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.
Browse
11 results
Search Results
Item Baltimore’s can-do approach to food justice(2011) BARRINGTON, VANESSACities all over the country are addressing the lack of access to fresh and healthy food on the part of their residents, but few are in as much of a bind as Baltimore. Like Detroit, and other cities known for their class and race disparity, Baltimore has been losing population and gaining vacant land at a fast pace in recent decades. The result is vast swaths of neighborhoods located far from grocery stores. Baltimore gave itself a D on its own 2010 Health Disparities Report Card, which found that 43 percent of the residents in the city's predominantly black neighborhoods …Item The Epidemiology of Overweight and Related Lifestyle Behaviors(2007) Delva, Jorge; Johnston, Lloyd D.; O’Malley, Patrick M.Abstract available at publisher's web site.Item A comparison of national estimates of obesity prevalence from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system and the national health and nutrition examination survey(2006) Yun, S; Zhu, B-P; Black, W; Brownson, R CBackground: Obesity interventions are implemented at state or sub-state level in the United States (US), where only self-reported weight and height data for adults are available from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity generated from self-reported weight and height from BRFSS are known to underestimate the true prevalence. However, whether this underestimation is consistent across different demographic groups has not been fully investigated. Methods: In this study, we compared the prevalence estimates of obesity (body mass index (BMI) 30 kg/m2) and overweight (BMI 25 kg/m2) in different demographic groups in the US from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and BRFSS during 1999–2000. We also compared the rank orders of the obesity and overweight prevalence across different demographic groups from the two data sources. Results: Compared to NHANES, BRFSS underestimated the overall prevalence of obesity and overweight by 9.5 and 5.7 percentage points, respectively. The underestimation differed across different demographic groups: the underestimation of obesity and overweight prevalence was higher among women (13.1 and 12.2 percentage points, respectively) than among men (5.8 and -0.6 percentage points, respectively). The variation of underestimation was higher among men. A clear inverse association between educational attainment and obesity prevalence among non-Hispanic African American women was observed from BRFSS data. However, no such association was found from NHANES. While BRFSS can identify correctly the population with the highest obesity and overweight burden, it did not accurately rank the obesity and overweight prevalence across different demographic groups. Conclusion: Compared to NHANES, BRFSS disproportionately underestimates the prevalence of obesity and overweight across different gender, race, age, and education subgroups.Item Lifestyles, Demographics, Dietary Behavior, and Obesity: A Switching Regression Analysis(2009) Yen, Steven T.; Chen, Zhuo; Eastwood, David B.OBJECTIVES; To investigate the effects of lifestyles, demographics, and dietary behavior on overweight and obesity. DATA SOURCE: Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals 1994-1996, U.S. Department of Agriculture. STUDY DESIGN: We developed a three-regime switching regression model to examine the effects of lifestyle, dietary behavior, and sociodemographic factors on body mass index (BMI) by weight category and accommodating endogeneity of exercise and food intake to avoid simultaneous equation bias. Marginal effects are calculated to assess the impacts of explanatory variables on the probabilities of weight categories and BMI levels. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Weight categories and exercise are found to be endogenous. Lifestyle, dietary behavior, social status, and other sociodemographic factors affect BMI differently across weight categories. Education, employment, and income have strong impacts on the likelihood of overweight and obesity. Exercise reduces the probabilities of being overweight and obese and the level of BMI among overweight individuals. CONCLUSION: Health education programs can be targeted at individuals susceptible to overweight and obesity. Social status variables, along with genetic and geographic factors, such as region, urbanization, age, and race, can be used to pinpoint these individuals.Item Overweight and Obese Prevalence Rates in African American and Hispanic Children: An Analysis of Data from the 2003-2004 National Survey of Children's Health(2008) Lutfiyya, M. N.; Garcia, R.; Dankwa, C. M.; Young, T.; Lipsky, M. S.Background: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was examined in African-American and Hispanic children compared with white children. Methods: Multivariate analyses were performed on cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Children's Health collected in 2003 to 2004. Results: Analyses found that overweight children were more likely to be African American and Hispanic than white, be male, live in households with incomes below 150% of the Federal poverty level, watch television 3 or more hours daily, and not have received preventive care in the past 12 months. Overweight children were less likely to get minimum levels of moderate physical activity or have participated on a sports team. Conclusions: Poverty impacts childhood body mass index in at least 2 specific ways: unsafe neighborhoods and the cost and accessibility of healthy foods in low income communities. Addressing these issues require the concerted efforts of policy makers. The same is true for resolving the issues of children not receiving preventive