Child Brides

The goal of this presentation is to take a look into the human rights violation of child marriage happening in countries all over the world. For the purpose of this presentation, we will focus on four countries where child marriages are extremely prevalent: India, Niger, Bangladesh, and Yemen. First, we will begin with a brief history and background of child brides and statistics related to this population. Second, we will discuss the four countries (as stated above) where this is a major problem, and why the rates of child brides are especially high within each country. Third, we will consider the consequences of child marriages and the ethical implications. Lastly, we will suggest implementation of an intervention for change that is possible on a global level. We hope to educate, provide awareness, and propose ideas for the implementation of interventions to eradicate this human rights issue

Guyanese Women's Experiences of Invisibility in Health Care in England

This article explores the opportunities for strengthening participatory action research (PAR) through an intersectionality framework. In 2015, I completed a Ph.D. study into the lived experiences of migrant Guyanese women, living in England, when seeking diagnoses and treatment for Type 2 diabetes. Group storytelling acted as a lens for the women to talk about how they tried to obtain a diagnosis, in addition to their migratory experiences. Both PAR and intersectionality encourage participant collaboration and community engagement of oppressed groups. The article concludes that the PAR study would have been enhanced by overlaying it with an intersectionality framework. The argument is presented that by doing so the women's accounts in the research study would have been privileged more and activism encouraged in bringing about change to current practices and avoiding perpetuating existing oppressions. The Ph.D. study methodology was based on Koch's interpretation of PAR. In this, PAR is used where the focus is on participation of all stakeholders toward reform and change. It is seen as a social, practical and collaborative process where building relationships with participants is crucial. Intersectionality acknowledges the potential for “black” and other women of color to not remain on the margins but to challenge the traditional biomedical model of health care delivery. Implementing an intersectional approach to the data generation and analysis would have acknowledged power dynamics (i.e., privilege and oppression) and help to identify potential gaps in diabetic provision which are currently invisible or inequitable due to interventions designed to meet the needs of a homogeneous White middle class society

Association between anemia and quality of life in a population sample of individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND: Several studies investigated the association of anemia with health related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with chronic disease. However, there is little evidence regarding the association of anemia with HRQL in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: This is a post-hoc analysis of a study which enrolled a population of adults aged 35–79 randomly selected from residents of Erie and Niagara Counties, NY, between 1996 and 2000. In addition to demographic information and physical measurements, we obtained spirometry data and hemoglobin levels. We used modified Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria to define COPD, and World Health Organization (WHO) criteria to define anemia. To assess HRQL we used the Short Form-36 (SF-36) to assess physical functioning (PF), physical component summary (PCS) measures and mental component summary (MCS) measures. RESULTS: In the entire study population (n = 2704), respondents with anemia had lower scores on the physical functioning domain [45.4 (SD10.9) vs. 49.2 (SD 9.1); p < 0.0001]. Among patients with COPD (n = 495) the PF scores (39.9 vs. 45.4) and the PCS (41.9 vs. 45.9) were significantly lower in individuals with anemia compared to those without. In multiple regression analysis, the association between hemoglobin and PCS was positive (regression coefficient 0.02, p = 0.003). There was no significant association of hemoglobin with PF scores or the mental component summary measure after adjusting for covariates in patients with COPD. CONCLUSION: In patients with moderate to very severe COPD anemia may be associated with worse HRQL. However, co-morbidities may explain part or all of this association in these patients