Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
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Description
Ecological modeling can be used to analyze health risk behaviors and their relationship to ecological factors, which is useful in determining how social environmental factors influence an individual’s decisions. Environmental interactions shape the way that humans behave throughout the day, either through observation, action, or consequences. Specifically, health risk behaviors can be analyzed in relation to ecological factors. Alcohol drinking among college students has been a long concern and there are many risks associated with these behaviors in this population. Consistent engagement in health risk behaviors as a college student, such as drinking and smoking, can pose a much larger issues later in life and can lead to many different health problems. A research study was conducted in the form of a 27 question survey to determine and evaluate the impact of ecological factors on drinking and smoking behaviors among Arizona State University students. Ecological factors such as demographics, living conditions, contexts of social interactions, and places where students spend most of their time were used to evaluate the relationship between drinking and smoking behaviors and the ecological factors, both on- and off- campus. The sample size of this study is 541 students. Statistical tests were conducted using Excel and RStudio to find relationships between patterns of health risk behaviors and various ecological factors. The data from the survey was analyzed to address three main questions. The first question analyzed drinking behaviors in relation to demographics, specifically gender and race. The second question assessed drinking behaviors with participation in Greek life and clubs on campus. The third question evaluated the relationship between health risk behaviors and students’ living conditions, such as living on or off campus. The results show that while gender does not have a statistically significant influence on drinking behaviors, race does. White individuals are more likely to engage in drinking behaviors and are more at risk than non-whites. Participation in Greek life was shown to be statistically significant in determining health risk behaviors, while involvement in clubs was not. Finally, on campus students are less likely to engage in health risk behaviors than off-campus students.
ContributorsWerbick, Meghan Lindsay (Co-author) / Andrade, Amber (Co-author) / Naik, Sparshee (Co-author) / Mubayi, Anuj (Thesis director) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
More than 40% of all U.S. opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved a prescription opioid, with more than 46 people dying every day from overdoses involving prescription opioids, (CDC, 2017). Over the years, lawmakers have implemented policies and laws to address the opioid epidemic, and many of these vary from state to state. This study will lay out the basic guidelines of common pieces of legislation. It also examines relationships between 6 state-specific prescribing or preventative laws and associated changes in opioid-related deaths using a longitudinal cross-state study design (2007-2015). Specifically, it uses a linear regression to examine changes in state-specific rates of opioid-related deaths after implementation of specific policies, and whether states implementing these policies saw smaller increases than states without these policies. Initial key findings of this study show that three policies have a statistically significant association with opioid related overdose deaths are—Good Samaritan Laws, Standing Order Laws, and Naloxone Liability Laws. Paradoxically, all three policies correlated with an increase in opioid overdose deaths between 2007 and 2016. However, after correcting for the potential spurious relationship between state-specific timing of policy implementation and death rates, two policies have a statistically significant association (alpha <0.05) with opioid overdose death rates. First, the Naloxone Liability Laws were significantly associated with changes in opioid-related deaths and was correlated with a 0.33 log increase in opioid overdose death rates, or a 29% increase. This equates to about 1.39 more deaths per year per 100,000 people. Second, the legislation that allows for 3rd Party Naloxone prescriptions correlated with a 0.33 log decrease in opioid overdose death rates, or a 29% decrease. This equates to 1.39 fewer deaths per year per 100,000 people.
ContributorsDavis, Joshua Alan (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05