World Congress on Health and Medical Sociology September 19-20, 2016 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Asami Yamashita received her Master of Science in Nursing from University of Health and Welfare. Asami has been investigating potential hazards in the child care environment and to promote preventive actions such as environmental modifi cations and behavioral changes. She also placed greater importance in educating parents and concerned people about the injury prevention. Her recent research investigates the role of parents in preventing children from injuries at home. Her research has been funded by grants from the Special Research Program of Yokohama Soei University and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

The top cause of death in infants has been “accidents” since 1960 in Japan, the fatalities account for about 30%. Th is study aimed to clarify how parents recognize the accidents which may happen to their infants and how they take safety measures against the accidents. Aft er obtaining approval from the ethics committee where the author belongs, a questionnaire survey (RR=45.6%) was conducted with parents having infants during a period of Dec. 2014 in May, 2015. Th e subjects include 132 fathers and 233 mothers. Forty seven fathers (35.6%) and 134 meters (57.5%) recognized the top cause of death in infants as accidents. Th e number of a daily basis safety measures taken by parents was 7.93; 6.68 by fathers and 8.63 by mothers. It was found the accidents happening to infants in their houses be recognized by less than half of the parents. Especially, only 35.6% of the fathers had the recognition. In line with the increase of women entering employment in Japan, fathers tend to cooperate in child care. However, the decrease in the capacity of home education and the change of home environment has been pointed out. In light of this.

Eduardo Blanco Cardoso has been graduated in Medicine (1987) from the Medical School - University of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (MS-UORU), obtained the title of Specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology (1991) by MS-UORU and Degree in Biological Sciences from the Faculty of Science-UORU (1991). He performed Master degree (1996), Doctorate (2000) and Post-Doctoral (2003) in Medicine, by the Medical School - University of Sao Paulo (MS-USP); Doctor of Science (2006) the same institution and Post-Doctoral in Sociology of Education (2016), by the School of Education-USP. His areas of research are: oncologic imaging in gynecologic malignancies, and social construction of cancer.

The cancer as a disease was set in the social imaginary. Individuals build their impressions from the contributions of doctors, media and popular discourses, making it difficult to prevent. Th e educational intervention in elementary and high school is centralized in disseminating “biomedical” information, remaining oblivious to the social connotations. Th e present study aims to identify in 980 adolescents, 12 to 18 years, their perceptions of the disease. For it, a voluntary and anonymous questionnaire was applied, which allowed a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the dice. Th e results indicate that the negative representations of cancer predominate in younger age groups, a fact that gradually decreases with advancing age. Th ey are not static and change structurally in dependence of the environments and social contexts, predominating in the male sex. Basically disease is viewed from three perspectives: “destruction”, focusing the expressions on the death, especially when there is a family history or known affected; “incurability” whose association with the death divides equally opinions regarding the binomials: life/death and heal/sicken, and fi nally “resolution”, depending on the diagnosis and early treatment. Despite there is consensus on the benefi ts of early diagnosis, most of the opinions describes the disease as invasive, painful, and cruel, with potential to extend. Th e obscure logic of "contagion" resurfaces in lay discourse as a possible means of transmission. In the perception of the students, “traditional barriers for access” to the health system, provable in the adult world, continue to be an obstacle to the cure.

Christine Machado-Denis is a doctoral candidate at Albizu University. She is completing a clinical psychology degree with a specialization in Behavioral Medicine. She is currently training at the University of Miami/Jackson Health System in the consultation/liaison service. She strives to expand her research of behavioral cardiology and work with cardiac transplantation. Currently, she is contributing a book chapter discussing Psychopharmacology and cardiac rehabilitation.

