scholarly journals Who Stays Physically Active during COVID-19? Inequality and Exercise Patterns in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312098771
Author(s):  
Chloe Sher ◽  
Cary Wu
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Physical Exercise ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Rich

Exercising is crucial to keeping up physical and mental health during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this visualization, the authors consider how existing social inequalities may create unequal physical exercise patterns during COVID-19 in the United States. Analyzing data from a nationally representative Internet panel of the University of Southern California Center for Economic and Social Research Understanding Coronavirus in America project (March to December), the authors find that although all Americans have become physically more active since the outbreak, the pandemic has also exacerbated the inequality in physical exercise. Specifically, the authors show that the gaps in physical exercise have widened substantially between men and women, whites and nonwhites, the rich and the poor, and the educated and the less educated. Policy interventions addressing the widening inequality in physical activity can help minimize the disproportionate mental health impact of the pandemic on disadvantaged populations.

scholarly journals Growing Job-Related Income Losses, Increasing Social Inequalities, and Physical and Mental Health Impact During the COVID-19 Pandemic, United States, April – December 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-89
Author(s):  
Gopal K Singh ◽  
Hyunjung Lee ◽  
Romuladus E. Azuine
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Fair Poor

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to substantial socioeconomic disruptions and increases in mental health problems in the United States (US) and globally. Whether social inequalities in job losses and resultant physical and mental health problems have worsened over the course of the pandemic are not well studied. Using temporal, nationally representative data, this study examines racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in job-related income losses and their associated health impact among US adults aged 18-64 years during the pandemic. Methods: Using April, August, and December 2020 rounds of the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (N = 56,788 for April; 83,244 for August; and 52,150 for December), social determinants of job-related income losses and associated impacts on self-assessed fair/poor health and depression were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. Results: In December, more than 108 million or 55.5% of US adults reported that they or someone in their household experienced a loss of employment income since March 13, 2020. An additional 68 million or 34.6% of adults reported expecting this economic hardship in the next four weeks due to the pandemic. Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics, other/multiple-race groups, low-income, and low-education adults, and renters were significantly more likely to experience job-related income losses. Controlling for covariates, those reporting job-related income losses had 51% higher odds of experiencing fair/poor health and 106% higher odds of experiencing serious depression than those with no income losses in December 2020. The prevalence of fair/poor health varied from 11.6% for Asians with no job/income losses to 28.8% for Hispanics and 32.3% for Blacks with job/income losses. The prevalence of serious depression varied from 6.5% for Asians with no income losses to 21.6% for Non-Hispanic Whites and 21.8% for Blacks with job/income losses. Conclusion and Implications for Translation: Job-related income losses and prevalence of poor health, and serious depression increased markedly during the pandemic. More than half of all ethnic-minority and socially disadvantaged adults reported job-related income losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, with 20-45% of them experiencing poor health or serious depression.   Copyright © 2021 Singh, et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited.

scholarly journals Older Latino Mental Health: A Complicated Picture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E Jimenez ◽  
David Martinez Garza ◽  
Verónica Cárdenas ◽  
María Marquine
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Late Life Depression ◽  
Latino Population

Abstract The aggregation of Latino subgroups in national studies creates an overly simplistic narrative that Latinos are at lower risk of mental illness and that foreign nativity seems protective against mental illness (i.e. immigrant paradox). This broad generalization does not hold up as the Latino population ages. Given that social inequalities for risk appear to widen with age, the social disadvantages of being Latino in the US increase the risk for mental illness across the lifespan. This review focuses on the mental health of older Latinos, specifically the three subgroups with the longest residential history in the United States – Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans. We examine relevant epidemiological and clinical psychopathology studies on aging in these Latino populations and present evidence of the heterogeneity of the older Latino population living in the United States, thus illustrating a limitation in this field – combining Latino subgroups despite their diversity because of small sample sizes. We address the migration experience – how intra-ethnic differences and age of migration impact mental health – and discuss social support and discrimination as key risk and protective factors. We conclude with a discussion on meeting the mental health needs of older Latinos with a focus on prevention, a promising approach to addressing mental illness in older Latinos, and future directions for mental health research in this population. Success in this endeavor would yield substantial reduction in the burden of late-life depression and anxiety and a positive public health impact.

scholarly journals QOL-51. LISTENING BEFORE WE SPEAK: A PATIENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO DEVELOPING RESOURCES FOR PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMOR SURVIVORS AND THEIR FAMILIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii440-iii440
Author(s):  
Kathy Riley
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Brain Tumor ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Pediatric Brain Tumor ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Pediatric Brain

