Development of an Index to Measure West Nile Virus Transmission Risk in New Jersey Counties.

We developed an index for use by New Jersey counties to measure West Nile virus (WNV) transmission risk to the human population. We used a latent profile analysis to develop the index, identifying categories of environmental conditions associated with WNV transmission risk to humans. The final model included 4 indicators of transmission risk: mosquito abundance and minimum field infection rate, temperature, and human case count. We used data from 2004 to 2018 from all 21 New Jersey counties aggregated into 11 2-wk units per county per year (N = 3,465). Three WNV risk classes were identified. The Low Risk class had low levels of all variables. The Moderate Risk class had high abundance, average temperature levels, and low levels of the other variables. The High Risk class had substantially above average human case likelihood, average temperature, and high mosquito infection rates. These results suggest the presence of 3 distinct WNV risk profiles, which can be used to guide the development of public health actions intended to mitigate WNV transmission risk to the human population.

The development of a survey to examine knowledge about and attitudes toward concussion in high-school students.

The development of a new measure of concussion knowledge and attitudes that is more comprehensive and psychometrically sound than previous measures is described. A group of high-school students (N = 529) completed the measure. The measure demonstrated fair to satisfactory test-retest reliability (knowledge items, r = .67; attitude items, r = .79). Exploratory factor analysis of the attitude items revealed a four-factor solution (eigenvalues ranged from 1.07-3.35) that displayed adequate internal consistency (Cohen's alpha range = .59-.72). Cluster analysis of the knowledge items resulted in a three-cluster solution distributed according to their level of difficulty. The potential uses for the measure are described.