Monthly Archive for June 2009
June 30, 2009
links for 2009-06-30
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Because Insurance policies come with limits even the insured may not get access to new drugs or a needed transplant.
Posted by: Staff on June 30, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Race origins and health disparities
An article out of the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science tries to connect the dots between race origins and health disparities.
Efforts to simplify the complexities of race— including genetic, cultural and socioeconomic variations—have made race-related research “a minefield of often premature and ultimately wrong conclusions,” [lead author Nina T. Harawa said.]
To understand health disparities in the various population groups, she said, researchers need to understand how today’s racial categories evolved from the negative assumptions made hundreds of years ago to justify slavery.
The article appears in Ethnicity and Disease Journal and a pdf version of the first page can be found here.
Posted by: Staff on June 30, 2009
Category: Health Disparities; Health Inequality; Health Inequities; Minority Health; Race; Racial Health
June 29, 2009
links for 2009-06-29
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More tests don't always equal better care.
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From the journal Annals of Family Medicine
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Almost 50 percent of HIV-positive American teens and young adults don't know they are infected, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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As the lobbyists watched the 22 senators, NPR watched the lobbyists — took panoramic photos of them, in fact.
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Health clinic executives say the money will allow them to keep their doors open as the rolls of uninsured patients grow. An estimated 64 million people use rural health clinics, a number that is expected to rise as people lose their jobs and health insurance.
Posted by: Staff on June 29, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 26, 2009
links for 2009-06-26
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No one can buy a transplant - but knowing how the system works is a definite advantage.
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One out of five—that’s the latest CDC estimate of how many people living with HIV in the U.S. are unaware of their HIV status. Stigma around HIV remains a barrier for HIV testing. National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is an opportunity to reduce HIV testing stigma and promote testing!
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Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin today introduced the Ending Health Disparities for LGBT Americans Act (ELHDA), the first comprehensive approach to improving all areas of the health care system where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans face inequality and discrimination.
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Research study finds that endoscopic and histological Barrett's esophagus was present more often in non-Hispanic whites than in African Americans.
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It’s not difficult to get most Americans health-care coverage. If you make it accessible and affordable most people will buy it.
Posted by: Staff on June 26, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 25, 2009
links for 2009-06-25
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Assistant U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Michele Moloney-Kitts and Christine Lubinski, head of the Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy, answer viewer questions on President Obama's global health initiative and how it will shift U.S. global health priorities. (Transcript and mp3 available at link)
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Massachusetts will cut some dental services, slow enrollment, and may eliminate coverage for legal immigrants from their 'universal' health coverage.
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Greater Cleveland diabetes patients are showing health improvements in areas such as blood sugar control, but the gains are threatened by a growing number of people losing insurance coverage.
Posted by: Staff on June 25, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 24, 2009
links for 2009-06-24
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Aboriginal children are among the most marginalized children in Canadian society. Despite some advances, in almost any measure of health and well-being, Aboriginal children – including First Nations, Inuit and Métis -- are at least two or three times worse off than other Canadian children. As children, they are less likely to see a doctor. As teens, they are more likely to become pregnant. And in many communities, they are more likely to commit suicide.
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Huge geographic differences exist in cancer risk
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Almost 2.2 million people lived in neighborhoods where pollution raised the risk of developing cancer to levels the government generally considers to be unacceptable. There, toxic chemicals were significant enough that people who breathed the air throughout their lives faced an extra 100-in-1 million risk of getting cancer.
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The team of more than 30 researchers found that low-income women not only have more chronic diseases -- such as hypertension, arthritis and diabetes -- than their higher income sisters, but that their condition degenerates more quickly.
Posted by: Staff on June 24, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Blogging and Tweeting about donating a kidney
Pamela Paulk, the VP of Human Resources at Johns Hopkins is keeping a blog about her experience donating a kidney.
She writes:
I am writing this blog in hopes of bringing more attention and awareness to the need for kidney donors … and to show that ordinary people can be donors. My hope is that maybe one person who reads this will hear about someone else needing a kidney and will say, “Hey, I can do that. I can give my kidney.”
Her most recent blog post was made prior to the day of the surgery. However she updated her Twitter feed up to and after the surgery.
Click on the image for a full sized version or click here.
Twitter is becoming an important tool for getting information out to friends and family members. Last month a transplant team used Twitter to keep a family updated while their 3 year-old received a new kidney.
