The Relationship between Childhood Obesity, Low Socioeconomic Status, and Race/Ethnicity: Lessons from Massachusetts

Background: Previous studies have shown race/ethnicity, particularly African American and/or Hispanic status, to be a predictor of overweight/obese status in children. However, these studies have failed to adjust for low socioeconomic status (SES). This study assessed whether race/ethnicity remained an independent predictor of childhood obesity when accounting for variations in SES (low-income) among communities in Massachusetts. Methods: This study was based on 2009 summarized data from 68 Massachusetts school districts with 111,799 students in grades 1, 4, 7, and 10. We studied the relationship between the rate of overweight/obese students (mean?=?0.32; range?=?0.10?0.46), the rate of African American and Hispanic students (mean?=?0.17; range?=?0.00?0.90), and the rate of low-income students (mean?=?0.27; range?=?0.02?0.87) in two and three dimensions. The main effect of the race/ethnicity rate, the low-income rate, and their interaction on the overweight and obese rate was investigated by multiple regression modeling. Results: Low-income was highly associated with overweight/obese status (p?Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140341/1/chi.2015.0029.pd

Termination of parental rights and adoption in foster care

The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to examine the timing and the risk factors associated with TPR of children who first enter foster care; and, (b) to examine the timing and the risk factors associated with the adoption of legally-free foster children. For the purpose of the study, two samples were drawn from foster care files of Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) in 32 states between October 1998 (FY 1999) and September 2002 (FY 2002). Potential risk factors extracted from the AFCARS for examining both TPR and adoption include age and race/ethnicity of child, type of child maltreatment, and type and location of foster care placement. Risk factors specific to TPR include number of removals from the home and age of primary caretaker when the child was removed. Risk factors specific to adoption include race/ethnicity of caretaker at placement and household structure of foster care family. The timing and post-TPR was examined by plotting the Kaplan-Meier survivor/and hazard functions. Logistic regression and Cox proportional-hazards regression analyses were used to identify risk factors. The hazard of TPR was very low after first entering foster care, but increased rapidly starting at 10 months and then declined after 32 months in care. Factors associated with a higher likelihood of TPR include younger age, back/African American, parental substance abuse, and parental abandonment. The hazard of adoption was very low immediately after TPR but increased steadily starting at 3 months and then declined after 20 months. Racial minority status and older age was negatively associated with the hazard of adoption. Characteristics of foster care services turned out to be powerful predictors of adoption. Specifically, legally-free children placed in pre-adoptive homes, those who shared the same racial/ethnic background with their foster caretakers, and those who were placed in two-parent families have a greater likelihood of adoption. Our findings confirm prior research results regarding the disparity between White and racial/ethnic minority children in permanency outcomes and highlight the importance of increasing pre-adoptive homes from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds as a plausible intervention strategy in promoting adoption for legally-free minority children

Lower central subgroups of a free group and its subgroup

For a given free group F of arbitrary rank (possibly infinite), and its subgroup G, we address the question whether a lower central subgroup of G can contain a lower central subgroup of F. We show that the answer is no if G does not normally generate F. The question comes from a study of Hirzebruch-type invariants from iterated p-covers for three-dimensional homology cylinders.(c) World Scientific Publishing Compan

Invariants and structures of the homology cobordism group of homology cylinders

The homology cobordism group of homology cylinders is enlargement of both the mapping class group and the concordance group of string links in homology $D^2 \times I$ . We observe the structure of the group via filtration of extended Milnor invariants combined with Johnson homomorphisms. We also obtain deeper information invisible to previously known invariants by employing Hirzebruch-type intersection form defect invariantsNon UBCUnreviewedAuthor affiliation: Handong Global UniversityOthe

Termination of parental rights and adoption in foster care

The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to examine the timing and the risk factors associated with TPR of children who first enter foster care; and, (b) to examine the timing and the risk factors associated with the adoption of legally-free foster children. For the purpose of the study, two samples were drawn from foster care files of Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) in 32 states between October 1998 (FY 1999) and September 2002 (FY 2002). Potential risk factors extracted from the AFCARS for examining both TPR and adoption include age and race/ethnicity of child, type of child maltreatment, and type and location of foster care placement. Risk factors specific to TPR include number of removals from the home and age of primary caretaker when the child was removed. Risk factors specific to adoption include race/ethnicity of caretaker at placement and household structure of foster care family. The timing and post-TPR was examined by plotting the Kaplan-Meier survivor/and hazard functions. Logistic regression and Cox proportional-hazards regression analyses were used to identify risk factors. The hazard of TPR was very low after first entering foster care, but increased rapidly starting at 10 months and then declined after 32 months in care. Factors associated with a higher likelihood of TPR include younger age, back/African American, parental substance abuse, and parental abandonment. The hazard of adoption was very low immediately after TPR but increased steadily starting at 3 months and then declined after 20 months. Racial minority status and older age was negatively associated with the hazard of adoption. Characteristics of foster care services turned out to be powerful predictors of adoption. Specifically, legally-free children placed in pre-adoptive homes, those who shared the same racial/ethnic background with their foster caretakers, and those who were placed in two-parent families have a greater likelihood of adoption. Our findings confirm prior research results regarding the disparity between White and racial/ethnic minority children in permanency outcomes and highlight the importance of increasing pre-adoptive homes from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds as a plausible intervention strategy in promoting adoption for legally-free minority children

Self -care and health outcomes of diabetes: How do co-morbid conditions and health perception influence this relationship?

Self-care in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) has been linked to improved glycemic control and other health outcomes. However, virtually all of the related literature that examines the relationship between DM self-care and health outcomes focuses on the components of DM self-care that comprise routine health behaviors such as treatment adherence—referred to as DM self-care maintenance. Thus far, the relationship between other self-care components—those that fall under the rubric of DM self-care management—and health outcomes has not been studied. DM self-care management comprises the decision-making processes whereby patients determine how and when to respond to signs and symptoms of their disease, and their subsequent behaviors. The current study utilized a cohort design with secondary data analysis of longitudinal data from adults 50 years of age and older who participated in the Health and Retirement Study. The aim of the study was to test a model postulating the influence of DM self-care on specific health outcomes—primarily, resource utilization (hospitalization, number of hospital stays, length of hospital stay, and health care provider visits) and secondarily glycemic control (hemoglobinA1c). In addition, this study examined whether and how the relationship between DM self-care and health outcomes might be affected by co-morbid conditions and health perception. Multivariable analyses were conducted to achieve the overall aim of this study with the final sample (n=726). The principal findings of this study were that: 1) the two components of DM self-care (self-care maintenance and management) each influence health outcomes, albeit differently. DM self-care maintenance significantly influences all of the health outcomes measured: hospitalization, health care provider visits, number of hospital stays, length of hospital stay, and hemoglobinA1c. On the other hand, DM self-care management influences a specific subset of the health outcomes measured: number of hospital stays and length of hospital stay, 2) an increased number of co-morbid conditions was significantly associated with worse health outcomes, and 3) co-morbid conditions moderate the relationship between eating more snacks or desserts and health care provider visits. These results underscore the importance of tailoring DM patient education so as to enhance decision-making processes as well as to foster treatment adherence. Additionally, patients\u27 co-morbid conditions should be factored in during the design and implementation of DM self-care interventions