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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End date: 1999Subject: search.filters.subject.Health

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 35
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    Lack of Hispanics' Involvement in Research - Is It Hispanics or Scientists?
    (1998) Duran, Deborah Guadalupe
    Abstract available at publisher's web site.
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    An Ecological Perspective on Health Promotion Programs
    (1988) McLeroy, K. R.; Bibeau, D.; Steckler, A.; Glanz, K.
    During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in societal interest in preventing disability and death in the United States by changing individual behaviors linked to the risk of contracting chronic diseases. This renewed interest in health promotion and disease prevention has not been without its critics. Some critics have accused proponents of life-style interventions of promoting a victim-blaming ideology by neglecting the importance of social influences on health and disease. This article proposes an ecological model for health promotion which focuses attention on both individual and social environmental factors as targets for health promotion interventions. It addresses the importance of interventions directed at changing interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy, factors which support and maintain unhealthy behaviors. The model assumes that appropriate changes in the social environment will produce changes in individuals, and that the support of individuals in the population is essential for implementing environmental changes.
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    Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women's Health Activism in America, 1890-1950
    (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995) Smith , Susan L.
    Black health activism in the United States emerged at a time when the American welfare state was expanding and black rights were decreasing. From 1890 to 1950, a period of legalized segregation, many African Americans saw their struggle for improved health conditions as part of a political agenda for black rights, especially the right to equal access to government resources. Although it was difficult for a group with little influence on government to affect public policy, black activists struggled to draw federal attention to black health issues. They tried to make the health needs of black America a legitimate political concern for the nation. With great caution they entered the debate on the role of the state in the care of its citizens. Black health reform was gendered to the extent that men held most of the formal leadership positions and women did most of the grassroots organizing. Much like the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, "men led, but women organized." 1 Black men played an important role in the black health movement as doctors,ministers,journalists, businessmen, and educators. Yet, men's leadership often came and went, while women's grassroots activity persisted.
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    Normal Human Aging: The Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging
    (NIH Publication, 1984) Shock, Nathan W.; Greulich, Richard C.; Costa, Paul T, Jr.; Andres, Reubin; Lakatta, Edward G.; Arenberg, David; Tobin, Jordan D.
    Normal Human Aging is an overview of the first 23 years of research findings about the natural course of human aging. The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging was started in 1958 to "trace the effects of aging in humans." The BLSA recruited men aged 17 to 96 and women beginning in 1978 to participate in repeated assessments of health and physical and psychological performance. Visits were every two years over 2 1/2 days.
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    The Effect of Race and Sex on Physicians' Recommendations for Cardiac Catheterization
    (1999) Schulman, Kevin A.; Berlin, Jesse A.; Harless, William; Kerner, Jon F.; Sistrunk, Shyrl; Gersh, Bernard J.; Dubé, Ross; Taleghani, Christopher K.; Burke, Jennifer E.; Williams, Sankey; Eisenberg, John M.; Escarce, José J.; Ayers, William
    Background Epidemiologic studies have reported differences in the use of cardiovascular procedures according to the race and sex of the patient. Whether the differences stem from differences in the recommendations of physicians remains uncertain. Methods We developed a computerized survey instrument to assess physicians' recommendations for managing chest pain. Actors portrayed patients with particular characteristics in scripted interviews about their symptoms. A total of 720 physicians at two national meetings of organizations of primary care physicians participated in the survey. Each physician viewed a recorded interview and was given other data about a hypothetical patient. He or she then made recommendations about that patient's care. We used multivariate logistic-regression analysis to assess the effects of the race and sex of the patients on treatment recommendations, while controlling for the physicians' assessment of the probability of coronary artery disease as well as for the age of the patient, the level of coronary risk, the type of chest pain, and the results of an exercise stress test. Results The physicians' mean (±SD) estimates of the probability of coronary artery disease were lower for women (probability, 64.1±19.3 percent, vs. 69.2±18.2 percent for men; P<0.001), younger patients (63.8±19.5 percent for patients who were 55 years old, vs. 69.5±17.9 percent for patients who were 70 years old; P<0.001), and patients with nonanginal pain (58.3±19.0 percent, vs. 64.4±18.3 percent for patients with possible angina and 77.1±14.0 percent for those with definite angina; P<0.001). Logistic-regression analysis indicated that women (odds ratio, 0.60; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.4 to 0.9; P=0.02) and blacks (odds ratio, 0.60; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.4 to 0.9; P=0.02) were less likely to be referred for cardiac catheterization than men and whites, respectively. Analysis of race–sex interactions showed that black women were significantly less likely to be referred for catheterization than white men (odds ratio, 0.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.2 to 0.7; P=0.004). Conclusions Our findings suggest that the race and sex of a patient independently influence how physicians manage chest pain.
