Social support and ideal cardiovascular health in urban Jamaica: A cross-sectional study.

Recent studies have suggested that high levels of social support can encourage better health behaviours and result in improved cardiovascular health. In this study we evaluated the association between social support and ideal cardiovascular health among urban Jamaicans. We conducted a cross-sectional study among urban residents in Jamaica's south-east health region.

The Jamaica Salt Consumption Study Protocol: Sodium Intake; Sodium Content in Restaurant Foods; Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices; Spot Urine Sodium Validation.

Background: Excess dietary salt consumption is a major contributor to hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Public education programs on the dangers of high salt intake, and population level interventions to reduce the salt content in foods are possible strategies to address this problem. In Jamaica, there are limited data on the levels of salt consumption and the population's knowledge and practices with regards to salt consumption.

Lifelong Learning Indicators in Medical Students After a Novel Communication Skills Session.

Context: A growth mindset and mastery approach have gained attention as useful learning orientations in medical education, however few studies of interventions to foster these orientations exist.

Objectives: We sought to discover whether a communication skills session on delivering serious news could foster a communication growth mindset and/or a mastery approach in medical students.

Methods: This was an interventional survey study of third-year medical students before and after a session on delivering serious news.

Sodium and potassium consumption in Jamaica: National estimates and associated factors from the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey 2016-2017.

This study aimed to estimate dietary sodium and potassium consumption among Jamaicans and evaluate associations with sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey 2016-2017. Participants were noninstitutionalized Jamaicans aged ≥15 years.

Community stressors (violence, victimization, and neighborhood disorder) with cardiometabolic outcomes in urban Jamaica.

Background: Despite limited data on neighborhood factors and health risk in Caribbean populations, previous analyses from Jamaica have shown that neighborhood and home disorder were associated with lower physical activity and higher cumulative biological risk among women, while poorer neighborhood infrastructure was associated with higher overweight/obesity among men.

Design: Cross-sectional survey design.

Objectives: In this study, we explored whether community stressors, as measured by community violence, victimization and neighborhood disorder scores, were associated with cardiometabolic outcomes (obesity, diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol) in urban Jamaican communities.

Development of a student-created internal medicine frameworks website for healthcare trainees.

Objectives: Describe medical student perspectives on framework learning and develop a free, online, mobile-friendly framework website.

Methods: Internal medicine clerkship students were surveyed at a single U.S.

Evaluation of a Palliative Care Longitudinal Curriculum for Medical Students Using the Context-Input-Process-Product Model.

Palliative care (PC) longitudinal curricula are increasingly being recognized as important in Undergraduate Medical Education (UME). They are however, not yet commonplace, and where they do exist may be implemented without a systematic, prospective approach to curriculum evaluation. This paper describes an implementation of a new longitudinal curriculum at the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Socioeconomic and gendered inequities in travel behaviour in Africa: Mixed-method systematic review and meta-ethnography.

Travel has individual, societal and planetary health implications. We explored socioeconomic and gendered differences in travel behaviour in Africa, to develop an understanding of travel-related inequity. We conducted a mixed-methods systematic review (PROSPERO CRD42019124802).

Ideal cardiovascular health in urban Jamaica: prevalence estimates and relationship to community property value, household assets and educational attainment: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: Ideal cardiovascular health (ICH) is associated with greater longevity and reduced morbidity, but no research on ICH has been conducted in Jamaica. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of ICH in urban Jamaica and to evaluate associations between ICH and community, household, and individual socioeconomic status (SES).

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Central adiposity at diagnosis may reduce prostate cancer-specific mortality in African-Caribbean men with prostate cancer: 10-year follow-up of participants in a case-control study.

Purpose: General and central adiposity are associated with the risk of developing prostate cancer (PCa), but the role of these exposures on PCa survival among men of African ancestry are less studied. This study aimed to investigate the association of anthropometry at diagnosis with all-cause and PCa-specific mortality and evaluate whether androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) modulated this risk.

Methods: Associations between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) at diagnosis and mortality were examined in 242 men with newly diagnosed PCa enrolled between 2005 and 2007 and re-evaluated 10.

Factors associated with elevated blood pressure or hypertension in Afro-Caribbean youth: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Although several studies have identified risk factors for high blood pressure (BP), data from Afro-Caribbean populations are limited. Additionally, less is known about how putative risk factors operate in young adults and how social factors influence the risk of high BP. In this study, we estimated the relative risk for elevated BP or hypertension (EBP/HTN), defined as BP ≥ 120/80 mmHg, among young adults with putative cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in Jamaica and evaluated whether relative risks differed by sex.

Educational Health Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: Findings from Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey 2007-2008.

Objectives: Socioeconomic disparities in health have emerged as an important area in public health, but studies from Afro-Caribbean populations are uncommon. In this study, we report on educational health disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and obesity), among Jamaican adults.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey 2007-2008.

Bringing Rounds Back to the Patient: A One-Year Evaluation of the Chiefs' Service Model for Inpatient Teaching.

Purpose: The Chiefs' Service (CS), a structured approach to inpatient teaching rounds, focuses on resident education and patient-centered care without disrupting patient census sizes or admitting cycles. It has five key elements: morning huddles; bedside rounds; diagnostic "time-outs"; day-of-discharge rounds; and postdischarge follow-up rounds. The authors hypothesized the CS model would be well received by residents and considered more effective than more-traditional rounds.

Educational health disparities in hypertension and diabetes mellitus among African descent populations in the Caribbean and the USA: a comparative analysis from the Spanish town cohort (Jamaica) and the Jackson heart study (USA).

Background: Studies have suggested that social inequalities in chronic disease outcomes differ between industrialized and developing countries, but few have directly compared these effects. We explored inequalities in hypertension and diabetes prevalence between African-descent populations with different levels of educational attainment in Jamaica and in the United States of America (USA), comparing disparities within each location, and between countries.

Methods: We analyzed baseline data from the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) in the USA and Spanish Town Cohort (STC) in Jamaica.

Interventions for patients and caregivers to improve knowledge of sickle cell disease and recognition of its related complications.

Background: Sickle cell disease is a group of genetic diseases which is especially prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions; however, forced migration and ongoing population movement have spread it throughout the world, with estimated birth rates reaching 0.49 per 1000 in the Americas, 0.07 per 1000 in Europe, 0.

A comparison of obstetrical outcomes and costs between misoprostol and dinoprostone for induction of labor.

Objective: The objective of this study is to compare resource utilization (efficiency) and obstetrical/cost outcomes of single dose misoprostol versus dinoprostone for induction of labor (IOL) at term.

Methods: Retrospective cohort of induced deliveries 37-41 weeks gestation presenting with a Bishop score ≤4 using single-dose-50 mcg vaginal misoprostol or 10 mg-dinoprostone vaginal-inserts. Dinoprostone patients were compared (5:1) with misoprostol patients.

Disparities in hypertension among black Caribbean populations: a scoping review by the U.S. Caribbean Alliance for Health Disparities Research Group (USCAHDR).

Background: Despite the large body of research on racial/ethnic disparities in health, there are limited data on health disparities in Caribbean-origin populations. This scoping review aimed to analyze and synthesize published and unpublished literature on the disparities in hypertension and its complications among Afro-Caribbean populations.

Methods: A comprehensive protocol, including a thorough search strategy, was developed and used to identify potentially relevant studies.

Disparities in cardiovascular disease among Caribbean populations: a systematic literature review.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the predominant cause of death globally. The large health disparities in the distribution of the burden of disease seen in developed and developing countries are of growing concern. Central to this concern is the poor outcome which is seen disproportionately in socially disadvantaged groups and racial/ethnic minorities.