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Babies born with low and very low birthweights -- i.e., birthweights below 2,500 and 1,500 grams, respectively -- have an increased risk of complications compared to other babies, and the proportion of babies with a low birthweight is a…
Reducing the global burden of stillbirths is important to improving child and maternal health. Of interest is understanding patterns in the timing of stillbirths -- that is, whether they occur in the intra- or antepartum period -- because…
Preterm birth rate (PBR) stands out as a major public health concern in the U.S. However, effective policies for mitigating the problem is largely unknown. The complexities of the problem raise critical questions: Why is PBR increasing…
Racialized economic segregation, a key metric that simultaneously accounts for spatial, social and income polarization, has been linked to adverse health outcomes, including morbidity and mortality; however, statistical methods for…
Preterm births occur at an alarming rate of 10-15%. Preemies have a higher risk of infant mortality, developmental retardation and long-term disabilities. Predicting preterm birth is difficult, even for the most experienced clinicians. The…
Scientific evidence confirm that significant racial disparities exist in healthcare, including surgery outcomes. However, the causal pathway underlying disparities at preoperative physical condition of children is not well-understood. This…
This paper proposes a Bayesian hierarchical model to characterize the relationship between birth weight and maternal pre-eclampsia across gestation at a large maternity hospital in urban Uganda. Key scientific questions we investigate…
Understanding the relationship between change in crime over time and the geography of urban areas is an important problem for urban planning. Accurate estimation of changing crime rates throughout a city would aid law enforcement as well as…
During the perinatal period, psychosocial health risks, including depression and intimate partner violence, are associated with serious adverse health outcomes for parents and children. To appropriately intervene, healthcare professionals…
To what extent can the strength of a local urban community impact neighborhood safety? We construct measures of community vibrancy based on a unique dataset of block party permit approvals from the City of Philadelphia. Our first measure…
The analysis of population-wide datasets can provide insight on the health status of large populations so that public health officials can make data-driven decisions. The analysis of such datasets often requires highly parameterized models…
Statistical analyses of urban environments have been recently improved through publicly available high resolution data and mapping technologies that have been adopted across industries. These technologies allow us to create metrics to…
Preterm birth is the most common cause of neonatal death. Current diagnostic methods that assess the risk of preterm birth involve the collection of maternal characteristics and transvaginal ultrasound imaging conducted in the first and…
Birth weight serves as a fundamental indicator of neonatal health, closely linked to both early medical interventions and long-term developmental risks. Traditional predictive models, often constrained by limited feature selection and…
The opioid crisis remains one of the most daunting and complex public health problems in the United States. This study investigates the national epidemic by analyzing vulnerability profiles of three key factors: opioid-related mortality…
Estimation of stillbirth rates globally is complicated because of the paucity of reliable data from countries where most stillbirths occur. We compiled data and developed a Bayesian hierarchical temporal sparse regression model for…
Infant mortality remains a significant public health concern in the United States, with birth defects identified as a leading cause. Despite ongoing efforts to understand the causes of negative pregnancy outcomes like miscarriage,…
Background:Adverse reproductive history is a multisystemic risk factor, but evidence is constrained by isolated outcome studies, limited adjustment, and non-interpretable algorithmic models. We re-frame the estimand from prediction to…
Women's health in Bangladesh faces risks due to an alarming rise in cesarean section (CS) rates, exceeding 72% in hospital-based deliveries, far surpassing the WHO's recommended limit of 15%. This study, guided by the Health Belief Model…
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy remain a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity worldwide, yet diagnosis relies on intermittent cuff-based blood pressure measurements that are prone to bias and fail to capture continuous…