The DREAMers Study: Undocumented College Students and Their Mental Health Needs [English and Spanish versions]

A Spanish translation of this publication is available to download under Additional Files below. Undocumented college students face several barriers that may place them at high risk of poor mental health. Despite growing up and receiving primary and secondary (K-12) education in the U.S., many undocumented young adults cannot legally work, vote or drive in most states. Their illegal status interferes with their ability to accumulate relevant/ practical work experience leading to the inability to develop the necessary job skills before graduating high school, which can limit their employment opportunities

Co-occurring Mental & Physical Disorders Among Adults Under 65 Years of Age

Research in the areas of co-occurring depression, heart disease, diabetes, asthma and schizophrenia are extensive. However, a comprehensive account of physical illnesses among those with many types of mental illnesses is scarce. To estimate the prevalence of common chronic physical illnesses among a nationally representative sample of adults under 65 years of age with mental illness and examine the demographic, socioeconomic, and health status predictors of co-occurring physical and mental illness

County-level societal predictors of COVID-19 cases and deaths changed through time in the United States: A longitudinal ecological study

People of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, demographics, health, and socioeconomic characteristics have experienced disproportionate rates of infection and death due to COVID-19. This study tests if and how county-level rates of infection and death have changed in relation to societal county characteristics through time as the pandemic progressed. This longitudinal study sampled monthly county-level COVID-19 case and death data per 100,000 residents from April 2020 to March 2022, and studied the relationships of these variables with racial/ethnic, demographic, health, and socioeconomic characteristics for 3125 or 97.0% of U.S. counties, accounting for 96.4% of the U.S. population. The association of all county-level characteristics with COVID-19 case and death rates changed significantly through time, and showed different patterns. For example, counties with higher population proportions of Black, Native American, foreign-born non-citizen, elderly residents, households in poverty, or higher income inequality suffered disproportionately higher COVID-19 case and death rates at the beginning of the pandemic, followed by reversed, attenuated or fluctuating patterns, depending on the variable. Patterns for counties with higher White versus Black population proportions showed somewhat inverse patterns. Counties with higher female population proportions initially had lower case rates but higher death rates, and case and death rates become more coupled and fluctuated later in the pandemic. Counties with higher population densities had fluctuating case and death rates, with peaks coinciding with new variants of COVID-19. Counties with a greater proportion of university-educated residents had lower case and death rates throughout the pandemic, although the strength of this relationship fluctuated through time. This research clearly shows that how different segments of society are affected by a pandemic changes through time. Therefore, targeted policies and interventions that change as a pandemic unfolds are necessary to mitigate its disproportionate effects on vulnerable populations, particularly during the first six months of a pandemic

There\u27s More to Young Adult Unemployment Than Mental Health: What Else to Look For [English and Spanish versions]

A Spanish translation of this publication is available to download under Additional Files below. High unemployment among young adults with serious mental health conditions (SMHCs) should not only be attributed to their mental health conditions. Research should take an intersectional approach where, in addition to looking at mental health condition factors, other indicators of social and demographic inequalities are also taken into account

Multicultural Academic Interest Group: Promoting Multicultural Research, Education & Services

Eliminating racial/ethnic disparities in access and quality of mental care has emerged as a national priority as highlighted in the 2001 Surgeon General’s report, the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, and Healthy People 2000 and 2010. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) ranks this issue third among its top five priorities

Lifetime Alcohol Abuse Prevalence: Role of Childhood and Adult Religion

Findings presented regarding childhood and adult religiosity/spirituality as protective factors against Lifetime Alcohol Abuse

Distal and Proximal Religiosity as Protective Factors for Adolescent and Emerging Adult Alcohol Use

Data from emerging adults (ages 18-29, N = 900) in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Study was used to examine the influence of childhood and emerging adult religiosity and religious-based decision-making, and childhood adversity, on alcohol use. Childhood religiosity was protective against early alcohol use and progression to later abuse or dependence, but did not significantly offset the influence of childhood adversity on early patterns of heavy drinking in adjusted logistic regression models. Religiosity in emerging adulthood was negatively associated with alcohol use disorders. Protective associations for religiosity varied by gender, ethnicity and childhood adversity histories. Higher religiosity may be protective against early onset alcohol use and later development of alcohol problems, thus, should be considered in prevention programming for youth, particularly in faith-based settings. Mental health providers should allow for integration of clients\u27 religiosity and spirituality beliefs and practices in treatment settings if clients indicate such interest

Disparities in Child and Adolescent Psychoactive Medication Prescription Practices by Race and Ethnicity

Key Points: (1) Compared to their non-Latino white counterparts, children and adolescents from racial-ethnic minority groups in the U.S. are less likely to receive prescriptions for psychoactive medication; (2) Racial-ethnic minority children and adolescents are also significantly less likely to receive mental health care; (3) Controlling for access to mental health care and for geographic variation reduces but does not eliminate variations in psychoactive prescriptions by race and ethnicity; (4) Controlling for mental health need and level of impairment does not eliminate variations in psychoactive prescriptions by race and ethnicity; (5) Reducing disparities will require coordinated efforts to educate families and providers, promotion of evidence-based practices, steps to overcome geographic and language barriers, and additional research for understanding the underlying reasons for variations in prescription patterns

The association of dietary quality with colorectal cancer among normal weight, overweight and obese men and women: a prospective longitudinal study in the USA

OBJECTIVE: Lower body mass index (BMI) and higher dietary quality reduce the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). A full understanding of how these associations vary by sex and weight is lacking. METHODS: We used data from the National Institutes of Health - American Association of Retired Persons (NIH)-AARP) Diet and Health Study for 398 458 persons who were 50-71 years old in 1995-1996 and followed through 2006. Exposures were dietary quality as reflected by the Mediterranean Diet, the Healthy Eating Index-2010 and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension score, stratified by BMI category. The outcome was CRC diagnosis from cancer registry data. Cox regression models were adjusted for disease risk factors. RESULTS: Over a mean duration of 123 months of follow-up, there were 6515 new diagnoses of CRC (1953 among the normal weight, 2924 among the overweight and 1638 among the obese; 4483 among men and 2032 among women). For normal weight and overweight men, we found a strong dose-response pattern for the association of increasing quintile of dietary quality with decreasing risk of CRC; this pattern was observed for obese men as well, but less consistently across the three measures of dietary quality. The findings were of smaller magnitude and less consistent for women but still suggesting associations of similar direction. CONCLUSION: We observed that increased dietary quality was associated with lower risk of incident CRC up to 10 years later for men regardless of baseline weight category