Neighborhood Disadvantage and Cumulative Biological Risk Among a Socioeconomically Diverse Sample of African American Adults: An Examination in the Jackson Heart Study.

Objectives: Neighborhoods characterized by disadvantage influence multiple risk factors for chronic disease and are considered potential drivers of racial and ethnic health inequities in the USA. The objective of the present study was to examine the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and cumulative biological risk (CBR) and the extent to which the association differs by individual income and education among a large, socioeconomically diverse sample of African American adults.

Methods: Data from the baseline examination of the Jackson Heart Study (2000-2004) were used for the analyses.

Double-jeopardy: The joint impact of neighborhood disadvantage and low social cohesion on cumulative risk of disease among African American men and women in the Jackson Heart Study.

Objectives: Few studies have examined the joint impact of neighborhood disadvantage and low social cohesion on health. Moreover, no study has considered the joint impact of these factors on a cumulative disease risk profile among a large sample of African American adults. Using data from the Jackson Heart Study, we examined the extent to which social cohesion modifies the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and cumulative biological risk (CBR)-a measure of accumulated risk across multiple physiological systems.

All black people are not alike: differences in HIV testing patterns, knowledge, and experience of stigma between U.S.-born and non-U.S.-born blacks in Massachusetts.

Non-U.S.-born black individuals comprise a significant proportion of the new diagnoses of HIV in the United States.

Differential mental health effects of neighborhood relocation among youth in vulnerable families: results from a randomized trial.

CONTEXT Extensive observational evidence indicates that youth in high-poverty neighborhoods exhibit poor mental health, although not all children may be affected similarly. OBJECTIVE To use experimental evidence to assess whether gender and family health problems modify the mental health effects of moving from high- to low-poverty neighborhoods. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial.

Gender and crime victimization modify neighborhood effects on adolescent mental health.

Objective: Leverage an experimental study to determine whether gender or recent crime victimization modify the mental health effects of moving to low-poverty neighborhoods.

Methods: The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) study randomized low-income families in public housing to an intervention arm receiving vouchers to subsidize rental housing in lower-poverty neighborhoods or to controls receiving no voucher. We examined 3 outcomes 4 to 7 years after randomization, among youth aged 5 to 16 years at baseline (n = 2829): lifetime major depressive disorder (MDD), psychological distress (K6), and Behavior Problems Index (BPI).

Enhancing adolescent self-efficacy and collective efficacy through public engagement around HIV/AIDS competence: a multilevel, cluster randomized-controlled trial.

The potential capacity of children to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic is rarely considered. Interventions to address the impact of the pandemic on children and adolescents commonly target only their vulnerabilities. We evaluated the Young Citizens Program, an adolescent-centered health promotion curriculum designed to increase self- and collective efficacy through public education and community mobilization across a municipality in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania.

Connectedness, social support and internalising emotional and behavioural problems in adolescents displaced by the Chechen conflict.

The study investigated factors associated with internalising emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents displaced during the most recent Chechen conflict. A cross-sectional survey (N=183) examined relationships between social support and connectedness with family, peers and community in relation to internalising problems. Levels of internalising were higher in displaced Chechen youth compared to published norms among non-referred youth in the United States and among Russian children not affected by conflict.

Prenatal cigarette exposure and infant learning stimulation as predictors of cognitive control in childhood.

Prenatal exposures to neurotoxins and postnatal parenting practices have been shown to independently predict variations in the cognitive development and emotional-behavioral well-being of infants and children. We examined the independent contributions of prenatal cigarette exposure and infant learning stimulation, as well as their inter-relationships in predicting variations in the proficiency of executive attention, a core element of cognitive control and self-regulation. Participants were an ethnic-racially, socio-economically diverse sample of 249 children followed from birth in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods.

Darwin and Lincoln: their legacy of human dignity.

The legacy of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln is to champion the dignity inherent in every human being. The moment of the bicentennial of their births provides an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on ways they have shaped our understanding and commitment to human rights. The naturalist and the constitutional lawyer, so different in circumstance and discipline, were morally allied in the mission to eradicate slavery.

Socioeconomic status and HIV seroprevalence in Tanzania: a counterintuitive relationship.

Objective: To examine the relationship between multiple dimensions of socioeconomic status (SES) and HIV seroprevalence in Tanzania.

Methods: Using a large nationally representative sample of 7515 sexually active adults drawn from the 2003-04 Tanzania HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey, we analysed the relationship between multiple SES measures and HIV seroprevalence using weighted logistic regression models.

Results: In adjusted models, individuals in the highest quintile of standard of living had increased odds ratio (OR) of being HIV-positive (male: OR 2.

Place matters: multilevel investigation of HIV distribution in Tanzania.

