Yonaira Rivera

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey | Rutgers · School of Communication and Information, Department of Communication

Background In the digital age, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have emerged as important sources of health care information. Their interactive capabilities offer promise for enhancing health access, particularly for groups facing traditional barriers such as insurance and language constraints. Despite their growing public health use, with...

Background In the past two decades, melanoma incidence among Hispanic people has risen greatly. This qualitative study explored Hispanic people’s perceived barriers and facilitators to skin cancer-related preventive behaviors. Methods Five focus groups among Hispanic people (2 in Spanish and 3 in English; n = 34; 11 Spanish-preferring and 23 Engli...

Background: Over the last 20 years, the incidence of melanoma in Hispanic populations has increased by 20%. The mortality rate of Hispanics is higher compared to non-Hispanic whites. In general, compared to NHW, Hispanics diagnosed with melanoma are younger, have thicker tumors, and have worse survival rates. Skin cancer can be prevented with regul...

Background In the past 2 decades, melanoma incidence among Hispanic individuals has risen by 20%. The mortality rate of Hispanic individuals is higher than that for non-Hispanic White individuals. Skin cancer can largely be prevented with regular sun protection, and skin cancer outcomes can be improved through early detection, for example, by skin...

Objective To characterize inaccurate and accurate beliefs about cancer risk factors held among Spanish-preferring adults in the United States. Methods From a national probability panel, we surveyed 196 Hispanic adults who prefer completing questionnaires in Spanish. We also used data from a representative sample of 1200 adults in the US to compare...

Objective: To characterize inaccurate and accurate beliefs about cancer risk factors held among Spanish-speaking adults in the United States.Methods: From a national probability panel, we surveyed 196 Hispanic adults who prefer completing questionnaires in Spanish. We also used data from a representative sample of 1,200 adults in the US to compare...

BACKGROUND In the digital age, Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have emerged as important sources of healthcare information. Their interactive capabilities offer promise for enhancing health access, particularly for groups facing traditional barriers such as insurance and language constraints. Despite their growing public health use, with...

ChatGPT is a popular information system (over 1 billion visits in August 2023) that can generate natural language responses to user queries. It is important to study the quality and equity of its responses on health-related topics, such as vaccination, as they may influence public health decision-making. We use the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS) pro...

BACKGROUND In the past 2 decades, melanoma incidence among Hispanic individuals has risen by 20%. The mortality rate of Hispanic individuals is higher than that for non-Hispanic White individuals. Skin cancer can largely be prevented with regular sun protection, and skin cancer outcomes can be improved through early detection, for example, by skin...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic thrust the field of public health into the spotlight. For many epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and other public health professionals, this caused the professional aspects of our lives to collide with the personal, as friends and family reached out with concerns and questions. Learning how to navig...

We conducted an online survey among adults in Puerto Rico to identify factors associated with the intention to receive vaccination against COVID-19. Sociodemographic variables were analyzed independently for association with intent to receive vaccination. Significant associations were included in the multivariate logistic regression analysis. A tot...

Latinos/as – the largest minority group in the U.S. – are avid Facebook users, making this an opportune tool to educate on the uptake of cancer prevention and screening behaviors. However, there is a dearth in scholarship exploring how Latinos/as engage with and act upon health content encountered on social media, which may be influenced by cultura...

UNSTRUCTURED COVID-19 has been particularly devastating to Black and Latinx communities in the U.S. However, data on acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccines among minority populations are limited. We conducted an online survey among adults in Puerto Rico to identify factors associated with intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. Sociodemographic va...

COVID-19 has been particularly devastating to Black and Latinx communities in the U.S. However, data on acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccines among minority populations are limited. We conducted an online survey among adults in Puerto Rico to identify factors associated with intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. Sociodemographic variables were...

In this paper, we present a research agenda for longitudinal risk communication during a global pandemic. Starting from an understanding that traditional approaches to risk communication for epidemics, crises, and disasters have focused on short-duration events, we acknowledge the limitations of existing theories, frameworks, and models for both re...

