Developmental Psychopathology and Ethnicity I: The Young Adulthood Assessment of the Boricua Youth Study.

Objective: Developmental psychopathology processes pertinent to underserved ethnically diverse youths may not always coincide with those relevant to youths from nondisadvantaged groups. This article reports on the young adulthood assessment (fourth wave; April 2013 to August 2017) of the Boricua Youth Study, which includes 2 population-based samples of children of Puerto Rican background (N = 2,491) aged 5-13 years (recruited in 2000), in the South Bronx, New York, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Method: Study procedures included intensive participant tracking and in-person interviews of young adults and, when possible, their parents.

A comparison of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Puerto Rico with the United States and the Puerto Rican population of the United States.

Purpose: The manuscript compares the rates of psychiatric disorder among island Puerto Ricans, the US population and US Puerto Ricans in order to examine whether social support explains differences in psychiatric disorder among these three groups.

Methods: Unadjusted and adjusted rates for sociodemographic factors and social support of main psychiatric disorders are compared among three population-based psychiatric epidemiology studies carried in Puerto Rico (PR) and the United States (US) as part of the NCS-R and NLAAS studies.

Results: Comparison of adjusted rates showed island Puerto Ricans had similar overall rates of psychiatric disorder as those of the US, lower rates of anxiety disorders, but higher rates of substance use disorders.

Effectiveness of a multi-level asthma intervention in increasing controller medication use: a randomized control trial.

Introduction: Poor self-management by families is an important factor in explaining high rates of asthma morbidity in Puerto Rico, and for this reason we previously tested a family intervention called CALMA that was found effective in improving most asthma outcomes, but not effective in increasing the use of controller medications. CALMA-plus was developed to address this issue by adding to CALMA, components of provider training and screening for asthma in clinics.

Methods: Study participants were selected from claims Medicaid data in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Barriers to Prescribing Controller Anti Inflammatory Medication among Puerto Rican Asthmatic Children with Public Insurance: Results of National Survey of Pediatricians.

BACKGROUND: There are substantial disparities in dispensing patterns of long term control medications for asthma among children in Puerto Rico with public insurance as compared to those with private insurance. Public health insurance policy in Puerto Rico includes the cost of medications in the capitation paid to the primary care physicians and clinics. METHODS: Survey questionnaires were mailed to all pediatricians enrolled in the Puerto Rico College of Physicians (n=798) in addition to some pediatricians not enrolled in the College (n=25) for a total of 823 pediatricians.

The development of a community-based family asthma management intervention for Puerto Rican children.

Background: Puerto Rican children maintain disproportionately high asthma prevalence rates and effective asthma management interventions are needed.

Objectives: This article describes how community-based participatory research (CBPR) was implemented in the development of a culturally tailored family asthma management intervention for Puerto Rican children: CALMA (a Spanish acronym for Take Control, Empower Yourself, and Achieve Asthma Management).

Method: CALMA was developed according to CBPR principles and contemporary asthma guidelines through the collaboration of diverse members of the local, professional, and medical communities, academia, and local government.

Disparities in asthma medication dispensing patterns: the case of pediatric asthma in Puerto Rico.

Background: Disparities exist in asthma medication dispensing between children with public insurance and those with private insurance under a Managed Care Medicaid system in Puerto Rico.

Objectives: Island-wide medical claims data were used to examine the extent to which differences between the private and public health care sectors affect medication dispensing and health care utilization among asthmatic children.

Methods: Children 3-18 years old with at least one service claim [outpatient, hospitalization, or emergency department (ED) visit] for asthma or reactive airway disease from 2005 to 2006 were selected.

Prevalence of mental illness in immigrant and non-immigrant U.S. Latino groups.

Objective: Although widely reported among Latino populations, contradictory evidence exists regarding the generalizability of the immigrant paradox, i.e., that foreign nativity protects against psychiatric disorders.

Reducing asthma health disparities in poor Puerto Rican children: the effectiveness of a culturally tailored family intervention.

Background: Island and mainland Puerto Rican children have the highest rates of asthma and asthma morbidity of any ethnic group in the United States.

Objective: We evaluated the effectiveness of a culturally adapted family asthma management intervention called CALMA (an acronym of the Spanish for "Take Control, Empower Yourself and Achieve Management of Asthma") in reducing asthma morbidity in poor Puerto Rican children with asthma.

Methods: Low-income children with persistent asthma were selected from a national health plan insurance claims database by using a computerized algorithm.

Understanding differences in past year psychiatric disorders for Latinos living in the US.

This study seeks to identify risk factors for psychiatric disorders that may explain differences in nativity effects among adult Latinos in the USA. We evaluate whether factors related to the processes of acculturation and enculturation, immigration factors, family stressors and supports, contextual factors, and social status in the US account for differences in 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders for eight subgroups of Latinos. We report results that differentiate Latino respondents by country of origin and age at immigration (whether they were US-born or arrived before age 6: In-US-as-Child [IUSC]; or whether they arrived after age 6: later-arrival immigrants [LAI]).

Cultural relevance and equivalence in the NLAAS instrument: integrating etic and emic in the development of cross-cultural measures for a psychiatric epidemiology and services study of Latinos.

This paper describes the development, translation and adaptation of measures in the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). We summarize the techniques used to attain cultural relevance; semantic, content and technical equivalency; and internal consistency of the measures across languages and Latino sub-ethnic groups. We also discuss some of the difficulties and thallenges encountered in doing this work.

Considering context, place and culture: the National Latino and Asian American Study.

This paper provides a rationale for, and overview of, procedures used to develop the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is nationally representative community household survey that estimates the prevalence of mental disorders and rates of mental health service utilization by Latinos and Asian Americans in the US. The central aims of the NLAAS are to: 1) describe the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders and the rates of mental health services use for Latino and Asian American populations using nationwide representative samples of Latinos and Asian Americans, 2) assess the associations among social position, environmental context, and psychosocial factors with the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and utilization rates of mental health services, and 3) compare the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders, and utilization of mental health services of Latinos and Asian Americans with national representative samples of non-Latino whites (from the National Comorbidity Study-Replication) (NCS-R) and African Americans (from the National Survey of American Life) (NSAL).