Saad B Omer

Biographic Data

ID1737186
NAMESaad B Omer
GIVEN NAMESSaad B
FAMILY NAMEOmer
SIGNATUREOMER S B
AFFILIATIONSYale University
ORCID0000-0002-5383-3474
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS54
TOTAL CITATIONS53
AUTHOR COUNT54
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2005
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX4

  • Validation of polyester nasal swabs for post-mortem Sars-CoV-2 diagnosis in Karachi, Pakistan

    Open AccessRaheel Allana, Fatima Aziz et al.ARTICLEJournal of Global Health2025

    Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted global health, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) facing unique healthcare challenges. Polyester nasal swabs stored in dry tubes have emerged as a cost-effective and scalable method for routine testing of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We aimed to assess the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among deceased individuals in an urban slum in Karachi, Pakista…

  • Change in influenza vaccine uptake among adults in the United States from May 2020 to October 2024

    Open AccessHannah Melchinger, Sameer M Belgaumi et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2025

    Influenza vaccines are essential against the spread of influenza virus. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends vaccination to all eligible individuals over 6 months of age; however, uptake remains suboptimal nationally. We do not fully understand the current nuances of influenza vaccine uptake, nor how it has been affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. From 2020-2024, we conduc…

  • Change in confidence in public health entities among US adults between 2020–2024

    Open AccessHannah Melchinger, Saad B Omer et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2025

    The COVID-19 pandemic introduced significant uncertainty among Americans, and eroded trust in US health entities and institutions. This study describes a longitudinal assessment of Americans’ change in confidence in these public health entities from 2020 to 2024. We conducted four surveys assessing confidence in public health entities among US adults conducted between February 2020 and October 2024. Surveys were hosted by CloudResearch and admini…

  • Evaluating the burden of respiratory tract infections among mortality cases in Karachi, Pakistan

    Open AccessFurqan Kabir, Raheel Allana et al.ARTICLEJournal of Global Health2025

    Background: Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) significantly impact global health, but particularly affect low- and middle-income countries. They contribute to morbidity and mortality, especially among vulnerable populations. We evaluated the burden of RTIs in mortality cases in an urban slum of Karachi, Pakistan, during the post-COVID-19 pandemic period. Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study from September 2022 to October 2023…

  • Determining the cause of death through mortality surveillance using verbal autopsy in Karachi, Pakistan

    Open AccessRaheel Allana, Inci Yildirim et al.ARTICLEJournal of Global Health2025

    Background: In Pakistan, cultural and religious beliefs restrict autopsies, limiting their prevalence. Additionally, many deaths occur at home, outside of hospital systems, making cause-of-death (CoD) determination challenging. This study aims to overcome these challenges by using a community-based verbal autopsy approach in Karachi to identify CoD. Methods: The research was conducted in two peri-urban communities within the Health Demographic Si…

  • Moral foundations messaging to improve vaccine attitudes

    Open AccessMaike Winters, Sarah Christie et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    The uptake of routine childhood vaccinations has declined globally since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, due in part to increased vaccine hesitancy among parents. The Moral Foundations Theory proposes six foundations which can be targeted to increase vaccine uptake. In this study, we tested whether a post by UNICEF with a purity violation message could affect vaccine attitudes among parents in Argentina, where routine immunization coverage ha…

  • Behavioral interventions for vaccination uptake

    Open AccessAmyn A Malik, Noureen Ahmed et al.ARTICLEHealth Policy2023

  • Validation of the Vaccination Trust Indicator (VTI) in a multi-country survey of adult vaccination attitudes

    Open AccessMallory K Ellingson, Saad B Omer et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Improved uptake of adult vaccinations could substantially reduce the burden of infectious disease worldwide, however very few countries achieve high coverage of recommended adult vaccinations. Vaccine hesitancy is an important driver of low vaccine uptake among adults but no measure currently exists to capture general vaccination attitudes in this population accurately and efficiently. We utilize data from two surveys of adult vaccine attitudes a…

  • Persuasive Covid-19 vaccination campaigns on Facebook and nationwide vaccination coverage in Ukraine, India, and Pakistan

    Open AccessMaike Winters, Sarah Christie et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Social media platforms have a wide and influential reach, and as such provide an opportunity to increase vaccine uptake. To date, there is no large-scale, robust evidence on the offline effects of online messaging campaigns. We aimed to test whether pre-tested, persuasive messaging campaigns from UNICEF, disseminated on Facebook, influenced COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Ukraine, India, and Pakistan. In Ukraine, we deployed a stepped-wedge randomized…

  • Moral foundations and HPV vaccine acceptance in the United States

    Open AccessJamieson M O''Marr, Akila Raoul et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2023Cited by: 1References: 39

  • Global, regional, and national disease burden estimates of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in children younger than 5 years in 2019

    Open AccessYou Li, Xin Wang et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2022

    BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children. We previously estimated that in 2015, 33·1 million episodes of RSV-associated acute lower respiratory infection occurred in children aged 0-60 months, resulting in a total of 118 200 deaths worldwide. Since then, several community surveillance studies have been done to obtain a more precise estimation of RSV associated co…

  • Drivers of Covid-19 policy stringency in 175 countries and territories

    Open AccessMohamed F Jalloh, Zangin Zeebari et al.ARTICLEJournal of Global Health2022

    Background: New data on COVID-19 may influence the stringency of containment policies, but these potential effect are not understood. We aimed to understand the associations of new COVID-19 cases and deaths with policy stringency globally and regionally. Methods: We modelled the marginal effects of new COVID-19 cases and deaths on policy stringency (scored 0-100) in 175 countries and territories, adjusting for gross domestic product (GDP) per cap…

  • Association of community engagement with vaccination confidence and uptake

    Open AccessMohamed F Jalloh, Paul Sengeh et al.ARTICLEJournal of Global Health2022

