About

The provided page text does not contain specific biographical information or a detailed professional biography of Professor Azza Ahmed. It primarily describes the research areas, departmental focuses, and general activities within the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University, without mentioning individual faculty members or their specific research contributions.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Biology
• Pediatrics
• Endocrinology
• Business
• Obstetrics
• Demography
• Programming language
• Advertising
• Physiology
• Internal medicine
• Marketing

Selected publications

• The Role and Impact of the IBCLC: Updated Position Paper

  Journal of Human Lactation · 2026-04-24

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) has long stood at the intersection of science, advocacy, and care. In the wake of global health disruptions, declining exclusive breastfeeding rates in high resource settings, and urgent calls for workforce equity, new evidence reinforces and redefines the critical role of the IBCLC across healthcare systems. This 2026 position update presents an expanded evidence base demonstrating the IBCLC's impact on clinical outcomes, health equity, maternal health, and cost savings across diverse care environments including neonatal intensive care units, rural communities, and digital platforms. Drawing from peer-reviewed studies, international health agency reports, and longitudinal program evaluations, we reaffirm the IBCLC's role as a catalyst for policy change and a cornerstone of maternal-infant health strategies. New data reveals a significant increase in exclusive breastfeeding rates when IBCLCs are embedded within interprofessional teams. We further explore the IBCLC's evolving leadership in health system transformation, including their influence in shaping perinatal quality metrics, hospital accreditation, and culturally responsive lactation care. As we look to the future, this update challenge systems and stakeholders to elevate, integrate, and invest in the IBCLC role-not as a luxury, but as a necessity for maternal-child health in an era of rising complexity.

  PublisherDOI

• Immediate or early skin‐to‐skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants

