Posts tagged minorities

Minorities, Mobile Broadband, and the Management of Chronic Diseases

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11 months ago
by admin in

A new report examines the vast potential of mobile broadband technologies to help address some of the nation’s most pressing health concerns among Hispanics and other minorities.

The report, Minorities, Mobile Broadband, and the Management of Chronic Diseases, summarizes key issues raised during a roundtable discussion among leaders from the government, health care, technology and health policy sectors. The report was prepared by the Joint Center Media and Technology Institute and the Health Policy Institute with support from the UnitedHealth Group Foundation.

The report indicates that mobile devices, telemedicine and health applications can bolster preventive and follow-up care for minority mobile users, thereby improving their health outcomes. Mobile technology also has the potential to reduce administrative expenses and inefficiencies that contribute to rising healthcare costs and reduce access to affordable care.

About 63% of Latinos are wireless Internet users, and they are more likely to own a cell phone (87%) than whites (80%), according to the report.

“In effect, by increasing the ability of some people to manage their own care on an outpatient basis, doctors and hospitals will have more opportunities to devote their time and energies to serving patients with more urgent needs,” the report states.

Hispanic, Other Minority Youth Spend More Time Plugged In

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1 year ago
by admin in
From USA Today

From USA Today

Hispanics and other minorities ages 8-18 consume an average of 13 hours of media content a day, about 4-1/2 hours more than their white counterparts, according to a Northwestern University report, the first national study to focus exclusively on children’s media use by race and ethnicity.

Findings include:

Minority youth spend about an hour and a half more each day than White youth using their cell phones, iPods, etc., to watch TV and videos, play games, and listen to music (3:07 in mobile media use among Asians, 2:53 among Hispanics, 2:52 among blacks, and 1:20 among whites).

Black and Hispanic youth consuming an average of more than three hours of live TV daily (3:23 for blacks, 3:08 for Hispanics, 2:28 for Asians and 2:14 for whites).

TV viewing rates are even higher when data on time-shifting technologies such as TiVo, DVDs, and mobile and online viewing are included (5:54 for black youth, 5:21 for Hispanics, 4:41 for Asians, and 3:36 for whites).

Black and Hispanic youth are more likely to have TV sets in their bedrooms (84% of blacks, 77% of Hispanics compared to 64% of whites and Asians)

About 78% of black and 67% of Hispanic youth eat more meals in front of the TV set compared to 58% of white and 55% of Asian youths.

“In the past decade, the gap between minority and white youth’s daily media use has doubled for blacks and quadrupled for Hispanics,” says Northwestern Professor Ellen Wartella, who directed the study and heads the Center on Media and Human Development in the School of Communication. “The big question is what these disparities mean for our children’s health and education.”

Read more here.

Healthcare Gaps Persist in Every State; Texas Among Least Improved

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1 year ago
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States are seeing improvements in health care quality, but disparities for their minority and low- income residents persist, according to new State Snapshots released today by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island showed the greatest overall performance improvement on a variety of healthcare quality measures in 2010. The five states with the smallest overall performance improvement were Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Among minority and low-income Americans, the level of health care quality and access to services remained unfavorable. The size of disparities related to race and income varied widely across the states.

“Every American should have access to high-quality, appropriate and safe health care, and we need to increase our efforts to achieve that goal because our slow progress is not acceptable,” said AHRQ Director Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy. “These AHRQ 2010 State Snapshots not only provide states with a benchmark on how they are doing in these areas, but they also provide resources that states can use to make improvements.”

To see the 2010 State Snapshots, go here.

Low Health Literacy Linked to Higher Risk of Death and More ER Visits and Hospitalizations

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2 years ago
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Low health literacy in older Americans is linked to poorer health status and a higher risk of death, especially among Latinos and other minorities, according to a new report by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

More than 75 million English-speaking adults have limited health literacy.

This makes it harder for them to understand and use basic health information.

The AHRQ report, an update of a 2004 literature review featuring findings from more than 100 new studies, also found an association between low health literacy in all adults, regardless of age, and more frequent use of hospital emergency rooms and inpatient care, compared with other adults.

The report’s authors also found a link between low health literacy and a lower likelihood of getting flu shots and of understanding medical labels and instructions and a greater likelihood of taking medicines incorrectly.

They also found evidence linking poor health literacy among adult women and underuse of mammograms.

