July 31, 2008
links for 2008-07-31
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FLorida health department figures show that from 2000 to 2006, the number of black-infant deaths in Orange County increased from 41 to 61 a year. In 2000, a black baby died every 11 days. In 2006, it was every six days.
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An individual’s health is affected by her social world, and that world can shift dramatically when the distance between the rich and poor widens. With a secure income people have a sense of control of their lives. But, when people adopt a pattern of con
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Minority patients and those with lower SES were less likely to have survival knowledge and more likely to be uncertain as to recurrence. Location of treatment and provider characteristics did not affect knowledge disparities.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 31, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
The Project HYPE High Blood Pressure Photo Exhibition
Please plan on attending The Project HYPE High Blood Pressure Photo Exhibition.
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Time: 10:00 am - 12:30 pm
Location: MetroHealth Medical Center Atrium - 2500 MetroHealth Drive - Cleveland, Ohio 44109
Hosted by: Maghboeba Mosavel PhD - Case Center for Reducing Health Disparities
RSVP to Ayella Shams at 216.778.8481 or ashams@metrohealth.org.
Photographs are by randomly selected patients on the topic of personal, social, and community factors that affect their ability to mangage their high blood pressure.
You can view a full size version of the flyer by clicking on the image below.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 31, 2008
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Category: Photo Voice; Project HYPE; high blood pressure; hypertension; photovoice
Thursday Photovoice - Photo 9
This is the ninth in a series of entries that will highlight photographs taken as part of the photovoice component of Project HYPE.
You can read more about Project HYPE and see other photographs at our photovoice page.
Check back next Thursday when we will highlight another photograph.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 31, 2008
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Category: Photo Voice; hypertension; photovoice
July 30, 2008
links for 2008-07-30
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Data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that a nearly decadelong decline in infant-mortality rates has stalled, and that African-American children are twice as likely as white babies to die before their first birthday.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 30, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Cool Whip #9
Hoping to Boost Heart Health, California Bans Trans Fats.
Organizers of new casino effort betting on Ohio.
You can find other comics from the series here.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 30, 2008
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Category: California; Cool Whip; Trans Fats
July 29, 2008
links for 2008-07-29
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Under a new law, the fats long linked to health problems must be excised from restaurants and retail baked goods.
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From what has been called a perfect storm of disgruntled patients, legislators and medical professionals, the quality movement in health care has been born.
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OMNA on Tour is a traveling education program designed to inform communities around the nation about the significance and impact on community well-being of ethnic and racial disparities in mental health.
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African-American infants are more than twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday, and the racial gap has gotten wider over time. That startling statistic has prompted efforts to address race-based disparities in infant mortality,
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In 2005... 87 percent of all Franklin County homicide victims younger than 18 were black. “And they're roughly 20 percent of the population,” said Kathleen Cowen of Columbus Public Health. “So that's the disparity.”
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Posted by: David Porter on July 29, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Los Angeles to limit fast food restaurants
From the AP via Google News:
In the impoverished neighborhood of South Los Angeles, fast food is the easiest cuisine to find — and that's a problem for elected officials who see it as an unhealthy source of calories and cholesterol.
The City Council was poised to vote Tuesday on a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a swath of the city where a proliferation of such eateries goes hand-in-hand with obesity.
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 30 percent of adults in South Los Angeles area are obese, compared to 19.1 percent for the metropolitan area and 14.1 percent for the affluent westside. Minorities are particularly affected: 28.7 percent of Latinos and 27.7 percent of blacks are obese, compared to 16.6 percent of whites.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 29, 2008
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Category: Nutrition; fast food
July 28, 2008
links for 2008-07-28
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Posted by: David Porter on July 28, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Money and beauty to the left - skin diseases and insurance to the right
From NYTimes.com:
Like airlines that offer first-class and coach sections, dermatology is fast becoming a two-tier business in which higher-paying customers often receive greater pampering. In some dermatologists’ offices, freer-spending cosmetic patients are given appointments more quickly than medical patients for whom health insurance pays fixed reimbursement fees.
A study published last year in The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that dermatologists in 11 American cities and one county offered faster appointments to a person calling about Botox than for someone calling about a changing mole, a possible sign of skin cancer.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 28, 2008
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Category: Health Care; Health Care; Health Disparities; Healthcare; Heath Inequities; Skin Cancer
July 24, 2008
links for 2008-07-24
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...if you live in the American South, chances are you take more medications than you would if you lived on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line.
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In recent years many children in CA have moved from private insurnace to public programs. Looming budget cuts may leave those children uninsured.