  UNC Libraries · 2025-12-17

  articleOpen access

  RATIONALE: Research supports the beneficial effects of immediate maternal-infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) after all modes of birth on breastfeeding/lactation and neonatal physiology, but little is known about how it might influence maternal physiology, including postpartum blood loss and placental separation time. Despite the findings from the 2016 Cochrane review of skin-to-skin contact, and although the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommend immediate, continuous, uninterrupted SSC after birth, newborn infants are still separated from their mothers during this period in many settings. SSC is less common in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (World Bank classification), which suggests country income level could impact breastfeeding exclusivity. This update integrates the evidence found since 2015 into the review. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of immediate skin-to-skin contact (< 10 minutes postbirth) or early skin-to-skin contact (10 minutes-24 hours postbirth) compared with existing hospital practices (standard contact) on the establishment and maintenance of breastfeeding and on maternal and infant physiology among healthy newborn infants and their mothers. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL up to 22 March 2024 and two trial registers up to 3 July 2025, along with reference checking and contact with experts. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials that compared immediate or early SSC with other hospital care after a vaginal or cesarean birth. Participants were mothers and their healthy full-term or late preterm newborns (≥ 34 weeks' gestation). Infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit were excluded. OUTCOMES: Our critical outcomes included exclusive breastfeeding, infant axillary temperature, infant blood glucose levels, infant SCRIP score (cardiorespiratory stability), placental separation time/duration of the third stage of labor, and maternal blood loss. RISK OF BIAS: We used Cochrane's original risk of bias 1 tool (RoB 1). We assessed the risk of performance and detection bias separately for subjective and objective outcomes. SYNTHESIS METHODS: We conducted random-effects meta-analysis where there was substantial heterogeneity and fixed-effect meta-analysis for infant blood glucose and SCRIP score. We calculated the summary risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using the Mantel-Haenszel method for dichotomous outcomes. We calculated the mean difference (MD) and 95% CI using inverse variance for continuous outcomes, except infant SCRIP score, where we used the standardized mean difference (SMD). We used the GRADE approach to summarize the certainty of evidence. INCLUDED STUDIES: We added 26 new trials (3775 mother-infant pairs) to this update for a total of 69 trials (7290 mother-infant pairs). Most studies (43/69) compared immediate SSC with standard hospital care. Ten studies included late preterm infants, and 15 included children born by cesarean delivery. Thirty-two trials were conducted in high-income countries, 25 in upper-middle-income countries, and 12 in lower-middle-income countries. Fifty-six studies contributed data to the meta-analyses. No included trial met all the criteria for high-quality methodology and reporting. Many analyses had statistical heterogeneity due to considerable differences between SSC and control group conditions. SYNTHESIS OF RESULTS: Breastfeeding/lactation SSC compared with standard contact probably increases rates of exclusive breastfeeding at hospital discharge to one month postbirth (RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.56; I² = 62%; 12 studies; 1556 mother-infant pairs; moderate-certainty evidence) and at six weeks to six months postbirth (RR 1.38, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.74; I² = 87%; 11 studies; 1135 mother-infant pairs; moderate-certainty evidence), though both analyses had substantial heterogeneity. Infant physiological stability SSC compared with standard contact probably increases infant axillary temperature, but the MD of 0.28 °C is not clinically meaningful (MD 0.28, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.41; I² = 95%; 11 studies; 1349 infants; moderate-certainty evidence). SSC probably increases blood glucose levels measured in mg/dL (MD 10.49, 95% CI 8.39 to 12.59; I² = 0%; 3 studies; 114 infants; moderate-certainty evidence). Infants who have SSC may also have higher SCRIP scores overall, indicating more optimal cardiorespiratory stabilization. However, the trials reporting this outcome had small sample sizes, and the clinical significance was unclear because trialists reported averages of multiple time points (SMD 1.24, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.72; I² = 0%; 2 studies; 81 infants; low-certainty evidence). Maternal physiology SSC may result in little to no difference in placental separation time/duration of the third stage of labor in minutes (MD -2.26, 95% CI -5.04 to 0.52; I² = 88%; 4 studies; 450 mothers; low-certainty evidence) and maternal postpartum blood loss in mL (MD -145.92, 95% CI -416.96 to 125.11; I² = 97%; 2 studies; 143 mothers; very low-certainty evidence), although these results should be interpreted with caution due to high heterogeneity and the small number of studies. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: This review supports immediate SSC after birth, regardless of mode of birth, for mothers and their healthy full-term and late preterm infants in middle-income and high-income countries. No included studies were conducted in low-income countries. SSC probably promotes exclusive breastfeeding and improves infant thermoregulation and blood glucose levels. In addition, SSC may increase infant stabilization measured by the SCRIP score. The evidence about maternal physiological outcomes was inconclusive. Future research should prioritize methodological rigor. This includes providing clear descriptions of interventions and standard contact, carefully selecting relevant outcomes, and using reliable and objective measurement tools. Understudied areas include: the impact of medications and anesthetics, in terms of dose-response and other variables during SSC; biological and psychosocial mechanisms; additional physiological effects of SSC; and longer-term impacts. Instances of harm should be recorded. As WHO/UNICEF recommends immediate, uninterrupted SSC as the standard of care, randomizing to separation of mother and newborn may no longer be justifiable. FUNDING: This Cochrane review had no dedicated funding. REGISTRATION: Review Update (2016) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub4 Review Update (2012) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub3 Review Update (2007) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub2 Original review (2003) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519 Protocol (2002) DOI unavailable.

  PublisherDOI

• Associations of coronary, cerebrovascular and peripheral vascular events with individual components of blood pressure among hypertensive adults: comparing relationships in ASCOT, ALLHAT and SPRINT

