Medical mistrust and COVID-19 vaccine attitudes and behavior: Findings from a population-based cohort study in Michigan.

Background: Uptake of COVID-19 vaccines has stalled in the U.S. Some studies suggest that medical mistrust may be a barrier, but evidence is limited due to cross-sectional designs or convenience sampling.

School Segregation During Adolescence is Associated with Higher 30-Year Cardiovascular Risk of Black but not White Young Adults.

Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rates are declining for American adults, a disparity remains between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White adults. Previous research has shown that residential segregation, a form of structural racism, experienced in childhood is associated with later-life racial and ethnic health disparities, including disparities in CVD and its risk factors. However, little is known about the health consequences of exposure to segregated schools, especially among those living in neighborhoods with high concentrations of minoritized people.

Policies and Indicators to Operationalize Structural Racism for Quantitative Health Research.

The field of structural racism is developing rapidly, with researchers moving from commentaries and review papers toward empirical research that aims to quantify the impact of exposure to structural racism on racial and ethnic inequities in health. Despite the increasing recognition of the impact of structural racism on health outcomes, its measurement in the empirical literature has focused on a limited set of area-based measures. This paper proposes two ways to expand the measurement of structural racism in public health research.

Exposure to structural racism-related state laws is associated with worse cardiovascular health among US adults, BRFSS 2011 and 2013.

The objective of this study was to determine whether exposure to structural racism-related state laws is associated with cardiovascular health among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of US adults. Data were from the Database of Structural Racism-Related State Laws and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The sample included 958,019 BRFSS 2011 and 2013 respondents aged 18+ from all 50 US states.

Racial discrimination in healthcare settings and mental health among a population-based sample of racial and ethnic minoritized adults with COVID-19 in Michigan.

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened existing racial health disparities and racial discrimination in healthcare; however, little is known about how racial discrimination in healthcare settings is related to mental health during the pandemic. Using a population-based probability sample of racial and ethnic minoritized adults with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Michigan, we examined how measures of perceived racial discrimination in (1) seeking healthcare for COVID-19 (n = 1,210) and (2) receiving testing/treatment for COVID-19 (n = 1,364) were associated with binary variables of depressive and anxiety symptoms. We conducted a modified Poisson regression analysis with robust standard errors to estimate associations between each measure of racial discrimination and each mental health outcome separately, adjusting for demographic and socio-economic variables, health insurance, and pre-existing physical and psychiatric conditions.

Cross-sectional population-based estimates of a rural-urban disparity in prevalence of long COVID among Michigan adults with polymerase chain reaction-confirmed COVID-19, 2020-2022.

Purpose: To (1) assess whether residential rurality/urbanicity was associated with the prevalence of 30- or 90-day long COVID, and (2) evaluate whether differences in long COVID risk factors might explain this potential disparity.

Methods: We used data from the Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study, a population-based probability sample of adults with COVID-19 (n = 4,937). We measured residential rurality/urbanicity using dichotomized Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes (metropolitan, nonmetropolitan).

Social vulnerability and new mobility disability among adults with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed SARS-CoV-2: Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study.

Objective: Understanding the relationship between social factors and persistent COVID-19 health outcomes, such as onset of a disability after a SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) infection, is an increasingly important public health issue. The purpose of this paper is to examine associations between social vulnerability and new onset of a mobility disability post-COVID-19 diagnosis.

Methods: We used data from the Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study, a population-based probability survey of adults with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Michigan between January 2020-May 2022 (n = 4295).

Do Police Encounters Increase the Risk for Cardiovascular Disease? Police Encounters and Framingham 30-Year Cardiovascular Risk Score.

Introduction: Despite increased attention to the societal consequences of aggressive policing, the focus on rarer instances of deaths/severe injuries fails to fully capture the day-to-day experiences that racially minoritized groups face during police encounters (PEs). We explored differential vulnerability by race/ethnicity in the relationship between PEs and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

Methods: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we regressed the Framingham 30-Year CVD risk score on a high number of lifetime PEs (6 + among men and 2 + among women).

Heart Disease Self-management for African American Older Adults: Outcomes of an Adapted Evidence-Based Intervention.

