Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, Economics

Medicaid is a joint federal-state health insurance program targeting the low-income population. The program covers nearly 20% of Americans and accounted for $592 billion in 2017. Medicaid was originally introduced in 1965 as an optional program without mandatory financial eligibility minimums. By 1982, all 50 states had established a program but at vastly different levels of eligibility. In this paper, I analyze the factors that impacted a state's adoption of Medicaid and the factors affecting eligibility generosity for pregnant women, infants, children, and other adults. I find that politics and health environment factors were insignificant in explaining the adoption of Medicaid. However, with respect to eligibility, these same health environment and political factors become significant in explaining differential levels of eligibility generosity. In both models, demographic factors provide conflicting evidence to support the basic ideas of the Median Voter Theorem. Regression findings for adoption and eligibility generosity are generally robust across models. Finally, future work might examine eligibility generosity for other populations benefiting from Medicaid or apply the models to a variety of optional benefits.

Committee: Melissa Thomasson (Advisor); Gregory Niemesh (Committee Member); Austin Smith (Committee Member) Subjects: Economic History; Economics; Health Care; Political Science; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2019, Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Oncology clinical trials generate the evidence required to obtain regulatory approval for new interventions; the life-saving treatments cancer patients receive today, and the novel therapies that will transform future care paths, rely on data from clinical trials. Unfortunately, the therapeutic advances driven by clinical research are limited to the patient populations that best represent those enrolled in clinical trials. The explicit driver of this limited generalizability is the design of clinical trial eligibility criteria. Although overly restrictive eligibility criteria have been critiqued in the literature, quantitative studies evaluating the appropriateness of these criteria have not been performed. Therefore, we analyzed the eligibility criteria of a particular oncology disease group (hematologic malignancies), specifically exploring: 1) the relationship between commonly used organ function eligibility criteria and the expected toxicities of the trials' interventions, 2) reasons for ineligibility and the outcomes of leukemia patients eligible vs. ineligible for South Western Oncology Group (SWOG) trials, and 3) the health policy implications of overly restrictive eligibility criteria. Collectively, the findings of these studies suggest that the eligibility criteria for hematologic malignancy clinical trials are overly restrictive; the organ function criteria fail to reflect the expected toxicities of the trials' interventions / observed adverse events and the administrative criteria associated with the timing of screening tests / sample submissions included in SWOG leukemia protocols are too conservative. Furthermore, our results demonstrated the safety and efficacy outcomes were comparable between the leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome patients ineligible for administrative or non-clinically significant reasons and the patients fully meeting the eligibility criteria. These findings suggest, patients who may benefit from potentially life-saving treatmen (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Siran Koroukian PhD (Advisor); Dana Crawford PhD (Committee Chair); J.B. Silvers PhD (Committee Member); Mikkael Sekeres MD, MS (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Health Care; Health Sciences; Medicine; Oncology; Public Policy

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

MYERS, SELENA, Ph.D., December 2018 School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration TRADITIONAL OR ONLINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT SUCCESS COURSES: PROXIMAL AND DISTAL OUTCOMES (192 pp.) Director of Dissertation, Mark A. Kretovics, Ph.D. It is common to find a first-year student success or student experience course included in the requirements for graduation at most two and four year colleges and universities. While the delivery method of the course (i.e., face-to-face or online) may vary, the content is similar in that the overall goal is to acclimate first-year students to the collegiate environment and assist them in becoming proficient in study skills, time management, planning for their career, and setting them on a trajectory to completing a degree or academic credential. With the increased interest in distance education and online learning, some colleges and universities are offering student success courses that were traditionally face to-face, in an online format as well. As these courses become more commonplace at two-year institutions, little research exists on the effectiveness of the delivery method for these courses, as well as whether delivery method used can aid the progression of a community college student to degree completion. This quantitative study examines delivery methods of a student success course at a two-year institution and its impact on student academic performance and persistence towards a subsequent semester of coursework while controlling for various demographic variables. Subjects took the success course in either their first academic semester or first academic year at the selected institution during the fall 2014 and fall 2016 terms for both face-to-face and online delivery methods. Research focused on the impact of student success course modality on current semester outcomes (proximal) and subsequent semester outcome (distal). Proximal results indicated that female, non-traditional aged students who receiv (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mark Kretovics (Committee Co-Chair); Aryn Karpinski (Committee Co-Chair); Therese Revlock (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education Administration

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has a variety of rules and regulations that hold intercollegiate athletic departments, teams, and student-athletes accountable to the academic progression of student-athletes. Through various rules and regulations athletes must focus on academic as well as athletic responsibilities. In an era of increased Academic Progress Rate (APR) minimums and amplified penalties to teams that do not meet those minimums, it is imperative to focus on the student-athlete and find ways for athletic academic administrators, coaches, faculty, and other student-affairs personnel to support their athletes. This study utilized quantitative methods to analyze existing data of the 2010 Sophomore Experiences National Survey to examine the second-year athlete respondents (N = 376) as well as non-athlete second-year students. The methods utilized in this study included Exploratory Factor Analysis, Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis, Multiple Regression Analysis, and a Comparison of Correlation Coefficients. The findings of this study suggest that second-year athletes and non-athletes need a connection to campus in order to be certain of their major and intend to re-enroll. The findings also suggest that various areas of satisfaction, goal setting, and managing difficulties can have an affect as well. Finally, athletes and non-athletes were not different on what affected how certain they are of their major; however, there were a few differences in the intent to re-enroll between athletes and non-athletes. The goal is for those who work directly with student-athletes will find ways to implement the findings and suggestions of the research to support this unique sub-population.

Committee: Stephen Thomas EdD (Committee Chair); Mark Kretovics PhD (Committee Member); Jason Schenker PhD (Committee Member); Kulics Jennifer PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Academic Guidance Counseling; Education; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Sports Management

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 1992, Social Welfare

This study focused on public assistance clients evaluation of eligibility workers interaction with them. In order to understand the variation in clients experiences with workers, the study explored the relationship between client demographics, select client attributes and level of satisfaction with workers interaction. Variation in clients perception of workers interaction are grounded in the theoretical assumptions that workers within a bureaucratic setting tend to practice discretion when dealing with clients, which is contrary to the traditional view of bureaucratic organizations. The conceptual definition of the dependent variable i.e., worker-client interaction was further operationalized through factor analysis procedure which confirmed two dimensions namely, worker-attitude and worker-behavior. Multiple regression analysis were computed to test the effects of the independent variables on the two dimensions of the dependent variable. Of the client demographics and attributes included in the regression models, race of the client was found to be the best significant (p <.001) predictor of clients' satisfaction with worker attitude and behavior. The study was conducted in the Cuyahoga County Department Of Human Services. Cuyahoga County is the most populous county in the state of Ohio, and includes the major metropolitan area of Cleveland. The analysis of this study includes information from 715 public assistance clients who were receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children and General Assistance at the time of the interview.

Committee: Howard Goldstein (Advisor) Subjects: Social Work