  European Heart Journal · 2025-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Background Recent guidelines recommend lower blood pressure (BP) targets in hypertensive adults for reducing adverse cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. However, pathophysiology of CV events varies by vascular territory; and evidence on associations of BP components with different manifestations of CV disease is unclear. This discordance has implications for tailoring BP targets, particularly for those at high risk of a specific CV event. Purpose Examine risk patterns of CV outcomes: non-fatal (NF) myocardial infarction (MI) and fatal (F) coronary heart disease (CHD), NF/F-stroke and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) with systolic (S) and diastolic (D) components of BP among participants of 3 hypertension treatment trials. Methods In the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT), Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT), and Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT), we developed separate Cox regression models relating hazard ratios (HR 95%CI) of CV outcomes with baseline continuous SBP (ref 120mmHg) and DBP (ref 60mmHg) using restricted cubic splines (5 knots at 5, 27.5, 50, 72.5 and 95 percentiles). Models were adjusted for CV risk factors, past CV disease, diabetes; antihypertensive and aspirin use; and randomised group. Associations with on-treatment achieved BPs, particularly in sub-groups of interest will be further evaluated. Results (Figure 1) SBP and CV outcomes A positive linear association of SBP with CHD was noted in ASCOT. In ALLHAT and SPRINT, risk began rising at ~150mmHg, with HRs remaining comparable at/below 1 down to 120mmHg, and risk increasing again in ALLHAT with SBP below 120mmHg producing a U-shape. Association of SBP with stroke was positively linear in ASCOT and ALLHAT, and U-shaped in SPRINT. In ALLHAT and SPRINT HRs of stroke were statistically significant from 140-150mmHg. Association of SBP with PAD was incremental in ASCOT till maximum risk at 190-195mmHg. In ALLHAT and SPRINT, HRs of PAD were near 1 between 120 to ~150mmHg, rising significantly with higher BP. DBP and CV outcomes DBP demonstrated weak association with CHD in ASCOT across the range of BP values. In ALLHAT and SPRINT, DBP<60mmHg appeared harmful; risk being lowest at ~85mmHg in ALLHAT; HRs remaining ~1 between 60-95mmHg in SPRINT before rising again to a U shape. In all 3 trials, incremental risk of stroke with DBP was only evident above 90-95mmHg. There was no obvious association between DBP and PAD in ASCOT, but inverse linear associations were noted in ALLHAT and SPRINT such that DBP<60mmHg carried potential risk while higher DBPs were protective. Conclusions Initial findings suggest that in hypertensive adults SBP 120-140mmHg may be equally favorable for CHD, Stroke and PAD; with SBP<120mmHg potentially harmful. DBP<60mmHg may carry increased risk of CHD, Stroke and PAD, while DBP between 80 and 90mmHg appears optimal. However, further on-treatment evaluation is pending.

  PublisherDOI

• Nurse's performance regarding waste management based on occupational safety

  Journal of Health Care Research. · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Medical waste management is an important aspect of healthcare delivery, Proper waste management practices are essential to prevent the spread of infection, reduce environmental pollution, and safeguard public health. Study aim: to assess healthcare worker’s performance based on occupational safety regarding waste management. Subjects and methods: this cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at the main primary health care centers in Fayoum city and the governmental hospitals in the city on 200 healthcare workers. Data were collected using two different versions of self-administered questionnaires and observation checklists, for nurses .Results: Nurses’ age ranged between 22 and 59 years. 33.3% of the nurses had satisfactory total knowledge of waste management. And 68.8% of the nurses had a positive total attitude. While 61.5% of the nurses reported having adequate practice, only 34.4% of them had adequate observed practice.Conclusion and Recommendations: the nurses have deficient knowledge of waste management, with more positive attitudes and less adequate practice. Recommended sufficient resources should be allocated, regarding safe waste management.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Immediate or early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants

  Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2025-10-22 · 10 citations

  reviewOpen access

  RATIONALE: Research supports the beneficial effects of immediate maternal-infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) after all modes of birth on breastfeeding/lactation and neonatal physiology, but little is known about how it might influence maternal physiology, including postpartum blood loss and placental separation time. Despite the findings from the 2016 Cochrane review of skin-to-skin contact, and although the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommend immediate, continuous, uninterrupted SSC after birth, newborn infants are still separated from their mothers during this period in many settings. SSC is less common in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (World Bank classification), which suggests country income level could impact breastfeeding exclusivity. This update integrates the evidence found since 2015 into the review. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of immediate skin-to-skin contact (< 10 minutes postbirth) or early skin-to-skin contact (10 minutes-24 hours postbirth) compared with existing hospital practices (standard contact) on the establishment and maintenance of breastfeeding and on maternal and infant physiology among healthy newborn infants and their mothers. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL up to 22 March 2024 and two trial registers up to 3 July 2025, along with reference checking and contact with experts. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials that compared immediate or early SSC with other hospital care after a vaginal or cesarean birth. Participants were mothers and their healthy full-term or late preterm newborns (≥ 34 weeks' gestation). Infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit were excluded. OUTCOMES: Our critical outcomes included exclusive breastfeeding, infant axillary temperature, infant blood glucose levels, infant SCRIP score (cardiorespiratory stability), placental separation time/duration of the third stage of labor, and maternal blood loss. RISK OF BIAS: We used Cochrane's original risk of bias 1 tool (RoB 1). We assessed the risk of performance and detection bias separately for subjective and objective outcomes. SYNTHESIS METHODS: We conducted random-effects meta-analysis where there was substantial heterogeneity and fixed-effect meta-analysis for infant blood glucose and SCRIP score. We calculated the summary risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using the Mantel-Haenszel method for dichotomous outcomes. We calculated the mean difference (MD) and 95% CI using inverse variance for continuous outcomes, except infant SCRIP score, where we used the standardized mean difference (SMD). We used the GRADE approach to summarize the certainty of evidence. INCLUDED STUDIES: We added 26 new trials (3775 mother-infant pairs) to this update for a total of 69 trials (7290 mother-infant pairs). Most studies (43/69) compared immediate SSC with standard hospital care. Ten studies included late preterm infants, and 15 included children born by cesarean delivery. Thirty-two trials were conducted in high-income countries, 25 in upper-middle-income countries, and 12 in lower-middle-income countries. Fifty-six studies contributed data to the meta-analyses. No included trial met all the criteria for high-quality methodology and reporting. Many analyses had statistical heterogeneity due to considerable differences between SSC and control group conditions. SYNTHESIS OF RESULTS: Breastfeeding/lactation SSC compared with standard contact probably increases rates of exclusive breastfeeding at hospital discharge to one month postbirth (RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.56; I² = 62%; 12 studies; 1556 mother-infant pairs; moderate-certainty evidence) and at six weeks to six months postbirth (RR 1.38, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.74; I² = 87%; 11 studies; 1135 mother-infant pairs; moderate-certainty evidence), though both analyses had substantial heterogeneity. Infant physiological stability SSC compared with standard contact probably increases infant axillary temperature, but the MD of 0.28 °C is not clinically meaningful (MD 0.28, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.41; I² = 95%; 11 studies; 1349 infants; moderate-certainty evidence). SSC probably increases blood glucose levels measured in mg/dL (MD 10.49, 95% CI 8.39 to 12.59; I² = 0%; 3 studies; 114 infants; moderate-certainty evidence). Infants who have SSC may also have higher SCRIP scores overall, indicating more optimal cardiorespiratory stabilization. However, the trials reporting this outcome had small sample sizes, and the clinical significance was unclear because trialists reported averages of multiple time points (SMD 1.24, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.72; I² = 0%; 2 studies; 81 infants; low-certainty evidence). Maternal physiology SSC may result in little to no difference in placental separation time/duration of the third stage of labor in minutes (MD -2.26, 95% CI -5.04 to 0.52; I² = 88%; 4 studies; 450 mothers; low-certainty evidence) and maternal postpartum blood loss in mL (MD -145.92, 95% CI -416.96 to 125.11; I² = 97%; 2 studies; 143 mothers; very low-certainty evidence), although these results should be interpreted with caution due to high heterogeneity and the small number of studies. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: This review supports immediate SSC after birth, regardless of mode of birth, for mothers and their healthy full-term and late preterm infants in middle-income and high-income countries. No included studies were conducted in low-income countries. SSC probably promotes exclusive breastfeeding and improves infant thermoregulation and blood glucose levels. In addition, SSC may increase infant stabilization measured by the SCRIP score. The evidence about maternal physiological outcomes was inconclusive. Future research should prioritize methodological rigor. This includes providing clear descriptions of interventions and standard contact, carefully selecting relevant outcomes, and using reliable and objective measurement tools. Understudied areas include: the impact of medications and anesthetics, in terms of dose-response and other variables during SSC; biological and psychosocial mechanisms; additional physiological effects of SSC; and longer-term impacts. Instances of harm should be recorded. As WHO/UNICEF recommends immediate, uninterrupted SSC as the standard of care, randomizing to separation of mother and newborn may no longer be justifiable. FUNDING: This Cochrane review had no dedicated funding. REGISTRATION: Review Update (2016) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub4 Review Update (2012) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub3 Review Update (2007) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub2 Original review (2003) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519 Protocol (2002) DOI unavailable.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Ongoing Imperative to Recognize and Support Maternal–Infant Interaction

  Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing · 2025-10-13

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Impact of a structured sleep education program on mothers' knowledge and attitudes toward infant sleeping

