Inhalation injury can lead to pulmonary complications resulting in the development of respiratory distress and severe hypoxia. Respiratory distress is one of the major causes of death in critically ill patients with a reported mortality rate of up to 45%. The present study focuses on the effect of oxygen microbubble (OMB) infusion via the colon in a porcine model of smoke inhalation-induced lung injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, consisting of multiple molecular subtypes. Obesity has been associated with an increased risk for postmenopausal breast cancer, but few studies have examined breast cancer subtypes separately. Obesity is often complicated by type 2 diabetes, but the possible association of diabetes with specific breast cancer subtypes remains poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer that lacks expression of the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2). TNBC constitutes about 15-30 percent of all diagnosed invasive breast cancer cases in the United States. African-American (AA) women have high prevalence of TNBC with worse clinical outcomes than European-American (EA) women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStructural racism, evidenced in practices like residential racial segregation, has been linked to health inequities. We examined the relationship between an adverse environmental factor (alcohol outlet overconcentration), segregated neighborhoods, and county alcohol policy in Louisiana and Alabama to investigate this link. Multilevel analysis revealed high outlet density associated with segregated counties and predominantly black census tracts in counties with restrictive alcohol policy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Significant health disparities exist in asthma and obesity for African American youths. Successful interventions present an opportunity to address these disparities but require detailed study in order to ensure generalizability. This study investigated the intersection of obesity, neighbourhood disadvantage, and asthma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe compared geographic information system (GIS)- and Census-based approaches for measuring the physical and social neighborhood environment at the census tract-level versus and audit approach on associations with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Data were used from the 2012-2014 Women and Their Children's Health (WaTCH) Study (=940). Generalized linear models were used to obtain odds ratios (ORs) for BMI (≥30 kg/m), WC (>88 cm), and WHR (>0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Public Health
February 2019
Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive, heterogeneous subtype of breast cancer, which is more frequently diagnosed in African American (AA) women than in European American (EA) women. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of social determinants in racial disparities in TNBC. Data on Louisiana TNBC patients diagnosed in 2010-2012 were collected and geocoded to census tract of residence at diagnosis by the Louisiana Tumor Registry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Smoking in young adults identifies the population at risk for future tobacco-related disease. We investigated smoking in a young adult population and within high-risk groups using emergency department (ED) data in a metropolitan area.
Methods: Using the electronic health record, we performed a retrospective study of smoking in adults aged 18-30 years presenting to the ED.
Introduction: Black youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have higher HbA1c than whites. To understand HbA1c differences, we examined the relationship of psycho-social factors and glucose testing with HbA1c.
Methods: Glucose tests per day (BGs/d) and mean blood glucose (MBG) were calculated from meter data of youth self-identified as black (n = 33) or white (n = 53) with T1D.
Mediation analysis allows the examination of effects of a third variable in the pathway between an exposure and an outcome. The general multiple mediation analysis method, proposed by Yu et al, improves traditional methods (eg, estimation of natural and controlled direct effects) to enable consideration of multiple mediators/confounders simultaneously and the use of linear and nonlinear predictive models for estimating mediation/confounding effects. In this paper, we extend the method for time-to-event outcomes and apply the method to explore the racial disparity in breast cancer survivals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the past three decades, Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is one of few cancers for which incidence has increased in the United States (US). It is likely social determinants at the population level are driving this increase. We designed a population-based study to explore whether social determinants at the neighborhood level are geographically associated with HCC incidence in Louisiana by examining the association of HCC incidence with neighborhood concentrated disadvantage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow- and middle-income countries are affected disproportionately by the ongoing global obesity pandemic. Representing a middle income country, the high prevalence of obesity among Grenadian adults as compared to US adults is expected as part of global obesity trends. The objective of this study was to determine if Grenadian adolescents have a higher prevalence of overweight compared to their US counterparts, and if a disparity exists between urban and rural adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study examined the moderating role of social support in the acculturation-obesity/central obesity relationship in Mexican American (MA) men and women. Data from NHANES 1999-2008 were used. Acculturation derived from language use, country of birth and length of residence in the U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Colorectal cancer (CRC) continues to demonstrate racial disparities in incidence and survival in the United States. This study investigates the role of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage in racial disparities in CRC incidence in Louisiana.
