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 Chair DeLauro Holds Hearing on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Response to COVID-19(United States House of Representatives, 2020-06-04) United States House of RepresentativesWASHINGTON, DC — (June 4, 2020) Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, today held a critical hearing with the Subcommittee’s Democrats and Republicans on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the CDC, appeared before the Subcommittee.Item Comparing Racial/Ethnic Differences in Mental Health Service Use Among High-Need Subpopulations Across Clinical and School-Based Settings(2010) Cummings, Janet R.; Ponce, Ninez A.; Mays, Vickie M.Abstract available at publisher's web site.Item Disparities in physical activity and sedentary behaviors among US children and adolescents: prevalence, correlates, and intervention implications.(2009) Whitt-Glover, Melicia C; Taylor, Wendell C; Floyd, Myron F; Yore, Michelle M; Yancey, Antronette K; Matthews, Charles ERegular physical activity is important for health benefits among youth, but disparities exist. This paper describes disparities in physical activity participation and sedentary behaviors among youth in the United States, provides intervention implications, and offers recommendations for future research focused on reducing disparities related to levels of physical activity. Secondary analysis of national accelerometer data showed that achievement of recommended levels of physical activity ranged across subgroups from 2% to 61%. Mean hours per day spent in sedentary behavior ranged from 5.5 to 8.5. The largest disparities were by gender and age. An improved understanding of correlates may inform the design of interventions to increase physical activity in targeted subgroups. Additional theoretically based research is needed to elucidate which factors contributing to physical activity disparities are amenable to change via intervention. To eliminate health disparities, changes in policies that have an impact on physical activity may be necessary to promote physical activity among high-risk youth.Item Criminal (In)Justice in the City and Its Associated Health Consequences(2005) Golembeski, Cynthia; Fullilove, RobertThe American system of prisons and prisoners described by its critics as the prison–industrial complex has grown rapidly since 1970. Increasingly punitive sentencing guidelines and the privatization of prisonrelated industries and services account for much of this growth. Those who enter and leave this system are increasingly Black or Latino, poorly educated, lacking vocational skills, struggling with drugs and alcohol, and disabled. Few correctional facilities mitigate the educational and/or skills deficiencies of their inmates, and most inmates will return home to communities that are ill equipped to house or rehabilitate them. A more humanistic and community-centered approach to incarceration and rehabilitation may yield more beneficial results for individuals, communities, and, ultimately, society.Item Reducing Disparities in Hypertension Control: A Community-Based Hypertension Control Project (CHIP) for an Ethnically Diverse Population(2002) Morisky, Donald E.; Lees, Nancy B.; Sharif, Behjat A.; Liu, Kenn Y.; Ward, Harry J.The Community Hypertension Intervention Project (CHIP) is investigating medical, environmental, and psychosocial factors related to adherence to treatment for hypertension and examining the efficacy of three interventions designed to improve treatment adherence in a high-risk, underserved, ethnically diverse population. There were 1,367 Black (76%) and Hispanic (21%) adults who participated in a 4-year longitudinal study. Participants were randomized to either usual care or one of three interventions: (a) individualized counseling sessions with community health workers (CHWs), (b) a computerized appointment tracking system, or (c) home visits/focus group discussions with CHWs. At baseline, a total of 33% of the participants had one or more comorbidities in addition to hypertension; only 35% had their blood pressure under control. Participants assigned to the patient tracking intervention exhibited the most significant improvement in appointment keeping and blood pressure control status at 6 months; however, the 12-month follow-up assessments indicated that individualized counseling and home visits resulted in significant, sustained improvements in appointment keeping and blood pressure control status. These findings are now being integrated into the patient care delivery system of the participating outpatient clinics.Item The Black diaspora and health inequalities in the US and England: does where you go and how you get there make a difference?