Not Always Black and White: Racial Bias for Birth Disparities from Excluding Hispanic Identification

Despite gains in prenatal care (PNC) usage and birth outcomes for minority women during the past few decades, observed disparities between non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics persist. Using the National Center for Health Statistics’ (NCHS) natality files from 1981 through 1998, Alexander, Kogan, & Nabukera (2002) examined live births of U.S. residents by trimester in which PNC was initiated and the appropriateness of that care based on the Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index (APNCU) (Kotelchuck, 1994). They found racial disparities between White and Black women in both the trimester of PNC initiation and the number of PNC visits made. Alexander et al.(2002) noted reductions in racial disparities in PNC; specifically, Blacks were steadily increasing in the number of prenatal visits and in first trimester initiation of PNC. However, a weakness of their study was the exclusivity of racial categories; only White and Black racial groups were analyzed based on the mother’s self reported race. Other racial groups were not included because Hispanic data were not identifiable for some states during part of the study period, and other racial groups lacked sufficient numbers to establish trending in the categories of interest (Alexander et al., 2002). Thus Hispanics identified their race as White and their ethnicity as Hispanic. Alexander et al. counted both non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics as ‘Whites’ regardless of ethnicity or the availability of ethnicity in their analysis. This created a potential source of bias, as one could speculate that the reported narrowing of racial disparities in the number of PNC visits and earlier initiation of care between Whites and Blacks could be the result of increasing births to Hispanic women included in the ‘White’ birth group. The reported narrowing of disparities could simply be the result of failing to separate Hispanic women in the analysis, a potentially significant portion of the ‘White’ group given their high fertility rates and increased percentage of the total U.S. population. While the expansion of Medicaid-sponsored funding for pregnant women likely contributed to some of the reported increases in earlier PNC initiation and the number of prenatal visits in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Hessol, Vittingoff, & Fuentes-Afflick, 2004; Hueston, Geesey, & Diaz, 2008), it is not clear if this expansion benefited one racial group over another, particularly when Hispanic ethnicity is taken into account. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate differentials in birth outcomes for singletons by race for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics beginning in 1979 (the year when Hispanic identifiers became available in the natality files) through 2006. Specifically, we examined trends the trimester that PNC was initiated, the number of PNC visits, and birth weight by race and ethnicity. While previous studies have evaluated pregnancy outcomes based on race, the exclusion of Hispanic identifiers in the analysis (Alexander, Kogan, Himes, Mor, & Goldenberg, 1999; Alexander et al., 2002; Alexander, Wingate, Bader, & Kogan, 2008; Cox, Zhang, & Zotti, 2009; Hunsley, Levkoff, Alexander, & Tompkins, 1991) potentially introduced a bias in results reported. We estimated racial disparities between Blacks and Whites with and without Hispanic identification. Hence, we quantified the bias created due to Hispanics being identified as Whites. Although Gavin et al. (Gavin, Adams, Hartmann, Benedict, & Chireau, 2004) attempted to address this gap by including Hispanics in their analysis, only pregnancy-related care among Medicaid recipients in four states (Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and Texas) was examined, therefore omitting a significant portion of the childbearing population. In this current study, the addition of Hispanics as a separate racial group and the extension of analysis back to 1979 through 2006 provide an additional decade of observations over previous reports. Hence this analysis is unique and more comprehensive than previous reports

Lost: The Crisis Of Jobless and Out Of School Teens and Young Adults In Chicago, Illinois and the U.S.

