Patricia L Cummings, MPH, PhD

County of Los Angeles Public Health | CLAPH · Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention

Studies of health care access and use among historically resilient populations, while common, often field a limited sample size and rarely ask the groups most impacted by health inequities to weigh in. This is especially so for research and programs that focus on the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) population. The present study addresses t...

Introduction: Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries are at high risk of experiencing severe disease from influenza. Yet, immunization assessment followed by influenza vaccination (when needed) are not regularly performed at Community-Based Adult Services (CBAS) centers in/near medically underserved areas. To better understand this challenge, an organiza...

Hospitalized salmonellosis patients with concurrent chronic conditions may be at increased risk for adverse outcomes, increasing the costs associated with hospitalization. Identifying important modifiable risk factors for this predominantly foodborne illness may assist hospitals, physicians, and public health authorities to improve management of th...

Introduction: Limited research has assessed population sodium knowledge and food choice after exposure to health marketing and food environment interventions. Approach: A cross-sectional survey was administered to a sample of Los Angeles County residents who regularly use public transportation and were exposed to recent food environment changes a...

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is a well-known parasitic infection associated with HIV/AIDS, but its status as the second most common foodborne illness is often overlooked. Few studies have quantified toxoplasmosis mortality burden in the United States. Methods: We examined national multiple cause-of-death data and estimated lost productivity from...

Introduction: The Smarter Lunchrooms Movement (SLM) developed by Cornell University utilizes 6 evidence-based behavioral economics principles (e.g., suggestive selling, product placement) to increase selection of healthier food options (e.g., fruit, vegetables) among school-aged children and adolescents. The Los Angeles County Department of Public...

Objective To compare changes in nutrient levels of school meals before and after implementation of nutrition interventions at five school districts in two, large U.S. counties. School menu changes were compared against national school meal recommendations. Methods A large urban school district in Los Angeles County, California (LAC) and four schoo...

Few studies have quantified toxoplasmosis mortality, associated medical conditions, and productivity losses in the United States. We examined national multiple cause of death data and estimated productivity losses caused by toxoplasmosis during 2000-2010. A matched case-control analysis examined associations between comorbid medical conditions and...

Context: Children consume more than one-third of their daily food intake in schools, suggesting that these environments are ideal places for intervening on poor dietary behaviors. Objective: To assess the impact of strategy-focused menu planning on the sodium content of student meals served in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). De...

Since sodium is ubiquitous in the food supply, recent approaches to sodium reduction have focused on increasing the availability of lower-sodium products through system-level and environmental changes. This article reviews integrated efforts by the Los Angeles County Sodium Reduction Initiative to implement these strategies at food venues in the Co...

Background: Worldwide, Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects an estimated 35.6 million people. By 2050, the prevalence of this disease is expected to triple. Currently it is estimated that annual costs associated with treatment and caregiving total to more than $604 billion (U.S. dollars). While AD most commonly affects individuals aged 65 years and old...

Introduction: A grantee of CDC's Sodium Reduction in Communities Program, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) launched its local sodium reduction initiative (LACSRI) in October 2010. A key objective of this initiative was to reduce the sodium content of school meals in the county, to levels consistent with the 2009 Institute of...

Introduction: In 2011, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health launched the Choose Health LA initiative, a targeted obesity prevention social marketing and public education campaign designed to promote healthy eating in the community. This multi-pronged campaign focused on educating the public on the amount of salt and sugar in popular f...

Working in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) recently made a number of changes to their meal program menu for the school-year (SY) 2011-12; many of these changes were based on IOM recommendations. We recently examined some of these changes, specifically sodium levels...

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health received CPPW funding to implement an obesity prevention project in LA County. Through this funding, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) adopted and implemented menu changes for school-year (SY) 2011-12 to improve the nutritional composition of the food offered in their cafeterias. We e...

