Minority boys, but not girls, turn to smoking when they perceive discrimination, according to a study published in the March 2010 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a study of 2,561 black and Latino adolescents, 12-19 years old, from low-income households in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, and found that 1 in 4 of the participants reported discrimination at least once within the last 6 months.
The findings of the study revealed that while minority boys smoked more when they perceived discrimination there was no association between perceived discrimination and smoking in minority girls, 12-15 years old.
"Boys and girls may experience discriminiation differently due to where they spend time and that may account for the differences in wheter discrimination was associated with smoking," said Sarah Wiehe, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. "We need to be aware that discrimination is a public health problem for adolescents - one related to major health issues like smoking - and need to actively work to reduce these occurrences."
Dr. Wiehe suggested that boys' increased smoking in higher discrimination settings may be a result of increased stress from gender-specific targeting by police and businesses. "Because of the vrey high smoking rates among young minority men, law enforcement, schools, and health care providers need to work closely with communities to prevent smoking initiation," said J. Dennis Fortenberry, MD, MS, professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and senior author of the paper.
March 5, 2010
Overweight African-American Women Deliver More Babies Preterm
Pregnant African-American women who are obese face a greater risk of delivering their child preterm compared to other races, say researchers at Boston University School of Medicine.
According to the press release annoucing the study, a baby who is born at less than 37 weeks of gestation is considered to be preterm, a plight that occurs more often among black women than white women and is a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality in the U.S. Moreover, the authors explain that obesity has also been linked to intrauterine infections, systematic inflammation, dyslipidemia, and hyperinsulinemia, all factors which may increase the changes of delivering a baby preterm.
Using data from the Slone Epidemiology Center's Black Women's Health Study, a team of researchers, led by Lauren Wise, ScD, an associate professor of epidemiology at Boston University, compared mothers of over 1,000 infants born 3 or more weeks early to mother of more than 7,000 full-term infants. Both types of preterm births, medically-indicated and spontaneous (occuring for reasons other than medically-related) were examined.
The findings revealed that obesity increased the risk of medically-indicated pre-term birth and very early spontaneous pre-term birth (<32 weeks), and underweight increased the risk of both pre-term birth subtypes.
"Our data suggest that it is especially important for obese women to adhere to the Institute of Medicine's guidelines for pregnancy weight gain to reduce their risk of preterm birth," Wise concluded.
The study's findings appear online in Epidemiology.
According to the press release annoucing the study, a baby who is born at less than 37 weeks of gestation is considered to be preterm, a plight that occurs more often among black women than white women and is a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality in the U.S. Moreover, the authors explain that obesity has also been linked to intrauterine infections, systematic inflammation, dyslipidemia, and hyperinsulinemia, all factors which may increase the changes of delivering a baby preterm.
Using data from the Slone Epidemiology Center's Black Women's Health Study, a team of researchers, led by Lauren Wise, ScD, an associate professor of epidemiology at Boston University, compared mothers of over 1,000 infants born 3 or more weeks early to mother of more than 7,000 full-term infants. Both types of preterm births, medically-indicated and spontaneous (occuring for reasons other than medically-related) were examined.
The findings revealed that obesity increased the risk of medically-indicated pre-term birth and very early spontaneous pre-term birth (<32 weeks), and underweight increased the risk of both pre-term birth subtypes.
"Our data suggest that it is especially important for obese women to adhere to the Institute of Medicine's guidelines for pregnancy weight gain to reduce their risk of preterm birth," Wise concluded.
The study's findings appear online in Epidemiology.
March 4, 2010
Fight Against Childhood Obesity Begins During Infant Years, Especially for Minority Kids
Risk factors for obesity begins at infancy, according to a study online published March 1 in the journal Pediatrics.
According to the press release annoucing the findings, while most obesity prevention programs - including the national initiative recently launced by First Lady Michelle Obama - target kids age 8 and older, this new study reports that beginning during infancy certain factors place children at higher risk for obesity.
In a study lead by Elsie Taveras, MD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School, researchers studied 1,826 mother-child pairs from pregnancy until the child was 5 years old. Women wre interviewed at the end of their first and second trimesters, during the first few days after delivery, and when their children were 6 months and 3 years old. Questionnaires were also completed by the parents when their children were 1,2, and 4 years old.