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Using kidneys from donors who died of cardiovascular causes may help reduce disparities for black patients awaiting a kidney transplant, says a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 24, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Thursday Photovoice - Photo 8
This is the eighth in a series of entries that will highlight photographs taken as part of the photovoice component of Project HYPE.
You can read more about Project HYPE and see other photographs at our photovoice page.
Check back next Thursday when we will highlight another photograph.
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by: David Porter on July 24, 2008
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Category: Photo Voice; hypertension; photovoice; salt
July 23, 2008
links for 2008-07-23
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The reports, one on men's health disparities and the other on the status of women and girls, are both "part of a project we started last year to look at the needs of the community," said Claude-Alix Jacob, the city's chief public health officer. "We want
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With gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, my patients are cutting back on medical care. A 59-year-old woman decided not to have a mammogram this year. At her age, she should be screened for colon cancer, too, but she is holding off until she becomes el
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Jill McGivering investigates if there can be a health system which provides universal access, quality care and a healthier population at an acceptable price. (MP3)
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Government rhetoric on choice and localism rings hollow in a community where more and more decisions are being taken by agencies in which we have no say.
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Americans expect that our children will be better off than their parents, and that scientific breakthroughs will eventually conquer disease. Evidence that health care in this country is slipping backward is, therefore, deeply troubling.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 23, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
How gas prices are affecting health care
From The Doctor's Office at WSJ.com:
As a result of lean times, accounts receivable from uninsured patients in my practice is trending up. About 5% of our patients are uninsured.
Patients are still having babies at the same rate. But elective procedures, preventive exams and compliance with prescriptions are all down.
Some of my patients are taking themselves off medications. Just last week I encountered patients who stopped their cholesterol medication and urinary incontinence medications. I'm getting fewer refill requests for E.D. drugs, like Viagra, too.
I noticed an uptick in patients canceling appointments and just not showing up over the last few weeks. More people are asking for advice over the phone and trying to avoid an office visit.
Many of our patients travel 20 or 30 miles to see us, and I think gas prices are affecting no-show and cancellation rates, particularly with low income patients.
EXTRA: 'Cool Whip' will return next week. Stay tuned.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 23, 2008
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Category: Gas Prices
July 22, 2008
links for 2008-07-22
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When Planned Parenthood representatives began handing out free condoms during an information session with recent Vietnamese immigrants in Orange County last year, a hush fell over the room.
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representatives from seven South Dakota tribes discussed health issues with Sanford officials and former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich. The health disparities research center, which is one of Sanford's five research institutes, works with 27 different
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"Up until now, previous reports have shown that with non-small cell lung cancer, the differences (between the races) in survival rates may have had something to do with biological differences," Bryant said. "We wanted to evaluate that: Is there really a b
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Posted by: David Porter on July 22, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Puerto Rican Day Parade
Several members of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities were on hand at the annual Puerto Rican Parade & Latino Fest providing free blood pressure screening.
EXTRA: Did you know that peers are important for nutrition education among Latinos?
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Posted by: David Porter on July 22, 2008
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Category: About Us; Latinos; Nutrition; Puerto Rican; hypertension
July 21, 2008
links for 2008-07-21
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peer nutrition education has a positive influence on diabetes self-management and breastfeeding outcomes, as well as on general nutrition knowledge and dietary intake behaviours, among Latinos in the US.
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Comparing the way people of different races and incomes get prescriptions may sound like an obscure bit of research.
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last week the 61-year-old was told he could have the free treatment if he paid Health at Home nurses £1,000 a month to administer it. Mr Clark faces having to come up with the cash if he decides to go ahead.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 21, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 18, 2008
links for 2008-07-18
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Global warming will affect the health and welfare of every American, but the poor, elderly, and children will suffer the most, according to a new White House science report released Thursday.
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Global variation in cancer survival was very wide. 5-year relative survival for breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer was generally higher in North America, Australia, Japan, and northern, western, and southern Europe, and lower in Algeria, Brazil, and
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Posted by: David Porter on July 18, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 17, 2008
links for 2008-07-17
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American medical care may be the most expensive in the world, but that does not mean it is worth every penny.
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The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, he
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Kent State officials are considering a plan to create a school of public health. It would be the second public health school in Ohio.
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Editorial cartoon on kids and prescription drugs
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by: David Porter on July 17, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy
From The Independent:
The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners.
Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities.
"The report shows that although America is one of the richest nations in the world, it is woefully behind when it comes to providing opportunity and choices to all Americans to build a better life," the authors said.
You can visit the website of the American Health Development Index at measureforamerica.org.
EXTRA: Chip Bok illustrates one possible effect of kids taking statins.
