Barbara H. Brumbach

• PhD
• Biostatistician at Oregon Health & Science University

Physical activity and sleep monitoring in daily life provide vital information to track health status and physical fitness. The aim of this study was to establish concurrent validity for the new Opal Actigraphy solution in relation to the widely used ActiGraph GT9X for measuring physical activity from accelerometry epic counts (sedentary to vigorou...

Purpose Measuring persistent imbalance after mTBI is challenging and may include subjective symptom-reporting as well as clinical scales. Clinical assessments for quantifying balance following mTBI have focused on sensory orientation. It is theorized that balance control goes beyond sensory orientation and also includes subdomains of anticipatory p...

Background: Children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at risk for neurocognitive deficits while simultaneously being at risk for chronic school absenteeism (≥ 18 school days per school year). Chronic school absenteeism compounds the negative impacts of CKD on academic achievement. In this study, we examined patient- and caregiver-reported fac...

Based on previous evidence that the non-steroidal estrogen receptor modulator STX mitigates the effects of neurotoxic Amyloid-β (Aβ) in vitro, we have evaluated its neuroprotective benefits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Cohorts of 5XFAD mice, which begin to accumulate cerebral Aβ at two months of age, were treated with orally-administere...

Background: Simultaneous measurement of gastrointestinal transit time (GITT) and plasma levodopa concentration (PLC) is crucial to understanding the effect of dysfunctional motility on levodopa response in patients with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). Objective: The aim is to determine if altered segmental GITT correlates with clinical response and...

Objective: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of α-synuclein seed amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) in antemortem and postmortem CSF of autopsy-confirmed patients with different distributions of pathological αSyn, co-pathologies, and clinical diagnoses. Methods: αSyn-SAA was used to test antemortem CSF samples from 119 subjects with a var...

Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) prior to gait initiation are impaired in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), particularly in those who report Freezing of Gait (FOG). External cues can improve gait parameters in people with PD, but the effects of visual cues on gait initiation are poorly known. The study aimed to (i) assess differences, d...

Introduction Balance deficits in people with chronic mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI; ≥3 months post-mTBI), thought to relate to central sensory integration deficits, are subtle and often difficult to detect. The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity of the instrumented modified clinical test of sensory integration for balance (m...

Background Up to 40% of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) can result in chronic unresolved symptoms, such as balance impairment, that persist beyond three months. Sensorimotor control, the collective coordination and regulation of both sensory and motor components of the postural control system, may underlie balance deficits in chronic mTBI. The...

Objective To determine the sensitivity and specificity of α-synuclein seed amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) in antemortem and postmortem CSF and brain homogenate samples of autopsy-confirmed patients with a spectrum of Lewy-related pathology (LRP). Methods Antemortem CSF samples were examined from 119 subjects with standardized neuropathological exa...

Objective: To explore patterns of postconcussion care at a level 1 trauma center. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: U.S. level 1 trauma center and local satellite units. Participants: Patients of any age with a concussion diagnosis that reported to level 1 trauma center and local satellite units between 2016 and 2018 (N=2417). Interventi...

Objective To explore patterns of post-concussion care at a level 1 trauma center Design Retrospective Cohort Study Setting US Level-1 trauma center and local satellite units Participants Patients of any age with a concussion diagnosis that reported to level 1 trauma center and local satellite units between 2016 and 2018 Main Outcome Measures Ag...

Background Instrumented measures of balance and gait measure more specific balance and gait impairments than clinical rating scales. No prior studies have used objective balance/gait measures to examine associations with ventricular and brain volumes in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Objective To test the hypothesis that larger ventricular...

Background The medicinal herb Centella asiatica has been long been used for its neuroprotective and cognitive enhancing effects. We have previously shown that two weeks of treatment with a water extract of Centella asiatica (CAW) improves cognition and activates the endogenous antioxidant response pathway without altering amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque burd...

Background Hesitancy to receive COVID-19 vaccination is a major public health concern. COVID-19 vaccine willingness and the factors contributing to willingness in adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) is unknown. We administered an online survey from 1 December 2020 to 7 January 2021 to adults with MS to estimate COVID-19 vaccine willingness among ad...

Background Tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, has been shown to variably affect Parkinson's disease (PD) risk. Objective The aim of this study was to review epidemiological literature and evaluate the rate of PD in women with breast cancer with tamoxifen exposure in a US population. Methods A literature search was conducted to id...