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    The Tuskegee Legacy: AIDS and the Black Community
    (1992) Jones, James
    No scientific experiment inflicted more damage on the collective psyche of black Americans than the Tuskegee study. After Jean Heller broke the story in 1972, news of the tragedy spread in the black community. Confronted with the experiment's moral bankruptcy, many blacks lost faith in the government and no longer believed health officials who spoke on matters of public concern. Consequently, when a terrifying new plague swept the land in the 1980s and 1990s, the Tuskegee study predisposed many blacks to distrust health authorities, a fact many whites had difficulty understanding.
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    REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN APOLOGY FOR STUDY DONE IN TUSKEGEE
    (1997) Clinton, William Jefferson
    THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, on Sunday, Mr. Shaw will celebrate his 95th birthday. (Applause.) I would like to recognize the other survivors who are here today and their families: Mr. Charlie Pollard is here. (Applause.) Mr. Carter Howard. (Applause.) Mr. Fred Simmons. (Applause.) Mr. Simmons just took his first airplane ride, and he reckons he's about 110 years old, so I think it's time for him to take a chance or two. (Laughter.) I'm glad he did. And Mr. Frederick Moss, thank you, sir. (Applause.) I would also like to ask three family representatives who are here -- Sam Doner is represented by his daughter, Gwendolyn Cox. Thank you, Gwendolyn. (Applause.) Ernest Hendon, who is watching in Tuskegee, is represented by his brother, North Hendon. Thank you, sir, for being here. (Applause.) And George Key is represented by his grandson, Christopher Monroe. Thank you, Chris. (Applause.) I also acknowledge the families, community leaders, teachers and students watching today by satellite from Tuskegee. The White House is the people's house; we are glad to have all of you here today. I thank Dr. David Satcher for his role in this. I thank Congresswoman Waters and Congressman Hilliard, Congressman Stokes, the entire Congressional Black Caucus. Dr. Satcher, members of the Cabinet who are here, Secretary Herman, Secretary Slater, members of the Cabinet who are here, Secretary Herman, Secretary Slater. A great friend of freedom, Fred Gray, thank you for fighting this long battle all these long years. The eight men who are survivors of the syphilis study at Tuskegee are a living link to a time not so very long ago that many Americans would prefer not to remember, but we dare not forget. It was a time when our nation failed to live up to its ideals, when our nation broke the trust with our people that is the very foundation of our democracy. It is not only in remembering that shameful past that we can make amends and repair our nation, but it is in remembering that past that we can build a better present and a better future. And without remembering it, we cannot make amends and we cannot go forward.
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    Further Evidence on the Economic Effects of Poor Health
    (1985) Chirikos, Thomas N; Nestel, Gilbert
    This paper examines variations in current economic welfare attributable to different profiles or histories of health status over the preceding ten year period. A two-equation model, estimated with National Longitudinal Survey data for four sex-race groups, provides convincing evidence that health problems incurred in the past adversely affect current earnings. This legacy is difficult to overcome; it remains even for individuals in improving health willing to devote relatively greater effort to market work. A history of poor health is also shown to exact substantially different economic tolls from men and women as well as from whites and blacks.
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    EDITORIAL- How Do We Evaluate and Utilize Data on Ethnic Differences?
    (1999) Howard, Barbara V
    Until recently, virtually all medical research was conducted on upper-middle class White men. This left health care professionals, as well as many other segments of the population, without sufficient information to deliver adequate health care to both genders and to the diverse groups of ethnic minorities in the United States. Fortunately, research policy has changed and intense efforts are now being made to collect data not only from men but also from women and majot ethnic U.S. minorities. The resultant data, however, create a dilemma concerning how we evaluate data that show differences between ethnic groups. All human beings are similar in most ways--i.e., sharing basic anatomy, physicology, and biochemistry--although there are some obvious racial distinctions such as skin color. Historically, there has been reluctance on the part of the scientific community to accept data indicating that ethnic groups may differ in certain health characteristics, especially if the data show an ethnic group to be less healthy in some respect. This sensitivity is greatest in ethnic groups who have been subjected to perjorative statements and stereotypes about their health and physical ability in the past. On the other hand, we must evaluate comparative ethnic data because they may provide information that can truly lead to better care for individual communities.