Matthew Dunbar, Assistant Director of CSDE, recently published work on surveillance of HIV assisted partner services (aPS) using routine health information systems (HIS) in Kenya. The utilization of HIS for this purpose in sub-Saharan is lacking for a variety of reasons, but this research seeks to improve knowledge about its scope and quality. The team concluded that such surveillance could feasibly use new technologies and expand into HIV registries throughout the region. Full results are available below.
Thanks to CSDE’s research services, the team was able to leverage survey design tools, programming support, and data collection using the Open Data Kit (ODK) platform on Android cell phones. CSDE offers researchers a variety of assistance throughout every stage of their work—find out how your next study can benefit!
Do Recent Declines in U.S. Life Expectancy Signal Bad News for Healthy Life Expectancy?
Life expectancy for non-Hispanic white (henceforth white) Americans with less than high school education has fallen in recent years—particularly for women – while life expectancy has increased substantially for the college educated population. However, the extent to which the declines/increases in life expectancy translate into healthy life expectancy remains unclear.
Mark Hayward and his team combine data from the Health and Retirement Study and U.S. Vital Statistics, using the Sullivan method, to decompose the change in total life expectancy (TLE) to healthy life expectancy (HLE) and disabled life expectancy (DLE) between 2000 and 2010, specific to gender and education groups. They measured disabled life expectancy using both severe (ADL) and less severe (IADL) disability prevalence. Consistent with previous research, they find a modest downward/stable TLE change in the US is concentrated at the bottom end of the education distribution for whites and at ages prior to age 65. Although there was little change in TLE, substantial gains in DLE and losses in HLE were observed, due to the increased rates of disability (especially ADL disability) before age 70. Among the college educated, TLE increased substantially during the decade, especially among males. HLE also increased over the decade, with much of the increase from declining mortality after age 70. Much of the improvement in HLE from mortality was offset by a rise in IADL disability.
The demographic factors influencing HLE shifted from younger ages to advanced ages with higher levels of educational attainment. The findings show that focusing exclusively on the declines in life expectancy, and external causes of death, obfuscates a more dynamic decline in health among whites with low levels of education and significant improvements in health among highly educated persons.
Schedule a meeting with Dr. Mark Hayward here.
How does marriage put women at risk for contracting HIV? This talk analyzes the factors that have contributed to married women’s risk of contracting HIV in Hanoi, Vietnam since the mid 1990s. Attentive to the Vietnamese state’s efforts to govern the family, Harriet Phinney elucidates the ways in which Doi Moi [Renovation], government policies promulgated in 1986, shifted the nature of male sexual risk and in doing so structured and facilitated men’s opportunities for extramarital sex as well as women’s acquiescence to their husband’s infidelities.
The U.S. Census Bureau plans to post vacancy announcements for the following positions on Wednesday, December 7th.
- Entry-Level Recent Graduates Statisticians (includes Survey, Demographic, and Economic Statisticians)
- To qualify, you must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, and have completed within the previous two years (or by June 1, 2017) a qualifying associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, vocational or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying educational institution.
- Veterans unable to apply within two years of receiving their degree, due to military service obligation, have as much as six years after degree completion to apply
They are looking for candidates at all levels of education. Training in demographic analysis, survey research, economics, sociology, and/or quantitative analysis of large datasets is preferred. The announcements will have an application limit and may only be open for a short period of time.
To apply, visit www.usajobs.gov on December 7. Enter “BOC-2017-0057” in the search bar for the recent graduates announcement.
The Kirkland Firefighters’ union would like to hire a researcher with some training or experience in survey methodology to create a public safety survey. For more information, please contact Joel Bodenman at 509-899-9178.
This is a requisition mail from HIV/AIDS Research and Treatment – Open Journal, which is an open access journal that deals with advancements in the field of the following:
- Latest advances in immune system
- Popular HIV/AIDS medications
- Treatments in HIV
- Anti-retroviral agents
- Pain management
- Public policy perspectives
- Treatment/prevention options
- HIV care
- HIV/AIDS-related illnesses and complications
- Precautionary methods to prevent HIV/AIDS
- Analysis of important social and economic issues
- Current research and developments on other STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases)
Please submit your research in the form of articles and manuscripts relating to HIV/AIDS Research and Treatment. Articles from these fields but also from various other fields are appreciated. The article, once submitted, undergoes rigorous double-blinded peer-review process in order to earn the reputation for being published in Openventio Publishers. The following categories are accepted: Research, Review, Case report, Mini Review, Short communication, Opinion, Letter to the Editor, etc.
You may choose to submit the manuscript to editor.hartoj@openventio.org or through our online submission system: http://openventio.org/submitManuscript/submitmanuscriptform.php.
The NICHD issues and participates in various FOAs to support research activities and training using requests for applications (RFAs), program announcements (PAs/PARs), and requests for proposals (RFPs). In addition, NIH Guide Notices for NICHD provide updates on extramural policy issues related to funding and NICHD FOAs. There are four featured announcements below–click each for more information.
SLN# 20110
Dr. Rona Levy
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is the first of two, interrelated seminars on grant writing that will be offered in Winter 2017 and Spring 2017. Enrollment in both sections of the seminar is encouraged but not required. The goal of the first seminar is to provide doctoral students with basic fund acquisition, grant proposal writing and review skills such that by the conclusion of the course they will produce the foundation sections of a quality application, participate in a mock review of their colleagues’ applications. The seminar will also prepare students for the Spring seminar, which will cover the remaining grant application sections. Since they serve as a useful template for the development of grant acquisition skills across a number of fields, NIH F31 and K applications will provide the basic structural outline for the course. However, it is recognized that some students may ultimately apply the skills acquired toward other funding mechanisms. An overview of these applications and required sections will be covered. Specific sections to be written this quarter will include Specific Aims, Significance, Innovation and (if appropriate) Training Goals. In the following quarter, students will be expected to complete the remaining sections of a grant application, including the Approach, Budgeting, and Protection of Human Subjects. Priority will be given to social work doctoral students, but students from other departments will be admitted by instructor permission if space permits.
This workshop explores the basic functionality of the OGR python library. This free and open-source library enables users to work with a variety of spatial data formats. This workshop will implement reading and writing shapefiles as well as testing if a set of geographic coordinates are within a particular geographic boundary. Effectively, a point in polygon operation: one of the most frequently used operations when working with spatial data. This method can answer such questions as: Are these study participants in one census tract or another? What neighborhood is each city park within? Are these incidences of malaria in the city center or the outer neighborhoods? This workshop is recommended for people who have some experience programming in python (i.e. basic control flow and understanding the differences between a set, a dictionary, and a list).