The study revealed that when compared to Caucasian women, minority women were more likely to be overweight when they became pregnant and Hispanic women had a higher rate of gestational diabetes, both of which are risk factors for childhood obesity.
Futhermore, when other risk factors during a child's first 5 years was examined, researchers found that African-American and Hispanic infants were more likely to be born small, gain excess weight after birth, begin eating sold food before 4 months, and sleep less, compared to their Caucasian counterparts.
The study also suggested that during their pre-school years, minority children consume more fast food, drink more sugar-sweetened beverages, and are more likely to have TVs in their rooms, compared to Caucasian children.
While some believe that limited access to health care, poverty, and low education levels cause these risk factors, Dr. Taveras and her colleagues found that, when adjusted for socioeconomic status, the prevalence of many of the risk factors remained the same.
"This early life period - prenatal, infancy, to age 5 - is a key period for childhood obesity prevention, especial for minority children," said Dr. Taveras. "Almost every single risk factor in that period before age 2, including in the prenatal period, was disproportionately higher among minority children."
Sleep Duration Effects to Belly Fat in Minority Kids
Getting too little sleep or too much sleep can lead to increases in belly fat among African-American and Hispanic young adults, according to researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
For the study lead by Kristen Hairson, MD, assistant professor of internal medicain at Wake Forest Universeity School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., researchers collected information from 332 African-Americans and 775 Hispanics, 18-81 years of age. On average, participants slept for 6.7 hours each night. Less than 20% of the participants reported sleeping five hours or elss per night, 55% preported sleeping 6-7 hours nightly, and 28% averaged 8 or more hours of sleep each night.
Results of the study revealed that among those 40 years old or younger, both short and long seep durations resulted in significant increaes in body mass index (BMI), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) fat accumulation.
"Appropriate amounts of sleep are important for maintence of healthy weight," Dr. Hairson stated. " In a group of African-American and Hispanic participants, those who slept less than this had greater increases in belly fat over a five-year period."
Proposed explainations of the findings suggest that shorter hours of sleep may promote increased caloric intake via increased hunger or by lowering energy expenditure. Additionallly, the authors suggested that it is imporant for health care providers to encourage patients to get adequate amounts of sleep.
The findings of this study was published in the March 1 issue of Sleep.
March 3, 2010
Doctors Misdiagnose More Black Men With Mental Illness Than Other Races
Researchers from the University of Michigan report in a recent study that black men are over-diagnosed with schizophrenia at least 5 five higher than any other group.
When Jonathan Metzl, an associate professor of psychiatry and women's studies at University of Michigan analyzed archived data from the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane he discovered that black men, particularly from Detroit during the civil rights era, were admitted and often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.
"Some patients became schizophrenic because of changes in their diagnosis rahter than their clinical symptoms," Dr. Metzl reported. "Multicultural training is important, but it often does little to address how assumptions about race are strutucally embedded into health care delivery systems."
The findings from Dr. Metzl's study are published in his new book, "The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease."
When Jonathan Metzl, an associate professor of psychiatry and women's studies at University of Michigan analyzed archived data from the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane he discovered that black men, particularly from Detroit during the civil rights era, were admitted and often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.
"Some patients became schizophrenic because of changes in their diagnosis rahter than their clinical symptoms," Dr. Metzl reported. "Multicultural training is important, but it often does little to address how assumptions about race are strutucally embedded into health care delivery systems."
The findings from Dr. Metzl's study are published in his new book, "The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease."
Poor outcomes for African-American HR-positive breast cancer patients
by Tasheema Prince | Oncology Nursing News | March 3, 2010
African-American women with HR-positive breast cancer face higher risk for disease recurrence and inferior survival compared with women of other races, according to research presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Background information accompanying the findings indicated that previous research has shown that African-American women have worse outcomes in operable breast cancer.
The study included 4,817 women, 405 of whom were African-Americans with stage 1 to 3 axillary lymph node-positive or high-risk node-negative breast cancer who had undergone surgery. Participants received doxorubicin and taxane-containing chemotherapy plus standard hormonal therapy.
