Browsing by Author "McCabe, Sean"

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    Parenting through grief: A cross-sectional study of recently bereaved adults with minor children
    (Sage, 2021) Park, Eliza M.; Deal, Allison M.; Yopp, Justin M.; Chien, Stephanie A.; McCabe, Sean; Hirsch, Ariella; Bowers, Savannah M.; Edwards, Teresa; Rosenstein, Donald L.; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
    Background: Grieving adults raising parentally-bereaved minor children experience persistently elevated symptoms of depression and grief. However, the factors associated with their mental health outcomes are not well understood. Aim: To investigate the psychosocial and demographic characteristics associated with grief distress and depressive symptom severity in bereaved adults with minor children. Design: Cross-sectional, web-based survey. Setting/participants: Eight hundred forty-five bereaved adults raising minor (age <18 years) children who had experienced the death of a co-parent. Primary outcomes were grief distress (Prolonged Grief Disorder-13), depressive symptoms (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-Depression), and widowed parenting self-efficacy (WPSES). Results: Mean grief scores were 33.5; mean depression scores were 58.3. Among the 690 individuals more than 6 months bereaved, 132 (19.3%) met criteria for prolonged grief disorder. In adjusted models, participants reporting higher grief scores were more recently bereaved, identified as mothers, non-Caucasian, had lower education and income, and had not anticipated their co-parent's death. The statistical modeling results for depression scores were similar to grief scores except that depression was not associated with anticipation of co-parent death. Parents reporting lower WPSES scores had higher grief and depression scores. Retrospective assessments of more intense parenting worries at the time of co-parent death were also associated with higher grief and depression scores. Conclusions: For bereaved adults with minor children, unanticipated co-parent death was linked with higher grief distress but not symptoms of depression. Addressing parenting concerns may represent a common pathway for improving the mental health of parentally-bereaved families.
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    Quality of Life and Health State Utilities in Bladder Cancer
    (IOS Press, 2022-03-11) Smith, Angela B.; McCabe, Sean; Deal, Allison M.; Guo, Amy; Gessner, Kathryn H.; Lipman, Robert; Chisolm, Stephanie; Ahlschlager, Lauren; Gore, John L.; Urology, School of Medicine
    Background: Bladder cancer treatments may variably impact health-related quality of life (QOL). Objective: To characterize the quality of life of patients with bladder cancer at various time points across the continuum of bladder cancer care from non-muscle-invasive disease to metastatic bladder cancer and develop utility scores to inform cost-effective analyses. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey of bladder cancer patients in the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network Patient Survey Network. Participants were classified into mutually exclusive health states based upon non-muscle invasive (NMIBC), muscle-invasive (MIBC), or metastatic bladder cancer and completed surveys of generic cancer and bladder cancer-specific quality of life, financial toxicity, and work impairment. We constructed generalized linear mixed models to identify patient, clinical, and treatment factors associated with quality of life over time and derived health state utilities. Results: Among 911 self-identified patients with bladder cancer, overall QOL scores and function domains were worse among those with advanced cancer. Financial toxicity was similar among non-metastatic disease states. Work and activity impairment increased with advancing disease (13%and 12%among non-recurrent NMIBC to 63%and 31%for metastatic disease respectively; p < 0.01). On multivariable analysis, bowel-related QOL was diminished among patients with MIBC, with urinary symptoms and physical function most diminished among patients with metastatic disease. Patients with metastatic and MIBC experienced worse emotional functioning (p = 0.04; p = 0.048). Health state utilities were calculated, highest among those with non-recurrent NMIBC and lowest among those with metastatic disease. Conclusion: Generic and bladder cancer-specific QOL diminishes with advancing disease. Health state utility estimates derived from this study can inform shared decision making with patients and may be used to inform future cost-effective analyses.
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    Techniques for Improving the Robustness of Visual Analytics
    (2024-08) Koonchanok, Ratanond; Reda, Khairi; Chakraborty, Sunandan; Cafaro, Francesco; McCabe, Sean
    Interactive visualization systems, such as Tableau, are integral parts of the data analysis workflow. While such tools were built to help analysts perform exploratory data analysis with minimal effort, analysts have also been using them to make statistical inferences (e.g., predicting future trends) based on patterns revealed by the dataset. However, in addition to revealing true patterns, visualizations can also surface noise and other random fluctuations in data, which could lead to spurious discoveries. The latter poses a threat to the trustworthiness of analyses, especially given the increased reliance on visualizations across various domains. My central thesis is that it is possible to reduce the incidence of false discovery by introducing lightweight user interface elements in visualization tools. In particular, I propose eliciting and incorporating analyst beliefs into visualizations as an approach for guarding against spurious patterns and reducing the risk of analysts “overfitting” the data. To study how analysts would respond to such intervention, I first designed an interactive tool that combined visual belief elicitation with traditional visualization functionalities. In a qualitative study with data analysts, the tool appeared to allow users to operationalize their working knowledge into analyses, nudging them to adopt normative analysis practices (e.g., specifying hypotheses before peeking at data). I then conducted a crowdsourced experiment to investigate if this design could indeed help reduce the incidence of false discovery. Compared to a control condition, participants who used our intervention made significantly more accurate inferences and reported fewer false discoveries. Lastly, I investigated the capability of human intuition by comparing inferences from participants against those generated by statistical machines to understand the advantages and limitations of each. Overall, my thesis paves the way toward the development of a robust visual analytics system that facilitates collaborative decision-making processes, leveraging the complementary abilities of humans and machines.