East Tennessee State University

Determinants of influenza vaccination during the 2021/2022 influenza season in the United States: interactive roles of immunosuppression, cancer diagnosis, and healthcare access barriers

Despite current gains in public health awareness and cost-reduction strategies to accelerate vaccination against influenza during yearly influenza seasons, the U.S. adult population, especially those with immunosuppression and cancer, has yet to achieve its target vaccination rat...

Lack of Primary Care Continuity Predicts Readmission Risk Among Socially Vulnerable Trauma Populations

Introduction Early unplanned trauma readmission (UR-30) is not well-understood. Social vulnerability indices (SVIs) and primary care access were postulated as contributing factors to discharge outcomes. Methods Retrospective propensity-matched analysis at a Level I Trauma Center...

Understanding Youth Screen Time and Mental Health: A Natural Language Processing Topic Modeling Analysis

Youth excessive screen time and mental health challenges continue to be a public health concern. Guided by a social cognitive theoretical framework, this study explored the utility of using natural language processing (NLP) topic modeling and qualitative triangulation for underst...

Infant and early childhood mental health professionals’ attitudes toward a system of professional endorsement: A quantitative examination of personal factors, professional support, and perceived benefits

Abstract Demand for recognition of the specialized knowledge and skills required of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) practitioners, researchers, and policymakers resulted in the establishment of standardized professional credentials that document this expertise. H...

Perceptions of Workplace Demands and Intentions to Leave Among the Rural and Urban Local US Public Health Workforce, 2024: Wearing Multiple Hats.

. 2026;116(S5):S406-S414. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308738).

Local Health Department Supervisor Experiences, Resources, and Satisfaction by Rurality.

. 2026;116(S5):S393-S397. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308771).

One Health prioritization and comparative ranking of antimicrobial-resistant organisms of concern at the human–companion animal interface in Tennessee

Antimicrobial-resistance (AMR) at the human–companion animal interface is a growing One Health concern, yet state-level prioritization to guide surveillance and response remains limited. We aimed to apply a two-stage One Health prioritization process and comparatively rank AMR or...

The Intentionality Gap: Reconceptualizing Interpersonal Deception Theory and the Persuasion Knowledge Model for anthropomorphic AI agents

Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) and the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) have anchored the study of deception in marketing communications for three decades. Both assume that communicators possess actual intent: IDT defines deception as a message knowingly transmitted to fost...

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-18 Item: An Examination of Measurement Invariance Across Sex and Its Association with Criminal Behavior in the U.S

Emotion dysregulation (ED) is related to many risk behaviors in emerging adults (EA), including criminal behavior (CB). Although the difficulties in emotion regulation scale-18 (DERS-18) is widely used to assess ED, it is unclear whether this measure captures ED across sex. This...

People who use drugs as frontline responders: Rethinking overdose response training through lived experience

Background The United States continues to experience an unprecedented overdose crisis driven by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and the increasing adulteration of the drug supply with substances including xylazine. Although overdose education and naloxone/Narcan distribution (...

From Biophilia to Stewardship: Human Wellbeing and Wetland Conservation Through Meaningful Human–Waterfowl Interactions

Human–animal interactions have been associated with numerous benefits for human wellbeing, yet their potential contributions to conservation have received comparatively little theoretical attention. The biophilia hypothesis proposes that humans possess an innate tendency to affil...

The Link Between Opioid Misuse and Suicidal Ideation Is Strongest Among Sexual Minorities

ABSTRACT Opioid misuse and suicidal ideation (SI) are significant public health concerns in the United States, and incidence rates may be elevated among sexual minority people. We used data from the 2021 National Survey on Drug and Health (heterosexual, n = 39,647, lesbian/gay n...

“I Was Determined to Take Control of My Own Body”: Self‐Managed Abortion in the US Appalachian Region

ABSTRACT Background Many people living along the Appalachian mountain region, which spread down the eastern side of the United States, experience limited access to abortion care and report high levels of distrust in health care providers. Therefore, Appalachians are likely to hav...

The Memphis Gambling Screen: A Clinical Validation Study of an Enhanced-Readability Self-Report Measure for Gambling Disorder

Precise identification of gambling disorder can be difficult when commonly used screeners vary in clarity and diagnostic accuracy. The Memphis Gambling Screen (MGS) was developed as an enhanced-readability self-report measure to improve item comprehension and strengthen the diagn...

A Large and Robust Legless Lizard (Squamata, Anguinae) from the Gray Fossil Site of Eastern Tennessee

The early Pliocene Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee preserved an abundance of microfossils, including numerous anguid lizard specimens. This includes the following elements: dentaries, a pterygoid fragment, a jugal, frontals, parietal fragments, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, and many...

Reapplication and Credential Completion Among Non-Selected Community College Health Science Applicants: A Social Stratification Perspective

Reapplication and Credential Completion Among Non-Selected Community College Health Science Applicants: A Social Stratification Perspective by Donna Whitehouse Community colleges serve as primary access points for healthcare workforce preparation, yet thousands of qualified appli...

Investigating the Role of CD11b in Recovery from Olfactory Injury: A Glial Perspective

The olfactory system is comprised of multiple cells that allow an organism the sense of smell. Olfactory sensory neurons in the nasal cavity bind to odorants and transmit signals interpreted by the brain as a scent. Throughout life, this population of neurons undergoes regular ce...

Distributed Leadership Applied: The Role of Professional Learning Communities in the Emergence and Development of Teacher Leadership

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to examine the processes through which teacher leadership is fostered and sustained among elementary and middle school educators who participate regularly in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), with a focus upon scho...

Understanding College Student Expectancies of Simultaneous Engagement in Multiple Risk Behaviors: A Measurement Development and Model Testing Study

Risky behaviors, actions that may cause physical, psychological, social, or economic harm to oneself or others, are prevalent among college students. While significant research has focused on single high-risk behaviors of alcohol use, drug use, gambling, and gaming separately, st...

Computational Studies of the Spin Trapping Potential of Gallic Acid and its Derivatives in the Reactions with Hydroxyl Free Radicals

Gallic acid (GA) and its derivatives are naturally occurring phenolic antioxidants that have been proposed as spin-trapping agents to study radical reactions in vivo. Despite significant interest, this has not been previously studied using computational chemistry methods. To asse...