Methods: Louisiana Tumor Registry and U.
Objective: The purpose of this article is to describe the background and experience of the Academic-Community Engagement (ACE) Core of the Mid-South Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for Health Disparities Research (Mid-South TCC) in impacting the social determinants of health through the establishment and implementation of a regional academic-community partnership.
Conceptual Framework: The Mid-South TCC is informed by three strands of research: the social determinants of health, the socioecological model, and community-based participatory research (CBPR). Combined, these elements represent a science of engagement that has allowed us to use CBPR principles at a regional level to address the social determinants of health disparities.
Purpose: A community-academic partnership was developed to assess community needs and restructure a variety of community-based programs that provide services to underserved communities in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Methods: The community and academic partners utilized five phases to assess community needs and restructure programs: 1) meetings; 2) narrowing the scope of community programs; 3) data collection and analysis; 4) emphasizing target programs; and 5) improving sustainability through grant submissions and grant development training.
Results: Survey data were collected and analyzed pre- and post-community-academic partnership between November 2014-November 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Objective: Disparities in fruit and vegetable consumption have been observed across income and race-ethnicity and shown to be associated with both access to fresh food venues and price. This study assesses the feasibility of increasing produce consumption by incentivizing fruit and vegetable purchases at local markets.
Design: We conducted analyses of a cross-sectional survey of program participants and point-of-sale reports on fruit and vegetable purchases at the fresh food markets.
Age and acculturation may play a role in diet quality among Mexican Americans. This study examined diet quality in Mexican Americans by age and whether acculturation influences diet quality across different age groups, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Diet quality, measured by the Healthy Eating Index 2010, improved with age except in categories of dairy, sodium, and refined grains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpat Spatiotemporal Epidemiol
June 2017
Research shows aconsistent racial disparity in obesity between white and black adults in the United States. Accounting for the disparity is a challenge given the variety of the contributing factors, the nature of the association, and the multilevel relationships among the factors. We used the multivariable mediation analysis (MMA) method to explore the racial disparity in obesity considering not only the individual behavior but also geospatially derived environmental risk factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The current study examined relationships between the neighborhood social environment (parental perceived collective efficacy (PCE)), constrained behaviors (e.g., avoidance or defensive behaviors) and adolescent offspring neighborhood physical activity in low- versus high-incivility neighborhoods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: This study aimed to determine the feasibility of using electronic health record (EHR) data from a federally qualified health center (FQHC) to assess the association between street connectivity, a measure of walkability for the local environment, and BMI obtained from EHRs.
Methods: The study included patients who visited Daughters of Charity clinics in 2012-2013. A total of 31,297 patients were eligible, of which 28,307 were geocoded.
Introduction: Systematic social observation (SSO) methods traditionally measure neighborhoods at street level and have been performed reliably using virtual applications to increase feasibility. Research indicates that collection at even higher spatial resolution may better elucidate the health impact of neighborhood factors, but whether virtual applications can reliably capture social determinants of health at the smallest geographic resolution (parcel level) remains uncertain. This paper presents a novel, parcel-level SSO methodology and assesses whether this new method can be collected reliably using Google Street View and is feasible.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: There is growing recognition that health disparities research needs to incorporate social determinants in the local environment into explanatory models. In the transdisciplinary setting of the Mid-South Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center (TCC), the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) Core developed an approach to incorporating SDH across a variety of studies. This place-based approach, which is geographically based, transdisciplinary, and inherently multilevel, is discussed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Using the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), the present study aimed to examine diet quality and the impact of overall diet quality and its components on central obesity among Mexican-American men and women.
Design: Cross-sectional data from NHANES 1999-2012 were used. The HEI-2010 data, including twelve components for a total score of 100, were collected with a 24 h recall interview.
Although many studies have reported associations between characteristics of the neighborhood environment and obesity, little is understood about the pathways or mechanisms through which these associations operate. The purpose of this study was to examine possible behavioral and stress pathways hypothesized to mediate the association between neighborhood environments and obesity and whether pathways contribute to different obesity outcomes. Cross-sectional data were used from the 2012-2014 Women and Their Children's Health Study (WaTCH) in Louisiana (N = 909).
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