Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality in Online HIV/AIDS Information

2011 ◽  
pp. 1614-1620
Author(s):  
Jing Chong
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Hispanic Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
The Internet ◽  
American Women ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) represent a growing and significant health threat to women worldwide. According to the United Nations (UNAIDS/WHO, 2004), women now make up nearly half of all people living with HIV worldwide. In the United States, although males still accounted for 73% of all AIDS cases diagnosed in 2003, there is a marked increase in HIV and AIDS diagnoses among females. The estimated number of AIDS cases increased 15% among females and 1% among males from 1999 through 2003 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). Looking closer at HIV and AIDS infections among women in the United States, Anderson and Smith (2004) report that HIV infection was the leading cause of death in 2001 for African-American women aged 25 to 34 years, and was among the four leading causes of death for African-American women aged 20 to 24 and 35 to 44 years, as well as Hispanic women aged 35 to 44 years. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for African-American women (50.2 out of 100,000 women) was approximately 25 times the rate for white women (2 out of 100,000) and 4 times the rate for Hispanic women (12.4 out of 100,000; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). African-American and Hispanic women together represented about 25% of all U.S. women (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), yet they account for 83% of AIDS diagnoses reported in 2003 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Women’s vulnerability to HIV and AIDS may be attributed to gender inequalities in socioeconomic status, stereotypes of AIDS as a gay-male disease, and cultural ideology around sexual practices such as abstinence, monogamy, and condom use. Because of cultural mores and socioeconomic disadvantages, women may consequently have less access to prevention and care resources. Information is perhaps the most important HIV and AIDS resource for women, and the Internet provides a useful platform for disseminating information to a large cross-section of women. With the flourishing use of e-health resources and the growing number of public-access Internet sites, more and more people are using the Internet to obtain health-care information. Over two thirds of Americans (67%) are now online (Internet World Statistics, 2005). On a typical day, about 6 million Americans go online for medical advice. This exceeds the number of Americans who actually visit health professionals (Fox & Rainie, 2002). Studies also show that women are more likely to seek health information online than are men (Fox & Fallows, 2003; Fox & Rainie, 2000; Hern, Weitkamp, Hillard, Trigg, & Guard, 1998). HIV and AIDS patients are among the health-care consumers with chronic medical conditions who increasingly take the Internet as a major source of information (Kalichman, Weinhardt, Benotsch, & Cherry, 2002).

Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality in Online HIV/AIDS Information

2011 ◽  
pp. 1112-1116
Author(s):  
Jing Chong ◽  
Lynette Kvasny
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Hispanic Women ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control ◽  
Aids Information

