Health Disparities due to Diminished Return among Black Americans: Public Policy Solutions

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Policy Solutions

scholarly journals Evidence for neuropsychological health disparities in Black Americans with HIV disease

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Thompson ◽  
Ilex Beltran-Najera ◽  
Briana Johnson ◽  
Yenifer Morales ◽  
Steven Paul Woods
Keyword(s):  
Health Disparities ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Hiv Disease

Cultural Neuroscience of Compassion and Empathy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Y. Chiao
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
Cultural Neuroscience ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Human Ability

“Compassion” and “empathy” refer to adaptive emotional responses to suffering in oneself and others that recruit affective and cognitive processes. The human ability to understand the emotional experience of others is fundamental to social cooperation, including altruism. While much of the scientific study of compassion and empathy suggests that genes contribute to empathy and compassion, recent empirical advances suggest gene–environment interactions, as well as cultural differences in development, influence the experience, expression, and regulation of empathy and compassion. The goal of this chapter is to review recent theoretical and empirical advances in the cultural neuroscience of empathy and compassion. Implications of the cultural neuroscientific study of empathy and compassion for public policy and population health disparities will be discussed.

Black-White Racial Health Disparities in Inflammation and Physical Health: Cumulative Stress, Social Isolation, and Health Behaviors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliette McClendon ◽  
Katharine Chang ◽  
Michael J. Boudreaux ◽  
Thomas Oltmanns ◽  
Ryan Bogdan
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Health Behavior ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Stress Factor ◽  
Racial Health Disparities ◽  
Cumulative Stress

Black Americans have vastly increased odds and earlier onsets of stress- and age-related disease compared to White Americans. However, what contributes to these racial health disparities remains poorly understood. Using a sample of 1,577 older adults (32.7% Black; ages 55 to 65 at baseline), we examined whether stress, health behaviors, social isolation, and inflammation are associated with racial disparities in self-reported physical health. A latent cumulative stress factor and unique stress-domain specific factors were modeled by applying bifactor confirmatory analysis to assessments across the lifespan (i.e., childhood maltreatment, trauma exposure, discrimination, stressful life events, and indices of socioeconomic status). Physical health, health behavior and social isolation were assessed using self-report; interleukin-6 (IL-6) was assayed from morning fasting serum samples. A parallel serial mediational model tested whether Race (i.e., Black/White) is indirectly associated with health through the following 2 pathways: 1) cumulative stress. health behaviors, inflammation, and 2) cumulative stress, social isolation, and inflammation. There were significant indirect between race and self-reported physical health through cumulative stress, social isolation, and IL-6 (b = -.009, 95% CI: -.027, -.001) and cumulative stress, health behaviors, and IL-6 (b = -.018, 95% CI: -.044, -.005). Specifically, Black Americans were exposed to greater cumulative stress, which was associated with more social isolation as well as reduced preventive health behaviors; these in turn, were each independently associated with greater IL-6 and reduced physical health. Similar to the cumulative latent stress factor, a unique SES factor also indirectly linked race to physical health through these same two pathways (both bs < -.008, both 95% CI within: -.056, -.002). Cumulative stress exposure and socioeconomic status are indirectly associated with Black-White racial health disparities through behavioral (i.e., health behavior, social isolation) and biological (i.e., inflammation) factors. Currently, culturally responsive evidence-based interventions that enhance healthy stress coping and increased social connection are needed to directly confront health disparities. Ultimately, large scale anti-racist public policies (i.e., those which produce equitable outcomes) that reduce cumulative stress burden (e.g., a living wage, universal healthcare) may best attenuate racial health disparities.

Neurocognitive Performance Differences Between Black and White Individuals with HIV Disease are Mediated by Health Literacy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilex Beltran-Najera ◽  
Jennifer L. Thompson ◽  
Anastasia Matchanova ◽  
Kelli L. Sullivan ◽  
Michelle A. Babicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Disparities ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hiv Disease ◽  
Neurocognitive Performance ◽  
Brain Health ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Significant Mediator

Objective: Brain health disparities have been reported for Black Americans with HIV disease, who are disproportionally affected by the epidemic in the United States. The current study investigated whether the neurocognitive disparities experienced by Black Americans with HIV disease may be at least partly attributable to health literacy. Method: Participants were 61 White and 25 Black participants (ages 27-70) with HIV disease enrolled in studies at an urban academic center in Southern California. Neurocognitive function was assessed by an age-adjusted global score from the Cogstate battery. Health literacy was measured by a composite score derived from the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, Newest Vital Sign, and 3-Brief. Results: Bootstrap confidence interval mediation analyses showed that health literacy was a significant mediator of the hypothesized relationship between race and neurocognition; that is, there were no direct ethnoracial differences in neurocognition after accounting for health literacy. A follow-up inverted model to confirm the directionality of this association demonstrated that neurocognition was not a significant mediator of the relationship between race and health literacy. Conclusions: Low health literacy may help explain the observed neurocognitive health disparities for Black Americans with HIV disease. Future studies might examine the possible mechanism of this mediating relationship (e.g., access to health information, health behaviors, socioeconomics) and determine whether culturally tailored interventions that improve health literacy also confer brain health benefits for Black Americans with HIV disease.

Equal Employment, Voting Rights, and Public Policy at the National Level

2019 ◽  
pp. 168-201
Author(s):  
Brandon K. Winford
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
National Level ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Discrimination In Employment ◽  
High Level

Chapter 5 examines Wheeler’s impact on the civil rights movement as a broker on a wider scale during the early 1960s. It argues that during these years, he utilized his increasing political influence regionally and nationally to change policies related to discrimination in employment and voting rights for black Americans. Not only that, but Wheeler vigorously championed the inclusion of blacks in high-level positions within local, state, and federal governments and condemned agencies for their own failures in implementing new employment policies as mandated by the federal government.

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