Presenter Information

Andrew Guymon
Brianna McGowen
Emma Foster

Description

In December 2014, a team of church members and associated healthcare workers from Owasso First Assembly in Owasso, Oklahoma, provided a free, two-day clinic and health assessment to the rural community of La Ceiba Dudu in Nicaragua. Services included medical exams, basic medications, dental extractions, and over the counter reading glasses. This report is a retrospective review of the patient records documented at that clinic. We analyzed the prevalence of parasites across five age cohorts and searched for correlations between parasite diagnosis and various patient metrics, including BMI, age, and gender. We searched for a relationship between occupants per household and the number of medical diagnoses and the average blood pressure of each occupant. We searched for a correlation between parasite diagnosis and gastroesophageal reflux, infection, allergies, and arthritis diagnoses. The study lacked power and thus the ability to decisively detect correlations at the α=0.05 significance level. However, average blood pressure correlated inversely to the number of occupants in the patient’s household (p=0.06), and parasite diagnosis correlated marginally with decreased BMI (p=0.07).

Keywords:

Health demographics, public health, parasites, medical mission trips, statistical analysis, rural community, Latin America

Department

Biology

Included in

Biology Commons

Share

COinS
 
Apr 16th, 12:00 AM

2014 Health Demographics of a Rural Nicaraguan Community

In December 2014, a team of church members and associated healthcare workers from Owasso First Assembly in Owasso, Oklahoma, provided a free, two-day clinic and health assessment to the rural community of La Ceiba Dudu in Nicaragua. Services included medical exams, basic medications, dental extractions, and over the counter reading glasses. This report is a retrospective review of the patient records documented at that clinic. We analyzed the prevalence of parasites across five age cohorts and searched for correlations between parasite diagnosis and various patient metrics, including BMI, age, and gender. We searched for a relationship between occupants per household and the number of medical diagnoses and the average blood pressure of each occupant. We searched for a correlation between parasite diagnosis and gastroesophageal reflux, infection, allergies, and arthritis diagnoses. The study lacked power and thus the ability to decisively detect correlations at the α=0.05 significance level. However, average blood pressure correlated inversely to the number of occupants in the patient’s household (p=0.06), and parasite diagnosis correlated marginally with decreased BMI (p=0.07).

 

If you are not able to view the PDF in your browser, try using Google Chrome.

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.