Abstract In the United States, more than 28,000 children and teenagers live with the diagnosis of a primary brain tumor (Porter, McCarthy, Freels, Kim, & Davis, 2010). In 2017, an estimated 4,820 new cases of childhood primary brain and other central nervous system tumors were expected to be diagnosed in children ages 0 – 19 in the United States (Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States, 2017). Survivors suffer from lifelong side effects caused by their illness or by various treatments. Commonly identified late effects of treatment include a decline in intellectual functioning and processing speed, performance IQ deficits, memory deficits, psychological difficulties, deficits in adaptive functioning (daily life skills), and an overall decrease in health-related quality of life (Castellino, Ullrich, Whelen, & Lange, 2014). To address the ongoing challenges these survivors and their families face, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) met extensively with working groups comprised of survivors and caregivers to develop the outline for a comprehensive Survivorship Resource Guidebook. In 2019, the PBTF published the guidebook which categorizes survivor and caregiver needs into three primary areas: physical and mental health, quality of life, and working the system. Expert authors included survivors and caregivers themselves in addition to medical and mental health professionals. Key outcomes discovered during the creation and production of this resource highlight how caregivers, survivors and professionals can collaborate to provide needed information and practical help to one segment of the pediatric cancer population who experience profound morbidities as a result of their diagnosis and treatment.

Meditation and Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candy Gunther Brown
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
School Based ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Meditative Practices

This chapter examines school-based meditation programs for children ages 4–17—including Transcendental Meditation, ashtanga yoga, and mindfulness-based stress reduction—popularized between the 1960s and 2010s in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and India. Practices entered mainstream education as promoters distanced meditation from religion, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism, and framed meditative practices as scientifically validated techniques for cultivating virtues essential for academic performance, physical and mental health, and moral character. The chapter assesses meditation research and religious controversies. It recommends an opt-in model of informed consent as most conducive to transparency and voluntarism.

scholarly journals The Comparability of Perceived Physical and Mental Health Measures Across Immigrants and Natives in the United States

Demography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Maskileyson ◽  
Daniel Seddig ◽  
Eldad Davidov
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Measurement Equivalence ◽  
Perceived Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Comparative Study

Abstract The comparative study of perceived physical and mental health in general—and the comparative study of health between the native-born and immigrants, in particular—requires that the groups understand survey questions inquiring about their health in the same way and display similar response patterns. After all, observed differences in perceived health may not reflect true differences but rather cultural bias in the health measures. Research on cross-country measurement equivalence between immigrants and natives on self-reported health measures has received very limited attention to date, resulting in a growing demand for the validation of existing perceived health measures using samples of natives and immigrants and establishing measurement equivalence of health-related assessment tools. This study, therefore, aims to examine measurement equivalence of self-reported physical and mental health indicators between immigrants and natives in the United States. Using pooled data from the 2015–2017 IPUMS Health Surveys, we examine the cross-group measurement equivalence properties of five concepts that are measured by multiple indicators: (1) perceived limitations in activities of daily life; (2) self-reported disability; (3) perceived functional limitations; (4) perceived financial stress; and (5) nonspecific psychological distress. Furthermore, we examine the comparability of these data among respondents of different ethnoracial origins and from different regions of birth, who report few versus many years since migration, their age, gender, and the language used to respond to the interview (e.g., English vs. Spanish). We test for measurement equivalence using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The results reveal that health scales are comparable across the examined groups. This finding allows drawing meaningful conclusions about similarities and differences among natives and immigrants on measures of perceived health in these data.

scholarly journals The Mental Health Impact of Contact with COVID-19 Patients on Healthcare Workers in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 114359
Author(s):  
Kelly T. Hurst ◽  
Elizabeth D. Ballard ◽  
Grace E. Anderson ◽  
Dede K. Greenstein ◽  
Grace W. Cavanaugh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
The United States

scholarly journals A Machine Learning Analysis of COVID-19 Mental Health Data

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Rezapour ◽  
Lucas Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
K Nearest Neighbors ◽  
The Individual

Abstract In late December 2019, the novel coronavirus (Sars-Cov-2) and the resulting disease COVID-19 were first identified in Wuhan China. The disease slipped through containment measures, with the first known case in the United States being identified on January 20th, 2020. In this paper, we utilize survey data from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and apply several statistical and machine learning models and techniques such as Decision Trees, Multinomial Logistic Regression, Naive Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machines, Neural Networks, Random Forests, Gradient Tree Boosting, XGBoost, CatBoost, LightGBM, Synthetic Minority Oversampling, and Chi-Squared Test to analyze the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the mental health of frontline workers in the United States. Through the interpretation of the many models applied to the mental health survey data, we have concluded that the most important factor in predicting the mental health decline of a frontline worker is the healthcare role the individual is in (Nurse, Emergency Room Staff, Surgeon, etc.), followed by the amount of sleep the individual has had in the last week, the amount of COVID-19 related news an individual has consumed on average in a day, the age of the worker, and the usage of alcohol and cannabis.

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