriers. Translators, interpreters, culture brokers, and community partners play a critical role in cross-language and cross-cultural research and researchers must reflect on their role shaping research.

Does Individuals' Perception of Wastewater Pollution Decrease Their Self-Rated Health? Evidence from China

Background: This study used original survey data to quantitatively investigate the associations between individuals’ perception of locally present wastewater pollution and their self-rated health. Methods: This research used the data from large-scale surveys covering all the 31 provinces and equivalent administrative units in mainland China and interviewed 6112 participants. The ordered logit method was employed to estimate the models. Results: The results indicated that individuals’ perceptions of local industrial and domestic wastewater pollution significantly decrease their self-rated health. If industrial wastewater pollution was reported, the possibility of the observers indicating lower levels of self-rated current health, comparing to the past year, and comparing with peers, all increased by 26% (p < 0.001), 23% (p = 0.005), and 18% (p = 0.006), respectively. Likewise, perceived domestic wastewater pollution led to the increase by 21% (p = 0.012), 17% (p = 0.034), and 33% (p = 0.000), respectively. Meanwhile, reported industrial wastewater pollution also has an obvious negative effect on individuals’ health performance, such as being more fatigued and upset. Conclusions: The survey clearly shows that Chinese individuals who are aware of water pollution in their living environment tend to experience more negative health outcomes, which adds additional urgency to improving wastewater treatment.

"The More We Know, the More We're Able to Help": Participatory Development of an Evaluation Framework for Community Health Worker Programs

CONTEXT

It is critical to evaluate community health worker (CHW) programs to maximize effectiveness. However, there is little consensus, and structure, for how to evaluate such programs.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to develop a flexible framework for evaluating components of CHW programs in community and clinical settings.

DESIGN

Semistructured interviews were conducted with CHWs and their supervisors to determine evaluation categories for the framework. A survey was then administered to pilot the framework at federally qualified health centers and community-based organizations with existing CHW programs.

SETTING

Eighteen federally qualified health centers and community-based organizations in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants consisted of 23 CHWs and 19 CHW supervisors.

RESULTS

Interview participants directly informed the development of an evaluation framework for CHW programs. The framework consists of 7 evaluation categories: client relations, intraorganizational relations, interorganizational relations, capacity development, program effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and sustainability. Survey respondents specified best practices for program implementation for each evaluation category. Recommendations for CHW program evaluation include tailoring evaluation efforts and data collection methods to program context, using mixed-methods approaches for collecting evaluation data, and streamlining evaluation efforts with an organization's existing evaluation systems.

CONCLUSIONS

The evaluation framework is a flexible and practical model for collecting information needed for monitoring and evaluating CHW programs. By relying on practitioners' perspectives, this study contributes to an evidence base for implementing and evaluating CHW programs.

Development and Validation of the Haze Risk Perception Scale and Influencing Factor Scale-A Study Based on College Students in Beijing

Although Beijing's air quality has improved, there is still a long way to go for haze governance. In order to understand haze risk perception and related influencing factors among college students in Beijing, we developed and verified two scales, with college students as the survey object, and analyzed the theoretical framework and realistic level of haze risk perception and influencing factors through empirical research. We showed that the reliability and validity of the two scales are excellent, and they can be used as a powerful tool to measure college students' perception of haze. The haze risk perception scale (HRPS) is divided into four dimensions. The degrees of perception ranked from high to low are: direct consequences perception, indirect consequences perception, risk responsibility perception and risk source perception. The haze risk perception influencing factor scale (HRPIFS) is divided into three dimensions. The degrees of influence ranked from high to low are: personal emotion, media communication and government policy; the three influencing factors all have a significant positive correlation to overall haze risk perception, but personal emotions and media communication are only significantly related to the three dimensions of direct consequence perception, indirect consequence perception and risk source perception. Government policy is only significantly related to the three dimensions of direct consequence perception, indirect consequence perception and risk liability perception. This paper proves the important role of media in haze risk perception and puts forward some policy suggestions to guide the public to form a rational risk perception. These findings can help improve theoretical and practical research related to haze risk.