Furthermore, evidence from a small but growing body of studies suggests that differences in health literacy levels are related to racial and ethnic disparities. For example, flu shot rates among seniors, enrollment of children in health insurance programs and taking medications as instructed by a health care professional are lower among minorities.

“Ensuring that people understand health care information is critical to a high-quality, safe health care system,” said AHRQ Director Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy. “Improving health literacy will be a major step in the nation’s efforts to enhance health care quality and safety.”

Read here about a federal plan to improve health literacy by engaging organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals and families in a linked, multi-sector effort to improve health literacy.

Minorities Still Face Daunting Transportation Issues in U.S.

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2 years ago
by admin in ,
Angela Glover Blackwell (photo from the Equity Blog)

Angela Glover Blackwell (photo from the Equity Blog)

Many of us are familiar with the historic connection between civil rights and transportation, from Plessy vs. Ferguson in the 1890s to the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the 1960s, writes Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, in a recent e-mail to PolicyLink followers.

Today, transportation remains a 21st century civil rights issue for minorities and low-income people.

For example, nearly 20% of African American households, 14% of Latino households, and 13% of Asian households lack access to automobiles, compared with nearly 5% of white households.

Also, nearly 60 percent of public transportation riders are people of color.

For decades, advocates all over have continued to push for much-needed reforms in America’s transportation policies that will help bridge this divide. This month, Glover Blackwell spoke with National Public Radio for three different programs dedicated to this important topic:

Glover Blackwell urges advocates to continue spreading the word about this issue. Learn more about Glover Blackwell and her work at PolicyLink.

Why Are More Latinos Going to College?

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2 years ago
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A record 2.6 million full-time freshmen enrolled in 6,100 institutions during the start of the recession (2007–2008), with the percentage of Latino enrollment outpacing all other racial/ethnic groups, according to the Pew Research Center, DiversityInc reports.

According to Pew’s new report, Minorities and the Recession-Era College Enrollment Boom, the 6 percent enrollment spike was the largest increase in 40 years. And the majority of growth came from Latino and black student enrollment: Between 2007 and 2008, Latino freshmen enrollment grew 15 percent and black enrollment jumped 8 percent, compared with an increase of only 3 percent among white freshmen.

What else did the study find?

  • The college-enrollment boom is a reflection of national demographic changes. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that high-school completion rates among Latinos hit a record 70 percent in October 2008, up 2.5 percentage points over the previous year and a larger increase than other  groups.
  • As a result, freshmen enrollment was concentrated in states with large Latino populations. California topped the list. Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico also saw higher-than-average growth in freshmen enrollment.
  • Two-year institutions, primarily community colleges, reported the greatest increase in enrollment at 11 percent. Freshmen enrollment also grew by 11 percent at private, for-profit institutions, including four-year colleges and universities, two-year colleges and less-than-two-year schools.

“In a nation whose population of youths is far more diverse than its population of adults, each new year brings a slightly larger share of minority teenagers into the pool of potential college freshmen,” states the report. “In addition, the first year of the recession was a time when young Hispanics, in particular, were completing high school at record rates.”

Physicians Say Language, Cultural Barriers Hurting Patient Care

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3 years ago
by admin in

Nearly half of U.S. physicians say language or cultural barriers are obstacles to providing high-quality patient care, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change, HealthLeaders Media reports.

About 48 percent of all physicians reported difficulties communicating with patients due to language or cultural barriers, and said they considered it a problem that affects their ability to provide high-quality care. At least 97 percent said they have at least some non-English speaking patients.

Yet less than 5 percent viewed these barriers as problems that could result in disparities in care among minorties:

The study, HSC Issue Brief–Modest and Uneven: Physician Efforts to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities, shows there is a great need to address the problem of language and cultural communication as the U.S. becomes more diversified, says James D. Reschovsky, PhD, senior health researcher for the Center for Studying Health System Change and co-author of the study. The study, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, includes responses from more than 4,700 physicians and the response rate was 62%.

The issue takes on more urgency in the U.S. because an ever-increasing number of people speak a language other than English at home, according to Reschovsky.

Read more here.

Minority Kids Have Higher Rates of Injuries/Deaths Due to Toy Products

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3 years ago
by admin in

toys

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you know minority children are more at-risk for injury or death associated with toys?

A recent study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggested minority children have higher rates of preventable injuries and deaths associated with children products.

Read this from the U.S. Office of Minority Health before buying that toy your princess and king can’t live without.

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