J Natl Med Assoc
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The health and well-being of all individuals, independent of race, ethnicity, or gender, is a significant public health concern. Despite many improvements in the status of minority health, African American males continue to have the highest age-adjusted mortality rate of any race-sex group in the United States. Such disparities are accounted for by deaths from a number of diseases such as diabetes, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cancer, and cardiovascular disease, as well as by many historical and present social and cultural constructs that present as obstacles to better health outcomes. ⋯ However, African American males, across all age groups, continue to report a lack of trust as a primary reason for their unwillingness to participate in biomedical research. There is an ongoing need to continue to seek advice, improve communication, and design research studies that garner trust and improve participation among African American males as a targeted underrepresented population. Such communication and dialogues should occur at all age levels of research development to assess. current attitudes and behaviors of African American males around participation.
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Oral squamous cell carcinoma, traditionally a disease of elderly men with a history of chronic exposure to the carcinogenic effects of tobacco and alcohol, is presently being more frequently diagnosed both in a younger patient population and in those not exposed to these carcinogenic substances. At our center, most patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma are not involved in the use of tobacco or alcoholic beverages and are mainly of a low socioeconomic class. This hospital-based case-control study was designed to assess if the risk of developing intraoral squamous cell carcinoma in Ibadan, Nigeria, was associated with the use of tobacco, alcohol, or socioeconomic status. ⋯ Only 26% of patients gave a positive history of exposure to tobacco, alcohol, or both; of this number, 20.3% used tobacco, while 18.8% consumed alcohol and 13% used both. Although 24.6% of the cases were of high socioeconomic class, there was no significant difference in the distribution of oral cancer patients in the 2 socioeconomic classes. This study revealed an important deviation from expected amongst the oral squamous cell carcinoma patients diagnosed at Ibadan, thus raising the possibility of a different etiology for oral cancer in our population and the need for research focused on identifying possible risk factors.