Browsing by Author "Brandon, Connor"

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Comparing Influenza vaccination rates before and after the H1N1 pandemic
(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Brandon, Connor; McMullen, Matthew (Faculty Mentor)
Immunizations are an important public health concern in order to help control the spread of diseases. Influenza is a particularly important seasonal vaccine, as it is updated every year and recommended that all people receive the vaccination. Unfortunately, not everyone receives the vaccine, which can make others more susceptible to contracting the disease andspreading it to others. Using data from the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Immunization Survey (NIS), the number of child and teenage influenza vaccinations were compared before and after the H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic of 2009. It was hypothesized that the H1N1 outbreak would lead to an increased rate of vaccinations in both children and teenagers. The data was grouped by geographic region and socioeconomic status. The comparative results show that there was not an increased number of childhoodor teenage vaccinations relative to the total amount of influenza vaccinations that were administered, indicating that the H1N1 pandemic did not cause a greater number of influenza vaccinations in the following years.
Walking Does Not Significantly Improve Word Recall or State Anxiety in a Single Session: A Pilot Study
(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Brandon, Connor; McMullen, Matthew (Faculty Mentor)
Research suggests that exercise can improve memory ability (Labban & Etnier, 2011; Martins et al., 2013; Shih, 2017; Standage, 2010) and decrease anxiety (Blacklock et al., 2010; Knapens et al., 2009). The current study hypothesized that an exercise condition will recall more vocabulary words and have greater reductions in state anxiety compared to the sedentary control condition. Participants were randomly divided into either a sedentary control group or an exercise group. Both groups took the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaire (STAI-AD). Both groups were then given ten minutes to learn15 vocabulary words while either sitting in a chair or walking on a treadmill at 3mph, followed by a 20-minute consolidation period. Participants were asked to recall as many words as they could remember from their task and took the STAI-AD a second time. Paired t-tests were performed for analyzing the reduction in state anxiety and amount of words recalled in both conditions. The pilot results showed the exercise group (n=4) did not remember more vocabulary words compared to the control group (n=2; t = 0.4078, p-value = 0.749). The exercise group did show greater reductions in state anxiety compared to the control group (t = 1.1847, p-value = 0.4298). However, both analyses returned statistically insignificant results due to small sample sizes. Further data will be collected to obtain statistical significance and retest the hypothesis.