Stigma in Mental Health at the Macro and Micro Levels: Implications for Mental Health Consumers and Professionals.

Despite increasing mental health promotion and advocacy, stigma persists and poses a significant threat to the healthy functioning at the macro and micro-sociological levels. Stigma is gradually evolving with the incorporation of broader social contexts at the micro and macro levels in which individuals, institutions and larger cultural constructs shape and influence the perception of what is different and therefore stigmatized. This theoretical paper based on literature underscores how mental health stigma discourages individuals from getting proper mental health treatment.

Does Awareness of the Affordable Care Act Reduce Adverse Selection? A Study of the Long-term Uninsured in South Carolina.

Adverse selection predicts that individuals with lower health status would be more likely to sign up for health insurance. This hypothesis was tested among the long-term uninsured population in South Carolina (SC). This study used data from an in-person survey conducted from May 2014 to January 2015.

Influence of critical illness on physicians' prognoses for underlying disease: a randomized study using simulated cases.

Objective: During critical illness, physicians often provide estimates of the severity of underlying disease to aid patients and families when formulating care directives. We sought to determine whether factors such as the superimposed acute illness, the prognoses of other patients cared for by the same physician, or the phrasing of inquiry influence these assessments of underlying disease.

Design, Setting, And Subjects: Internal medicine attending and resident physicians participated in a computerized, Web-available survey that described two case vignettes, one with cardiomyopathy and the other with lung cancer as underlying diseases.

Risk and protective factors for binge drinking among Hispanic subgroups in Florida.

This study examines differences in risk and protective factors for binge drinking among six ethnic/national subgroups of Hispanic adolescents in Florida. We note differences in the frequency of binge drinking by gender and ethnic subgroup as well as differences in the salience of items drawn from the five domains of risk and protective factors among these subgroups. Rather than treating all Hispanics as a unitary culture, tailoring of prevention programs to address risk and protective factors that differentially affect national/ethnic subgroups may be a valuable strategy when adolescents live in communities that are relatively homogenous in terms of nationality/ethnicity.

Psychosocial mediators of the impact of acculturation on adolescent substance abuse.

To identify and evaluate socio-psychological factors that are associated with differences in substance abuse prevalence between non-acculturated and acculturated Florida youth, we employed t-test and logistic regression to analyze self-reported data from 63,000 middle and high school student participants in the 2004 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey. Questionnaire items covered socio-demographics, tobacco, alcohol, and illicit substance use; and perceptions and attitudes toward drug use. The outcome variables were past 30 day use of "any illicit drug.

Inhalant use in Florida youth.

Purpose: To determine (1) the prevalence of use, (2) risk and protective factors for use of inhalants in Florida youth.

Methods: The Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey 2004 is a comprehensive assessment of youth substance abuse attitudes and practices obtained by sampling youth from sixty-five counties.

Results: The sample consisted of 60,345 students from 6th to 12th grade; ages 10 to 19 + years (mean 14.

Utilization of preventive care by Haitian immigrants in Miami, Florida.

In order to evaluate the health needs and consequences of barriers to health care access for the Haitian immigrant community of Miami-Dade County, Florida, we collected in 2001 demographic and health needs and access data from a probability sample of county residents of Haitian origin. We computed frequencies and prevalence ratios, and employed chi-square and logistic regression methods for data analysis. Hypertension and diabetes were among the most prevalent health conditions mentioned.

Sources and barriers to health care coverage for Haitian immigrants in Miami-Dade county, Florida.

Haitian immigrants represent one of the largest foreign-born groups in Florida. Limited information is available on the health care issues that they face. This study's objective was to identify and evaluate the sources of and barriers to health care coverage for the Haitian immigrant community of Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Chronic drug use and reproductive health care among low-income women in Miami, Florida: a comparative study of access, need, and utilization.

Interviews of low-income women in Miami, FL, addressed reproductive health issues in a stratified, network-referred sample of chronic drug users (CDUs) and socially and ethnically similar women who were not CDUs. Women who were not CDUs were significantly more likely to report a regular source of health care than CDUs. About one third of each group reported experiencing reproductive health problems (other than pregnancy) in the 12 months preceding their interview.