A Silenced Population

Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 433-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Gryglewicz ◽  
Melanie Bozzay ◽  
Brittany Arthur-Jordon ◽  
Gabriela D. Romero ◽  
Melissa Witmeier ◽  
...  

Abstract. Background: Given challenges that exceed the normal developmental requirements of adolescence, deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) youth are believed to be at elevated risk for engaging in suicide-related behavior (SRB). Unfortunately, little is known about the mechanisms that put these youth potentially at risk. Aims: To determine whether peer relationship difficulties are related to increased risk of SRB in DHH youth. Method: Student records (n = 74) were retrieved from an accredited educational center for deaf and blind students in the United States. Results: Peer relationship difficulties were found to be significantly associated with engagement in SRB but not when accounting for depressive symptomatology. Limitations: The restricted sample limits generalizability. Conclusions regarding risk causation cannot be made due to the cross-sectional nature of the study. Conclusion: These results suggest the need for future research that examines the mechanisms of the relationship between peer relationship difficulties, depression, and suicide risk in DHH youth and potential preventive interventions to ameliorate the risks for these at-risk youth.

2020 ◽  
pp. 152483802092578
Author(s):  
Sasha-Lee Heekes ◽  
Chloe B. Kruger ◽  
Soraya N. Lester ◽  
Catherine L. Ward

Despite global shifts toward prevention of school corporal punishment, the practice remains widespread. This systematic review focused on (a) prevalence, (b) associated mental health and behavioral factors, and (c) correlates that may be risk or protective factors. Studies included in this review were peer-reviewed, published in English between 1980 and July 2017, and quantitative in design. Fifty-three papers met the inclusion criteria. All were cross-sectional surveys, predominantly of moderate quality and conducted in the United States (US) and on the African continent. Results indicated that school corporal punishment is prevalent across the globe (including where bans are in place) and does not appear to be decreasing over time, although measurement differences preclude firm conclusions. It is associated with physical, academic, mental health, and behavioral problems for children. Boys, Black students (in the US), and students exposed to violence at home were most at risk of corporal punishment. It is unclear whether disability puts a student at risk. Schools with high rates of other disciplinary practices were more likely to use corporal punishment, while those who employed a mental health professional and trained staff in safety procedures were less likely to use corporal punishment. Teacher attitudes favoring corporal punishment, and their use of violence in other contexts, increased risk. Low socioeconomic status (of the student or the school environment) increased risk, while high levels of state social capital reduced risk. Future research must include areas where corporal punishment is banned and focus on developing effective interventions to prevent school corporal punishment.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110500
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Kilgallen ◽  
Susan B. Schaffnit ◽  
Yusufu Kumogola ◽  
Anthony Galura ◽  
Mark Urassa ◽  
...  

Urbanization in low and middle-income nations is characterized by economic and demographic shifts largely understood to be beneficial to women’s empowerment. These changes include increased education and wage-labor opportunities, a disruption of traditional patrilocal residence systems, and reductions in spousal age gap and fertility. However, such changes may drive a “violence backlash,” with men increasing intimate partner violence (IPV) in efforts to challenge women’s shifting status. To date, tests of this idea primarily relate to women’s changing economic status, with less known about the demographic correlates of IPV in urbanizing settings. Addressing this, we conducted a cross-sectional study of IPV behavior and attitudes in an urbanizing community in Mwanza, northern Tanzania ( n = 317). Consistent with a violence backlash, IPV was reported more often among women educated at higher levels than their husband, and women earning similar, rather than lower, wages to their husband were more likely to report that he condones IPV. These findings were independent of women’s absolute education and income. Furthermore, less frequent paternal kin contact, and relatively small spousal age gaps, generally understood to boost women’s empowerment, were associated with an increased risk of experiencing IPV. Less frequent paternal kin contact was also associated with an increased likelihood that a husband condones IPV. Contrary to our predictions, relatively lower fertility, generally linked to higher women’s empowerment, did not predict IPV behavior and women with high, rather than low, fertility were more likely to report that their husband condones IPV. Overall, our results support the notion of a violence backlash corresponding to economic changes for women that accompany urbanization. In contrast, demographic changes associated with urbanization have more variable relationships. Drawing on these results, we suggest future research avenues for better understanding the vulnerability of women to IPV in urbanizing settings.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Genevieve C. Gore