  Heliyon · 2024-04-18 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Introduction: Sleeping is necessary for the infant growth and development. Sufficient and quality of sleep can have an impact on physical, cognitive, and emotional functioning. Infancy is a critical time for establishing healthy habits and routines. However, many infants were suffering from sleeping issues that impact their health. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the effect of educational programs given to mothers regarding their infants' sleep on mothers' knowledge and attitudes toward infant's sleeping. Method: A quasi-experimental design for nonequivalent groups was used, and data was collected from 208 mothers with infants aged 5-12 months from all Jordanian governorates who had not been exposed to educational programs prior to this study. Data was collected in two stages: pre-test and post-test, with two weeks in between for both groups. Results: The final results indicated that the educational intervention had a significant impact on mothers' knowledge over time. It was found that mothers in the intervention group had significantly higher mean of infant sleep health knowledge at follow up time compared to their baseline time (B = 0.236, P 0.001). Also, the yielded analysis showed that there was no significant change in mothers' mean attitudes toward infants sleeping over time (P = 0.011). The mothers' measured sleep health knowledge correlated positively and significantly statistically with their sleep health attitudes score (r = 0.436, P 0.010).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 232 JAK Inhibitors to Restore Skin Barrier Function in a Mouse Model of Harlequin Ichthyosis

  Journal of Investigative Dermatology · 2024-11-20

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Influence of Carbon Source on Composting process.

  Egyptian Journal of Agronomy · 2024-08-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This research aims to study the degree and duration of the thermophilic phase by changing the available carbon source to reduce the period of composting within a fully equipped reactor with a controllable stirring and ventilation unit and its impact on the quality of the produced compost. The first stage analysis of raw materials used physically and chemically. Then determined the need for nitrogen supplements and the appropriate particle size of the nutrient.Initially, the experiment contained six treatments obtained by mixing agricultural plant residues (pepper and broccoli) with cow manure in different mixing ratios: 95:5, 90:10, 85:15, 60:40, 50:50 and 10:90 respectively. Then from the resulting data of the first experiment, the mixing ratios of 50:50 and 60:40 were chosen as the best ratios that showed the highest temperatures, then other parameters were added to them, which are (20 ml used oil and 20% compost as inoculum).The addition of used oil (50:50) resulted in the record of the highest temperature of 59°C and the thermophilic phase lasted for 5 days. However, with ratios (60:40) recorded 56°C and the thermophilic phase lasted for 4 days and the composting process was completed within 18 days. While when the inoculum was added with (50:50) ratios, the temperature reached 52.7°C and with (60:40) it reached 51°c and the compost was completed ripening after 25 days from the beginning of the experiment.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bottleneck Identification in Cloudified Mobile Networks based on Distributed Telemetry

  2023-02-17

  preprintOpen access

  Cloudified mobile networks, such as 5G, are expected to deliver a multitude of services to several slices in parallel, while having reduced capital and operating expenses. The 5G mobile systems, therefore, need to ensure that the SLAs of customized end-to-end sliced services are met. This requires monitoring the resource usage and characteristics of data flows at the virtualized network components and interfaces of its cloud mobile network, as well as tracking the performance at its radio interfaces and UEs. A centralised monitoring architecture can not scale to support millions of UEs though. This paper, proposes a distributed telemetry framework in which UEs act as early warning sensors. Upon flagging an anomaly, the cloudified mobile network activates a machine learning model to attribute the cause of the anomaly. We employ active, passive and in-band telemetry in our monitoring framework and achieve an impressive performance of 85% F1 score in detecting anomalies caused by different bottlenecks, and an overall 89% F1 score in attributing these bottlenecks. Our distributed framework achieves almost same bottleneck attribution accuracy to that of acentralized monitoring system but with no overhead of transmitting UE-based telemetry data to the centralized controller.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lingsong Zhang

  Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences

  23 shared

• Ali M. Roumani

  Gulf University for Science & Technology

  20 shared

• Kinga A. Szucs

  Indianapolis Zoo

  17 shared

• Jennifer Coddington

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  17 shared

• Demetra King

  Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

  16 shared

• Wilaiporn Rojjanasrirat

  Mothers’ Milk Bank

  11 shared

• Karen S. Yehle

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  10 shared

• Margaret J. Sorg

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  10 shared

Education

• Post Masters Certificate-Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, School of Nursing

  Purdue University

• PhD, Faculty of Nursing

  Cairo University

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association…
• Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) - October 2…
• Audrey Hepburn Award for the Contribution for the Health and…