UNSTRUCTURED Most of what is known regarding cancer information engagement on social media stems from quantitative methodologies. Public health literature often quantifies engagement by Most of what is known regarding cancer information engagement on social media stems from quantitative methodologies. Public health literature often quantifies engag...

Background: Most of what is known regarding health information engagement on social media stems from quantitative methodologies. Public health literature often quantifies engagement by measuring likes, comments, and/or shares of posts within health organizations' Facebook pages. However, this content may not represent the health information (and m...

Latinos in the U.S. face a high burden of cancer, making it important to deliver evidence-based cancer prevention and screening information (CPSI) on social media to this group. However, there is a dearth in scholarship exploring how Latinos engage with and act upon cancer (mis)information encountered on social media. Cultural values may influence...

This paper presents the results of a pilot study examining the moderation of images depicting post-mastectomy scaring on Instagram by skin tone darkness and the presence or absence of tattoos. It focuses on Instagram given widespread concerns that images of women’s bodies are arbitrarily moderated on the platform, and on depictions of post-mastecto...

Objective: "PRO-cision Medicine," using patients' reports of their symptoms, functioning, and well-being to personalize their care, is becoming more prevalent. PROs (patient-reported outcomes) are assessed using standardized, validated measures. Research shows that clinicians' and patients' understanding of what the PRO scores mean and how to act...

As misinformation on social media continues to proliferate, scholars are increasingly calling for explorations of the negative ramifications of health-related misinformation on health outcomes. In 2018, 96% of the top 100 shared health articles were shared on Facebook; 51% of these had neutral to poor credibility. This exploratory study seeks to un...

Patients are increasingly being asked to complete standardized, validated questionnaires with regard to their symptoms, functioning, and well-being [ie, patient-reported outcomes (PROs)] as part of routine care. These PROs can be used to inform patients' care and management, which we refer to as "PRO-cision Medicine." For PRO-cision Medicine to be...

Purpose Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) can promote patient-centered care in multiple ways: (1) using an individual patient’s PRO data to inform his/her management, (2) providing PRO results from comparative research studies in patient educational materials/decision aids, and (3) reporting PRO results from comparative research studies in peer-revi...

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States. Social and structural inequalities and poor public health infrastructure, low-quality treatment, and lack of patient engagement in health-related decision-making increase the cancer burden among some populations. This chapter details ethical challenges to alleviating the cancer burde...

Purpose –: This paper applies Paulo Freire's writings from Pedagogy of the Oppressed to critique current efforts to reduce cancer health disparities (CHDs) among Latinos in the U.S. Design/methodology/approach –: Freire's writings on oppression, critical consciousness, praxis and dialogical education are applied to recent efforts to reduce CHDs...

As outlined in previous chapters, men with a history of prostate cancer face increased rates of morbidity associated with both their cancer and the side effects of its treatment. Prostate cancer and its treatment can result in altered body composition, increased fatigue, reduced physical activity, fitness and performance, which in turn create consi...

Cancer education is essential for improving cancer prevention and biobanking knowledge among racial-ethnic minorities, with the goal of increasing diversity and representativeness of biospecimen collections. However, little is known about the communication modalities for optimal delivery of information. We examined feasibility of recruitment and co...

The use of promotores to educate Hispanic communities about different health topics has been proven successful, albeit with limitations in program sustainability. The goal of this study was to develop a sustainable train-the-trainer model to train graduate public health (PH) students to disseminate cancer education among communities in Puerto Rico...

Introduction: Cancer is the leading cause of death among Hispanics, currently the largest and fastest growing minority group in the US. Education plays an essential role in reducing cancer health disparities. Although community health workers (promotores) in Hispanic communities has been successful in health promotion and education initiatives, fun...

Purpose: The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) has been working to strengthen community outreach capacity through Community Health Educators (CHEs) of the NCI National Outreach Network (NON). The NON CHEs, based at academic and cancer centers across the country, strengthen NCI's ability to develop...

