Racial Differences in the Predictors of Interest in Bariatric Surgery in the Rural, Southeastern USA.

Background: Although African-Americans have a higher prevalence of severe obesity than Whites, they are less likely to have bariatric surgery. Demographic, healthcare, and knowledge variables contribute to this racial disparity but have not been examined separately by race.

Objectives: Examine the role of demographic, healthcare, and knowledge variables in African-Americans' versus Whites' interest in bariatric surgery.

Assessment of the US Federal Retailer Violation Rate as an Estimate of the Proportion of Retailers That Illegally Sell Tobacco to Adolescents.

Importance: Despite progress against tobacco sales to minors, retailers continue to violate state and federal laws and supply adolescent smokers with tobacco products. Government-sanctioned surveys underestimate the extent of the problem, and retailer associations use these data to block stricter enforcement policies.

Objectives: To assess the validity of the US federal retailer violation rate (RVR) as an estimate of the proportion of retailers that sell tobacco to minors and to investigate what proportion always or almost always sells vs refuses to sell cigarettes to minors.

Racial disparities in healthcare provider advice to quit smoking.

African-American/Black smokers are less likely than White smokers to be told to quit smoking by healthcare providers. This preliminary study examined the predictors of being told to quit separately by race for the first time to potentially highlight the source of this racial disparity. A random, household sample of 1670 Black and White adults from a southeastern county of the United States completed a brief survey on their demographics, smoking, access to healthcare, health status, and receipt of healthcare provider advice to quit smoking.

Perioperative Inotrope Therapy and Atrial Fibrillation Following Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery: Evidence of a Racial Disparity.

Background And Objective: Following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, mortality rates are significantly higher among black patients who experience postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF). Perioperative inotropic therapy (PINOT) was associated with POAF in previous reports, but the extent to which race influences this association is unknown. In the present study, the relationship between PINOT, race, and POAF was examined in patients undergoing CABG surgery.

Residential Segregation and Racial Cancer Disparities: A Systematic Review.

Background: This paper provides the first review of empirical studies of segregation and black-white cancer disparities.

Methods: We searched all years of PubMed (through May 2016) using these terms: racial segregation, residential segregation, neighborhood racial composition (first terms) and (second terms) cancer incidence, mortality, survival, stage at diagnosis, screening. The 17 (of 668) articles that measured both segregation and a cancer outcome were retained.

Inequities in tobacco retailer sales to minors by neighbourhood racial/ethnic composition, poverty and segregation, USA, 2015.

Objective: Tobacco retailers are an important source of tobacco products for minors. Previous research shows racial discrimination in sales to minors, but no national study has examined neighbourhood correlates of retailer under-age sales.

Methods: We accessed publicly available results of 2015 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspections of tobacco retailers (n=108 614).

Rural Shop-Based Health Program Planning: a Formative Research Approach Among Owners.

African American barbershops and beauty salons are settings that have been identified as a significant and culturally relevant venue to reach minority populations for health promotion activities. By being located in almost every town in the USA, this setting is a viable means to promote healthy lifestyles among African Americans. The purpose of this formative research project was to assess African American barbershop and beauty salon owners' perceptions of providing health promotion programming in their shops, as well as to obtain information on health topics of interest and strategies for implementation.

Comparison of Risk of Atrial Fibrillation in Black Versus White Patients After Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting.

Obesity has been identified as a risk factor for postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). However, no studies have addressed the influence of race on this association. A total of 13,594 patients undergoing first-time, isolated CABG without preoperative AF between 1992 and 2011 were included in our study.

Conditional long-term survival following minimally invasive robotic mitral valve repair: a health services perspective.

Background: Conditional survival is defined as the probability of surviving an additional number of years beyond that already survived. The aim of this study was to compute conditional survival in patients who received a robotically assisted, minimally invasive mitral valve repair procedure (RMVP).

Methods: Patients who received RMVP with annuloplasty band from May 2000 through April 2011 were included.

Residential Segregation and Overweight/Obesity Among African-American Adults: A Critical Review.

The relationship between residential segregation and overweight/obesity among African-American adults remains unclear. Elucidating that relationship is relevant to efforts to prevent and to reduce racial disparities in obesity. This article provides a critical review of the 11 empirical studies of segregation and overweight/obesity among African-American adults.

Sources of Interactional Problems in a Survey of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination.

Cross-cultural variability in respondent processing of survey questions may bias results from multiethnic samples. We analyzed behavior codes, which identify difficulties in the interactions of respondents and interviewers, from a discrimination module contained within a field test of the 2007 California Health Interview Survey. In all, 553 (English) telephone interviews yielded 13,999 interactions involving 22 items.

Increased Long-Term Mortality among Black CABG Patients Receiving Preoperative Inotropic Agents.

The aim of this study was to examine racial differences in long-term mortality after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), stratified by preoperative use of inotropic agents. Black and white patients who required preoperative inotropic support prior to undergoing CABG procedures between 1992 and 2011 were compared. Mortality probabilities were computed using the Kaplan-Meier product-limit method.