Posted by: Staff on June 24, 2009
Category: Blog; Health Care; Organ Donation; Social Media; twitter
June 23, 2009
links for 2009-06-23
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Parents struggle to get insurance companies to pay for the newest treatment.
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Americans are struggling to pay for healthcare in the ongoing economic recession, with a quarter saying they have had trouble in the past 12 months.
Posted by: Staff on June 23, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Racial disparities in health care (CNN Video)
Tony Harris and Elizabeth Cohen talk about health disparities.
EXTRA: The Center for Reducing Health Disparities in now on Facebook. You can become a fan here.
Posted by: Staff on June 23, 2009
Category: Health Disparities; Racial Disparities
June 19, 2009
links for 2009-06-19
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Hospitals are reducing the number of Medicaid patients they accept including children covered under SCHIP.
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Audio program from NPR's Fresh Air.
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Physician heal thyself.
Posted by: Staff on June 19, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 18, 2009
links for 2009-06-18
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Researchers found that black children with high blood pressure are more likely than other children to develop a thickening of the left chamber of the heart. Known as left ventricular hypertrophy, or LVH, the condition can lead to heart failure, rhythm abnormalities and death.
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Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.
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Gov. Ted Strickland has floated roughly $2 billion in cuts to help close a $3.2 billion shortfall in the two-year state budget, a plan that would slash health care and other safety-net services for Ohio's poor.
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People are afraid of losing their insurance in coming year. Nearly one in four people (23.6%) fear losing their health insurance at some point in the next 12 months.
Posted by: Staff on June 18, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 17, 2009
links for 2009-06-17
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Reacting to a rising tide of anger from gay and lesbian supporters at a series of slights and deferred promises, President Obama will tomorrow extend some benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.
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Despite the overwhelming evidence that men are being left behind, the U.S. government has never made a concerted effort to address male health issues. Right now, there are seven (seven!) offices of women's health in the U.S. government: six in the Department of Health and Human Services and one in the Department of Agriculture. And the Pentagon makes huge investments in women's health research. Yet there is not a single federal organization that encourages and disseminates physical and mental health research for and about men.
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Residents in the poorest neighborhoods of Los Angeles County continue to face living conditions that are significantly more unhealthy than more affluent areas.
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Executives of three of the nation’s largest health insurers told federal lawmakers Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite criticism that the practice is unfair and abusive.
Posted by: Staff on June 17, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 16, 2009
links for 2009-06-16
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Among cancers which affect both sexes, [in the UK] men are 60 per cent more likely to develop the disease and 70 per cent more likely to die from it.
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Children belonging to ethnic minority and low-income groups face an increased risk of suffering from asthma, new research shows.
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Insurance rules vary, but what often happens is that patients with private insurance end up paying all of the facility fee until they reach their deductible. At the nine Clinic facilities, for example, a person with a $25 co-pay now pays $80 for an office visit because of the $55 facility fee.
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On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one, because it's sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.
Posted by: Staff on June 16, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
New effort hopes to reduce the disparity in pneumococcal disease
A joint effort launched this week hopes to improve vaccination rates for pneumococcal disease in developing countries. The need is pressing.
Pneumococcal disease takes the lives of 1.6 million people each year – including up to one million children before their fifth birthday. More than 90 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries. Pneumonia, the most common form of serious pneumococcal disease, accounts for one in every four child deaths, making it the leading cause of death among young children.
Access to vaccines will be via an Advance Market Commitment. Donations will be used to help stabilize the price of vaccines once they enter the market. In theory, the promise of stable prices will motivate vaccine producers to invest resources for not only manufacture but also research and development.
The long term price (in a developing country) for a pneumococcal vaccine will be $3.50 if these AMCs are successful. In the U.S., the cost is around $70 per dose.
Posted by: Staff on June 16, 2009
Category: AMC; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Flu; Health Disparities; Health Inequities; Vaccines
June 15, 2009
links for 2009-06-15
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HIV is impacting black women disproportionately, according to a recent report by the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of HIV/AIDS. It has been the leading cause of death among black women age 25 to 44 in Florida for the past 15 years.
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British men may be literally dying as a result of their reluctance to see the doctor, researchers said on Monday with a new study showing they are nearly 40 percent more likely to die from any form of cancer than women.
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Online version of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS report.
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Measures of lead poisoning among Cleveland-area children younger than 6 have reached an all-time low. Cleveland's lead poisoning rate dropped from 46.6 percent in 1994, the highest in recent history, to just over 8 percent in 2008, the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council announced Friday.
