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
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 2020
Gentrification: A Priority for Environmental Justice and Health Equity Research.
Although gentrification is occurring at increasing rates across the United States, our understanding of what this means for public health is limited. While positive changes, such as increases in property values and reduced crime rates occur, negative consequences, such as residential displacement, also ensue. Individuals living through gentrification experience major changes in social and environmental conditions often in short periods of time, which can result in disrupted social networks and stress, both associated with decrements in health. ⋯ We posit that gentrification may be beneficial in some aspects of health and detrimental in others. To address current challenges in the gentrification-health literature, we recommend future research: 1) examine the gentrification processes and stages; 2) integrate built, natural, and social environment metrics; and 3) assess mediating and moderating associations. As gentrification expands across the United States, research conducted in this area is poised for timely contributions to equitable development and urban planning policies.
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Ethnicity & disease · Jan 2019
An Institutional Coordinated Plan for Effective Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity and Biomedical Workforce Diversity.
The rapid growth and accumulation of specialized knowledge in today's biomedical fields, combined with entrenched and emerging health issues that persist among certain groups within the US population, emphasizes the significant need to diversify the nation's biomedical science workforce. The under-representation of minorities in science results in inadequate scientific input from divergent social or cultural perspectives and detracts from our nation's ability to resolve health disparities. ⋯ Successful outcomes from our coordinated plan includes an increase in participant self-efficacy, research presentation awards, increase in grant awards and publications, and career advancement. Through partnerships within our institution, local school districts, and minority serving institutions nationwide, our coordinated plan provides mutually beneficial co-learning experiences to increase the number of under-represented individuals entering translational research focused on increasing the biomedical research workforce diversity and achieving health equity.