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) represent a growing and significant health threat to women worldwide. According to the United Nations (UNAIDS/WHO, 2004), women now make up nearly half of all people living with HIV worldwide. In the United States, although males still accounted for 73% of all AIDS cases diagnosed in 2003, there is a marked increase in HIV and AIDS diagnoses among females. The estimated number of AIDS cases increased 15% among females and 1% among males from 1999 through 2003 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). Looking closer at HIV and AIDS infections among women in the United States, Anderson and Smith (2004) report that HIV infection was the leading cause of death in 2001 for African-American women aged 25 to 34 years, and was among the four leading causes of death for African-American women aged 20 to 24 and 35 to 44 years, as well as Hispanic women aged 35 to 44 years. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for African-American women (50.2 out of 100,000 women) was approximately 25 times the rate for white women (2 out of 100,000) and 4 times the rate for Hispanic women (12.4 out of 100,000; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). African-American and Hispanic women together represented about 25% of all U.S. women (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), yet they account for 83% of AIDS diagnoses reported in 2003 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Women’s vulnerability to HIV and AIDS may be attributed to gender inequalities in socioeconomic status, stereotypes of AIDS as a gay-male disease, and cultural ideology around sexual practices such as abstinence, monogamy, and condom use. Because of cultural mores and socioeconomic disadvantages, women may consequently have less access to prevention and care resources. Information is perhaps the most important HIV and AIDS resource for women, and the Internet provides a useful platform for disseminating information to a large cross-section of women. With the flourishing use of e-health resources and the growing number of public-access Internet sites, more and more people are using the Internet to obtain health-care information. Over two thirds of Americans (67%) are now online (Internet World Statistics, 2005). On a typical day, about 6 million Americans go online for medical advice. This exceeds the number of Americans who actually visit health professionals (Fox & Rainie, 2002). Studies also show that women are more likely to seek health information online than are men (Fox & Fallows, 2003; Fox & Rainie, 2000; Hern, Weitkamp, Hillard, Trigg, & Guard, 1998). HIV and AIDS patients are among the health-care consumers with chronic medical conditions who increasingly take the Internet as a major source of information (Kalichman, Weinhardt, Benotsch, & Cherry, 2002). As more Americans go online for health information, the actual efficacy of the information consumption becomes salient. Recent digital divide studies call for shifting from demographic statistics around technological access to socially informed research on effective use of technology (Gurstein, 2003; Hacker & Mason, 2003; Kvasny & Truex, 2001; Payton, 2003; Warschauer, 2002). Although the Internet provides a health information dissemination platform that is continuous, free, and largely anonymous, we should not assume that broader access and use will be translated into positive benefits. We must begin to critically examine the extent to which e-health content meets the needs of an increasingly diverse population of Internet users. To combat the AIDS pandemic, it is necessary to deliver information that is timely, credible, and multisectoral. It has to reach not just clinicians and scientists, but also behavioral specialists, policy makers, donors, activists, and industry leaders. It must also be accessible to affected individuals and communities (Garbus, Peiperl, & Chatani, 2002). Accessibility for affected individuals and communities would necessitate targeted, culturally salient, and unbiased information. This is a huge challenge. For instance, health providers’ insensitivity and biases toward women have been documented in the critical investigation of TV programs (Myrick, 1999; Raheim, 1996) and printed materials (Charlesworth, 2003). There is a lack of empirical evidence to demonstrate the extent to which and the conditions by which these biases are reproduced on the Internet. In what follows, we provide a conceptual framework for uncovering implicit gender biases in HIV and AIDS information. This framework is informed by the role of power in shaping the social construction of gender and sexuality. We conclude by describing how the framework can be applied in the analysis of online HIV and AIDS information resources.

scholarly journals Structural Violence of Schooling: A Genealogy of a Critical Family History of Three Generations of African American Women in a Rural Community in Florida

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Evelyn Newman Phillips ◽  
Wangari Gichiru
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family History ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
American Women ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
American Children

Through the lens of structural violence, Black feminism and critical family history, this paper explores how societal structures informed by white supremacy shaped the lives of three generations of rural African American women in a family in Florida during the middle to the late twentieth century. Specifically, this study investigates how disparate funding, segregation, desegregation, poverty and post-desegregation policies shaped and limited the achievement trajectories among these women. Further, an oral historical examination of their lives reveals the strategies they employed despite their under-resourced and sometimes alienating schooling. The paper highlights the experiences of the Newman family, descendants of captive Africans in the United States that produced three college-educated daughters and a granddaughter despite structural barriers that threatened their progress. Using oral history interviews, archival resources and first-person accounts, this family’s story reveals a genealogy of educational achievement, barriers and agency despite racial and gendered limitations in a Southern town. The findings imply that their schooling mirrors many of the barriers that other Blacks face. However, this study shows that community investment in African American children, plus teachers that affirm students, and programs such as Upward Bound, help to advance Black students in marginalized communities. Further, these women’s lives suggest that school curriculums need to be anti-racist and public policies that affirm each person regardless of the color of their skin. A simple solution that requires the structural violence of whiteness be eliminated from the schooling spheres.

