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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, declared in March of 2020, there have been many lifestyle changes which have likely influenced tobacco smoking behavior. Such lifestyle changes include lockdowns, stay at home orders, reduction in social cues related to smoking, increased stress, and boredom among other things. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey which looked into these behaviors, primarily perceived risk to COVID-19, and determined if there is an association between perceived risk and education level/race. Education level is a proxy for income and material resources, therefore making it more likely that people with lower levels of education have fewer resources and higher perceived risk to negative effects of COVID-19. Additionally, people of color are often marginalized in the medical community along with being the target of heavy advertising by tobacco companies which have likely impacted risk to COVID-19 as well.
The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) are highly valid depressive testing tools used to measure the symptom profile of depression globally and in South Asia, respectively (Steer et al., 1998; Kroenke et al, 2001). Even though the South Asian population comprises only 23% of the world’s population, it represents one-fifth of the world’s mental health disorders (Ogbo et al., 2018). Although this population is highly affected by mental disorders, there is a lack of culturally relevant research on specific subsections of the South Asian population.<br/><br/>As such, the goal of this study is to investigate the differences in the symptom profile of depression in native and immigrant South Asian populations. We investigated the role of collective self-esteem and perceived discrimination on mental health. <br/><br/>For the purpose of this study, participants were asked a series of questions about their depressive symptoms, self-esteem and perceived discrimination using various depressive screening measures, a self-esteem scale, and a perceived discrimination scale.<br/><br/>We found that immigrants demonstrated higher depressive symptoms than Native South Asians as immigration was viewed as a stressor. First-generation and second-generation South Asian immigrants identified equally with somatic and psychological symptoms. These symptoms were positively correlated with perceived discrimination, and collective self-esteem was shown to increase the likelihood of these symptoms.<br/><br/>This being said, the results from this study may be generalized only to South Asian immigrants who come from highly educated and high-income households. Since seeking professional help and being aware of one’s mental health is vital for wellbeing, the results from this study may spark the interest in an open communication about mental health within the South Asian immigrant community as well as aid in the restructuring of a highly reliable and valid measurement to be specific to a culture.
Soiled: An Environmental Podcast is a six episode series where common environmental topics are discussed and misconceptions surrounding these topics are debunked.
For African countries during the 1960s and 70s, decolonization marked the first step in a slow crawl toward complete independence. For Western powers and the Soviet Union, however, decolonization presented an opportunity to exert new influence over countries in desperate need of aid, investment, experts, and trade. Amidst the backdrop of increasing Cold War tensions, the US and USSR used foreign aid to pressure development according to either capitalist or Marxist agendas. Thus, sub-Saharan Africa became a battleground of proxy wars and neocolonialism. The Cold War superpowers would back opposing regimes in Angola and prop up, oust, or assassinate leaders in Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania. This disrupted natural political development and created instability and violence, which was compounded by the arrival of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s. AIDS ravaged African societies and destroyed the remaining fibers of leadership. The disease illuminated harsh historical realities as it spread among the conflict-stricken countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the motivations behind US and USSR foreign aid during the Cold War, understand how their involvement halted the natural progression of pan-Africanism and leadership in newly-independent African countries, and link the resulting violence to the devastation of the AIDS crisis twenty years later. It begins with a look at European colonization in sub-Saharan Africa and traces the legacy of western influence in the region. The paper will then analyze specific examples of the consequences of historical interference, such as in the Angolan Civil War, the Congo Crisis, and the Rwandan genocide. It will introduce the AIDS crisis—coincident with major civil conflict and the end of the Cold War—and reveal the foreign aid response of the international community in the late 1990s and early 2000s, once Cold War-era pressures were gone. Through realizing the continued impact and spread of HIV/AIDS, the objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive view of the modern-day consequences of historical interference.
This thesis aims to examine vaccine preventable re-emerging infectious diseases in the United States with the objective of reaching vaccine hesitant populations and providing them with the tools to make informed decisions to seek out immunizations. This will be done by exploring five different diseases and infections, discussing why some individuals feel hesitant to get immunizations, examining how nonmedical vaccine exemptions are correlated to increased cases of disease outbreaks, looking into state laws specifically focused on countering nonmedical vaccine exemptions and the steps that can be taken moving forward.