Ethnic differences in subclinical vascular function in South Asians, Whites, and African Americans in the United States

ABSTRACT Background Diet quality is an important risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Little is known about the diet quality of South Asians in the United States, a group with higher rates of T2D and CVD compared with other racial/ethnic groups. Objective This study determined whether diet quality differs between South Asian adults in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) Study and whites, Chinese Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Methods Cross-sectional data from 3926 participants free of CVD from MESA visit 5 (2010–2011) and 889 South Asian participants from MASALA visit 1 (2010–2013) were pooled. Diet quality was assessed using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010) derived using FFQs. Multivariable linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, and total energy intake were used to compare mean differences in diet quality between the racial/ethnic groups. Results MESA participants were, on average, 14 y older than MASALA participants. The adjusted mean (95% CI) scores for the AHEI-2010 were 70.2 (69.5, 70.9) among South Asians, 66.2 (66.3, 68.2) among Chinese Americans, 61.1 (60.7, 61.6) among whites, 59.0 (58.4, 59.7) among Hispanics, and 57.5 (56.9, 58.1) among African Americans. The mean AHEI scores among South Asians were 3.1 (1.8, 4.3), 9.2 (8.3, 10.1), 11.2 (10.2, 12.3), and 12.8 (11.8, 13.7) points higher compared with Chinese Americans, whites, Hispanics, and African Americans, respectively. Conclusions South Asian adults in the United States have a higher diet quality compared with other racial/ethnic groups. This paradoxical finding is not consistent with the observed higher rates of T2D and CVD compared with other groups. This is further evidence of the importance of studying the South Asian population to better understand the causes of chronic disease not explained by diet quality.

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Persistent Poverty Among African Americans in the United States: The Impact of Public Policy

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.1943868 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Daphne M Cooper

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Public Policy ◽

African Americans ◽

The United States ◽

Persistent Poverty ◽

The Impact

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Questions

10.1093/oso/9780190865214.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James L. Gibson ◽

Michael J. Nelson

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

African Americans ◽

Supreme Court ◽

Legal System ◽

Public Support ◽

The United States ◽

Future Research ◽

White Americans ◽

Two Factors ◽

The U.S

We have investigated the differences in support for the U.S. Supreme Court among black, Hispanic, and white Americans, catalogued the variation in African Americans’ group attachments and experiences with legal authorities, and examined how those latter two factors shape individuals’ support for the U.S. Supreme Court, that Court’s decisions, and for their local legal system. We take this opportunity to weave our findings together, taking stock of what we have learned from our analyses and what seem like fruitful paths for future research. In the process, we revisit Positivity Theory. We present a modified version of the theory that we hope will guide future inquiry on public support for courts, both in the United States and abroad.

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Dissent in the Atlantic World, 1787–1830

10.1093/oso/9780198702245.003.0011 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Katherine Carté Engel

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

African Americans ◽

First Amendment ◽

Church And State ◽

State Level ◽

The United States ◽

American Population ◽

Simple Fact ◽

General Role

The very term ‘Dissenter’ became problematic in the United States, following the passing of the First Amendment. The formal separation of Church and state embodied in the First Amendment was followed by the ending of state-level tax support for churches. None of the states established after 1792 had formal religious establishments. Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists accounted for the majority of the American population both at the beginning and end of this period, but this simple fact masks an important compositional shift. While the denominations of Old Dissent declined relatively, Methodism grew quickly, representing a third of the population by 1850. Dissenters thus faced several different challenges. Primary among these were how to understand the idea of ‘denomination’ and also the more general role of institutional religion in a post-establishment society. Concerns about missions, and the positions of women and African Americans are best understood within this context.

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Religion, Race, and Humanism

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190221171.013.7 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Anthony B. Pinn

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

African American ◽

African Americans ◽

Richard Wright ◽

Institutional Development ◽

The United States ◽

Unitarian Universalist ◽

Racial Injustice ◽

History Of ◽

Lorraine Hansberry

This chapter explores the history of humanism within African American communities. It positions humanist thinking and humanism-inspired activism as a significant way in which people of African descent in the United States have addressed issues of racial injustice. Beginning with critiques of theism found within the blues, moving through developments such as the literature produced by Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, and others, to political activists such as W. E. B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph, to organized humanism in the form of African American involvement in the Unitarian Universalist Association, African Americans for Humanism, and so on, this chapter presents the historical and institutional development of African American humanism.

