Disparities in Thyroid Cancer Mortality Across Racial and Ethnic Groups: Assessing the Impact of Socioeconomic, Clinicopathologic, and Treatment Variations.

Background: Thyroid cancer remains a significant public health concern, with disparities in mortality rates observed across racial/ethnic groups. We quantified the extent to which socioeconomic, clinicopathologic, and treatment variations explain racial/ethnic disparities in thyroid cancer mortality.

Methods: We studied a cohort of 109,981 thyroid cancer patients diagnosed from 2006 to 2018 using the United States Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.

Factors associated with clinician willingness to adopt HPV self-sampling and self-testing for cervical cancer screening.

Background: Cervical cancer screening rates in the USA fall behind national targets, requiring innovation to circumvent screening barriers. Cervical cancer screening where human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is performed on vaginal samples collected by the patients themselves (self-sampling) are effective and acceptable, and patient-operated rapid HPV tests (self-testing) are currently under development. It is unclear why there is ambivalence toward HPV self-sampling and self-testing among clinicians, an important stakeholder group.

US black women's pregnancy communication networks: A qualitative network analysis.

The ongoing Black maternal health crisis necessitates a closer examination of how Black women in the United States utilize communication to mitigate the dangers racism poses for pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of supportive networks to Black women's wellbeing during pregnancy. However, few studies utilize a qualitative network approach to explore communication about pregnancy and related risks within a social network.

Feasibility and anticipated acceptability of community health worker-facilitated HPV self-sampling for cervical cancer screening around Lake County, Indiana.

Background/objective: In light of calls to engage community health workers (CHWs) in the delivery of cervical cancer screening innovations, this study explores CHW perspectives on i) barriers to cervical cancer screening in a predominantly Hispanic community in Lake County, Indiana, the county with the highest cervical mortality in the state; and ii) the acceptability and feasibility of CHW-facilitated human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling as a means of reducing screening disparities.

Methods: In 2021, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 CHWs employed by Lake County community-based organizations including clinics, schools, and faith-based organizations.

Results: Harnessing CHWs' voices as insiders with knowledge of their communities' health landscape, our analysis identified multilevel barriers to screening that spanned individual, interpersonal, and community levels of the socio-ecological model.

Continuity of Trust: Health Systems' Role in Advancing Health Equity Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Given COVID-19's disproportionate impact on populations that identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the United States, researchers and advocates have recommended that health systems and institutions deepen their engagement with community-based organizations (CBOs) with longstanding relationships with these communities. However, even as CBOs leverage their earned trust to promote COVID-19 vaccination, health systems and institutions must also address underlying causes of health inequities more broadly. In this commentary, we discuss key lessons learned about trust from our participation in the U.

The U.S. Equity-First Vaccination Initiative: Impacts and Lessons Learned.

The one-year U.S. Equity-First Vaccination Initiative (EVI), launched in April 2021, aimed to reduce racial inequities in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination across five demonstration cities (Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Newark, and Oakland) and over the longer term strengthen the United States' public health system to achieve more-equitable outcomes.

Communication in context: How culture, structure, and agency shape health and risk communication about COVID-19 in Ghana.

Despite impressive strides toward proper health education about the pandemic, in resource-limited contexts, health information dissemination occurs within a structural context that restricts the enactment of agency and further marginalizes the most vulnerable. Through observations of and reflections about Ghana's work in health communication about the COVID-19 pandemic, this essay examines the key processes and outcomes of COVID-19 information dissemination in Ghana, highlighting the structural factors that contribute to health inequities during the pandemic. We argue that although Ghana has been commended continentally and globally for the country's efforts in containing the virus and vaccinating its populace, there is evidence of health information access disparities across the country, especially in rural communities.