Introduction: Cancer is the leading cause of death in Puerto Rico (PR).1 Results from previous pilot projects, led by the NCI-funded Ponce School of Medicine - Moffitt Cancer Center Partnership (PSM-MCC Partnership), identified a need for additional cancer prevention education in southern PR.2,3 Cancer 101 is an NCI-funded educational curriculum de...

In Puerto Rico (PR), cancer is the leading cause of death. Previous research has identified the need for cancer education in PR. Using culturally adapted cancer curricula to train local health educators may effectively increase cancer education and reduce health disparities. This article describes the three-phase process used to transcreate the Can...

Introduction: Biobanks are repositories that store biospecimens and health information for research. Healthy control samples from diverse racial/ethnic groups must be represented in biobanks to better examine genetic and environmental risk factors for diseases such as cancer.1 However, the general public appears to be skeptical about the purpose of...

Background: Racial and ethnic minority populations have additional and unique barriers to cancer care services than majority populations. Knowledge and language barriers are particularly prevalent among Hispanic populations. Results from our team's previous work and other public health research indicate that face-to-face health communication effort...

Puerto Rican college-aged individuals experience high rates of sexually transmitted infections. Understanding how and why these individuals search for safer sex information will allow to effectively reach them through appropriate communication channels. This study explored the safer sex information-seeking behaviors of 20 Puerto Rican undergraduate...

Transmission of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 viruses from poultry to humans have raised fears of an impending influenza pandemic. Concerted efforts are underway to prepare effective vaccines and therapies including polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies against H5N1. Current efforts are hampered by the paucity of information on protective immune respo...

Binding of MAb FLA5.10 to peptide 5.10-101 (identified using RPL panning) compared with mutated peptide 5.10-101-L1A in ELISA. Both biotinylated peptides were captured on streptavidin-coated plates and reacted with serial dilutions of FLA5.10. Leucine to alanine substitution resulted in >98% loss of FLA5.10 binding. (0.37 MB EPS)

Adsorption of anti-HA antibodies in convalescent sera from survivors of H5N1 infection using the H5N1 GFPDL. Pooled sera from five H5N1 survivors were adsorbed with H5 (HA+NA) GFPDL. Binding to recombinant HA protein (A/Vietnam/1203/2004, Protein Sciences Corporation) is shown before (circles) and after (triangles) GFPDL-adsorption. (0.38 MB EPS)

The complete H5N1 A/Vietnam/1203/04 proteome sequence was constructed by linking the 11 proteins (protein names are shown within the proteome sequence) coded by the eight gene segments derived from wild-type A/Vietnam/1203/2004 viral RNA grown in embryonated chicken eggs. The predicted glycosylation sites (NXT/NXS) in HA are underlined. (0.04 MB DO...

Frequency of selected phage clones using H5N1 GFPDL after panning with sera from five H5N1-Vietnam infection survivors. Three rounds of affinity selection were performed on pooled sera using each of the four GFPDL under both conditions (antibody coated beads and in-solution). 48 clones were sequenced in each panning round, resulting in sequencing o...

Construction of H5N1 A/Vietnam phage display libraries: size and insert distribution. (A) Four phage display libraries for the H5N1 strain A/Vietnam/1203/2004 were constructed: fSK9-3 H5Viet-HA-NA (50–200-bp inserts); fSK9-3 H5Viet-HA-NA (200–1,000-bp inserts); fSK9-3 H5Viet-FLU-6 (50–200-bp inserts) (PB2, PB1, PA, NP, M, and NS genes); and fSK9-3...

ELISA reactivity of sera from ten individuals with culture-confirmed seasonal influenza infections during the 2006–2007 seasons. End-point antibody titers (based on 5-fold dilutions starting at 1∶100) are reported for US 1–10 against the identical H5N1-Viet peptides used in Figures 4B and 6B). Student t-test was performed for each peptide reactivit...

Controlled, transient cytokine production by monocytes depends heavily upon rapid mRNA degradation, conferred by 3′ untranslated region-localized AU-rich elements (AREs) that associate with RNA-binding proteins. The ARE-binding protein AUF1 forms a complex with cap-dependent translation initiation factors and heat shock proteins to attract the mRNA...