Differences in Mexican Americans’ Prevalence of Chronic Pain and Co-Occurring Analgesic Medication and Substance Use Relative to Non-Hispanic White and Black Americans: Results from NHANES 1999–2004

Objective. Little is known about the burgeoning Mexican American (MA) population’s pain experience. Methods. Using 1999–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, prevalence of chronic pain, analgesic medication use, and substance use were examined among MA, non-Hispanic White (NHW), and non-Hispanic Black (NHB) respondents. Logistic and linear regression models examined racial/ethnic differences in: 1) chronic pain prevalence among all respondents, 2) location and number of pain sites among respondents with chronic pain, and 3) analgesic medication and substance use among respondents with chronic pain. Results. Compared to NHWs and NHBs, MAs were less likely to report any chronic pain. Among respondents with chronic pain, MAs had higher odds of reporting headache, abdominal pain, and a greater number of pain sites than NHWs. Compared to NHWs, MAs with chronic pain had lower odds of reporting past-month analgesic medication and COX-2 inhibitor use. MAs with chronic pain had lower odds of being a current cigarette smoker and heavy alcohol drinker but had similar street drug/cocaine use relative to NHWs. Conclusions. Results suggest that: 1) MAs are less likely to develop chronic pain than NHWs, 2) MAs with chronic pain report greater headache and abdominal pain than NHWs, and 3) MAs with chronic pain are less likely to use analgesic medications and other substances compared to NHWs. These results suggest that providers should consider taking extra time to discuss analgesic medications with MAs. Future investigations should examine reasons underlying these racial/ethnic differences in chronic pain, as well as differences in the use of other substances, such as marijuana

Associations between immigrant status and pharmacological treatments for diabetes in U.S. adults

Objectives: Although treatment disparities in diabetes have been documented along racial/ethnic lines, it is unclear if immigrant groups in the United States experience similar treatment disparities. Our objective was to determine whether immigrant status is associated with differences in pharmacological treatment of diabetes in a nationally representative sample of adults with diabetes. We were specifically interested in differences in treatment with oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA) and insulin. Method: Respondents were 2,260 adults from National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2012 with a self-reported diabetes diagnosis. Immigrant status was indicated by birth within (U.S.-born) or outside (foreign-born) the 50 U.S. States or Washington, DC. Multinomial logistic regression analyses examined associations between immigrant status and (a) treatment with OHAs only and (b) treatment with insulin only or insulin and OHA combination therapy, using no treatment as the reference group. Results: Adjusting for demographics, diabetes severity and duration, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and CVD risk factors, being foreign-born versus U.S.-born was not associated with treatment with OHAs only (odds ratio [OR] = 1.59; 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.97, 2.60]). However, being foreign-born was associated with decreased odds (OR = 0.53; 95% CI [0.28, 0.99]) of treatment with insulin. Conclusions: Pharmacological treatment of diabetes differs along immigrant status lines. To understand these findings, studies capturing the processes underlying treatment differences in diabetes among immigrants are needed. Findings raise the possibility that integrating information about a patient’s immigrant status, in addition to racial/ethnic identity, may be an important component of culturally sensitive diabetes care

The Theoretical and Methodological Opportunities Afforded by Guided Play With Young Children

For infants and young children, learning takes place all the time and everywhere. How children learn best both in and out of school has been a long-standing topic of debate in education, cognitive development, and cognitive science. Recently, guided play has been proposed as an integrative approach for thinking about learning as a child-led, adult-assisted playful activity. The interactive and dynamic nature of guided play presents theoretical and methodological challenges and opportunities. Drawing upon research from multiple disciplines, we discuss the integration of cutting-edge computational modeling and data science tools to address some of these challenges, and highlight avenues toward an empirically grounded, computationally precise and ecologically valid framework of guided play in early education