Objective – To survey middle managers’ beliefs regarding their participation in shared leadership and their libraries’ practices of shared leadership. Design – Cross-sectional survey. Setting – Twenty-two academic libraries within four-year public master’s level institutions in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Subjects – A total of 115 middle managers were invited to participate; 77 completed the survey for a response rate of 66.9%. Methods – Selected middle managers were contacted by email a total of five times and were invited to complete a Web-based survey composed of three sections. The first section contained 10 statements for rating shared leadership within their own institutions, which they were asked to rate on an eight-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree), with 8 as an option for no opinion. The second section used the same scale to rate their levels of agreement with conceptual definitions of shared leadership from Jackson’s Framework. Jackson’s Framework consists of four components for ascertaining levels of shared leadership from both managerial and staff perspectives: accountability, equity, partnership and ownership. The third section invited subjects to provide their own definition of shared leadership. A three-part pretest served to validate the survey instrument. Mean scores were calculated for each statement. Main Results – In the first section, there was the highest overall level of agreement (1.52) with the statement “I am accountable for the decisions within the scope of my responsibility” followed by “I share information with the senior library administration” (1.71). There was the lowest overall level of agreement (3.65) with the statement that “Ideas presented at all levels of staff in the library are equally considered.” In the second section, respondents’ mean scores for Jackson’s definitions of four concepts of shared leadership were 2.62 for ownership, 2.68 for both partnership and equity, and 2.77 for accountability. In the third section, respondents most often linked their definitions of shared leadership with communication, learning and collaboration. Conclusion – Examining middle managers’ perceptions of shared leadership may help us understand organizational trends and capacity for leadership within libraries. Future research could examine shared leadership at levels below middle management as well as the relationship between accountability and shared leadership throughout the organization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Regan Bailey ◽  
Susan Pac ◽  
Victor Fulgoni ◽  
Kathleen Reidy

Abstract Objectives Nutrition during pregnancy is a critical dimension not only for women’s heath, but also for the offspring’s lifelong health. Very limited national data exist on the usual dietary intakes of pregnant women. The objective of this study was to estimate total usual nutrient intakes (from foods and dietary supplements) of pregnant women in the U.S. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of a nationally-representative sample of pregnant U.S. women, ages 20-40 years (n = 1,003) from NHANES 2001-2014. Total usual dietary intakes were estimated using the National Cancer Institute (NCI) method to adjust 2, 24-hour dietary recalls for within-person variation. Adherence with the Dietary Reference Intakes were used to assess the proportion at risk of inadequacy by the Estimated Average Requirement (%< EAR), assumed to be adequate by the Adequate Intake (% >AI), and at risk of excess by the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (% >UL). Results About 70% of pregnant women use a dietary supplement. Less than 5% of pregnant women have usual diets that are at risk for inadequate intakes of riboflavin (3%), niacin (1%), vitamin B12 (1%), iron (2%), phosphorus (< 0.5%), and selenium (< 0.5%). More pregnant women have usual intakes < EAR for vitamins A (15%), B6 (11%), folate (16%), C (11%), D (46%), E (43%), and minerals including copper (5%), calcium (13%), magnesium (47%) and zinc (11%). Few pregnant females have usual intakes >AI for potassium (2%) and choline (8%), whereas only 48% have vitamin K intakes >AI. The majority of pregnant women (95%) exceed the UL for sodium, while folic acid (34%), iron (28%), calcium (3%), and zinc (7%) were also of concern for intakes >UL. Conclusions Many U.S. pregnant women ( >10% < EAR or < 10% >AI) do not consume enough of key nutrients during pregnancy specifically vitamins A, C, D, E, K, B6, folate, and choline and minerals including potassium, calcium, magnesium, and zinc, while almost all are at risk of excessive consumption of sodium, and many at risk of excessive consumption of folic acid and iron. Improved dietary guidance to help pregnant women meet and not exceed dietary recommendations is warranted. Funding Sources Nestle Nutrition.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhishek Saxena ◽  
David Dodell-Feder

