J Natl Med Assoc
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Structural inequalities exist within healthcare. Racial disparities in hospital security standby requests (SSRs) have not been previously explored. We speculated hospital SSRs varied based upon race with black patients and their visitors negatively impacted. ⋯ This study adds to the medical errors and healthcare disparities literature by being the first to describe racial disparities in SSRs for Black patients and their visitors. It also introduces the concept of "security intervention errors in healthcare environments." New metrics and continuous quality improvement initiatives are needed to understand and eliminate racial/ethnic based disparities in SSRs.
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Multicenter Study
Lessons Learned Recruiting Minority Participants for Research in Urban Community Health Centers.
To help understand and mitigate health disparities, it is important to conduct research with underserved and underrepresented minority populations under real world settings. There is a gap in the literature detailing real-time research staff experience, particularly in their own words, while conducting in-person patient recruitment in urban community health centers. This paper describes challenges faced at the clinic, staff, and patient levels, our lessons learned, and strategies implemented by research staff while recruiting predominantly low-income African-American women for an interviewer-administered survey study in four urban Federally Qualified Health Centers in New Jersey. ⋯ Patient level barriers included: disinterested patients, patient mistrust and concerns over confidentiality, no-shows or lack of patient time, and language barrier. We describe strategies used to overcome these barriers and provide recommendations for in-person recruitment of underserved populations into research studies. To help mitigate health disparities, disseminating recruiters' experiences, challenges, and effective strategies used will allow other researchers to build upon these experience in order to increase recruitment success of underserved and underrepresented minority populations into research studies.
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Obesity in females is an emerging health problem. The consumption of MSG has been considered as a risk factor for obesity. The tastemakers in Chinese and fast foods, such as fish sauce and soy sauce, contain very high levels of glutamate. The deficiency of Vitamin D is associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effect of co-administration of Vitamin D on body weight control in MSG-induced obese rats. ⋯ Ingestion of Vitamin D suppresses body weight gain in MSG-induced obese rats. Active agents in Vitamin D are useful for the prevention and treatment of obesity. Foods tested with high glutamate levels can be fortified with minute quantities of calcitriol to combat the adverse effects without compromising on the taste of the food processed. The fortification of junk foods might also combat largely prevalent Vitamin D deficiency in India.