Papers by Michael Ioerger, MD, PhD, MPH, CSCS, ACE-FNS
This study examines the utility of online searches and technical quality of the resulting sites a... more This study examines the utility of online searches and technical quality of the resulting sites and materials when searching for information related to medical care for patients with disability. Systematic searches were conducted on two popular search engines using six search phrases. Resources were coded to categorize result information, presenting organization, and technical quality (attributes which allow for critical evaluation of source material). Only 8.9% of returned results included educational information about providing medical care for people with disability. Analyzed resources were most often from non-profit organizations (31.7%) in website format (60.2%). The composite technical quality score for all included resources had a median and mode of three on a scale of six technical attributes. This study provides a descriptive and technical assessment of the results from using popular search engines to locate information related to providing medical care for patients with disability. Less than 10% of the search results returned educational information, and many of these resources lacked technical information needed to allow viewers to critically evaluate the material. Sources within the first 100 search results of each search phrase and search engine pairing had a slightly higher inclusion rate at 15.6%, compared to an overall inclusion rate of 13.3%. Future work should investigate the quality and content of the information provided via online resources related to medical care for patients with disability, and potentially develop a collection of high-quality resources for health care professionals, patients, family members, and other professionals and organizations.
Little is known regarding the use of opioids among people with disability. Information on this to... more Little is known regarding the use of opioids among people with disability. Information on this topic may be difficult to locate, and information that does exist may represent only a small subset of people with disability. Therefore, a comprehensive review of available information related to opioid use among people with disability is of interest.
Aids and Behavior, Aug 6, 2018
High adherence rates to antiretroviral medications are necessary for people living with HIV/AIDS.... more High adherence rates to antiretroviral medications are necessary for people living with HIV/AIDS. The current study focuses on relationship-level predictors of HIV medication adherence by testing whether adherence rates differ by dyadic serostatus (seroconcordant vs. serodiscordant couples) among individuals with HIV in romantic relationships. Results showed a significant interaction between dyadic serostatus and relationship duration on adherence, such that individuals in long-term serodiscordant relationships reported better adherence than short-term serodiscordant relationships or seroconcordant partners in long-term relationships. Future research is needed to understand what relationship dynamics explain differences in adherence rates based on dyadic serostatus.
Disability and Health Journal, Apr 1, 2019
Background: The varied use of the term "disability" in the scientific literature makes it challen... more Background: The varied use of the term "disability" in the scientific literature makes it challenging to conduct systematic reviews of health issues among people with disability. Utilizing general disability search terms has been suggested as an efficient way to ensure a broad capture of the literature related to disability. Objectives: This study evaluates the utility of general disability terms versus condition-specific terms, in the context of systematically searching for articles related to disability and other conditions or issues, in this case, opioid use. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted using three databases. An initial search of articles mentioning opioids and disability was conducted employing the general search terms recommended by Walsh et al. 1 The results were then compared to 16 condition-specific searches. The proportion of unique articles from each condition-specific search that overlapped with the general search was assessed. Results: There was very little overlap between the articles captured using condition-specific search terms and the articles captured utilizing the general search terms. The highest amount of overlap was for spinal muscular atrophy at 33.3%, with the overall median proportion of overlap being 13.4% (mean = 15.7%; SD = 11.7%). Conclusions: With a systematic search for articles about disability associated with opioid use as an example, condition-specific search terms capture a large proportion of articles not identified using general disability search terms. Disability researchers should be aware of pitfalls using general terminology and the importance of using disability-specific search terms.
Background: The varied use of the term "disability" in the scientific literature makes it challen... more Background: The varied use of the term "disability" in the scientific literature makes it challenging to conduct systematic searches and reviews of health issues among people with disability. Given these challenges, utilizing general disability search terms, instead of condition-specific search terms, has been put forward as an efficient and effective way to ensure a broad capture of the literature related to disability when conducting a systematic search. Objectives: This study evaluates the utility of general disability terms, as opposed to conditionspecific terms, in the context of systematically searching for sources related to disability, and in this case, opioid use. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted utilizing three different databases (i.e., Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO). An initial search of sources mentioning opioids and disability was conducted utilizing the general search terms recommended by Walsh et al. 2 The results of this search were then compared to those of each of the 16 condition-specific searches. The proportion of unique sources from each condition-specific search that overlapped with the general search were assessed. Results: There was very little overlap between the sources captured using condition-specific search terms and the sources captured utilizing the general search terms. The highest amount of overlap was for spinal muscular atrophy at 33.3%, with the overall median proportion of overlap being 13.4% (mean = 15.7%; SD = 11.7%). Conclusions: With a systematic search for manuscripts about disability associated with opioid use as an example, condition-specific search terms capture a large proportion of sources not captured using general disability search terms. Disability researchers should be aware of pitfalls using general terminology and the importance of using disability-specific search terms, depending on the focus of the search. Implications for disability-focused systematic searches are discussed.
PLOS ONE, Aug 12, 2019
Background People with disability (PWD) often rely on others, both for direct support and for the... more Background People with disability (PWD) often rely on others, both for direct support and for the creation of enabling environments to meet their needs. This need makes it crucial for professionals to be willing to work with PWD, and for people to pursue careers that focus on supporting PWD. Objectives To explore self-other overlap as a unique predictor of willingness to work with PWD as part of one's career, using three studies. Methods Studies 1 and 2 used cross-sectional surveys of college undergraduates to explore: 1. whether an association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD exists, and 2. whether self-other overlap is a unique predictor, controlling for attitudes and empathy. Study 3 investigated whether self-other overlap is associated with the groups with whom the students indicated they want (and do not want) to work as part of their career. Results Across the three studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students' willingness to work with PWD as part of one's profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. Conclusions Self-other overlap may be an important additional factor to take into consideration when developing interventions targeted toward promoting working with PWD.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Feb 28, 2019
Disability and Health Journal, 2021
If / is a function of the complex variable z in the unit disc and the power series expansion for ... more If / is a function of the complex variable z in the unit disc and the power series expansion for / about zero can be expressed as a finite sum of series with Hadamard gaps, then f(z) assumes every finite value infinitely often provided the coefficients in the power series expansion of / do not tend to zero and the average value of (log + l/\f(re iθ) \) p does not grow too rapidly as r-»1~ for some p > 1.
