Risk Factors for COVID-19 Mortality Among People Living with HIV: A Scoping Review

People living with HIV (PLWH) are particularly vulnerable to worsened outcomes of COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to provide a scoping review of the literature to assess the risk factors for COVID-19 mortality among PLWH. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Global Health, and WHO Coronavirus Database. Articles were eligible for inclusion if they were in English, included PLWH who died after COVID-19 infection, and described risk factors for mortality. Results were descriptively synthesized and pooled thereafter. Study quality was assessed using the Joanna Brigg Institute’s critical appraisal tools. 20 studies were eligible for inclusion, with the pooled death rate being 11.7%. Age was a major risk factor, especially after 50 (23.2%) and after 70 (41.8%), and males had a death rate nearly double that of females. As total comorbidities increased, the death rate also greatly increased; among those with comorbidities, the highest fatality rates were those with cardiovascular disease (30.2%), chronic kidney disease (23.5%), obesity (22.4%), and diabetes (18.4%). Other risk factors for mortality among PLWH included having a Black racial background, being an injection drug user, being a smoker, and having a CD4 cell count below 200. There is a need to better study confounding factors, and to understand how vaccination influences mortality risk. Overall, the findings highlight a need to ensure that focus is placed on the varying demographics of PLWH amidst COVID-19 control efforts.

Do Identity Frames Impact Support for Multiracial Candidates? The Case of Kamala Harris

The number of multiracial candidates seeking office is growing in an increasingly diverse America. This raises questions about how the media frame candidates with potentially complex racial backgrounds and how voters respond to these frames. We investigate the impact of media frames that emphasize race and gender attributes using survey experiments on Kamala Harris—the first Black woman and first Asian woman vice president. Our findings are mixed. In a survey experiment conducted after her nomination, headlines emphasizing different elements of Harris’s race or gender had no impact on public attitudes. In an experiment conducted after Harris was inaugurated, however, headlines that cued her gender only or both her gender and her Black racial background boosted popular support. Taken together, these findings suggest that some types of identity-based cues may matter, but the effects are sensitive to experimental settings and contexts.

Epigenome association study for DNA methylation biomarkers in buccal and monocyte cells for female rheumatoid arthritis

Genetics (i.e., mutations) has been assumed to be the major factor in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) etiology, but accounts for a minority of the variance in disease risk for RA. In contrast to genetics, the environment can have dramatic impacts on epigenetics that associate with disease etiology. The current study used buccal cells and purified blood monocytes from two different clinical cohorts involving Caucasian or African American female populations with or without arthritis. The differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs) between the control and RA populations were identified with an epigenome-wide association study. The DMRs (i.e., epimutations) identified in the buccal cells and monocytes were found to be distinct. The DMR associated genes were identified and many have previously been shown to be associated with arthritis. Observations demonstrate DNA methylation epimutation RA biomarkers are cell type specific and similar findings were observed with the two racial background populations. Rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility epigenetic diagnosis appears feasible and may improve the clinical management of RA and allowpreventative medicine considerations.

A pathway to teaching for paraprofessionals of color

Research has shown that students of color benefit from having teachers who share their racial background. The paraprofessionals and education assistants currently working in schools represent one potential source of such teachers. Many of them are committed to schools and students but need support to obtain a teaching license. Laura Delgado, Kristin Baese, and Ally Hauptman describe a program for helping these paraprofessionals become full-time lead teachers by taking graduate courses while continuing to work as assistants and receiving mentoring support as they move through the licensure process.

Effect of racial background on motor cortical function as measured by threshold tracking transcranial magnetic stimulation

Threshold tracking transcranial magnetic stimulation (TT-TMS) was applied for Caucasians, Han Chinese, and Japanese. No significant differences were found in TMS excitability indexes among races. Recent studies have disclosed that TT-TMS indexes differentiate amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from ALS mimic disorders, with high sensitivity and specificity, in Caucasians. This study suggested that TT-TMS can be applied for the ALS diagnosis in Asian patients, as well as Caucasians.

Atopic dermatitis: Conventional and Integrative Medicine

: Although Western medicine and ideas about atopic dermatitis (AD) have become popular in many Asian countries, local beliefs about the disease and its treatment often prevail. The multi-racial background of these countries as well as the influence of the diverse religions (such as Taoism and Ramadan) in these regions often lead to diverse belief systems about the causes of AD (such as the Chi concept, also known as the balance of yin and yang) and the types of treatment (e.g. herbal remedies, topical versus concoctions and decoctions). In addition, many of the cultural practices are preserved among the southeast Asian minorities residing in the United Kingdom and North America. Eastern treatments typically take a holistic approach to AD and emphasize the psychosomatic component of the disorder. This overview summarizes the difference between Conventional, Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine in epidemiology, etiology, therapy, and prognosis in children with AD. There are several similarities in genetic and environmental factors in epidemiology and etiology; however, differences exist in terms of the concept of management. Complementary and alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and integrative medicine usage are prevalent among the Asian population but are becoming more popular and accepted in Western societies.