This report contains compilations and calculations of various employment data for males and females 16 to 24 years old by race/ethnicity from 2005 to 2014, comparing Chicago, Illinois, the U.S. and in some instances, adding Los Angeles and New York. Besides an array of figures and tables, the report contains GIS generated maps that illustrate the relationship between employment data and population distribution by race/ethnicity. A significant contribution of this report is its demonstration that low rates of employment are spatially concentrated in neighborhoods that are also racially segregated. This report clearly highlights that youth employment rates are tied to conditions in neighborhoods and cannot be seen as distinct from what is happening in the neighborhoods themselves. The devastation of unemployment in turn, wreaks havoc on the neighborhood

Two-way Affect Loops in multimedia experiences

A users interaction with a film typically involves a One Way Affect (1WA), in which the film being consumed has an affect on the consumer. Recent advances in physiological monitoring technology however has facilitated the notion of a Two Way Affect Loop (2WAL), in which a film piece can be dynamically affected by a consumers physiology or behaviour. This paper outlines an agenda for further investigating 2WAL, setting research questions and the influence of related research areas

#Scanners: integrating physiology into cinematic experiences

In this paper we present #Scanners, a digital arts installation that aims to bridge the gap between digital arts and neuroscience. #Scanners is an experience in which an individual wears a wireless brain scanners whilst being presented media which is dynamically affected by the individuals physiology. A prototype system has been successfully trialled on roughly 100 users over the past 18 months and has received unanimously positive feedback. We state the minimal additional requirements for demonstrating a Higher Fidelity prototype system and argue the value of including #Scanners at C&C2015

Two-way Affect Loops in multimedia experiences

A users interaction with a film typically involves a One Way Affect (1WA), in which the film being consumed has an affect on the consumer. Recent advances in physiological monitoring technology however has facilitated the notion of a Two Way Affect Loop (2WAL), in which a film piece can be dynamically affected by a consumers physiology or behaviour. This paper outlines an agenda for further investigating 2WAL, setting research questions and the influence of related research areas

#Scanners: exploring the control of adaptive films using brain-computer interaction

This paper explores the design space of bio-responsive entertainment, in this case using a film that responds to the brain and blink data of users. A film was created with four parallel channels of footage, where blinking and levels of attention and meditation, as recorded by a commercially available EEG device, affected which footage participants saw. As a performance-led piece of research in the wild, this experience, named #Scanners, was presented at a week long national exhibition in the UK. We examined the experiences of 35 viewers, and found that these forms of partially-involuntary control created engaging and enjoyable, but sometimes distracting, experiences. We translate our findings into a two-dimensional design space between the extent of voluntary control that a physiological measure can provide against the level of conscious awareness that the user has of that control. This highlights that novel design opportunities exist when deviating from these two-dimensions - when giving up conscious control and when abstracting the affect of control. Reflection on of how viewers negotiated this space during an experience reveals novel design tactics

#Scanners: exploring the control of adaptive films using brain-computer interaction

This paper explores the design space of bio-responsive entertainment, in this case using a film that responds to the brain and blink data of users. A film was created with four parallel channels of footage, where blinking and levels of attention and meditation, as recorded by a commercially available EEG device, affected which footage participants saw. As a performance-led piece of research in the wild, this experience, named #Scanners, was presented at a week long national exhibition in the UK. We examined the experiences of 35 viewers, and found that these forms of partially-involuntary control created engaging and enjoyable, but sometimes distracting, experiences. We translate our findings into a two-dimensional design space between the extent of voluntary control that a physiological measure can provide against the level of conscious awareness that the user has of that control. This highlights that novel design opportunities exist when deviating from these two-dimensions - when giving up conscious control and when abstracting the affect of control. Reflection on of how viewers negotiated this space during an experience reveals novel design tactics

Human observers differ in ability to perceive insect diversity

Human perception of biological variation is an important and understudied issue in the conservation and management of natural resources. Here, we took a novel approach by asking 1152 participants, primarily college biology students, to score examples of insect mimicry by the number of distinct kinds of animals they saw. Latent class analysis successfully separated participants based on their accuracy of perception as well as demographic information and opinions about biodiversity. Contrary to expectations, factors such as childhood experience (growing up in urban, suburban or rural areas) did not affect the ability to see biodiversity as much as political views (location on a spectrum from liberal to conservative) or the position that biodiversity is important for the health of the environment. We conclude that research into effective measures of biological education should consider the connection between personal views and perceptions of natural variation