Minority Health and Health Equity Archive
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21769
Welcome to the Minority Health and Health Equity Archive (MHHEA), an electronic archive for digital resource materials in the fields of minority health and health disparities research and policy. It is offered as a no-charge resource to the public, academic scholars and health science researchers interested in the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.
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Item Mapping a Course for Community Action and Research to Eliminate Disparities: Welcoming Remarks and Introductions(2001) Thomas, Stephen B.MP3 audio files recorded by the Pennsylvania and Ohio Public Health Training Center at the First Annual Minority Health Leadership SummitItem Racial Differences in Parents' Distrust of Medicine and Research(2009) Rajakumar, Kumaravel; Thomas, Stephen B.; Musa, Donald; Almario, Donna; Garza, Mary A.Objective To assess and compare the attitudes and trust that African American and white parents have toward their children participating in research. Design Self-administered, cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of parents. Setting Primary Care Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh from August 2004 through April 2005. Participants One hundred ninety parents (140 African American and 50 white parents). Outcome Measure Parental distrust of medical research as measured by a summative score of distrusting responses to 8 questions assessing trust in research. Results African American parents had significantly greater distrust than white parents (67% vs 50%, P = .04). Education was also associated with having significantly greater distrust (74% of those withItem The Use of Family Health Histories to Address Health Disparities in an African American Community(2007) Vogel, Kristen J.; Murthy, Vinaya S.; Dudley, Beth; Grubs, Robin E.; Gettig, Elizabeth; Ford, Angela; Thomas, Stephen B.African Americans continue to suffer from health disparities. The Center for Minority Health (CMH) within the University of Pittsburgh has the mission to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. CMH has designed and implemented the Family Health History (FHH) Initiative. The FHH Initiative places geneticcounseling graduate students in the African American community to provide risk assessments and emphasize the importance of family history as it pertains to disease prevention. The FHH Initiative also allows participants to enroll into the Minority Research Recruitment Database (MRRD). This enables CMH to alert individuals to available research participation opportunities. In the first year of this program, 225 African Americans completed their family health histories. More than 60% of individuals enrolled in the MRRD. The authors report their initial successes and challenges of an initiative that incorporates awareness of family history information, proper screening guidelines, behavior modification recommendations, and support for participation in clinical research.Item Mapping a Course for Community Action and Research to Eliminate Disparities Closing Session: Where Do We Go From Here?(2001) Thomas, Stephen B.; Kaler, StephenIntroduction to the Morning Session; The Community Break Out Session (note: this is long); Report from the Community Break Out; Reports from the Research Break Out Group; Wrap up and other Comments; MP3 audio files recorded by the Pennsylvania and Ohio Public Health Training Center at the First Annual Minority Health Leadership SummitItem Mapping a Course for Community Action and Research to Eliminate Disparities NIH Strategic Plan to Eliminate Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities: Translating Public Policy to Research and Community Action(2001) Kaler, Stephen G.; Thomas, Stephen B.MP3 audio files recorded by the Pennsylvania and Ohio Public Health Training Center at the First Annual Minority Health Leadership SummitItem The Characteristics of Northern Black Churches with Community Health Outreach Programs(1994) Thomas, Stephen B.; Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Biingsley, Andrew; Caldwell, CleopatraOBJECTIVES. The Black church has a long history of addressing unmet health and human service needs, yet few studies have examined characteristics of churches involved in health promotion. METHODS. Data obtained from a survey of 635 Black churches in the northern United States were examined. Univariate and multivariate statistical procedures identified eight characteristics associated with community health outreach programs: congregation size, denomination, church age, economic class of membership, ownership of church, number of paid clergy, presence of other paid staff, and education level of the minister. RESULTS. A logistic regression model identified church size and educational level of the minister as the strongest predictors of church-sponsored community health outreach. The model correctly classified 88% of churches that conduct outreach programs. Overall, the model correctly classified 76% of churches in the sample. CONCLUSIONS. Results may be used by public health professionals and