(2007) Nazroo, James; Jackson, James; Karlsen, Saffron; Torres, MyriamThe relatively poor health of Black American people in the US and Black Caribbean people in England is a consistent finding in the health inequalities literature. Indeed, there are many similarities between the health, social, economic and demographic profiles of these two groups. However, there is evidence that Caribbean people in the US are faring considerably better. This paper explores differences in the social and economic position of Black American, Black Caribbean and white people in the US and Black Caribbean and white people in England, how these relate to ethnic inequalities in health, and may be underpinned by differences in patterns and contexts of migration. We use similar surveys from the US and England to explore these questions. The US data were drawn from the National Survey of American Life and the English data were drawn from the Health Survey for England and a follow up study. Findings show the advantaged health position of Caribbean American people in comparison with both Caribbean people in England and Black American people. Multivariate analyses indicate that these differences, and the differences in health between Black and white people in the two countries, are a consequence of social and economic inequalities.Item 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 Experiences of discrimination: Validity and reliability of a self-report measure for population health research on racism and health(2005) Krieger, Nancy; Smith, Kevin; Naishadham, Deepa; Hartman, Cathy; Barbeau, Elizabeth M.Population health research on racial discrimination is hampered bya paucity of psychometrically validated instruments that can be feasiblyused in large-scale studies. We therefore sought to investigate the validityand reliability of a short self-report instrument, the ‘‘Experiences of Discrimination’’ (EOD) measure, based on a prior instrument used in the CoronaryArtery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Studypar ticipants were drawn from a cohort of working class adults, age 25–64, based in the Greater Boston area, Massachusetts (USA). The main studya nalytic sample included 159 black, 249 Latino, and 208 white participants; the validation studyin cluded 98 African American and 110 Latino participants who completed a re-test survey two to four weeks after the initial survey. The main and validation survey instruments included the EOD and several single-item discrimination questions; the validation surveyal so included theWilliamsMajor and Everyday discrimination measures. Key findings indicated the EOD can be validlyand reliablyemploy ed. Scale reliabilitywas high, as demonstrated by confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha (0.74 or greater), and test–re-test reliabilitycoefficients (0.70). Structural equation modeling demonstrated the EOD had the highest correlation (r ¼ 0:79) with an underlying discrimination construct compared to other self-report discrimination measures employed. It was significantly associated with psychological distress and tended to be associated with cigarette smoking among blacks and Latinos, and it was not associated with social desirabilityin either group. By contrast, single-item measures were notablyless reliable and had low correlations with the multi-item measures. These results underscore the need for using validated, multi-item measures of experiences of racial discrimination and suggest the EOD maybe one such measure that can be validlyemploy ed with working class African Americans and Latino Americans.Item The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, 1932 to 1972: Implications for HIV Education and AIDS Risk Education Programs in the Black Community(1991) Thomas, Stephen B; Quinn, Sandra CrouseThe Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the Negro male is the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history. The strategies used to recruit and retain participants were quite similar to those being advocated for HIV/AIDS preention programs today. Almost 60 years after the study began, there remains a trail of distrust and suspicion that hampers HIV education efforts in Black communities. The AIDS epidemic has exposed the Tuskegee study as a histotical marker for legitimate discontent of Blacks with the public health system. The belief that AIDS is a form of genocide is rooted in a social context in which Black Americans, faced with persistent inequality, believe in conspiracy theories about Whites against Blacks. These theories range from the belief that the government promotes drug abuse in Black communities to the belief that HIV is a manmade weapon of racial warfare. An open and honest discussion of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study can facilitate the process of rebuilding trust between the Black community and public health authorities. This dialogue can contribute to the development of HIV education programs that are scientifically sound, culturally sensitive, and ethnically acceptable.Item Patient–Physician Relationships and Racial Disparities in the Quality of Health Care(2003) Saha, Somnath; Arbelaez, Jose J; Cooper, Lisa AObjectives. This study explored whether racial differences in patient–physician relationships contribute to disparities in the quality of health care. Methods. We analyzed data from The Commonwealth Fund’s 2001 Health Care Quality Survey to determine whether racial differences in patients’ satisfaction with health care and use of basic health services were explained by differences in quality of patient–physician interactions, physicians’ cultural sensitivity, or patient–physician racial concordance. Results. Both satisfaction with and use of health services were lower for Hispanics and Asians than for Blacks and Whites. Racial differences in the quality of patient–physician interactions helped explain the observed disparities in satisfaction, but not in the use of health services. Conclusions. Barriers in the patient–physician relationship contribute to racial disparities in the experience of health care.