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by: David Porter on July 17, 2008
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Category: Health Disparities; Health Inequities; children; prescriptions; statins
July 16, 2008
links for 2008-07-16
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Lying in her hospital bed, Jeronna Pierre was told the baby girl she carried for eight months had died in her womb. Nine months later, at three months pregnant, she lost a baby again. Pierre, an Aventura resident, is part of a disturbing trend in Miami-Da
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One of the primary topics of discussion at the NAACP’s 99th Convention, being held this week in Cincinnati, is health disparities affecting the African-American community.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 16, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 14, 2008
links for 2008-07-14
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Letting outside auditors scour Medicare bills sure can turn up a lot of overbilling. A pilot program that netted the government nearly $700 million from three states is now being expanded to recover more Medicare money gone astray.
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Americans forked over $49 billion for pet products and services last year, up $11.5 billion from 2003; other than consumer electronics, pet products are the fastest-growing retail segment.
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Interesting article on inequality and the need for institutional change.
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f your provider says that some medication will be helpful to you, it is very important that both you and your provider handle your prescriptions in a responsible way to be sure you are getting what you need. The following steps can help you with your pres
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by: David Porter on July 14, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 11, 2008
links for 2008-07-11
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When children see others in pain, their brains respond as if it were happening to them, U.S. researchers said on Friday.
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The medical profession must have diversity in the physician workforce—equivalent to that in the general population—and equity in health care delivery for all persons. A unity of purpose must be achieved among all physicians, and the associations that
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This is called a "silent health crisis," because society often does not focus on men's health, while men tend to lead unhealthy lifestyles and take more risky behaviors than women, the Duval County Health Department reported.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 11, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 10, 2008
links for 2008-07-10
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The American Medical Association is issuing a formal apology for more than a century of discriminatory policies that excluded blacks from participating in a group long considered the voice of U.S. doctors.
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We sought to determine whether an elevated burden of chronic kidney disease is found among disadvantaged groups living in the United States, Australia, and Thailand.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 10, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Health Disparities Course at Case Western
This fall the Center for Reducing Health Disparities will again offer a course on health disparities at Case Western Reserve University.
Health Disparities is listed as: EPBI 510, CRSP 510, SASS 510, MPHP 510, and NURS 510.
This course aims to provide theoretical and application tools for students from many disciplinary backgrounds to conduct research and develop interventions to reduce health disparities. The course will be situated contextually within the historical record of the United States, reviewing social, political, economic, cultural, legal, and ethical theories related to disparities in general, with a central focus on health disparities. Several frameworks regarding health disparities will be used for investigating and discussing the empirical evidence on disparities, research and outcome measurement issues, policy and policy formation concerns, and intervention practices. While racial/ethnic disparities in health and health outcomes will be an important focus of this course, disparities among other subgroups (e.g., the poor, women, uninsured, disabled, and non-English speaking populations) may also be included and discussed.
You can download the health disparities class syllabus or search for the class at case.edu.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 10, 2008
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Category: Health Disparities Class; Health Disparities Syllabus
July 09, 2008
links for 2008-07-09
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A 15-year-old boy who needs a new liver has been taken off a hospital's waiting list because of his unstable home life, the Miami Herald reports.
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I know it seems ridiculous that a sparsely-populated rural area would need THREE hospitalist programs, but you might appreciate some of the subtleties after reading the following.
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More and more doctors are fed up with private insurers. It’s not just a question of how stingy they are, but how difficult it is to get reimbursed. Paperwork, phone calls, insurers who play games by deliberately making reimbursement forms difficult to
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he preferred treatment for kidney failure is an organ transplant. But although African-Americans suffer from kidney disease at higher rates than whites, they are less likely to be referred for transplants, less likely to be placed on a waiting list and le
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In reviewing the charts of 4,556 white patients and 2,258 black patients treated by 90 physicians, researchers found that black patients often had worse outcomes than white patients.
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Across the state, minorities and residents of rural areas are under-represented in cancer trials, according to a new study from University of Maryland researchers. And the study found that rates of participation among African-Americans are dropping.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 09, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Cool Whip #8
Food Diary May Double Your Weight Loss.
You can find other comics from the series here.
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by: David Porter on July 09, 2008
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Category: Cool Whip; Food Diary; Weight Loss
July 08, 2008
links for 2008-07-08
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African-American children with mild to moderate kidney disease have worse anemia than their white counterparts, report researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in what is believed to be the first study of anemia among children with milder fo
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About one-fifth of Americans live in rural areas, and providing health care to them is a challenge financially and logistically. Only 10 percent of the nation's doctors practice in rural areas, and rural residents tend to be poorer and less likely to have
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With the release of a study that details how Cambridge men are dying at higher rates than their female counterparts, the Cambridge Public Health Department is moving forward with its programs targeting men’s health.