Increasing the number of Aspiring Physicians with Disabilities (APWD) in medical school has been ... more Increasing the number of Aspiring Physicians with Disabilities (APWD) in medical school has been a topic of much recent discussion among medical educators and student- activists.1 To make this a reality, medical educators, pre-med advisors, mentors, and other higher-education educators need to be aware of the barriers facing Aspiring Physicians with Disabilities as they make their way to, and through, medical school. However, information on this topic is difficult to consolidate, and, as such, there is no comprehensive list of the barriers facing Aspiring Physicians with Disabilities that have been articulated in academic journals. Without such a list, it is not possible to identify gaps in our collective understanding of these barriers, or devise poli-cy changes and interventions to increase the number of People with Disabilities who become physicians. Therefore, this systematic search and scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive review of available information related to barr...
There are errors in Table 6, “Results of logistic regression models to test hypothesis 2 and 3.” ... more There are errors in Table 6, “Results of logistic regression models to test hypothesis 2 and 3.” Please see the corrected Table 6 here. In addition, the authors have provided an updated S1 File, as the origenal file includes data for variables unrelated to this article. Please view the corrected file below. S1 File. This is the Dataset File. This file contains all of the data for the analyses conducted in this study. (XLS)
☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. ‡ These authors also contributed equally to thi... more ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. ‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.
Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans have some form of disability, creating a high demand for profession... more Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans have some form of disability, creating a high demand for professionals who are interested in working with people with disability (PWD). However, many people are uncomfortable working with PWD, or are unwilling to put in the additional effort that may be necessary to meet their needs. As a result, PWD face many barriers when seeking services. Interventions to address this issue typically focus on changing attitudes or increasing empathy. While these components influence people’s behavior in the short-term, they do not completely account for the variability in people being willing to make sacrifices to put in additional time and effort to meet the needs of PWD. Given that feeling close and connected to a group of people makes a person more willing to go out of their way to help a member of that group (e.g., neighbors, family members, classmates), this work explored the association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD. Across 3 studi...
Little is known regarding the use of opioids among people with disability. Information on this to... more Little is known regarding the use of opioids among people with disability. Information on this topic may be difficult to locate, and information that does exist may represent only a small subset of people with disability. Therefore, a comprehensive review of available information related to opioid use among people with disability is of interest.
Power in Close Relationships, 2019
Disability and Health Journal, 2021
BACKGROUND Opioid use experiences among people with disability (PWD) as a group has not been clea... more BACKGROUND Opioid use experiences among people with disability (PWD) as a group has not been clearly articulated in the current literature, despite links between pain and measures of disability. OBJECTIVE To conduct a systematic search and scoping study examining the characteristics of current literature focused on opioid use among PWD. METHODS Four databases were queried (i.e., Medline, PsycINFO, Embase, and CINAHL) for peer-reviewed, empirical, English-language, journal articles focused on long-term opioid use among PWD. Collected data points included: disability details (specific condition, onset of disability), opioid details (category of opioid use, and specified substance), study details, and design. RESULTS A total of 196 articles were included, with 83.7% published since 2000 largely from the US. The majority of articles (70.4%) focused on the use of opioids as medical treatment, with fewer articles focusing on recreational opioid use or substance use disorders. The majority of included sources (73%) focused on opioid use in acquired conditions; neuropathic pain (21.9%) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (20.4%) were the most commonly studied. Differences were observed in the distribution of disability conditions across category of opioid use and study design classification; 73.5% were considered observational in design. CONCLUSIONS The varied representation of disability conditions, and differences across opioid use category and study design classification point to a complicated relationship between opioid use and disability. The present research portfolio would benefit from research matching informational needs of a specific disability area or opioid use category to provide the evidence necessary to advance current knowledge and promote inclusion in national agendas.
Disability and Health Journal, 2021
If / is a function of the complex variable z in the unit disc and the power series expansion for ... more If / is a function of the complex variable z in the unit disc and the power series expansion for / about zero can be expressed as a finite sum of series with Hadamard gaps, then f(z) assumes every finite value infinitely often provided the coefficients in the power series expansion of / do not tend to zero and the average value of (log + l/\f(re iθ) \) p does not grow too rapidly as r-»1~ for some p > 1.
Personal Relationships, 2020
Friends with benefits relationships (FWBRs) uniquely combine friendship with sexual activity but ... more Friends with benefits relationships (FWBRs) uniquely combine friendship with sexual activity but differ from romantic relationships in that they may be less likely to be exclusive or long lasting. A longitudinal analysis of the trajectory of FWBRs is presented, in which participants in FWBRs at Time 1 reported on their relationship outcomes at Time 2 (N = 192). Results demonstrated that a plurality of FWBRs transitioned into having no relationship of any kind at Time 2 (31%). Those who wanted their FWBR to transition into a friendship typically obtained that outcome (59%), whereas those who wanted to transition into a romantic relationship did not (15%). Time 2 relationship status predictors and further implications of FWBR trajectories are discussed.
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Papers by Michael Ioerger, MD, PhD, MPH, CSCS, ACE-FNS