Posted by: Staff on June 15, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 11, 2009
links for 2009-06-11
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NPR report on health disparities in minority women.
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Bidding process for community health center may negatively affect Hispanic residents.
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As the health care debate heats up, the American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.
Posted by: Staff on June 11, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 10, 2009
links for 2009-06-10
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Ensuring that every American or Ohioan is insured is not the same as ensuring that everyone receives equal treatment.
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HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius newly released report on Health Disparities.
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Black women in the District suffer from obesity, diabetes, heart disease and generally poor health in alarmingly high numbers, and white women do not.
Posted by: Staff on June 10, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 09, 2009
links for 2009-06-09
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As part of the larger effort to overhaul health care, lawmakers are trying to address the problem that intrigues Mr. Obama so much — the huge geographic variations in Medicare spending per beneficiary. Two decades of research suggests that the higher spending does not produce better results for patients but may be evidence of inefficiency.
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Parents may try to set an example by eating a healthy diet themselves, but a new study has found that their children are not paying attention.
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Black, Latino and Asian lawmakers want President Barack Obama to focus more on racial disparities reported in medical treatment as the White House works toward overhauling the nation's health care system.
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Black and Asian patients were more likely than white patients to report communication difficulties with their doctors in 2005.
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Grassley Tweets, "Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a "hammer" u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."
Posted by: Staff on June 09, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Changing the world with yogurt
A pilot project in Mabatini hopes to empower women, stimulate the local economy, and provide nutritional food to HIV patients. All with yogurt.
From the journal Nature:
[Elizabeth] Gabeal and the nine other 'yogurt mamas' who work alongside her spend the day transforming local farmers' milk—delivered each morning by bicycle—into a probiotic yogurt. In addition to selling 200 servings a day to community residents for a profit, they also give free cups away to 125 people with HIV/AIDS in the hopes that the yogurt might make them healthier.
EXTRA: Research shows that when young people read the labels on alcohol, they do so to "help them choose the strongest drinks for the lowest cost."
Posted by: Staff on June 09, 2009
Category: Africa; HIV; Health Disparities; Yogurt
June 06, 2009
One organization strives to help cancer survivors heal through yoga
I was made aware of Yoga Bear from an email sent last year by their founder Halle Tecco.
Halle had noticed a blog entry I posted on one of our research projects. She wanted me to know she had posted about the study on her personal website.
Her email contained a link to the Yoga Bear site and I was instantly pulled in by their work. Yoga Bear is a non-profit organization that helps cancer survivors find yoga classes in their community free of charge.
Among the challenges cancer survivors face are the side effects of chemotherapy. The American Cancer Society provides more information on these side effects which include fatigue, muscle problems, and nausea. There is some research that says yoga can reduce these negative effects. In the November 2007 issue of the European Journal of Cancer Care researchers reported that using yoga to reduce stress could help chemotherapy-related nausea.
Nicoleigh Gamble, PhD, talks more about the science and how yoga can improve circulation and boost the immune system.
Aside from the practice of yoga, Yoga Bear provides a way for cancer survivors to connect with each other via several social media sites. They have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and they maintain an excellent blog.
This blog post is part of Zemanta's "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.
Posted by: Staff on June 06, 2009
Category: Cancer; Cancer Survivors; Yoga
June 05, 2009
links for 2009-06-05
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Tourette syndrome occurs in 3 out of every 1,000 school-aged children, and is more than twice as common in white kids as in blacks or Hispanics
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The issue of asthma in Puerto Rican Hispanics is critical. They are affected at a greater rate than any other group and no one is sure why. Potential causes include: lack of Spanish speaking health care providers, a genetic disposition, stress from living conditions, cultural practices, or simply sub-standard care.
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In a study of 41 young people who received a liver transplant, receiving text message reminders helped improve medication compliance. Researchers measured the amount of anti-rejection drugs in the patient's blood. 49% of patients had low levels of anti-rejection medication in the year prior to the study. After they started receiving text messages that number dropped to 15%.
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An increasing stream of uninsured patients into community health centers throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky has extended waiting times and cut hours at some locations.
Posted by: Staff on June 05, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Nurses help to reduce the gap in immunizations
In Mississippi, a state program hopes to reduce the gap in immunization rates by using nurses to help mobilize the community. The need is pressing, African-Americans in Mississippi receive a pneumonia vaccine at a rate of only 27%, compared to 69% for Caucasians.