Self-rated health, objective health, and racial discrimination among African-Americans: Explaining inconsistent findings and testing health pessimism.

African-Americans sometimes rate their health as Poor/Fair in the absence of chronic diseases. Theoretically, this lack of correspondence between self-rated health and objective health is due to racial discrimination that results in rating one's health negatively and in terms of social rather than health variables. We tested this Health Pessimism model with 2118 African-Americans.

Increased coronary artery disease severity in black women undergoing coronary bypass surgery.

Race and sex disparities are believed to play an important role in heart disease. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between race, sex, and number of diseased vessels at the time of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and subsequent postoperative outcomes. The 13,774 patients undergoing first-time, isolated CABG between 1992 and 2011 were included.

Race, insurance type, and stage of presentation among lung cancer patients.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether African-American lung cancer patients are diagnosed at a later stage than white patients, regardless of insurance type. The relationship between race and stage at diagnosis by insurance type was assessed using a Poisson regression model, with relative risk as the measure of association. The setting of the study was a large tertiary care cancer center located in the southeastern United States.

Advancing research on racial-ethnic health disparities: improving measurement equivalence in studies with diverse samples.

To conduct meaningful, epidemiologic research on racial-ethnic health disparities, racial-ethnic samples must be rendered equivalent on other social status and contextual variables via statistical controls of those extraneous factors. The racial-ethnic groups must also be equally familiar with and have similar responses to the methods and measures used to collect health data, must have equal opportunity to participate in the research, and must be equally representative of their respective populations. In the absence of such measurement equivalence, studies of racial-ethnic health disparities are confounded by a plethora of unmeasured, uncontrolled correlates of race-ethnicity.

Targeting cancer information to African Americans: the trouble with talking about disparities.

Cancer messages that are designed for African Americans often include information on Black-White cancer disparities to raise Black adults' perceived cancer risk and increase cancer screening. Whether disparities messages achieve this, and how Blacks feel about hearing that they are worse off than are Whites, largely remain unknown. This study examined Blacks' responses to two mock newspaper articles on colorectal cancer: a disparities article and a nondisparities article.

Sociocultural correlates of cigarette smoking among African-American men versus women: Implications for culturally specific cessation interventions.

Low socioeconomic status, racial discrimination, and low acculturation are the major sociocultural correlates of smoking among African-American adults. This study is the first to examine all three variables simultaneously and to analyze gender differences in their association with smoking. Results for the sample revealed that low education and low acculturation predicted smoking but racial discrimination did not.

Telephone Surveys Underestimate Cigarette Smoking among African-Americans.

Background: This study tested the hypothesis that data from random digit-dial telephone surveys underestimate the prevalence of cigarette smoking among African-American adults.

Method: A novel, community-sampling method was used to obtain a statewide, random sample of N = 2118 California (CA) African-American/Black adults, surveyed door-to-door. This Black community sample was compared to the Blacks in the CA Health Interview Survey (N = 2315), a statewide, random digit-dial telephone survey conducted simultaneously.

Polytobacco use and multiple-product smoking among a random community sample of African-American adults.

Objectives: Little is known about polytobacco use among African-American adults. This study is the first to explore this among a random, statewide, community sample of African-American adults.

Setting: Community-based sampling obtained a random, household-probability sample of African-American adults from California, surveyed door to door in randomly selected census tracts statewide.

The relation of race and type of health insurance to long-term risk of mortality among lung cancer patients in rural Eastern North Carolina.

Background: Black patients with lung cancer have a higher mortality rate than do their white counterparts. Differences in insurance coverage, demographic characteristics, and treatment profiles may explain this disparity. The purpose of this study was to compare the longterm risk of mortality of black lung cancer patients with that of white lung cancer patients, by insurance type.

The effect of preoperative β-blocker use and race on long-term survival after coronary artery bypass grafting.

Objective: To date, racial differences in the long-term survival of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients who receive preoperative β-blockers have not been specifically examined. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of preoperative β-blockers on long-term survival among black CABG patients and to compare the magnitude of this effect with white patients.

Design: A retrospective cohort study.

Residential segregation and obesity among a national sample of Hispanic adults.

We explored the role of residential segregation in obesity among a national sample of Hispanics for the first time. Data on the 8785 Hispanic adults in the 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were linked to 2000 census data on the segregation of 290 metropolitan statistical areas. Multilevel modeling revealed that after controlling for individual-level variables, the odds of being obese for Hispanics residing in high-segregated metropolitan statistical areas were 26.

Perceived discrimination and physical health among HIV-positive Black and Latino men who have sex with men.

We conducted the first study to examine health correlates of discrimination due to race/ethnicity, HIV-status, and sexual orientation among 348 HIV-positive Black (n = 181) and Latino (n = 167) men who have sex with men. Participants completed audio computer-assisted self-interviews. In multivariate analyses, Black participants who experienced greater racial discrimination were less likely to have a high CD4 cell count [OR = 0.