Introduction: Perceived self-efficacy in reading labels about sodium (salt) content is often an overlooked contributor to self-directed behavioral change(s) that influences cardiovascular health. The present analysis examines the level of self-efficacy in reading sodium labels among a group of vulnerable, low-income adults in a large, urban jurisdi...

Background: As part of the Sodium Reduction in Communities Program, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recently provided technical support to Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to impose stricter sodium limits on school meals. These 2011-12 changes included adoption of food-based nutrition standards based on 2009 Institute...

To update and examine Alzheimer's disease-related mortality trends according to age, sex, race and ethnicity, geography, and other case characteristics for a 10-year period. Trend and comparative analyses of the U.S. multiple-cause-of-death records for 1999 to 2008. United States. Participants were decedents with Alzheimer's disease (AD) coded as u...

Introduction: From June 2010-January 2011, the Los Angeles County Joint Use Task Force successfully facilitated the execution or strengthening of five joint-use agreements between two local school districts (i.e., Los Angeles Unified and Pomona Unified School Districts) and several community-based agencies/communities (e.g., YMCA, City of Los Angel...

Background: Implementation of food procurement policies in County of Los Angeles hospital and medical facility cafeterias may have salutary impact on low-income individuals' access to healthier food options. Cafeteria patrons may include residents of nearby low-income communities, where the percentage of the population with household incomes less t...

Background: As part of evaluating the feasibility of implementing a restaurant menu labeling monitoring program, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health examined the published nutritional information provided by eligible restaurant chains to describe available food options. Methods: We randomly selected 7 of the largest restaurant chai...

Background: In response to the recent adoption of state and federal menu labeling regulations, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) began developing a program in 2010 to locally monitor menu labeling in eligible restaurants. A training module to prepare health inspectors from the Restaurant Hygiene Inspection Program (RHIP) was...

Background: Restaurants with 20 or more locations in the U.S. are required by new federal regulations (ACA of 2009) to provide nutrition information for all menu items. These new labeling regulations will require monitoring of information accuracy at eligible restaurant chains locally. This paper describes Los Angeles County Department of Public He...

Introduction: School meals offer a unique opportunity to influence children's diets. Recently, the USDA based proposed guidelines for federal school-meal programs on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) nutrition report. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is attempting early adoption of these recommendations for the 2011/2012 school year. We ex...

Introduction: In 2008, California passed SB1420 requiring that restaurant chains with ≥20 outlets provide nutrition information, including sodium content, on restaurant menus starting in 2011. This study, conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, examines the average sodium content of meals offered by selected restaurant chai...

Background: In light of recently adopted state (California Senate Bill 1420) and federal menu labeling requirements (Affordable Care Act of 2009), the need for reliable methods to monitor restaurant compliance with these new regulations is growing. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recently developed a pilot program to monitor menu...

Background: ARRA-funded Communities Putting Prevention to Work obesity prevention initiatives are underway to promote built environment interventions. While these initiatives are vital to improving physical activity, safety concerns in the targeted communities have been given little consideration. This poster presentation will examine the pedestria...

Despite the recognition of nontyphoidal Salmonella as an important foodborne infection, few data exist on salmonellosis as a cause of death in the United States. To provide a quantitative assessment of the burden of Salmonella-related mortality in the United States, we examined national multiple-cause-of-death data for the years 1990-2006. Crude an...

An interventional approach to promoting physical activity among older adults is to engineer utilitarian walking into daily living. However, little is known about how older adults perceive this form of walking or what factors may influence utilitarian walking. To address this gap, we studied the barriers and facilitators of utilitarian walking amo...

The present study examines the receptivity to and potential effects of menu labelling on food choices of low-income and minority individuals - a group often at disproportionate risk for preventable, lifestyle-related health conditions (e.g. obesity, diabetes and CVD). We conducted a cross-sectional survey to examine the knowledge, attitudes and pot...

WPW Syndrome presenting in atrial fibrillation. Use of Lidocaine. Discussion of unpredictability. -Dr. Gary J. Ordog.