Prevalence of mental health needs, particularly those related to anxiety, depression, and emotion regulation, are on the rise in higher education institutions (Auerbach et al., 2016; Blanco et al., 2008). Research has shown college and university student help-seeking behavior varies by identity and many students are often reluctant to seek support…

Approximately 11 million women and five million men in the United States report experiencing interpersonal violence (e.g., sexual violence, physical violence, psychological harassment, or stalking) before the age of 18 (CDC, n.d. -a). Victims may face a decline in grades, depression, anxiety, unwanted pregnancy, substance abuse, sexually…

Social determinants of health (SDOH) greatly impact an individual's health, yet health care professionals are undereducated on addressing SDOH when identified. While many factors influence and drive educational practices, there is a lack of guidance in understanding best practices in teaching SDOH in online undergraduate health programs. Through…

Health information is increasingly being shared online not just by credentialed sources such as physicians or health organizations, but also by patients with personal experience with a health concern. This dissertation proposes a new measure of vigilance-avoidance, or tendency to approach or avoid threatening stimuli, in order to understand how…

Information technology (IT) is playing a key role in health care improvement. IT artifacts enable better reach and access to health, allowing patients to manage care more effectively. Amongst various IT artifacts, a health infomediary is an online health platform that connects patients and providers with the purpose of sharing experience and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preferred method of learning about heart disease by adult learners. This research study also investigated if there was a statistically significant difference between race/ethnicity, age, and gender of adult learners and their preferred method of learning preventative heart disease care. This…

With rapid advancements in information and communication technologies, computer-mediated communication channels such as email, web, mobile smart-phones with SMS, social networking websites (Facebook), multimedia websites, and OEM devices provide users with multiple technology choices to seek information. However, no study has compared the…

This dissertation explores the use of personal health messages collected from online message forums to predict drug safety using natural language processing and machine learning techniques. Drug safety is defined as any drug with an active safety alert from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is believed that this is the first…

This randomized-controlled-trial aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-phone intervention system in preventing smoking relapse. The intervention was based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), incorporated with Motivational Interviewing strategies, and the Two-phase Model. One hundred and sixteen volunteer subjects were recruited from the…