“I Don’t Know and I Don’t Want to Know”: A Qualitative Examination of Older African American Women’s Knowledge and Experiences With HIV

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 644-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faye Z. Belgrave ◽  
Sarah J. Javier ◽  
Deborah Butler ◽  
Chelsie Dunn ◽  
Joann Richardson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Black Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Hiv Knowledge ◽  
Female Population ◽  
American Women ◽  
Heterosexual Women ◽  
Older African American Women

While older African American women (e.g., aged 50 years and older) comprise only 11% of the female population in the United States, they account for 50% of HIV diagnoses among women in this age group. Unique sociocultural factors, including a lack of HIV knowledge and stigma, contribute to HIV risk among older African American women. The goal of this qualitative study was to obtain a nuanced perspective from older African American women about HIV knowledge and experiences with HIV using the framework of intersectionality theory. Focus groups were conducted with 35 African American women who were 50 years and older, nonpartnered, and heterosexual. Women were asked what they knew about HIV and if they thought older women were at risk for HIV. A thematic analysis using NVivo 11 yielded two central themes and three subthemes: HIV knowledge, including experiential knowledge, superficial knowledge, and no knowledge, and stigma around HIV in the Black church. Implications for developing HIV prevention programs and testing messages are discussed.

scholarly journals African American Women and Domestic Violence: Addressing their Voice of Silence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Kennedy ◽  
Chalice Rhodes (Former Jenkins)
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Slave Owner ◽  
American Women ◽  
Strong Black Women

Abstract Historically, during slavery, the international slave trade promoted normalization of violence against African American women. During slavery, African American women endured inhuman conditions because of the majority race views of them as being over-sexualized, physically strong, and immoral. This perception of the African American women as being highly sexual and more sexual than white women results in slave owner justifying their sexual violation and degrading of the African American women. The stereotypical representations of African American women as strong, controlling, dangerous, fearless, and invulnerable may interfere with the African American women receiving the needed services for domestic violence in the community. The Strong Black Women Archetype has been dated back to slavery describing their coping mechanism in dealing with oppression by developing a strong, less traditionally female role. The authors developed a model: The Multidimensional Perspectives of Factors Contributing to Domestic Violence of African American Women in the United States. This model depicts historically, the factors contributing to domestic violence of African American women in the United States. Also, this model addressed the African American women subscribing to the Strong Black Women Archetype to cope with domestic violence. Despite the increase in domestic violence in African American women, they focused more on the issue of racism instead of sexism in America. African American women have experienced the two obstacles of racism and sexism in America. However, African American women and men believe racism is more critical than sexism. Therefore, domestic violence in the African American population may remain silent because of cultural loyalty. However, the voice of silence of African American females is gradually changing with the upcoming generations.

scholarly journals Acculturative status, age, and hypertension among African American women

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2083
Author(s):  
Fern J. Webb ◽  
Christina Jones ◽  
Ross Jones ◽  
Kristen Morga ◽  
Lori Bilello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
American Women ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Research Assistants

Background: Understanding culture’s impact on hypertension (HTN) is important since its prevalence in African American women (AAW) in the United States is among the highest. It is therefore important to know if younger AAW have similar acculturation status as older AAW when developing culturally relevant interventions.  The objective of this study was to examine the association between acculturation status and age, determining whether acculturation status and age are significantly associated with hypertension among AAW.Methods: Acculturation status, age, and HTN were analyzed using data from the listening to our voices study (LOVS), a population-based observational study of 294 AAW conducted throughout Florida. LOVS was promoted via African American women research assistants trained to inform and recruit AAW living in Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa.Results: Findings demonstrate that AAW held traditional values regardless of age. Moreover, AAW of younger ages had higher average acculturation scores compared with older AAW indicating stronger agreement with traditional values, practices and beliefs. Acculturation subscale scores were not associated with HTN. AAW with HTN scored higher on the traditional food subscale compared to AAW without HTN.Conclusions: These findings indicate the significance of considering the beliefs, values, and practices of AAW when developing health interventions. Health interventions developed should be tailored toward AAW of varying ages to incorporate activities relevant to their cultural beliefs, values and practices.