Urban living is a growing worldwide phenomenon with more than two-thirds of people expected to live in cities by 2050. Although there are many benefits to living in an urban environment, urbanicity has also been associated with deleterious health outcomes, including increased risk for psychotic outcomes particularly when the urban exposure occurs in adolescence. However, the mechanisms underlying this association is unclear. Here, we utilize one-year follow-up data from a large (N=7,979), nationwide study of adolescence in the United States to clarify why urbanicity might impact psychotic-like experiences (PLE) by looking at the indirect effect of eight candidate urbanicity-related physical (e.g., pollution) and social (e.g., poverty) exposures. Consistent with other work, we find that of the evaluated exposures related to urbanicity, several were also related to increased number of PLE and associated distress: PM2.5, proximity to roads, census-level homes at-risk for exposure to lead paint, census-level poverty, and census-level income-disparity. Mediation analysis revealed that a substantial proportion the urbanicity-PLE association could be explained by PM2.5 (23% of the urbanicity-PLE number association), families in poverty (57-67% of the urbanicity-PLE number and distress association), and income disparity (55-66% of the urbanicity-PLE number and distress association). Together, these findings suggest that specific urban-related exposures might help to explain why those in urban environments are disproportionately at-risk for psychosis and point towards areas for public health intervention.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Johansen ◽  
Joshua D. Niforatos ◽  
Jeremey B. Sussman

AbstractBackgroundAntihypertensives are the most used medication type in the United States, yet there remains uncertainty about the use of different antihypertensives. We sought to characterize use of antihypertensives by and within medication class(es) between 1997-2017.MethodsA repeated cross-sectional study of 493,596 adult individuals using the 1997-2017 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). The Orange Book and published research were used for adjunctive information. The primary outcome was the estimated use by and within anti-hypertensive medication class(es).ResultsThe proportion of individuals taking any antihypertensive during a year increased from 1997 to the early 2010’s and then remained stable. The proportion of the population taking 2 or more medications declined from 2015-2017. The proportion of adults using angiotensin II receptor-blockers (ARBs) and dihydropyridine calcium channel-blockers (CCBs) increased during the study period, while angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) increased until 2010 after which rates remained stable. Beta-blocker use was similar to ACE-Is with an earlier decline starting in 2012. Thiazide diuretic use increased from 1997-2007, leveled off until 2014, and declined from 2015-2017. Non-dihydropyridine CCBs use declined throughout the study. ACE-Is, ARBs, CCBs, thiazide diuretics, and loop diuretics all had one dominant in-class medication. There was a clear increase in the use of losartan within ARBs, lisinopril within ACE-Is, and amlodipine within CCBs following generic conversion. Furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide started with and maintained a dominant position in their classes. Metoprolol use increased throughout the study and became the dominant beta-blocker, while atenolol peaked around 2005 and then declined thereafter.ConclusionsAntihypertensive classes appear to have a propensity to equilibrate to an individual medication, despite a lack of outcomes based research to compare medications within a class. Future research could focus on comparative effectiveness for within-class medications early in the life cycle of therapeutics that are probable to have wide spread use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-29
Author(s):  
Femke Geusens ◽  
Cabral A. Bigman-Galimore ◽  
Kathleen Beullens

Background & purpose. Research indicates a positive relationship between sharing alcohol references on social media and drinking behavior. The current study extends that line of research by assessing the interaction of risk-related personality traits with alcohol-related social media use, to examine if social media can be used to identify individuals at risk for heavy drinking behavior. Methods & results. The results of a cross-sectional survey among a sample of 638 emerging adults (age 18-25) find that the positive association between sharing alcohol references on social media and drinking intention was strongest for individuals with low levels of sensation seeking and sensitivity to peer pressure, and high levels of self-control, and non-significant for those on the other end of these personality traits. Conclusions. These findings indicate that the relationship between sharing alcohol references and drinking intentions is not uniform for all individuals, and that risk-related individual differences should be considered in future research and interventions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimiko Tanaka ◽  
Larry Davidson ◽  
Thomas J Craig