policy makers to enlist Black churches as an integral component for delivery of health promotion and disease prevention services needed to achieve the Year 2000 health objectives for all Americans.Item Light on the Shadow of the Syphilis Study at Tuskegee(2000) Thomas, Stephen B.; Quinn, Sandra CrouseIn the 1940s, with the disclosure that Nazi doctors had conducted experiments on humans, the term research crime appeared for the first time. Most Americans believed such abuses could never happen here. On a hot day in July 1972, however, the national front-page news described an experiment sponsored by the U.S. government. In Macon County, Alabama, a large group of Black men had gone untreated for syphilis. Over 4 decades, as some of them died, the U.S. government went to great lengths to ensure that the men in the Tuskegee Study were denied treatment, even after penicillin had become the standard of care in the mid-1940sItem Breaking The Cycle of Violence Among Youth Living in Metropolitan Atlanta: A Case History of Kids Alive and Loved(1998) Thomas, Stephen B.; Leite, Bernadette; Duncan, TedMore teenagers in the United States die from gunshot wounds than from all natural causes of disease combined. Firearm-related mortality accounts for almost half of all deaths among African American teens. Residents of central cities have the highest probability of experiencing violent crimes. This article describes an innovative community-based intervention designed to break the cycle of violence among youth in metropolitan Atlanta. The intervention, Kids Alive and Loved (KAL), emerged from the African American community as one mother's response to the violent death of her 17-year-old son. The authors describe how her response to tragedy gave birth to a culturally appropriate intervention for youth exposed to violence. This article delineates the evolution of KAL, the role of community partners in the design of the intervention, and how diffusion of innovation theory has implications for understanding the KAL approach to breaking the cycle of violence.Item African Americans' views on research and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study(2001) Freimuth, Vicki S.; Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Thomas, Stephen B.; Cole, Galen; Zook, Eric; Duncan, TedThe participation of African Americans in clinical and public health research is essential. However, for a multitude of reasons, participation is low in many research studies. This article reviews the literature that substantiates barriers to participation and the legacy of past abuses of human subjects through research. The article then reports the results of seven focus groups with 60 African Americans in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Atlanta during the winter of 1997. In order to improve recruitment and retention in research, the focus group study examined knowledge of and attitudes toward medical research, knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and reactions to the Home Box Office production, Miss Evers' Boys, a fictionalized version of the Tuskegee Study, that premiered in February, 1997. The study found that accurate knowledge about research was limited; lack of understanding and trust of informed consent procedures was problematic; and distrust of researchers posed a substantial barrier to recruitment. Additionally, the study found that, in general, participants believed that research was important, but they clearly distinguished between types of research they would be willing to consider participating in and their motivations for doing so.Item Managing Depression in African Americans: Consumer and Provider Perspectives(2007) Brown, Charlotte; Taylor, Jerome; Lee, Brenda E.; Thomas, Stephen B.; Ford, AngelaThe purpose of this project was to examine pathways to depression care and preceived barriers to care amoung African Americans who have experienced a recent depressive episode. The framework for developing specific aims and focus group questions is informed by collaborative models of care. The foundation of collaborative models of care lies in a shared understanding between consumer and provider of the nature of the problem, and agreement on treatment options and treatment plans. With this in mind, we examine factors influencing the provider-consumer encounter by evaluating the sociocultural meaning of depression for both consumers and providers. Expanding our knowledge about consumers' perception of depression, its treatment, and life-circumstances that may influence treatment-seeking behavior will enable us to inform providers about the culturally meaningful perceptions of depression that consumers bring to the encounter. Given that prior research has suggested that providers and consumers often focus on different elements of care, it is particularly important to examine the congruence between consumers and providers on perceptions of depression and its treatment. Information regarding consumers' perception of depression and its treatment, and divergence between consumers and providers can help us to develop more effective collaborative approaches for engaging depressed African Americans in treatment.