Background And Objectives: To assess the impact of an evidence-based self-management intervention adapted through a community-engaged process for African American midlife and older adults with heart disease and/or cardiovascular risk factors.

Research Design And Methods: Adults 50 years and over, living in or near Detroit, MI, with diagnosed heart disease or greater or equal to two major risk factors for heart disease, were randomized to a 7-week group-format program called , or a usual-care control group. included education about heart disease and support for behavioral lifestyle change, using a goal-setting process based on self-regulation theory.

Vicarious structural racism and infant health disparities in Michigan: The Flint Water Crisis.

Building on nascent literature examining the health-related effects of vicarious structural racism, we examined indirect exposure to the Flint Water Crisis (FWC) as a predictor of birth outcomes in Michigan communities outside of Flint, where residents were not directly exposed to lead-contaminated water. Using linear regression models, we analyzed records for all singleton live births in Michigan from 2013 to 2016, excluding Flint, to determine whether birth weight (BW), gestational age (GA), and size-for-gestational-age (SzGA) decreased among babies born to Black people, but not among babies born to White people, following the highly publicized January 2016 emergency declaration in Flint. In adjusted regression models, BW and SzGA were lower for babies born to both Black and White people in the 37 weeks following the emergency declaration compared to the same 37-week periods in the previous 3 years.

Institutional Racism and Health: a Framework for Conceptualization, Measurement, and Analysis.

Despite growing interest in the health-related consequences of racially discriminatory institutional policies and practices, public health scholars have yet to reach a consensus on how to measure and analyze exposure to institutional racism. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the conceptualization, measurement, and analysis of institutional racism in the context of quantitative research on minority health and health disparities in the United States. We begin by providing definitions of key concepts (e.

Experiences of the Flint Water Crisis Among Reproductive-Age Michigan Women in Communities Outside of Flint: Differences by Race and Ethnicity.

We sought to understand how women in Michigan communities outside of Flint experienced the Flint water crisis, an avoidable public health disaster widely attributed to structural racism. Using survey data from 950 Michigan women aged 18-45 from communities outside of Flint, we examined racial and ethnic differences in personal connections to Flint, perceived knowledge about the water crisis, and beliefs about the role of anti-Black racism in the water crisis factors that could contribute to poor health via increased psychological stress. We found that White (OR = 0.

Do black/white differences in telomere length depend on socioeconomic status?

Social and economic disadvantage are hypothesized to increase the risk of disease and death via accelerated biological aging. Given that US blacks are socially and economically disadvantaged relative to whites, health disparities scholars expected that blacks would have shorter telomere length-a biomarker of cell aging-than whites. Yet the majority of studies have found that blacks have longer telomere length than whites.

Comparison of Recruitment Strategies for Engaging Older Minority Adults: Results From Take Heart.

Background: Few published studies report lessons learned for recruiting older adults from racial/ethnic minority, low SES communities for behavioral interventions. In this article, we describe recruitment processes and results for Take Heart, a randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of an adapted heart disease self-management program for primarily African American, urban, low SES adults 50 years or older living in Detroit.

Methods: Older adults were recruited via community-based (CB), electronic medical record (EMR), and in-person hospital clinic (HC) methods.

Leveraging an Implementation Science Framework to Adapt and Scale a Patient Navigator Intervention to Improve Mammography Screening Outreach in a New Community.

Helping Her Live (HHL) is a community health worker-led outreach model that navigates women from vulnerable communities to mammography screening and diagnostic follow-up. The objective of this study was to evaluate HHL implementation on the southwest side of Chicago. HHL has been implemented on the west side of Chicago since 2008, where it has increased mammogram completion and diagnostic follow-up rates among Black and Hispanic women from resource poor communities.

Evaluation of Mammogram Parties as an Effective Community Navigation Method.

Women of color do not have the same level of access to mammography services as their White counterparts, and this inequity may be one of the contributing factors to the documented racial disparity in breast cancer mortality in the US. The present study sought to assess the effectiveness of the mammogram party, a promising, but under-studied approach to increasing mammography uptake, particularly among under-served populations. The program targeted mammogram-eligible women in community settings on the west and southwest sides of Chicago, gathering basic demographic information, mammography history, and interest in assistance obtaining a mammogram.