“We found that black patients exhibited similar adherence to the chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, and they didn't do worse if they had other breast cancer subtypes,” revealed Joseph A. Sprano, MD, professor of medicine and women's heart at Albert Einstein Medical College of Medicine. “This indicated that black women with HR-positive breast cancer are more prone to have disease recurrence despite state-of-the-art medical care.”
Researchers further reported that not only were the worse outcomes seen only in those with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, but when controlled for other factors to the extent possible, African-Americans still demonstrated a less promising outcome that other races.
Additional studies are being planned to evaluate whether these findings can be attributed to differences in African-American women's ability to metabolize hormonal therapies.
Copyright Oncology Nursing Advisor 2010
African-American women with HR-positive breast cancer face higher risk for disease recurrence and inferior survival compared with women of other races, according to research presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Background information accompanying the findings indicated that previous research has shown that African-American women have worse outcomes in operable breast cancer.
The study included 4,817 women, 405 of whom were African-Americans with stage 1 to 3 axillary lymph node-positive or high-risk node-negative breast cancer who had undergone surgery. Participants received doxorubicin and taxane-containing chemotherapy plus standard hormonal therapy.
“We found that black patients exhibited similar adherence to the chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, and they didn't do worse if they had other breast cancer subtypes,” revealed Joseph A. Sprano, MD, professor of medicine and women's heart at Albert Einstein Medical College of Medicine. “This indicated that black women with HR-positive breast cancer are more prone to have disease recurrence despite state-of-the-art medical care.”
Researchers further reported that not only were the worse outcomes seen only in those with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, but when controlled for other factors to the extent possible, African-Americans still demonstrated a less promising outcome that other races.
Additional studies are being planned to evaluate whether these findings can be attributed to differences in African-American women's ability to metabolize hormonal therapies.
Copyright Oncology Nursing Advisor 2010
Chinese Food and Other Resturant Foods May be Linked To Increased Risk of Diabetes in African-American Women
African-American women who consume restaurant foods face a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
To investigate the association between consumption of foods prepared outside the home and health outcomes of African-American women, researchers from Boston University analyzed data from 44,073 women, 30-69 years old who completed questionnaires that asked about the frequency of eating meals from resturants of various types. During the study period investigators reported that 2,873 cases of type 2 diabetes occured.
The results of the study revealed that the consumption of resturant meals, including hamburgers, fried foods, and Chinesee food were independently associationed with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
"The present study has identified a risk factor for type 2 diabetes that may be readily modifiable by dietery changes," the authors concluded.
Jamaican Men with Bigger Waistlines Have an Increase Risk of Developing Prostate Cancer
Having larger waistlines increase the risk of developing prostate cancer in Jamiacan men, say researchers from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.
In a study of 518 men, 243 of whom were newly diagnosed cases of prostate cancer, Maria Jackson MD and collegues collected data from the study particpants on medical and lifestyle factors and found that compared with men in the normal range of waist-hip ratio (WHR), men with higer abdominal obesity were are greater risk of developing prostate cancer.
Furthermore, even with additional control for body mass index (BMI), the association with WHR remained signifiant for total prostate cancer.
"Abdominal obesity may be associated with risk of high-grade prostate cancer," the authors wrote. "The results further highlight the importance of investigating relationships by characteristing of the tumor."
The study's findings were published in February 2010 issue of the journal Cancer Causes & Control.
Discrimination Linked To Poor Health Outcomes in African-Americans
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Experiences of everyday discrimination may be linked to poor health among African-Americans, according to a study published by researchers at Yale University School of Medicine.
In a study of 296 African-American adults, Tene Lewis PhD., Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, and colleagues found that self-reported experiences of discrimination were associated with higher levels of certain protein that has been linked to cardiovascular disease and other health outcomes.
More significant was that the association remained significant even after adjustments for depressive symptoms, smoking, and chronic health conditions were taken into consideration.
While the link between discrimination and poor health outcomes was observed, the authors noted that the association was not completely independent of body mass index (BMI).
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