Center Communications

Our paper, “Uptake and correlates of cervical cancer screening among women attending a community-based multi-disease health campaign in Kenya,” is published in the BMC Women’s Health. In this paper, we describe the acceptability and uptake of a model of integrated HPV-based cervical cancer screening as part of a series of multi-disease community health campaigns offered in Kisumu, Kenya. We also describe the prevalence and predictors of both screening and positive HPV results among women attending these campaigns. Although there is an increased risk of cervical cancer among women living with HIV, many HIV-care programs do not offer integrated cervical cancer screening. To address the cervical cancer screening gap in Kenya, we leveraged the community health campaigns facilitated by the Family AIDS Care & Education Services and provided multi-disease testing to achieve a high population coverage for HIV-testing and HPV-based cervical cancer screening in western Kenya, an area with high rates of HIV. In addition to HIV testing, the campaigns provided screening...

We are the Natural Language Processing group from the Big Data for Reproductive Health Bass Connections team. Our names are Lynne Wang, Foxx Hart, Alexandra Lawrence, and Neha Shrishail. Currently, we are working through “Text Mining with R” to gain a better understanding of text mining, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling. Additionally, we are examining the stigma summary scale as well as other texts related to stigma to form a solid foundation on the resources at hand. We are interested in this project for the opportunity to learn new technical and project management skills, as well as dive deeper into the emerging interdisciplinary space between quantitative machine learning and qualitative social science research. We’re especially excited to apply these methods to an important area in global reproductive health. At the end of our research, we hope to become proficient in using natural language processing and gain a better understanding of how it can be applied to future projects....

The reproductive health needs of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) have been historically overlooked. Despite having an equal or greater chance of pregnancy, women with IDDs face significant barriers to accessing contraception. Publicly available survey data exclude individuals who live in institutional settings or require communication assistance, and little is known about the landscape of sexual and reproductive health services within residential facilities. To address these gaps, this Bass Connections Student Research Award project aims to analyze differences in access to and use of contraceptive services among women of reproductive age in North Carolina, as well as understand offerings, needs, facilitators, and barriers relating to contraception within public and private residential facilities. Linear regression and clustering techniques will be applied to a robust Medicaid claims dataset to evaluate contraceptive insertion, surveillance, and removal by disability status. In addition, in-depth interviews will be conducted with administrators, clinicians, and social workers at six residential facilities in North Carolina. The final...

The Student Advisory Board aims to increase engagement with the Center by fostering academic collaboration and advocacy efforts. Now in its third year, the SAB has grown to encompass undergraduates and graduate students across Duke. Over the past few years, student work has been featured on the Center's website as well as newsletters. Students have also helped bring in multiple speakers from various backgrounds, including researchers and SRH advocacy organizations. This year, the Student Advisory Board consists of the Communications Working Group and the Events Working Group. I'm pleased to be working with Angela and Lauren as they are leading both of these groups and are planning incredible ways for students to get more involved with the Center. Hear more about the work they are doing below. From Angela Huang, the Communications Working Group Chair: The Student Advisory Board Communications Committee, made up of both undergraduate and post-graduate students, sets out to form connections between the Duke student populace with the Center for...