Recall and Cancer Detection Rates for Screening Mammography: Finding the Sweet Spot.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify the optimal screening mammography recall rate range on the basis of cancer detection rates among breast imaging specialists at an academic institution.

Materials And Methods: Medical outcome audit data collected in accordance with the Mammography Quality Standards Act from September 1, 2007, through August 31, 2012, were reviewed. Cancer detection rates were calculated from 984 screen-detected cancers identified in 188,959 total digital screening mammograms.

Black:White Disparities in HIV Mortality in the United States: 1990-2009.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess whether racial disparities in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) mortality in the USA have changed over time.

Methods: Using vital records from the National Center for Health Statistics and census data from the US Census Bureau, we calculated the race- and gender-specific HIV mortality rates and corresponding racial rate ratios for non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites in the USA for four 5-year increments from 1990-2009. Rates were age-adjusted using the 2000 USA standard population.

Implementing Routine HIV Screening in Three Chicago Hospitals: Lessons Learned.

Objective: This study describes routine HIV screening implementation and outcomes in three hospitals in Chicago, Illinois.

Methods: Retrospective data from three hospitals were examined, and routine testing procedures, testing volume, reactive test results, and linkage-to-care outcomes were documented.

Results: From January 2012 through March 2014, 40,788 HIV tests were administered at the three hospitals: 18,603 (46%) in the emergency department (ED), 7,546 (19%) in the inpatient departments, and 14,639 (36%) in outpatient clinics.

Keys to the Successful Implementation of Community-Based Outreach and Navigation: Lessons from a Breast Health Navigation Program.

The well-documented racial disparities in breast cancer mortality have prompted an aggressive response from the public health community, including the development and implementation of breast health education and breast cancer navigation programs. Many programs are successfully reaching women and providing education and motivation to get screened, and separately, many programs are successfully navigating women who have received abnormal results from a screening mammogram and need follow-up. However, a crucial gap in services remains, where women in the community are not receiving systematic navigation to their initial screening mammogram.

Validating self-reported mammography use in vulnerable communities: findings and recommendations.

Background: Most health surveys ask women whether they have had a recent mammogram, all of which report mammography use (past 2 years) at about 70% to 80% regardless of race or residence. We examined the potential extent of overreporting of mammography use in low income African-American and Latina women, and whether self-report inaccuracies might bias estimated associations between patient characteristics and mammography use.

Methods: Using venue-based sampling in two poor communities on the west side of Chicago, we asked eligible women living in two west side communities of Chicago to complete a survey about breast health (n = 2,200) and to provide consent to view their medical record.

Metrics for the systematic evaluation of community-based outreach.

There is an extensive literature on the use of community-based outreach for breast health programs. While authors often report that outreach was conducted, there is rarely information provided on the effort required for outreach. This paper seeks to establish a template for the systematic evaluation of community-based outreach.

Disparities in screening mammography services by race/ethnicity and health insurance.

Background: Black and Hispanic women are diagnosed at a later stage of breast cancer than white women. Differential access to specialists, diffusion of technology, and affiliation with an academic medical center may be related to this stage disparity.

Methods: We analyzed data from a mammography facility survey for the metropolitan region of Chicago, Illinois, to assess in part whether quality breast imaging services were equally accessed by non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic women and by women with and without private insurance.

Perceptions of audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI) among women in an HIV-positive prevention program.

Background: Audio Computer-Assisted Self Interviewing (ACASI) has improved the reliability and accuracy of self-reported HIV health and risk behavior data, yet few studies account for how participants experience the data collection process.

Methodology/principal Findings: This exploratory qualitative analysis aimed to better understand the experience and implications of using ACASI among HIV-positive women participating in sexual risk reduction interventions in Chicago (n = 12) and Philadelphia (n = 18). Strategies of Grounded Theory were used to explore participants' ACASI experiences.

HIV testing practices and attitudes on prevention efforts in six diverse Chicago communities.

Data describing local level HIV testing practices and attitudes regarding HIV prevention are rarely available, yet would be useful for HIV policy and evaluation. A comprehensive health survey was conducted in six community areas of Chicago (n = 1,699) in 2002-2003. The HIV prevention module of this survey was used for this analysis.