scholarly journals Gene-Environment Interaction for Hypertension Among African American Women Across Generations

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn Y. Taylor ◽  
Yan V. Sun ◽  
Steven C. Hunt ◽  
Sharon L.R. Kardia
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Cytosolic Calcium ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Chromosome 2 ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Offspring Cohort ◽  
American Women

African American women have the highest prevalence of hypertension and obesity of any group in the United States. African American girls have the highest incidence of obesity of any groups of children in the nation, and diagnoses of hypertension have been rising among this group. Because both genetic heredity and body mass index (BMI) are important risk factors for hypertension, this study examined the gene-BMI interaction for hypertension across the lifespan in two generations of African American women. Participants comprised of 868 African American women in the parent cohort and 322 in the offspring cohort from the Hypertension Genetic Epidemiology Network (HyperGEN) study, part of the Family Blood Pressure Program (FBPP). A total of 115 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were evaluated among the parent cohort and 491 among the offspring cohort for tests of SNP-BMI interaction using methods of false discovery rate (FDR; <.20) and examination of minor allele frequency (MAF; >.05) and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (>.10). One SNP (located in the CAPN 13 gene, rs1879282) passed adjustments for the multiple testing mentioned above and had a significant (p < .01) gene-BMI interaction on both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) among African American female offspring. The rs1879282 SNP is located on chromosome 2 on the calpain (CAPN) 13 gene, which is part of a family of cytosolic calcium-activated proteases involved in apoptosis, cell division, modulation of integrin—cytoskeletal interactions, and synaptic plasticity. This SNP was not available for testing in the African American parent cohort.

Hitch a Sugar to a Protein

2019 ◽  
pp. 197-222
Author(s):  
Janet R. Gilsdorf
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Bacterial Meningitis ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control ◽  
American Children ◽  
Native Alaskan

The success of the conjugate Hib vaccines has been spectacular. Prior to their introduction, an estimated 10,000 cases of Hib meningitis occurred annually in the United States, which was approximately 1 in 300 children. It was even higher among native Alaskan and American Indian children. Since the widespread use of the vaccine, the disease has nearly disappeared in the United States, with only 40 cases in children under age 5 years reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014. Thus, bacterial meningitis, once a scourge that killed and damaged too many American children is, for the most part, now a bad memory.

Nurses’ Implementation of Guidelines for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn L. Cason ◽  
Tracy Tyner ◽  
Sue Saunders ◽  
Lisa Broome
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
Intensive Care Units ◽  
Oral Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Ventilator Associated Pneumonia ◽  
Care Protocol ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control

• Background Ventilator-associated pneumonia accounts for 47% of infections in patients in intensive care units. Adherence to the best nursing practices recommended in the 2003 guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should reduce the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia. • Objective To evaluate the extent to which nurses working in intensive care units implement best practices when managing adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation. • Methods Nurses attending education seminars in the United States completed a 29-item questionnaire about the type and frequency of care provided. • Results Twelve hundred nurses completed the questionnaire. Most (82%) reported compliance with hand-washing guidelines, 75% reported wearing gloves, half reported elevating the head of the bed, a third reported performing subglottic suctioning, and half reported having an oral care protocol in their hospital. Nurses in hospitals with an oral care protocol reported better compliance with hand washing and maintaining head-of-bed elevation, were more likely to regularly provide oral care, and were more familiar with rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia and the organisms involved than were nurses working in hospitals without such protocols. • Conclusions The guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not consistently or uniformly implemented. Practices of nurses employed in hospitals with oral care protocols are more often congruent with the guidelines than are practices of nurses employed in hospitals without such protocols. Significant reductions in rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia may be achieved by broader implementation of oral care protocols.

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