The Experience of African American Adults with Low Health Literacy When Accessing Healthcare

Low health literacy (HL) among low socioeconomic status (SES) African American adult patients is an ongoing health problem that has increased since the 1990s. Improving HL among low SES African American adults may improve their overall health and decrease the high rates of low HL. The high rates of low HL translate into billions of dollars in healthcare costs annually. Medicare and Medicaid absorb a significant amount of the cost, so improving HL among this population could decrease healthcare costs to the U.S. economy. The theoretical framework for this basic qualitative study was Pender’s health promotion model. Implementing strategies aligned with positive cognitive health-motivating behaviors could increase this marginalized population\u27s HL levels. A semi structured, face-to-face interview design was used to explore the experiences of 10 low SES low HL African American adults when navigating the healthcare system.. The analysis of responses to the interview questions led to code and theme development, potentially leading to sustained interventions, influencing improved HL, and promoting positive health behaviors and outcomes. Two themes emerged from the results of this study. The first theme was doctors/healthcare providers lacked the communication skills to help low SES African American adults improve health outcomes. The second theme was doctors\u27/healthcare providers\u27 deficient interactions with low SES African American adults sustained low HL. Positive social change may be realized for this marginalized group nationwide by developing effective interventions to increase HL levels

Analyse spatiale des crimes commis sur la rue à l’intérieur des marchés de drogues

In this paper we utilize data from the Drug Market Analysis Program (DMAP) in Jersey City, New Jersey, to provide some preliminary insight into the spatial relationship between street level drug markets and crime. We begin our paper with a description of how the DMAP information system was used to define drug markets and the characteristics of the markets that were identified. We then turn to an analysis of the incidence of reported crime within drug market boundaries. We find that drug market areas include a disproportionate share of arrests and crime related emergency calls for service in Jersey City. Streets and intersections within the drug markets are also much more likely to evidence reported crime than non-drug market places. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and the implications of our research for further study of the spatial relationships between drug markets and crime

Reviews

Teaching and Learning Materials and the Internet by Ian Forsyth, London: Kogan Page, 1996. ISBN: 0–7494‐ 20596. 181 pages, paperback. £18.99

Linking Parental Wellbeing with the Wellbeing of Care Leaver and Care Experienced University Students: Analysing Relevance and Interconnections through the Lens of ‘Lived Lives’

This article analyses multidisciplinary research and theoretical perspectives on wellbeing, linking this with the findings from a narrative, biographical study of care-experienced university students in a UK university. In this paper, we examine the relevance of concepts of parental wellbeing, and wellbeing more generally, to \u27linked lives\u27\u27, defined as interrelated life events, experiences, memories and processes of narrativizing life histories both in and across time. While wellbeing is often depicted as an uplifting and uniformly positive concept in policy and research, it is also contested and opaque and is therefore difficult to define and operationalise. Elucidating young people\u27s voices on the complexity and \u27multilayeredness\u27 of everyday life events, we show that parental wellbeing, which is frequently negated from discussions of care experienced young people\u27s educational journeys requires greater critical scrutiny, arguing that temporalities and ever-changing personal and family histories indelibly affect individual care pathways for these young people. We thereby illuminate the significance of seemingly \u27ordinary\u27, everyday life events for care experienced students whilst showing how narrative interviews offer fruitful methodological approaches for understanding young people\u27s educational journeys

Re-imagination and re-design in physical education: implicit and explicit models in England and Wales

Starting with the questions “does physical education (PE) achieve desirable outcomes for the majority of youngsters who experience it?” and, as a corollary, “does it need to be re-imagined and re-designed?”, this chapter explores what we refer to as explicit and implicit models of PE past and present, including the alleged shortcomings of the subject that each model is intended to address. In the process we note that one implicit model–the so-called (sport-based) multi-activity model revolving around various “activity areas”, such as games, athletic activities, gymnastic activities, swimming, dance, and outdoor and adventurous activities, but dominated by games–continues to dominate the practice of PE, having seen off almost all competitors, with the notable exception of another implicit model in the form of health-related exercise. That said, to the extent that models such as TGfU, Sport Education and Co-operative Learning are being advocated at various physical education teacher education (PETE) institutions, attempts to re-imagine and re-design remain current, despite the changing neo-liberal landscape of PETE itself. Nevertheless, when reflecting upon the fortunes of the various explicit and implicit models of PE, it seems that, while these have increasingly been the subject of research and by degrees have taken root in academic PE, they largely have failed to do so in schools, much beyond the sphere of influence of academic institutions advocating particular models with their students and beyond individual units of work