From MinorityNurse.com:
“Instead of the state and the CDC coming out into these people’s communities and telling them they need to get the flu shot, what we are doing is mobilizing the community to work in the community,” explains [program manager Marilyn Douglas, RN.] “You need community-based organizations to do that and you really need to give people the information necessary to make an informed decision.”
Reducing the gap in immunizations is one of the goals of Healthy People 2010 and will hopefully lead to a reduction in health disparities.
Posted by: Staff on June 05, 2009
Category: African-American Health; Community Activism; Health Disparities; Healthy People; Healthy People 2010; Immunizations; Minority Health; Minority Nursing; Nursing; Vaccines; community health
June 04, 2009
links for 2009-06-04
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Sedatives and sleeping pills prescribed to ease depression, anxiety and sleep problems appear to increase the risk of suicide four-fold among the elderly
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Senator Baucus told single-payer advocates Wednesday that he regrets not allowing more discussion of the single-payer plan in his efforts to draft a health system overhaul proposal.
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Dr. Rankin, professor of History at UT Dallas, wanted to know how to reach more students and involve more people in class discussions both in and out of the classroom.
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Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years.
Posted by: Staff on June 04, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
June 03, 2009
links for 2009-06-03
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Research indicates that physical and mental stress in childhood may have life-long adverse health effects and policy initiatives are needed to emphasize the importance of starting health promotion and disease prevention early in life.
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Hispanic children in Houston who had low SES ate 68% of their calories from soda, desserts, pizza, chips, fruit drinks and juice, and processed meats and burgers.
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Blacks in South Carolina who are diagnosed with prostate, oral or female breast cancer die from the diseases at nearly twice the rate of whites.
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Obama says Cleveland Clinic offers 'top-notch quality, lower costs.'
Posted by: Staff on June 03, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
The Childhood Roots of Health Disparities
The current issue of JAMA has an interesting article on the childhood roots of health disparities.
In the article, the authors provide ample evidence that when chronic, stressors like nutritional deficiencies and maltreatment have life-long health impacts. They argue new health policy initiatives "may be a more appropriate strategy for preventing adult health disease than the off-label administration of statins to school-aged children."
According to the article, there may be two ways early childhood experiences affect adult health. One theory states experiencing chronic stress has a cumulative affect on the body. The other theory says when exposed to stress (poor living conditions for example) at an early age the body establishes 'set points' that may be harmful later in life.
The result, the article says, of a childhood filled with chronic stressors, may be the inability "to completely reverse the neurological and health consequences of growing up poor."
The authors also make the point that adversity during childhood is both normal and helpful in building resilience. However, when adversity is persistent without any aid from a stable adult environment, lifelong health can be adversely affected.
Looking forward, the authors offer three examples of how policy and practice can work together to reduce stress in early life, thereby improving adult health:
1. Focus on reducing harmful stress in early life.
2. Increase the capacity of early childhood programs to deal with children who experience toxic stress.
3. Greater utilization of child welfare programs in health promotion.
The article is available at JAMA.
Shonkoff JP, Boyce WT, McEwen BS. Neuroscience, molecular biology, and the childhood roots of health disparities: building a new framework for health promotion and disease prevention. JAMA. 2009;301(21):2252-2259.
EXTRA: You can't even trust the labels these days.
Video available on YouTube.
Posted by: Staff on June 03, 2009
Category: Children's Health; Childrens Health; Disparities; Health; Health Care; Health Disparities; Health Equity; Health Inequities; JAMA; Social Determinants of Health; Socioeconomic Status; Youth Health
June 02, 2009
links for 2009-06-02
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Doctors are reducing fees and offering payment plans for out of work patients
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New study finds widespread disparities in care received by those with mental health problems.
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Some teenagers with depression don't seek treatment because of social stigma.
Posted by: Staff on June 02, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Please update your Health Disparities Blog Subscription
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Posted by: Staff on June 02, 2009
Category:
June 01, 2009
links for 2009-06-01
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Single payer advocates rally in Louisville, KY.
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Asthma and diabetes are potentially preventable conditions because good outpatient care can help to prevent the need for hospitalization. Despite national efforts to eliminate health care disparities, low-income Americans continue to have higher hospital admission rates for asthma and many other conditions.
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The American Medical Association is urging hospital leaders to contact their congressional representatives to oppose a federal proposal to set a minimum for charity care
Posted by: Staff on June 01, 2009
Category: Lunch Break Reading