Equality in Health: An Annotated Bibliography With Resources on Health Disparities and Cultural and Linguistic Competency

Provides citations for articles, reports, books, and online resources on racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care, strategies to reduce them, assessment tools for cultural and linguistic competency, training and education, and other issues

Social and Behavioral Implications of National Collegiate Athletic Association Sickle Cell Trait Screening: The Athletes’ Perspective

Background: In August 2010, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) implemented a policy mandating sickle cell trait (SCT) testing for all Division I collegiate athletes. Subsequently, all Division II-III athletes were also compelled to undergo SCT testing. This decision has met with controversy among healthcare providers, researchers, and sickle cell advocates. However, there is little information concerning the athletes’ perspective of this policy. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a qualitative study that explored college athletes’ perceptions of sickle cell trait SCT, NCAA policies on SCT testing, and potential implications of SCT screening. Methods: The participants were eighteen male and female athletes (ages 18-24), members of NCAA-governed teams who were on the study campus from April-August 2010. Athletes participated in focus groups that gathered their perceptions of the SCT, the NCAA SCT policy, and social and behavioral implications of a SCT diagnosis. Results: Athletes lacked knowledge of the SCT and the implications of a positive screening test result, desired health education about SCT, were conflicted about sharing health information, and feared loss of playing time if found to carry the SCT. Conclusions: The study revealed athletes’ perceptions of the SCT and mandated NCAA SCT testing that should be addressed by college health professionals

Social and Behavioral Implications of National Collegiate Athletic Association Sickle Cell Trait Screening: The Athletes\u27 Perspective

Background: In August 2010, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) implemented a policy mandating sickle cell trait (SCT) testing for all Division I collegiate athletes. Subsequently, all Division II-III athletes were also compelled to undergo SCT testing. This decision has met with controversy among healthcare providers, researchers, and sickle cell advocates. However, there is little information concerning the athletes’ perspective of this policy. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a qualitative study that explored college athletes’ perceptions of sickle cell trait SCT, NCAA policies on SCT testing, and potential implications of SCT screening. Methods: The participants were eighteen male and female athletes (ages 18-24), members of NCAA-governed teams who were on the study campus from April-August 2010. Athletes participated in focus groups that gathered their perceptions of the SCT, the NCAA SCT policy, and social and behavioral implications of a SCT diagnosis. Results: Athletes lacked knowledge of the SCT and the implications of a positive screening test result, desired health education about SCT, were conflicted about sharing health information, and feared loss of playing time if found to carry the SCT. Conclusions: The study revealed athletes’ perceptions of the SCT and mandated NCAA SCT testing that should be addressed by college health professionals

Dismantling institutional racism: theory and action

Despite a strong commitment to promoting social change and liberation, there are few community psychology models for creating systems change to address oppression. Given how embedded racism is in institutions such as healthcare, a significant shift in the system's policies, practices, and procedures is required to address institutional racism and create organizational and institutional change. This paper describes a systemic intervention to address racial inequities in healthcare quality called dismantling racism. The dismantling racism approach assumes healthcare disparities are the result of the intersection of a complex system (healthcare) and a complex problem (racism). Thus, dismantling racism is a systemic and systematic intervention designed to illuminate where and how to intervene in a given healthcare system to address proximal and distal factors associated with healthcare disparities. This paper describes the theory behind dismantling racism, the elements of the intervention strategy, and the strengths and limitations of this systems change approach.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116935/1/ajcp9117.pd

Refinement of an Educational Toolkit to Promote Cervical Cancer Screening among Hispanic Farmworker Women in Southeast Georgia

Cervical cancer incidence and mortality continue to affect Hispanic women in the U.S. disproportionately. Our project sought to refine a cervical cancer intervention designed for use by community health workers, or promotoras, in rural southern Georgia. We collaborated with Hispanicpromotoras to refine a Spanish language educational flipchart featuring cervical cancer topic areas for use in screening promotion

Colorado Best Practices for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity and Childcare Regulations: Increasing Alignment to Increase Impact

This presentation was given during the Public Health in the Rockies Annual Conference

Provider Perceptions of EMR and E-Prescribing in Safety Net Clinics

This paper reports the findings of a formative study that examined knowledge, readiness, and perceptions of healthcare providers in safety-net clinics about electronic medical records (EMR) and e-prescribing. It was conducted in six safety net clinics in southeast Georgia that serve a disproportionately high number of uninsured and underinsured individuals. Qualitative data was collected during focus groups and intercept interviews. Healthcare providers understood what EMR technology is and had positive perceptions about the technology\u27s utility in the clinic environment. Several key themes emerged such as the importance of increased efficiency and transportability; privacy, security, and access concerns; quality improvement potential; startup costs; and production loss. Implications for administrators who plan to implement EMR within safety net clinics are discussed

Salud es Vida: Development of a Cervical Cancer Education Curriculum for Promotora Outreach with Latina Farmworkers

We developed and evaluated a lay health worker curriculum intended to educate Hispanic farmworker women on cervical cancer, human papillomavirus (HPV), and the HPV vaccine. We pilot tested the curriculum in 2010 with 7 volunteer promotoras for readability, attractiveness, content, comprehension, cultural appropriateness, persuasion, structure and organization of lessons, balance between didactic and participatory activities, and ease of diffusion to community members. Peer-led cervical cancer prevention education is a practical option for low-income, Hispanic farmworker women in newer immigrant-receiving areas of the United States with fewer Spanish-speaking health professionals

Latinos Reduciendo el Diabetes en Southeast Georgia

This presentation was given during the Society of Public Health Education Annual Conference

Education About Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Includes Listening to the Children

Background: Diets high in fruit and vegetables (F&V) are associated with a lower risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (CDC, 2008; Do et al., 2011). However, only 30-40% of children age 4-8 consume four servings of F&V and only 14% consume the recommended five servings a day (Guenther et al., 2006: USDA, 2007). School health education studies involving school aged children ( \u3e5 years) have reported that positive and negative outcome messages can influence a child’s consumption of F&V’s with positive outcome messages having the most significant mediating effect (Reynolds et al. 2004). Similar studies are limited for preschool aged (\u3c 5 years) children. The current study was designed to explore what preschool children hear and remember about fruit and vegetable messages. Methods: School lunch-time F&V consumption of preschool children (n=201) was recorded over five days. Children (n=192) were individually interviewed about their knowledge, preference, and perceptions of fruits and vegetables using a picture card sort and open ended questions. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was utilized to categorize F&V messages conveyed by children. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and one-way ANOVA were used for analysis. Results: Preschool children convey a variety of information associated with F&V consumption that fits under SCT constructs. Positive outcome expectancies (POE), negative outcome expectancies (NOE), and prompts were most frequently stated. POEs were accompanied with a direct benefit valued by the child. Boys received negative reinforcements more than girls. Significant differences were observed based on socioeconomic status. Conclusions and Implications: How parents, teachers, and health education professionals convey information about F&V’s can have an influence on children’s perceptions and preference. Parent modeling, availability/ accessibility and preference have typically been the default determinants of F&V consumption for young children (age) (Rasmussen et al. 2006). However, preschool children (aged 4) in this study demonstrated an understanding of positive outcome expectancies by placing a direct value on the outcome stated. While preschool children (aged 4) have limited cognitive skills compared with school aged children, their understanding and insight into valued outcomes of consuming F&V may be more apparent than previously researched. Hence, assessing preschool children’s perceptions first, then tailoring health education messages according to why a child values a specific outcome from eating F&Vs may produce benefits in addition to known determinants of F&V consumption