Heart disease is among the leading causes of death in the United States and behavioral health plays a significant role in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Lack of healthy behaviors and adherence with medical treatment regimens is oft en at the root of readmission rates. HF patients contribute to high hospital readmission rates nationwide. Due to the increase in hospital readmission rates, Healthcare Management is holding hospitals accountable for patients who are readmitted within thirty days. Research indicates that hospitals are not considered psychological factors contributing to readmission nor are addressing these issues while the patient is within the primary care setting. Twenty-five percent of patients with heart failure experience depressive symptoms. Studies have demonstrated that patients with systolic dysfunction and depression are at higher risk for re-hospitalization. Research demonstrates that left ventricular ejection fraction in heart failure patients with depressive symptoms tends to be less than or equal to 40%. Reduced ejection fraction inherently places patients at increased risk for cognitive impairments, which in turn impairs their ability to adhere to medical regimens. Reduced ejection fraction coupled with preexisting depressive symptomatically creates greater obstacles for patients living with heart failure. Integrating health psychology and creating behavioral cardiology teams have proven to decrease hospital readmission rates and reduce hospital fines.

Lan Jin has been graduated from the Master’s program in the Department of Consumer Science at Purdue University. Currently she is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Consumer Science at Purdue University and a MPH student in the Public Health Program at Purdue University. Her research focuses on the mental health promotion, social support, and health-related behavior change, particularly on mental health of minorities and health disparities.

The college student population in the US is growing increasingly diverse and the students live in a demanding changing higher education context which exposes them to multiple stressors and related mental health vulnerability. Th is study identifies important stressors affecting depression in college students as a whole and ancross the subgroups of gender and domestic/international students, and compares between-group differences. 631 college students were recruited (384 females/247 males; 450 domestic/181 international students). Depression was measured through the CES-D Scale. We asked participants to identify and rate stresses that occurred in the current year. T-tests, multiple regression and multivariate tests were used. Females showed higher depression symptoms than males, and international students’ depression level was higher than that of domestic students. Th e stresses, such as social network changes, pressure of interacting with strangers, sleeping problems, and academic discouragement, stood out and influenced depression of the overall sample significantly. Males’ depression was related to stress in interpersonal and academic challenges, while females were more likely to face stressors in social activities and interpersonal problems such as changes in diet and sleeping habits, which were associated with depression. Domestic students experienced stress in social interaction, intrapersonal issues and academic pressure relating to depression. For international students, academic challenge was the only stressor that was associated with depression. Considering the important stressors emerged in diverse subgroups, the results shed light on health campaigns for improving coping skills and resilience of various groups, to provide social support that fulfills their specific needs and ultimately promote mental health.

Rachel Jin is currently a junior at Campolindo High school in Moraga, California, USA. In 2014, she founded Autism Creativity Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children with ASD learn and develop using art techniques. Currently the center has more than 20 volunteer art teachers and 30 students. Rachel had previously worked with autistic children for 2 years at Angelove Family Support Center as a volunteer.

Background: Evidence of improved outcomes with empirical art therapy has placed the effective intervention as a supportive treatment for Autistic kids. However, due to the shortage of therapists, long waiting lists for treatment oft en preclude timely access. Meanwhile, since parents are usually the closest parties with Autistic kids early life, it is desirable to off er parents proper training in the area of empirical art therapy first. Th is way, they can train their children, in turn, likely in self-paced manner. Method: Four school-age kids (4-12 years old) with autism and their parents participating in the study. Both groups oriented and private one-on-one classes are offered bi-weekly. We also exchange teaching ideas and concrete drawing examples over text messages as needed. A multiple baseline design was used. Parents and child outcomes were assessed before, two months, 6 months, a year, two years following training using standardized tests, questionnaires and behavior monitoring directly from parental reports. Th e results: Overall, training parents in empirical art therapy have been shown to increase ASD kids’ self-expression of ideas and catharsis of personal feelings. Children’s communication skills, namely functional utterances, and attention span also increased following training. Conclusion: Our empirical art therapy provides parents the flexibility of schedule, enhances effective communications between parents and their ASD children. It is particularly useful for school-age children to improve their cognitive skills. Our findings allude to an immediate, cost-effective intervention that could be adopted widely.