Racial Biases in the Publication Process: Exploring Expressions and Solutions

In this guest editorial, we consider racial biases in the publication processes. Drawing on the experiences of a large network of authors, we conclude that such racial biases express themselves in differential responses to two study attributes that covary with the racial background of authors: research topics (less favorable for research on race and diversity) and research samples (less favorable for samples that deviate more from the predominantly White samples from Northern America and Western countries outside of Northern America). We outline possible solutions to reduce racial biases in the publication process.

Understanding vaccine hesitancy with application of Latent Dirichlet Allocation to Reddit Corpora

This research paper explores the underlying factors that contribute toward vaccine hesitancy, resistance, and refusal. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), an unsupervised generative-probabilistic model, we generated latent topics from user generated Reddit corpora on reasons for Vaccine hesitancy. Although we hoped to explore the grounds for vaccine hesitancy across the globe, our findings suggest that the corpus used for analysis had been generated by users living predominantly in the United States.Observation of the topics generated by the LDA model led to the discovery of the following latent factors: (i) fear of risks and side effects, (ii) lack of trust in policymakers, (iii) related to religious belief, (iv) related to mass surveillance theories, (v) perception of vaccination as a precedence to totalitarianism, (vi) racial background pertaining to retrospective events of racial injustice, such as selective sterilization, (vii) depopulation agenda fueled by theories affiliated to Global warming and extinction rebellion, (viii) and perception of vaccination as a campaign to quell immigrant population growth, fueled by reports of coerced sterilization of immigrants in the ICE detention.

Racial Background and Health Behaviors Among Adults With Cancer in Canada: Results of a National Survey

Background: This study was an assessment of the impact of racial background on health behaviors among Canadian adults with a concurrent or past history of a cancer diagnosis. Methods: The Canadian Community Health Survey datasets (2015–2018) were accessed, and adults (age ≥18 years) with cancer were reviewed. Information about the racial background, socioeconomic status, and different health behaviors was reviewed. Multivariable logistic regression analyses for factors associated with different health behaviors were conducted. Results: A total of 20,514 participants with a history of cancer were considered eligible and were included in the analysis. Compared with individuals who self-identified as White, those who self-identified as indigenous were less likely to have received an influenza vaccination in the past year (odds ratio [OR], 1.253; 95% CI, 1.084–1.448), less likely to have drunk alcohol in the past 12 months (OR, 0.641; 95% CI, 0.546–0.752), more likely to be current smokers (OR, 2.245; 95% CI, 1.917–2.630), and more likely to have used recreational drugs in the past 12 years (OR, 1.488; 95% CI, 1.076–2.057). Compared with individuals who self-identified as White, those who self-identified as non-White and nonindigenous were less likely to have received an influenza vaccination in the past year (OR, 1.207; 95% CI, 1.035–1.408), less likely to have drunk alcohol in the past 12 months (OR, 0.557; 95% CI, 0.463–0.671), and less likely to be current smokers (OR, 0.605; 95% CI, 0.476–0.769). Conclusions: Within the Canadian context, there is a considerable variability in the health behaviors of adults with cancer according to their racial background. There is a need to tailor the survivorship care planning of patients with cancer based on socioeconomic context.

The Psychology of Migrant “Illegality”: A General Theory

Critical migration studies emerged to trace how restrictive immigration contexts contribute to conditions of migrant “illegality” and deportability. More recently, researchers have turned to examine diversity in migrants’ experiences, revealing how migrant “illegality” and deportability can take varied forms based on different social factors, including migrants’ immigration status, developmental stage, ethno-racial background, gender, and nationality. Yet, despite increasingly nuanced and contextualized accounts of migrants’ lived experiences, the psychology of migrant “illegality” remains under-theorized, as we lack general concepts and frameworks to explain how deportability shapes, and is shaped by, migrants’ psychosocial lives. This article introduces such a framework by drawing upon findings from two ethnographic studies with undocumented migrants in Canada and the United States. Observing common psychosocial patterns in both groups, I propose cycles of deportability as a framework to capture how migrant “illegality” develops at the psychosocial level through repeated occurrences of status-related stressors, which produce both acute and chronic fears that further require distinct agencies and coping strategies. Next, I examine differences in migrants’ cycles of deportability based on their national context and immigrant generation. I conclude by discussing how this framework can help consolidate previous research findings and guide future psychological and critical migration studies.