Ethnicity & disease
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Ethnicity & disease · Jan 2021
Anti-Black Structural Racism Goes Online: A Conceptual Model for Racial Health Disparities Research.
Anti-Black racism is an established social determinant of racial health disparities in the United States. Although the majority of research on racism examines in-person individual-level experiences, a majority of Americans engage online and may therefore be exposed to racism directly or indirectly in online contexts. Research suggests that the structural technological features of online contexts may be especially powerful in perpetuating and enacting racism, often in inconspicuous or automated ways. ⋯ Next, we propose a conceptual model detailing potential mechanisms through which structural online racism may translate into racial health disparities. Finally, we discuss ways in which exposures to online racism could be measured in order to capture their structural nature. Implications and future directions for research on online racism as a form of structural racism and corresponding policy for the reduction of racial health disparities are highlighted.
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Ethnicity & disease · Jan 2020
Baseline Characteristics of the 2015-2019 First Year Student Cohorts of the NIH Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Program.
The biomedical/behavioral sciences lag in the recruitment and advancement of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. In 2014 the NIH created the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), a prospective, multi-site study comprising 10 Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) institutional grantees, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and a Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC). This article describes baseline characteristics of four incoming, first-year student cohorts at the primary BUILD institutions who completed the Higher Education Research Institute, The Freshmen Survey between 2015-2019. These freshmen are the primary student cohorts for longitudinal analyses comparing outcomes of BUILD program participants and non-participants. ⋯ The DPC national evaluation has identified a large, longitudinal cohort of students with many from groups historically underrepresented in the biomedical sciences that will inform institutional/national policy level initiatives to help diversify the biomedical workforce.
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Ethnicity & disease · Jan 2020
EditorialIncorporating Health Equity and Community Perspectives During COVID-19: Commonalities with Cardiovascular Health Equity Research.
The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the deeply entrenched structural inequities in health that exist in the United States. We draw parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and our cardiovascular health equity research focused on physical activity and diabetes to highlight three common needs: 1) access to timely and disaggregated data; 2) how to integrate community-engaged approaches in telehealth; and 3) policy initiatives that explicitly integrate health equity and social justice principles and action. We suggest that a similar sense of urgency regarding COVID-19 should be applied to slow the burgeoning costs and suffering associated with cardiovascular disease overall and in marginalized communities specifically. We remain hopeful that the current crisis can serve as a guide for aligning our principles as a just and democratic society with a health agenda that explicitly recognizes that social inequities in health for some impacts all members of society.
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Ethnicity & disease · Jan 2020
EditorialContact Tracing: A Clarion Call for National Training Standards.
As of late May 2020, more than 1.5 million people had tested positive for coronavirus infection in the United States; however, only 3% of Americans had been tested. However, testing is only one of the key elements in the effort to control communicable diseases. ⋯ Most public health students and professionals have been introduced to the concept of contact tracing; however, competency in this area is undetermined. The purpose of this perspective is to call for national standards for contact tracing training programs that lead to a widely recognized certification process.
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Ethnicity & disease · Jan 2020
Heart Failure Training and Job Satisfaction: A Survey of Home Care Workers Caring for Adults with Heart Failure in New York City.
Home care workers (HCWs), who include home health aides and personal care attendants, frequently care for adults with heart failure (HF). Despite substantial involvement in HF care, prior qualitative studies have found that HCWs lack training and confidence, which creates challenges for this workforce and potentially for patient care. Herein, we quantified the prevalence of HF training among HCWs and determined its association with job satisfaction. ⋯ The majority of HCWs have not received HF training. HF training was associated with higher job satisfaction, suggesting that HF training programs may improve HCWs' experience caring for this patient population.