care. Increasing the number of well child check-ups mandated by the government and required by school systems may be a beneficial policy. Furthermore, policymakers concerned with issues of childhood obesity may pursue the creation of school-based health clinics in schools where at least 50% of the student body live in households with incomes <150% of the Federal poverty level.Item The Association of Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health Insurance Status With the Prevalence of Overweight Among Children and Adolescents(2003) Haas, Jennifer S.; Lee, Lisa B.; Kaplan, Celia P.; Sonneborn, Dean; Phillips, Kathryn A.; Liang, Su-YingObjectives. We examined the effect of race, socioeconomic status, and health insurance status on the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents. Methods. We studied an observational cohort from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component. Results. In the younger group, both Black and Latino children had a greater likelihood of being overweight compared with White children. Among the adolescent group, Latinos and Asian/Pacific Islanders were more likely to be overweight. Among adolescents, lacking health insurance and having public insurance were both positively associated with the prevalence of overweight. A relationship between insurance status and overweight was not observed for younger children. Conclusions. There are substantial racial differences in the prevalence of overweight for children and adolescents. Health insurance status is associated with the prevalence of overweight among adolescents.Item Underweight, Overweight, Obesity, and Excess Deaths(2005) Willett, Walter C.; Hu, Frank B.; Colditz, Graham A.; Manson, JoAnn E.; Golub, Robert M.In their study of deaths associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity, Dr Flegal and colleagues1 conclude that excess mortality due to obesity and overweight is much lower than previously reported. We believe that their analysis is flawed and misleading. A major challenge in such studies is that low weight is often due to underlying chronic disease, which may exist for many years before death. Thus, lean persons are a mix of smokers, healthy active persons, and those with chronic illness (due to the direct effects of disease on weight and sometimes purposeful weight loss motivated by diagnosis of a serious illness). Their analysis does not successfully disentangle this diverse group.Item Obesity: The Science Inside(The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2006) UNSPECIFIEDWho wants to read anything else about how fat we are? It seems like you can’t turn on the TV without someone on the news talking about how much we weigh, how much we ought to weigh, and how weighing too much is bad, bad, bad. It’s almost enough to make you dig into that half gallon of ice cream you have in the freezer. It’s true that many of us do weigh more than we ought to and that weighing too much is related to certain health risks. That’s just a fact of life, related to science. Our bodies need a certain amount of food to stay alive and work properly, and extra food can make us gain weight. Obesity, or being too heavy for your height, is a serious subject. It’s one of the worst chronic illnesses we now face. Today only one third of Americans weigh a healthy amount. Two thirds of Americans are overweight, meaning they weigh more than they should and are at risk for health problems, including obesity.Item Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective(the American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007) UNSPECIFIEDFood, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: a global perspective, produced by the World Cancer Research Fund together with the American Institute for Cancer Research, has been the most authoritative source on food, nutrition, and cancer prevention for 10 years. On publication in 1997, it immediately became recognised as the most authoritative and influential report in its field and helped to highlight the importance of research in this crucial area. It became the standard text worldwide for policy-makers in government at all levels, for civil society and health professional organisations, and in teaching and research centres of academic excellence. Since the mid-1990s the amount of scientific literature on this subject has dramatically increased. New methods of analysing and assessing evidence have been developed, facilitated by advances in electronic technology. There is more evidence, in particular on overweight and obesity and on physical activity; food, nutrition, physical activity, and cancer survivors is a new field. The need for a new report was obvious; and in 2001 WCRF International in collaboration with AICR began to put in place a global process in order to produce and publish the Report in November 2007.Item Healthy weight, overweight, and obesity among U.S. adults(2003) Centers for, Disease ControlOverweight and obesity are caused by many factors, including the contributions of inherited, metabolic, behavioral, environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic effects. Overweight and obesity may raise the risk of illness from high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, certain types of cancer, arthritis, and breathing problems. As weight increases, so does the prevalence of health risks. The health outcomes related to these diseases, however, may be improved through weight loss or, at a minimum, no further weight gain. Because of the importance of these issues, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers overweight and obesity among the 10 leading health indicators in Healthy People 2010, the health objectives for the Nation. The potential benefits from reduction in overweight and obesity are of considerable public health importance.