Dr. McNutt’s epidemiological research involves several strands. One is concerned with intimate partner violence (IPV) and its ramifications for other aspects of women’s lives. She has been involved in three major studies to assess the effectiveness and safety of screening for IPV in primary care and emergency centers. In Baltimore, McNutt has worked with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University to assess recommendations from the American Medical Association for screening in primary care. McNutt also is involved in a similar study in Ontario Canada that is assessing the effectiveness of screening according to existing protocols followed by many primary care and emergency departments. Lastly, McNutt is consulting on a study conducted by researchers at Emory University that focuses on the safety of asking about partner violence in emergency departments. All these studies are expected to be reported in the scientific literature during 2007.
McNutt is also engaged in work with collaborators on the spread of blood-borne diseases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, especially in high-risk populations such as pregnant women and drug users. With support from the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), she is researching culturally appropriate means to block transmission of these diseases in ethnically diverse societies. Most of her research focuses on nosocomial transmission of pathogens and transmission through high-risk behaviors. In publications that have recently appeared in such journals as Sexually Transmitted Infections, the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Epidemiology and Infection, she and her collaborators have addressed methods to monitor disease transmission and barriers to effective program implementation in post-Soviet societies.
McNutt also works on health disparities in New York State. An article to appear in American Journal of Public Health reveals that not only are there racial disparities for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in New York, but they have been increasing over the past decade. McNutt is also studying how changes in community characteristics relate to changes in disease rates, specifically for gonorrhea. In a manuscript under review, she and a student collaborator show that changes in socioeconomic and racial composition of census tracts are followed by changes in disease rates. They are now moving forward with additional work to improve the measurement of socioeconomic status and to better distinguish between economic and other aspects of race/ethnicity.
McNutt’s most immediate plans involve extending her research on the effects of violence on women to the risk of infectious diseases. This work is planned for both the US and Central Asia. In both regions, abused women are more vulnerable to pressures to engage in high-risk behaviors, and women infected with HIV and sexually transmitted diseases are more likely to be abused by the individuals who infected them. Addressing these issues together is essential to interrupt transmission of HIV and other infectious diseases in high-risk groups of women. Additionally, transmission of HIV and hepatitis in medical care appears to be an important risk for women. McNutt and colleagues are developing a grant application to fund a multi-level intervention program to address blood-borne pathogens (HIV, hepatitis) and sexually transmitted diseases in multiple countries in the post-Soviet East.
McNutt also plans to continue work on measurement in population-based studies in New York State. She plans to work with other CSDA associates to assess additional measures of socioeconomic status in census tracts and to refine these measures. New measures will be implemented in studies designed to understand how changes in community composition affect disease rates.
Dr. McNutt is active in fostering linkages between the School of Public Health and CSDA researchers. In addition, her methodological expertise--on selection bias in telephone surveys (i.e., nonresponse), methods to estimate an adjusted relative risk and its confidence interval, the written informed-consent process, and objective measures of events versus perceptions of them--contributes to the methodological strength of the center.
Dr. McNutt anticipates using the Center’s data services for her research.