HIV Testing Correlates: U.S. and Foreign Born High-Risk Black Heterosexual Men.

In the U.S., Black men are disproportionately affected by HIV, with some of the highest HIV incidence rates and lowest rates of HIV testing.

Reversible Nephropathy Associated with Jet Fuel Exposure.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) with progression to oliguric or anuric acute renal failure (ARF) is often related to use of well-known nephrotoxic agents including medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEis)/angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), and certain classes of antibiotics. Hyperosmolar IV contrast is also a well-known nephrotoxic agent. Severe sepsis with subsequent hypotension, marked hyperglycemia, and those with difficulty accessing water or with poor oral intake can also present with acute kidney injury related to kidney hypoperfusion, dehydration, and volume depletion.

HIV Prevention for Black Heterosexual Men: The Barbershop Talk with Brothers Cluster Randomized Trial.

To identify the impact of a strengths-focused HIV prevention program among high-risk heterosexual Black men. Barbershops in Brooklyn, New York, neighborhoods with high rates of heterosexually transmitted HIV were randomized to the intervention or an attention control program. Men were recruited from barbershops between 2012 and 2016 and participated in a single small group, peer-led session focused on HIV risk reduction skills and motivation, community health empowerment, and identification of personal strengths and communication skills.

Adjournment in Community HIV Prevention: Exploring Transitions in Community-Academic Partnerships.

Barbershop-based interventions have been increasingly implemented as a means to support culturally relevant and community-accessible health promotion and disease prevention efforts. Specifically, in neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York, with high HIV seroprevalence rates, barbers have volunteered to support an initiative to help reduce sexual risk behavior. After implementing the Barbershop Talk With Brothers program for 5 years, we explored how program participation has affected barbers' HIV prevention and counseling skills to promote their clients' health, and assessed their views of next stages of the community-academic partnership, once the specific project ended.

Correction to: Introducing Students of Color to Health Sciences Research: An Evaluation of the Health Disparities Summer Internship Program.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.

Introducing Students of Color to Health Sciences Research: An Evaluation of the Health Disparities Summer Internship Program.

The goal of this analysis is to assess the effectiveness of a summer program designed to introduce high school students of color to health disparities research. A total of 73 students (69.9% Black, 68.

Differences in Attitudes Toward Immunosuppressant Therapy in a Multi-ethnic Sample of Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Barriers for renal transplant patients to immunosuppressant medication adherence are poorly understood, despite the high rate and toll of non-adherence. We sought to assess factors that contribute to barriers to immunosuppressive medication adherence in an ethnically diverse sample of 312 renal transplant patients recruited from three transplant centers across New York City. Transplant patients who were at least 6 months post-transplant completed questionnaires while waiting for their medical appointment.

Live with the Disease Like You Used to Before You Knew You Were Infected: A Qualitative Study Among 10-Year Survivors Living with HIV in Haiti.

In 2003, the Haitian Study Group on Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO), a nonprofit organization, began administering antiretroviral therapy (ART) to its patients. This practice transformed HIV from a fatal disease to a more manageable chronic condition. However, relatively few studies focus on the experiences of survivors.

Our Health Is in Our Hands: A Social Marketing Campaign to Combat Obesity and Diabetes.

Purpose: Design, implement, and evaluate a 6-week social marketing campaign (SMC) to raise awareness of obesity and increase involvement in type 2 diabetes prevention, nutrition, and fitness programs offered by the Brooklyn Partnership to Drive Down Diabetes (BP3D) in two low-income, urban communities.

Design: This was a nonexperimental, formative research, mixed-methods study.

Setting: The study took place in Central Brooklyn and East New York, two of the most impoverished, high-need communities in New York City.

Sleep health in a black community sample.

Background: Poor sleep health is a major health disparity and public health concern. The primary goal of this study was to accurately obtain the rates of self-reported sleep disorders, sleep dysfunction, and daytime sleepiness in a true community sample of black adults.

Methods: We used a community-based participatory research design to identify a health priority to design a study that could (a) provide an accurate assessment of the problem, (b) help to better understand the barriers to treatment, and (c) provide the community with access to care.

Associations of Short Sleep and Shift Work Status with Hypertension among Black and White Americans.

Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether short sleepers (<6 hrs) who worked the non-day-shift were at greater likelihood of reporting hypertension and if these associations varied by individuals' ethnicity. Methods.

Sleep duration and reported functional capacity among black and white US adults.

Objective: Evidence suggests that individuals reporting sleeping below or above the population's modal sleep duration are at risk for diabetes, hypertension, and other cardiovascular diseases. Evidence also indicates that individuals with these conditions have reduced functional capacity. We assessed whether reported sleep duration and functional capacity are independently associated and whether individuals' race/ethnicity has an effect on this association.

Linking sleep to hypertension: greater risk for blacks.

Background. Evidence suggests that insufficient sleep duration is associated with an increased likelihood for hypertension. Both short (<6 hours) and long (>8 hour) sleep durations as well as hypertension are more prevalent among blacks than among whites.

Beliefs and attitudes toward obstructive sleep apnea evaluation and treatment among blacks.

Objective: Although blacks are at higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), they are not as likely as their white counterparts to receive OSA evaluation and treatment. This study assessed knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes towards OSA evaluation and treatment among blacks residing in Brooklyn, New York.