Objective: To examine the extent to which the regional and neighborhood distribution of HIV in Tanzania is caused by the differential distribution of individual correlates and risk factors.

Methods: Nationally representative, cross-sectional data on 12,522 women and men aged 15-49 years from the 2003-2004 Tanzanian AIDS Indicator Survey. Three-level multilevel binary logistic regression models were specified to estimate the relative contribution of regions and neighborhoods to the variation in HIV seroprevalence.

Promoting child and adolescent mental health in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: The pandemic of HIV/AIDS is actually a composite of many regional and national-level epidemics. The progress made in many parts of the developed and developing world is tempered by the continued devastating consequences of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This review focuses on the ways in which children and adolescents are impacted by the epidemic, giving particular attention to their mental health.

Young citizens as health agents: use of drama in promoting community efficacy for HIV/AIDS.

A community-based cluster randomized control trial in a medium-sized municipality in Tanzania was designed to increase local competence to control HIV/AIDS through actions initiated by children and adolescents aged 10 to 14 years. Representative groups from the 15 treatment communities reached mutual understanding about their objectives as health agents, prioritized their actions, and skillfully applied community drama ("skits") to impart knowledge about the social realities and the microbiology of HIV/AIDS. In independently conducted surveys of neighborhood residents, differences were found between adults who did and did not witness the skits in their beliefs about the efficacy of children as HIV/AIDS primary change agents.

Firearm violence exposure and serious violent behavior.

To estimate the cause-effect relationship between exposure to firearm violence and subsequent perpetration of serious violence, we applied the analytic method of propensity stratification to longitudinal data on adolescents residing in Chicago, Illinois. Results indicate that exposure to firearm violence approximately doubles the probability that an adolescent will perpetrate serious violence over the subsequent 2 years.

Neighborhood residence and mental health problems of 5- to 11-year-olds.

Context: Little research has investigated possible effects of neighborhood residence on mental health problems in children such as depression, anxiety, and withdrawal.

Objective: To examine whether children's mental health is associated with neighborhood structural characteristics (concentrated disadvantage, immigrant concentration, and residential stability) and whether neighborhood social processes (collective efficacy and organizational participation) underlie such effects.

Design And Setting: The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods is a multilevel, longitudinal study of a representative sample of children aged 5 to 11 years in the late 1990s recruited from 80 neighborhoods.

Behavioral profiles in 4-5 year-old children: normal and pathological variants.

Normal and psychopathological patterns of behavior symptoms in pre-school children were described by a classification approach using cluster analysis. The behavior of 406 children, average age 4 years 9 months, from the general population was evaluated at home visits. Seven clusters were identified based on empirically defined dimensions: attention, hyperactivity, aggressiveness, social relationship problems, sleeping problems, eating problems, depression and anxiety.

Links between pubertal timing and neighborhood contexts: implications for girls' violent behavior.

Objective: To investigate links between girls' violent behavior, pubertal timing, and neighborhood characteristics.

Method: A total of 501 Hispanic, black, and white adolescent girls and their parents were interviewed twice over a 3-year period (1995-1998). Violent behavior was assessed using the Self-Report of Offending Scale and pubertal timing was measured via menarche.

A multilevel study of neighborhoods and parent-to-child physical aggression: results from the project on human development in Chicago neighborhoods.

The majority of children in the United States experience parent-to-child physical aggression (PCPA), a disciplinary strategy out of favor with many experts. Several decades of research have documented a link between community characteristics and severe child maltreatment. None have taken a multilevel approach to study whether neighborhoods affect the amount of corporal punishment and/or physical abuse used by individual families.

Diverging associations of maternal age with low birthweight for black and white mothers.

Background: In the US, the risk of low birthweight appears to increase more quickly with maternal age for black women than it does for white women. Our aim was to investigate correlates and causes of the racial/ethnic divergence in low birthweight by maternal age.

Methods: We analysed birth certificate data from 96 887 singleton births to black and white mothers in Chicago from 1994 to 1996 to determine if the association between maternal age and low birthweight differed by maternal ethnicity, marital status, and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Neighborhood support and the birth weight of urban infants.

Differences in maternal characteristics only partially explain the lower birth weights of infants of African-American women. It is hypothesized that economic and social features of urban neighborhoods may further account for these differences. The authors conducted a household survey of 8,782 adults residing in 343 Chicago, Illinois, neighborhoods to assess mean levels of perceived social support and used US Census data to estimate neighborhood economic disadvantage.

Precocious fathers.

Based on available evidence, it appears reasonable to assume that the psychological and social consequences of becoming a father during adolescence are the same as those more traditionally associated with adolescent motherhood. Guidelines for research to enhance knowledge of this important but relatively neglected area are outlined.