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Humphreys’ book indicts many people in power in the government, the Sanitary Commission, and the army for decisions "great and small, careless and deliberate" that doomed thousands of black soldiers to an early grave. The historian’s tale, however, ca
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by: David Porter on July 08, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 07, 2008
links for 2008-07-07
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Now through mid-October, a series of ''local conversations'' will take place in Akron and 13 other Ohio communities as part of a national effort to determine the barriers to health-care equality for blacks, as well as Asian-Americans, Native Americans and
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With the health of Maori in this district showing little improvement, it was time to set a date for equality, said Maori Ora Associates senior health adviser Dr Peter Jansen.
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Quality improvement rates are lower than widely documented increases in health care spending. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimate health care expenditures rose by a 6.7 percent average annual rate over the same period.
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This paper serves as a blueprint for translating principles for the elimination of racial–ethnic disparities in health care into specific actions that are relevant for individual clinical practices. We describe what is known about reducing racial–ethn
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Posted by: David Porter on July 07, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 03, 2008
links for 2008-07-03
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The gulf between rich and poor is still wide, with a high degree of inequality, the author of a study ranking New Zealand's richest and poorest areas says.
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Does the UK have one health system or four?
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Posted by: David Porter on July 03, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
July 02, 2008
links for 2008-07-02
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There is reason to believe that these concepts promoted for the developing world broadly apply within the United States. More than 11 million southern, low-income, and urban blacks have health outcomes worse than residents of low- to middle-income develop
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The Center for Community Solutions hopes that a two-year community dialogue project it recently wrapped up will result in more men accessing more local health services.
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On June 19, a woman collapsed and lay face down on the floor of the waiting room at a Brooklyn hospital for an hour before anyone checked on her. By that time, she was dead.
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The study looks at the prevalence of asthma among 10 racial and ethnic groups in New York City and how housing and neighborhood conditions can contribute to a disparity in prevalence.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 02, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Asthma Prevalence
The Kaiser Network is linking to a new study that talks about asthma and how exposure to different housing environments contributes to disparities.
If you click on this link you can download a pdf of the original article for free. Act fast - I have no idea how long this will be available.
EXTRA: 'Cool Whip' is taking the week off but will return next week. You can always check out archives of the comic at our 'Cool Whip' page.
Send news items related to health disparities to ReduceDisparity(AT)case.edu
Posted by: David Porter on July 02, 2008
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Category: Health Disparities; asthma; housing
July 01, 2008
Project REECH - Reducing the Divide between Researchers and the Community
Project REECH
The main goal of Project REECH (Research Engagement and Education for Community Health), a community engagement project, is to reduce the cultural knowledge divide between researchers and communities by a) partnering with community organizations for bidirectional research dialogues and b) jointly conduct a research project that addresses a community-identified health concern in an effort to reduce health disparities in Cleveland. Along with its nine community partner organizations Project REECH has successfully held six community conversations in the Hough and Detroit-Shoreway neighborhoods.
In the first year over one hundred stakeholders participated in the community conversations including community residents, faith-based leaders, health professionals, policymakers (e.g., city council), practitioners, professors, and other academics. On May 22nd and May 29th of 2008 Project REECH hosted a “report-back” highlighting the themes, and salient issues voiced by the community through the use of theater and acting as a medium for dissemination.
Voices to Action
Voices to Action (a name inspired by a community resident) is the report-back component of Project REECH. After engaging in multiple dialogues with various community residents, actors performed a series of short skits based on the myths, beliefs and personal experiences voiced in the community. In addition to community residents, academics, professionals and policy makers attended both Voices to Action report back “informances.”
Graphic Record
Graphic facilitator, Elizabeth Warren, listened to audience responses to the short skits during the Voices to Action report back “informance” sessions and created a graphic record or pictorial of the session as it unfolded.
During the first Voices to Action in the Detroit-Shoreway community the emergent themes surrounded community partnerships.
During the second Voices to Action in the Hough neighborhood the emergent themes surrounded research agendas and the academic ivory tower.
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Posted by: David Porter on July 01, 2008
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Category: Graphic Record; Project Reech; Voices to Action
links for 2008-07-01
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Health officials found the overall death rate for males in Cambridge was 34 percent higher than for females. Men also had higher rates of death from heart disease and cancer, as well as a greater chance of becoming infected with HIV/AIDS, according to the
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Parenting while poor almost always leads to suspicion. At least 60 percent of child-welfare cases in the United States involve solely allegations of neglect, usually for inadequate food, clothing, shelter or inadequate supervision or guardianship. Not sur
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Posted by: David Porter on July 01, 2008
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Category: Lunch Break Reading