Increasing Knowledge and Health Literacy about Preterm Births in Underserved Communities: An Approach to Decrease Health Disparities, a Pilot Study.

Introduction: Health disparities can negatively impact subsets of the population who have systematically experienced greater socioeconomic obstacles to health. For example, health disparities between ethnic and racial groups continue to grow due to the widening gap in large declines in infant and fetal mortality among Caucasians compared to Black non-Hispanic or African Americans. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, preterm birth remains a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality.

Does polycystic ovary syndrome increase the disparity in metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular-related health for African-American women?

There have been few formal studies of differences in the phenotype of PCOS among women of African-American ancestry. Generally, African-American women tend to have an adverse cardiovascular risk profile when compared with women of other racial groups. The metabolic syndrome is a clinical disorder that identifies individuals at risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

A comparison of methods and results in recruiting white and black women into reproductive studies: the MMC-PSU cooperative center on reproduction experience.

Establishing a holistic approach for the enrollment of subjects into clinical trials that includes strategies for the recruitment of non-traditional and minority populations has been an elusive task. The existence of such a design, that is understood and embraced by investigators and the target communities, would streamline the current level of commitment of time, energy and resources. This is necessary to successfully encourage individual and community participation in research studies.