Methods: Five focus groups involving 39 black men and women (aged > or =18 years) were conducted at State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn to ascertain barriers preventing or delaying OSA evaluation and treatment.

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness among Hypertensive US-Born Blacks and Foreign-Born Blacks: Analysis of the CAATCH Data.

Background. Evidence shows that blacks exhibit greater daytime sleepiness compared with whites, based on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. In addition, sleep complaints might differ based on individuals' country of origin.

Sleep in America: role of racial/ethnic differences.

Sleep duration in America has gradually declined over the last four decades and appears to have reached a plateau for the last six years, with recent studies reporting that the population's current average sleep duration is approximately 6 h. In this paper, we examine epidemiologic and community-based data on sleep complaints reported by American adults, specifically addressing the role of race/ethnicity in the subjective report of sleep problems. Subjective and objective findings indicate that black (throughout the text, we use the term black in lieu of African American for there are instances where we refer to individuals with self-ascribed race/ethnicity as black, African American, African, or Caribbean American; the term white is used to denote individuals of European descent).

Engaging minority high school students as health disparities interns: findings and policy implications of a summer youth pipeline program.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to describe the development and implementation of a health disparities summer internship program for minority high school students that was created to increase their knowledge of health disparities, provide hands-on training in community-engaged research, support their efforts to advocate for policy change, and further encourage youth to pursue careers in the health professions.

Procedures: Fifty-one high school students who were enrolled in a well-established, science-enrichment after-school program in Brooklyn, New York, participated in a 4-week summer internship program. Students conducted a literature review, focus groups/interviews, geographic mapping or survey development that focused on reducing health disparities at 1 of 15 partnering CBOs.

Lessons learned from building an infrastructure for community-engaged research.

Unlabelled: Before community-based participatory research (CBPR) can commence an infrastructure needs to be established whereby both academic researchers and community members can participate in CBPR as equitable partners throughout the research process.

Objectives: We describe the key principles of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center (BHDC), a community-academic-government partnership, to guide the development for an infrastructure to support, increase, and sustain the capacity of academics and community members to engage in CBPR to address cardiovascular health disparities in Brooklyn, New York.

Methods: The guiding principles of the BHDC consist of 1) promoting equitable and collaborative partnerships 2) enhancing research capacity and 3) building/sustaining trust.

High Prevalence of Hypertension and Other Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in US- and Caribbean-Born Blacks with Chest Pain Syndromes.

BACKGROUND: Caribbean-born blacks (CBB) have been reported to have lower coronary artery disease mortality rates than US-born blacks (UBB). We assessed whether CBB have a lower prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors compared to UBB. METHODS: Non-Hispanic blacks (n = 275) hospitalized for chest pain who were prospectively enrolled in our Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Group (CORG) study provided clinical and demographic data.

Obstructive sleep apnea and dyslipidemia: evidence and underlying mechanism.

Introduction: Over the past half century, evidence has been accumulating on the emergence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the most prevalent sleep-disordered breathing, as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A significant body of research has been focused on elucidating the complex interplay between OSA and cardiovascular risk factors, including dyslipidemia, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus that portend increased morbidity and mortality in susceptible individuals.

Conclusion: Although a clear causal relationship of OSA and dyslipidemia is yet to be demonstrated, there is increasing evidence that chronic intermittent hypoxia, a major component of OSA, is independently associated and possibly the root cause of the dyslipidemia via the generation of stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase-1 and reactive oxygen species, peroxidation of lipids, and sympathetic system dysfunction.

Functional capacity is a better predictor of coronary heart disease than depression or abnormal sleep duration in Black and White Americans.

Objective: To assess whether functional capacity is a better predictor of coronary heart disease (CHD) than depression or abnormal sleep duration.

Methods: Adult civilians in the USA (n=29,818, mean age 48 ± 18 years, range 18-85 years) were recruited by a cross-sectional household interview survey using multistage area probability sampling. Data on chronic conditions, estimated habitual sleep duration, functional capacity, depressed moods, and sociodemographic characteristics were obtained.

Race/ethnicity, sleep duration, and diabetes mellitus: analysis of the National Health Interview Survey.

Background: The effect of race/ethnicity on the risk of diabetes associated with sleep duration has not been systematically investigated. This study assessed whether blacks reporting short (<6 hours) or long (>8 hours) sleep durations were at greater risk for diabetes than their white counterparts. In addition, this study also examined whether the influence of race/ethnicity on associations between abnormal sleep durations and the presence of diabetes were independent of individuals' sociodemographic and medical characteristics.

Anxiety and cardiovascular risk: Review of Epidemiological and Clinical Evidence.

An increasing body of evidence suggests that anxiety is an independent predictor of adverse cardiovascular (CV) events. Individuals with high levels of anxiety are at increased risk of coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, fatal ventricular arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death. Anxiety following a major cardiac event can impede recovery, and is associated with a higher morbidity and mortality.

Management of Hypertension among Patients with Coronary Heart Disease.

Evidence suggests that coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common outcome of hypertension. Hypertension accelerates the development of atherosclerosis, and sustained elevation of blood pressure (BP) can destabilize vascular lesions and precipitate acute coronary events. Hypertension can cause myocardial ischemia in the absence of CHD.