Ethnicity & disease
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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
Structural Racial Inequities in Socioeconomic Status, Urban-Rural Classification, and Infant Mortality in US Counties.
Despite improvements in infant mortality rates (IMR) in the United States, racial gaps in IMR remain and may be driven by both structural racism and place. This study assesses the relationship between structural racism and race-specific IMR and the role of urban-rural classification on race-specific IMR and Black/White racial gaps in IMR. ⋯ Factors related to structural racism may not be homogenous or have the same impacts on overall IMR, race-specific IMR, and racial differences in IMR across places. Understanding these differential impacts can help public health professionals and policymakers improve Black infant health and eliminate racial inequities in IMR.
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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
Building the Transdisciplinary Resistance Collective for Research and Policy: Implications for Dismantling Structural Racism as a Determinant of Health Inequity.
Structural racism is a multilevel system of ideologies, institutions, and processes that have created and reified racial/ethnic inequities. As a system, it works in concert across institutions to propagate racial injustice. ⋯ Specifically, we introduce the underlying theories that guide our framework development and demonstrate the application of our integrated framework through a case example. We conclude with potential research and policy implications.
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Ethnicity & disease · Jan 2019
The Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Translational Research Network: Building and Sustaining Capacity for Multi-Site Basic Biomedical, Clinical and Behavioral Research.
The Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program was established by the US Congress to support the development of biomedical research infrastructure at minority-serving institutions granting doctoral degrees in the health professions or in a health-related science. RCMI institutions also conduct research on diseases that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities (ie, African Americans/Blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders), those of low socioeconomic status, and rural persons. Quantitative metrics, including the numbers of doctoral science degrees granted to underrepresented students, NIH peer-reviewed research funding, peer-reviewed publications, and numbers of racial and ethnic minorities participating in sponsored research, demonstrate that RCMI grantee institutions have made substantial progress toward the intent of the Congressional legislation, as well as the NIH/NIMHD-linked goals of addressing workforce diversity and health disparities. ⋯ The continuing underrepresentation of minority investigators in NIH-sponsored research across multiple disease areas is of concern, in the face of unrelenting national health inequities. With the collaborative network support by the RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN), the RCMI community is uniquely positioned to address these challenges through its community engagement and strategic partnerships with non-RCMI institutions. Funding agencies can play an important role by incentivizing such collaborations, and incorporating metrics for research funding that address underrepresented populations, workforce diversity and health equity.