    Background: The 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic disrupted childhood immunization in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. After the epidemic, the Government of Sierra Leone prioritized community engagement to increase vaccination confidence and uptake. To support these efforts, we examined potential drivers of vaccination confidence and uptake in Sierra Leone. Methods: We conducted a population-based household survey with primary caregivers of children in …

  • Covid-19 vaccine perceptions in the initial phases of US vaccine roll-out

    Open AccessNavin Kumar, Isabel Corpus et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2022

    Our findings can inform the development of interventions where individuals determine the accuracy of vaccine information, and communications campaigns to improve COVID-19 vaccine perceptions, early in the vaccine timeline. Such efforts can increase individual- and population-level awareness of accurate and scientifically sound information regarding vaccines and thereby improve attitudes about vaccines, especially in the early phases of vaccine ro…

  • MomsTalkShots, tailored educational app, improves vaccine attitudes

    Open AccessMatthew Z Dudley, Saad B Omer et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2022

    Registered at Clinicaltrials.gov on 13/09/2016 (registration number: NCT02898688)

  • Educational and economic returns to cognitive ability in low- and middle-income countries

    Open AccessSachiko Ozawa, Sarah K Laing et al.ARTICLEWorld Development2022

  • Covid-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in low- and middle-income countries

    Open AccessJulio S Solís Arce, Shana S Warren et al.ARTICLENature Medicine2021

    Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving sufficient immunization coverage to end the global pandemic, yet few studies have investigated COVID-19 vaccination attitudes in lower-income countries, where large-scale vaccination is just beginning. We analyze COVID-19 vaccine acceptance across 15 survey samples covering 10 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia, Africa and South America, Russia (an upper-middle-inco…

  • Methodological frontiers in vaccine safety

    Open AccessCaitlin Dodd, Nick Andrews et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2021

    While vaccines are rigorously tested for safety and efficacy in clinical trials, these trials do not include enough subjects to detect rare adverse events, and they generally exclude special populations such as pregnant women. It is therefore necessary to conduct postmarketing vaccine safety assessments using observational data sources. The study of rare events has been enabled in through large linked databases and distributed data networks, in c…

  • Leveraging HIV Care Infrastructures for Integrated Chronic Disease and Pandemic Management in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Open AccessMarie A Brault, Sten H Vermund et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2021

    In Sub-Saharan Africa, communicable and other tropical infectious diseases remain major challenges apart from the continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Recognition and prevalence of non-communicable diseases have risen throughout Africa, and the reimagining of healthcare delivery is needed to support communities coping with not only with HIV, tuberculosis, and COVID-19, but also cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression. Many non-communica…

  • Determinants of Covid-19 vaccine acceptance in the US

    Open AccessAmyn A Malik, SarahAnn M McFadden et al.ARTICLEEClinicalMedicine2020

    BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to adversely affect the U.S., which leads globally in total cases and deaths. As COVID-19 vaccines are under development, public health officials and policymakers need to create strategic vaccine-acceptance messaging to effectively control the pandemic and prevent thousands of additional deaths. METHODS: Using an online platform, we surveyed the U.S. adult population in May 2020 to understand risk perce…

  • Patient Decision Making Related to Maternal and Childhood Vaccines

    Open AccessRupali J Limaye, Fauzia Malik et al.ARTICLEHealth Education & Behavior2020

    Immunization is one of the most effective ways to prevent infectious diseases. However, vaccination rates are suboptimal in the United States. Obstetric providers are critical in influencing vaccine decision making among pregnant women, as trust between a patient and provider may facilitate willingness to accept vaccination. Little is known about how power between a patient and provider affects vaccine acceptance. This study explored pregnant wom…

  • Latent Class Analysis of Maternal Vaccine Attitudes and Beliefs

    Open AccessMatthew Z Dudley, Rupali J Limaye et al.ARTICLEHealth Education & Behavior2020

    Background. Maternal vaccine coverage is suboptimal, and a substantial proportion of parents have concerns about vaccines. Most parents seek out vaccine information during and immediately after their first pregnancy. No study to our knowledge has analyzed survey data to identify homogeneous groups of pregnant women based on their vaccine attitudes and beliefs. Aims. To identify homogeneity among groups of pregnant women based on their vaccine att…

  • Effectiveness of Gas and Chimney Biomass Stoves for Reducing Household Air Pollution Pregnancy Exposure in Guatemala

    Open AccessLaura M Grajeda, Lisa M Thompson et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2020

    Household air pollution (HAP) due to solid fuel use during pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes. The real-life effectiveness of clean cooking interventions has been disappointing overall yet variable, but the sociodemographic determinants are not well described. We measured personal 24-h PM 2.5 (particulate matter n = 218) gravimetrically with Teflon filter, impactor, and personal pump setups. To estimate the effectiveness of ownin…

  • Shouting at each other into the void

    Open AccessKali Dedominicis, Alison M Buttenheim et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2020Cited by: 2References: 13

    In 2015, California passed Senate Bill 277 and became the third state in the United States to ban all nonmedical exemptions from school immunization requirements, effectively prohibiting religious and personal belief exemptions. This attracted grassroots opposition and considerable debate among vaccine hesitant factions online. This mixed-methods study used quantitative linguistic analysis, semantic network analysis, and content analysis techniqu…

  • Ten considerations for effectively managing the Covid-19 transition

    Open AccessKatrine Bach Habersaat, Cornelia Betsch et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2020Cited by: 13References: 130

    Governments around the world have implemented measures to manage the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While the majority of these measures are proving effective, they have a high social and economic cost, and response strategies are being adjusted. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that communities should have a voice, be informed and engaged, and participate in this transition phase. We propose ten considerations…