Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- Creators: College of Health Solutions
Background: Recent studies have shown a decline in birth rates in large metropolitan areas (after accounting for population), which can be possibly explained by barriers to reproduction associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns. Objective: This study’s objective was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns on the fertility rates of women in reproductive ages living in Greater Phoenix. Methods: The total number of inpatient births and people in both Maricopa and Pinal Counties during pre-COVID-19 years (2017-2019) were compared with those during the COVID-19 years (2021) among women in reproductive ages (15-49 years). To make age-specific comparisons, women in reproductive years were divided into eight distinct age group categories (15-17, 18-20, and then five year age group categories to age 49) from which age-specific, general, and total fertility rates were calculated. Results: Using a two-sample z-test for difference in proportions, findings revealed that the general fertility rate in Greater Phoenix had significantly declined from 48 to 46 per 1,000 population from the pre-COVID-19 period to COVID-19 period (P<0.001). Two sample z-tests were also used to compare age-specific fertility rates, which revealed a significant decline in the fertility rate in women ages 15-17 (from 8.0/1000 to 5.0/1000) (P<0.001), 18-20 (from 43.0/1000 to 35.0/1000) (P<0.001), and 21-24 (from 79.0/1000 to 68.0/1000) (P<0.001) from the pre-COVID-19 period to COVID-19 period, while no significant change was observed in the fertility rate in women ages 25-49. Conclusions: The observed general fertility decline in Greater Phoenix as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic poses significant implications for further research on barriers to reproduction brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown measures. Another direction for further research involves possibly continuing this study to include years 2022 and 2023 in the COVID-19 period, as well as calculating age-specific fertility rates by race.
This study aimed to see how social media influences parents’ decisions to have their child(ren) vaccinated against the yearly influenza season. The literature review outlined the risks of influenza for children, the use of social media, and influenza vaccination rates. A survey was conducted to assess parents’ frequency of social media use, the information they saw about influenza and its vaccine on social media, their concerns about the influenza vaccine, and how social media influenced their decision-making to vaccinate their child(ren) against this virus. Overall, the sample population did not believe that social media platforms influenced their decision to vaccinate their children for the seasonal influenza. However, the data was insufficient to provide meaningful conclusions on whether there was a significant association between social media use and its influence on parental decisions about the influenza vaccine. Furthermore, data about the poor reliability of health information on social media platforms and the importance of the influenza vaccine was found in this study. Limitations of the study included responses from individuals with advanced educational levels and a background in the health sciences. This may have resulted in a pro-vaccine bias that would affect the results. Lastly, due to the small sample size, we only report preliminary findings for this topic. Future research should be conducted using a large and diverse sample to study the association between the use of specific social media platforms and its influence on parental decisions for influenza vaccine uptake.