The water extract of Centella asiatica (CAW) can improve cognitive and mitochondrial function and activate the NRF2 regulated antioxidant response pathway in aged mice. Here we investigate whether NRF2 activation is required for the cognitive and mitochondrial effects of prolonged CAW exposure during aging. Five month old NRF2 knockout (NRF2KO) and...

Introduction: Amantadine anecdotally improves gait in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) but definitive data is lacking. We investigated associations between amantadine usage, gait, cognition, and activities of daily living in 310 subjects with PSP using data from the davunetide trial. Method: We compared baseline demographics, PSP Rating Scale (...

Epidemiology studies and clinical trials have shown that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs)are inversely associated with blood pressure. We sought to determine the influence of cigarette smoking and Hispanic ethnicity on this association. Age- and sex-matched smokers and nonsmokers (n = 98)19–50 years old lacking cardiovascular disease...

Background Understanding the pathways by which interventions achieve behavioral change is important for optimizing intervention strategies. PurposeWe examined mediators of behavior change in a tailored-risk communication intervention that increased guideline-based colorectal cancer screening among individuals at increased familial risk. Methods Par...

Purpose: The ongoing integration of cancer genomic testing into routine clinical care has led to increased demand for cancer genetic services. To meet this demand, there is an urgent need to enhance the accessibility and reach of such services, while ensuring comparable care delivery outcomes. This randomized trial compared 1-year outcomes for tel...

This chapter reviews several major current evolutionary psychological theories of personality. Evolutionary psychology helps to clarify the role of personality by separating evolved mechanisms from actual behavior. The chapter covers empirical evidence for these theories in human and nonhuman animal personality research. A chronic omission of evolu...

The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum;...

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data were used to test predictions from life history theory. We hypothesized that (1) in young adulthood an emerging life history strategy would exist as a common factor underlying many life history traits (e.g., health, relationship stability, economic success), (2) both environmental harshness...

We present a psychometric test of life history theory as applied to human individual differences using MIDUS survey data (Brim et al. 2000). Twenty scales measuring cognitive and behavioral dimensions theoretically related to life history strategy were constructed using items from the MIDUS survey. These scales were used to construct a single commo...

Life history is an evolutionary approach to the study of the timing of developmental milestones and reproductive activities. We follow this theoretical approach in an analysis of the sexual attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of over 13,000 12 to 19 year olds who participated in a sexual education program promoting abstinence until marriage. Factor an...

The recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of Evolutionary Psychology has produced an important framework from which to examine human mating behavior. Here we review the extant empirical and theoretical work regarding heterosexual human mating preferences and reproductive strategies. Initially, we review contemporary Evol...

Women have a relatively high risk of experiencing depressive episodes during the perimenopause. Indications for and acceptance of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are increasingly controversial, and serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants are an attractive potential treatment option for both the mood and somatic symptoms of perimenopause. Thi...

We describe an integrated theory of individual differences that traces the behavioral development of life history from genes to brain to reproductive strategy. We provide evidence that a single common factor, the K-Factor, underpins a variety of life-history parameters, including an assortment of sexual, reproductive, parental, familial, and social...

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 10-15% of mothers. Omega-3 fatty acids are an intriguing potential treatment for PPD. The efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids for PPD was assessed in an 8-week dose-ranging trial. Subjects were randomized to 0.5 g/day (n = 6), 1.4 g/day (n = 3), or 2.8 g/day (n = 7). Across groups, pretreatment Edinburgh Postnatal De...

The recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of Evolutionary Psychology has produced an important framework from which to examine human mating behavior. Here we review the extant empirical and theoretical work regarding heterosexual human mating preferences and reproductive strategies. Initially, we review contemporary Evol...

Until recently, variations in life history strategy were studied exclusively at the species level. Although this domain of study has been extended to examine systematic differences in life history strategy among various human ethnic groupings, more recent evolutionary theories of human development and related behavioral genetic work imply substanti...

Archival data from the MIDUS survey (Brim et al., 2000), a nationally representative sample, on 309 MZ and 333 DZ twin pairs aged 25-74 years were used to test the psychometrics and behavioral genetics of life history strategy. We organized 253 of the originally administered 2,000 questions into 30 scales measuring life history traits (e.g., qualit...

Reseña del capitulo En este escrito describimos un programa de investigación (Figueredo, Sefcek, Vasquez, Hagenah, King, & Jacobs, en prensa) en el cual se desarrollaron modelos de variables latentes que identifican a un constructo común único: el Factor K. Al parecer, éste subyace a una buena cantidad de parámetros relacionados con la historia de...