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IMPROVING HYPERTENSION CONTROL IN THE UNITED STATES: UNDERSTANDING RACIAL/ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN THE BLOOD PRESSURE CASCADE

Journal of the American College of Cardiology ◽

10.1016/s0735-1097(21)02833-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 77 (18) ◽

pp. 1475

Author(s):

Rahul Aggarwal ◽

Nicholas Chiu ◽

Rishi Wadhera ◽

Andrew Moran ◽

Changyu Shen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Blood Pressure ◽

Ethnic Differences ◽

The United States ◽

Hypertension Control ◽

Racial Ethnic

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Epic Cruelty: On Post-Pandemic Performance

New Theatre Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0266464x21000026 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 119-136

Author(s):

Rick Mitchell

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

African Americans ◽

The United States ◽

California State University ◽

The State ◽

State University ◽

White Supremacist ◽

Systemic Racism ◽

Disaster Capitalism

As today’s catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic exacerbates ongoing crises, including systemic racism, rising ethno-nationalism, and fossil-fuelled climate change, the neoliberal world that we inhabit is becoming increasingly hostile, particularly for the most vulnerable. Even in the United States, as armed white-supremacist, pro-Trump forces face off against protesters seeking justice for African Americans, the hostility is increasingly palpable, and often frightening. Yet as millions of Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated after the brutal police killing of George Floyd, the current, intersecting crises – worsened by Trump’s criminalization of anti-racism protesters and his dismissal of science – demand a serious, engaged, response from activists as well as artists. The title of this article is meant to evoke not only the state of the unusually cruel moment through which we are living, but also the very different approaches to performance of both Brecht and Artaud, whose ideas, along with those of others – including Benjamin, Butler, Latour, Mbembe, and Césaire – inform the radical, open-ended, post-pandemic theatre practice proposed in this essay. A critically acclaimed dramatist as well as Professor of English and Playwriting at California State University, Northridge, Mitchell’s published volumes of plays include Disaster Capitalism; or Money Can’t Buy You Love: Three Plays; Brecht in L.A.; and Ventriloquist: Two Plays and Ventriloquial Miscellany. He is the editor of Experimental O’Neill, and is currently at work on a series of post-pandemic plays.

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Domestic Violence Victimization among South Asian Immigrant Men and Women in the United States

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/08862605211015262 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 088626052110152

Author(s):

Abha Rai ◽

Y. Joon Choi

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Domestic Violence ◽

South Asian ◽

South Asians ◽

The United States ◽

Asian Immigrant ◽

Men And Women ◽

Violence Victimization ◽

Immigrant Men ◽

South Asian Immigrant

Domestic violence is a pernicious social problem in the United States and a cause of national concern. The South Asian culture disempowers individuals experiencing domestic violence from recognizing and reporting victimization. Structural inequities may also discourage reporting victimization. These issues have led to inconsistent findings of domestic violence prevalence rates. Additionally, domestic violence studies with South Asians in the United States have predominantly focused on women, omitting men from this purview of research. The purpose of this study was to examine domestic violence victimization rates as well as their correlates among South Asian immigrant men and women. The sample for this cross-sectional study included 468 South Asians across the 50 U.S. states. Descriptive statistics were used to establish rates of domestic violence victimization. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to examine the correlates of domestic violence victimization. All of the sociodemographic information was added in step 1, and acculturation and gender-role attitudes were added as covariates in step 2. The most prevalent type of domestic violence victimization was physical violence (48%), followed by emotional (38%), economic (35%), verbal (27%), immigration-related (26%), in-laws related (19%), and ultimately sexual abuse (11%). Prevalence rates were higher for women than for men in each type of violence. According to the logistic regression results, education, generational position, family type, and employment were significant correlates of domestic violence victimization. Prior to development of prevention programs by community agencies, it is essential to understand the nature and prevalence of domestic violence experiences among South Asians. The victimization of men in addition to women adds to the novelty of this research study and paves the way for practitioners and scholars to engage in conversations about providing both male and female victims of domestic violence with the needed resources and support. The article will discuss implications for research, practice, and policy.

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Sickle Cell Trait and Renal Function in Hispanics in the United States: the Northern Manhattan Study

Ethnicity & Disease ◽

10.18865/ed.27.1.11 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 11 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Nicole D. Dueker ◽

David Della-Morte ◽

Tatjana Rundek ◽

Ralph L. Sacco ◽

Susan H. Blanton

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Chronic Kidney Disease ◽

African Americans ◽

Kidney Disease ◽

Sickle Cell ◽

Sickle Cell Trait ◽

The United States ◽

Genetic Mutation ◽

Single Mutation ◽

Increased Risk

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is a common hematological disorder among individuals of African descent in the United States; the disorder results in the production of abnormal hemoglobin. It is caused by homozygosity for a genetic mutation in HBB; rs334. While the presence of a single mutation (sickle cell trait, SCT) has long been considered a benign trait, recent research suggests that SCT is associated with renal dysfunction, including a decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and increased risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in African Americans. It is currently unknown whether similar associations are observed in Hispanics. Therefore, our study aimed to determine if SCT is associated with mean eGFR and CKD in a sample of 340 Dominican Hispanics from the Northern Manhattan Study. Using regression analyses, we tested rs334 for association with eGFR and CKD, adjusting for age and sex. eGFR was estimated using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation and CKD was defined as eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. Within our sample, there were 16 individuals with SCT (SCT carriers). We found that SCT carriers had a mean eGFR that was 12.12 mL/min/1.73m2 lower than non-carriers (P=.002). Additionally, SCT carriers had 2.72 times higher odds of CKD compared with non-carriers (P=.09). Taken together, these novel results show that Hispanics with SCT, as found among African Americans with SCT, may also be at increased risk for kidney disease.Ethn Dis. 2017; 27(1):11-14; doi:10.18865/ed.27.1.11.

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