Background: While the neighborhood community literature well documents a link between participation in supportive and effective community groups or activities and empowerment, there is as yet little empirical evidence of this relationship in the context of community mental health programs. Aim: The primary purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between sense of community belonging and empowerment among members of mental health clubhouses. Methods: A secondary analysis using a hierarchical regression model was conducted on cross-sectional structured interview data collected through a self-report questionnaire from 102 clubhouse members from six clubhouses in the United States and Finland. Results: The results indicated that members’ sense of clubhouse community belonging positively contributes to their empowerment. Conclusion: Fostering sense of community belonging appears to be a valid approach to catalyze empowerment. Study limitations and future research agendas were discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (03) ◽  
pp. 194-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Cronan ◽  
Sean Dariushnia ◽  
Zachary Bercu ◽  
Robert Mitchell Ermentrout ◽  
Bill Majdalany ◽  
...  

AbstractRenal cell carcinoma is a relatively common malignancy, with 60 to 70 thousand cases a year in the United States alone. Increased utilization of cross-sectional imaging has led to an increase in the number of early renal cell cancers seen by the medical establishment. In addition, certain patient populations have an increased risk of developing kidney cancers which may mandate aggressive screening protocols. This article discusses the epidemiology of renal cell cancers; discusses the current management guidelines from multiple specialty societies; discusses some of the surgical and interventional techniques used in the treatment of such lesions; and provides a review of the literature regarding treatments of early-stage renal cell cancers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 424-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salina P. Waddy ◽  
Adan Z. Becerra ◽  
Julia B. Ward ◽  
Kevin E. Chan ◽  
Chyng-Wen Fwu ◽  
...  

Background: The opioid epidemic is a public health emergency and appropriate medication prescription for pain remains challenging. Physicians have increasingly prescribed gabapentinoids for pain despite limited evidence supporting their use. We determined the prevalence of concomitant gabapentinoid and opioid prescriptions and evaluated their associations with outcomes among dialysis patients. Methods: We used the United States Renal Data System to identify patients treated with dialysis with Part A, B, and D coverage for all of 2010. Patients were grouped into 4 categories of drugs exposure status in 2010: (1) no prescriptions of either an opioid or gabapentinoid, (2) ≥1 prescription of an opioid and no prescriptions of gabapentinoids, (3) no prescriptions of an opioid and ≥1 prescription of gabapenbtinoids, (4) ≥1 prescription of both an opioid and gabapentinoid. Outcomes included 2-year all-cause death, dialysis discontinuation, and hospitalizations assessed in 2011 and 2012. Results: The study population included 153,758 dialysis patients. Concomitant prescription of an opioid and gabapentin (15%) was more common than concomitant prescription of an opioid and pregabalin (4%). In adjusted analyses, concomitant prescription of an opioid and gabapentin compared to no prescription of either was associated with increased risk of death (hazard ratio [HR] 1.16, 95% CI 1.12–1.19), dialysis discontinuation (HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.03–1.27), and hospitalization (HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.31–1.36). Concomitant prescription of an opioid and pregabalin compared to no prescription of either was associated with increased mortality (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.16–1.28) and hospitalization (HR 1.37, 95% CI 1.33–1.41), but not dialysis discontinuation (HR 1.13, 95% CI 0.95–1.35). Prescription of opioids and gabepentinoids compared to only being prescribed opioids was associated with higher risk of hospitalizations, but not mortality, or dialysis discontinuation. Conclusions: Concomitant prescription of opioids and gabapentinoids among US dialysis patients is common, and both drugs have independent effects on outcomes. Future research should prospectively investigate the potential harms of such drugs and identify safer alternatives for treatment of pain in end-stage renal disease patients.


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