Chicago Experience Research Articles

An Interethnic Paradox: Chicago's Irish and Everyone Else

An Interethnic Paradox: Chicago's Irish and Everyone Else

American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish ChicagoPoles in Illinois

American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish ChicagoPoles in Illinois

Competing Bioaerosols May Influence the Seasonality of Influenza-Like Illnesses, including COVID-19. The Chicago Experience.

Data from Chicago confirm the end of flu season coincides with the beginning of pollen season. More importantly, the end of flu season also coincides with onset of seasonal aerosolization of mold spores. Overall, the data suggest bioaerosols, especially mold spores, compete with viruses for a shared receptor, with the periodicity of influenza-like illnesses, including COVID-19, a consequence of seasonal factors that influence aerosolization of competing species.

Funding a Peoples’ Food Justice Geography? Community–Academic Collaborations as Geographic Praxis

Community–academic collaborations that value experience-based knowledge alongside institutional ways of knowing have long been of interest in geography. In 1984, Harvey proposed a “peoples’ geography” that would integrate nonacademic knowledge into the field, increasing geography’s potential to help create a just world. Recent community–academic food justice collaborations have taken up this proposition through initiatives addressing issues from food access to dismantling racism, suggesting possibilities for a “peoples’ food justice geography.” Grant funding is often necessary for such work and might allow for more equitable participation or increase project reach but can necessitate redistribution of time spent on project activities, reinforce hierarchies, or be counterproductive to systemic change. If funding for community–academic food justice collaborations is to help create an inclusive and nonelitist geographic praxis, deeper understanding of its effects is essential. This article explores these possibilities. Drawing from an examination of the U.S. food funding landscape and field experiences in Chicago and New York, we show how funding, or lack thereof, can affect such collaborations. We argue that despite sustained debate about philanthropy and social change, with long-term vision, funding can advance food justice goals. We conclude with reflections on the relevance for a peoples’ food justice geography.

Trends in Heart Failure Mortality Disparities Before and After the Implementation of The Affordable Care Act: The Chicago Experience

Background Heart failure remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States affecting 6.2 million Americans, with a projected prevalence of > 8 million affected by 2030. The impact of heart failure is not shared equitably, the overall age-adjusted death rate for heart failure is 89.7 per 100,000. African American males (118.2) and females (86.0) have a higher death rate compared to white men (111.3) and women (80.4). Studies have also shown that economic burden has been associated with increased heart failure mortality. Access to care has been associated with poor outcomes in HF. The Patient protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law March 10th, 2010 and led to increased health insurance coverage and increased healthcare access. In this study we describe the secular trends on HF mortality in the city of Chicago. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of the City of Chicago Department of Public Health's Epidemiology & Public Health Informatics Data portal from 1999-2017. City level heart failure mortality rates were collected in rates per 100,000 and assessed for change prior to implementation of the ACA and late implementation of the ACA. Mortality rates were categorized by race, gender, and economic hardship. Economic hardship was defined by the 6 variable economic hardship index and was subcategorized as high, medium, and low hardship. Results Overall age-adjusted heart failure mortality rates decreased annually by -1.9% by the end of the pre-ACA period (p= 0.001). By the late ACA period there was a +1.8% annual increase in overall heart failure mortality (p = 0.001). African Americans had a -2.4% reduction and Whites had a -1.14% reduction prior to ACA. Post ACA African Americans had a +2.9% annual increase in HF mortality, and Whites had a -1.14% reduction (p = 0.001). In women HF mortality decreased annually by -2.9% pre-ACA (0.001) and continued to decline by -1.1% (p = .001) by late ACA. HF Mortality in men decreased by -1.1% (p = .004) annually pre-ACA, and increased by +3.1% (p = .001) annually by late ACA. Medium economic burden was associated with a +5.7% (p = .009) annual increase in HF mortality by late ACA. No difference was observed in those with high or low economic burden. Conclusions Following implementation of the ACA, the city of Chicago experienced an increase in the rate of HF mortality. The post ACA period was also notable for widening of racial, gender, and economic disparities in HF mortality. Further investigation into contributing factors is warranted.

Brian Turnbull Robson, 1939–2020

Brian Turnbull Robson, 1939–2020

Black Cisgender Women's PrEP Knowledge, Attitudes, Preferences, and Experience in Chicago.

Although black cisgender women in Chicago continue to disproportionally account for new HIV diagnoses, few are on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). We used concurrent mixed-methods to understand women's PrEP knowledge, attitudes, experience, and preferences in Chicago. We surveyed 370 HIV(-) cisgender women visiting a sexually transmitted infection clinic (n = 120) or emergency department (n = 250). Two focus groups were conducted with PrEP-naive women, and interviews were conducted with 7 PrEP-experienced women. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression, and qualitative data using thematic analysis. Majority of women identified as black (83.0%) and had a regular source of health care (70.0%). In the past 6 months, 84.1% had vaginal or anal sex, most with inconsistent condom use (94.2%). Only 30.3% had heard of PrEP, but once explained, one-quarter considered starting PrEP, with protecting health (76.4%) and reducing HIV worry (58.1%) the most common reasons. Factors associated with considering PrEP included being Latina [adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 3.30, 95% confidence interval (CI): (1.21 to 8.99)], recent sexually transmitted infection [aOR: 2.39, 95% CI: (1.25 to 4.59)], and higher belief in PrEP effectiveness [aOR: 1.85, 95% CI: (1.22 to 2.82)]. Most (81.1%) had concerns about taking PrEP with side effects a common concern. Qualitative themes aligned with survey results, revealing a disconnection from current PrEP marketing, need for community-level PrEP education/outreach, and importance of provider trust. Despite significant PrEP implementation work in Chicago, less than one-third of women in our study had heard of PrEP. Once informed, PrEP attitudes and interest were positive. Translating these results into interventions reflecting women's preferences and barriers is critical to increase PrEP uptake by cisgender women in Chicago and elsewhere.

Rethinking urban density through the Chicago experience: a socio-ecological practice approach

Today, many significant factors, including massive globalization, rapid urban population increase, intense urban regeneration, extensive agglomeration, soaring land prices, and a dire need for land preservation, among others, force cities to build upward. However, many cities lack the experience of integrating vertical density into their urban landscape. Within the socio-ecological practice framework, this perspective essay explains and illustrates recent project examples from the City of Chicago. They constitute an extraordinary leap in retrofitting aging urban infrastructure, balancing the horizontal plane with the vertical one, and harmonizing nature with the urban environment. The paper proposes an innovative “eco-density” theoretical framework to improve understanding of Chicago’s spatial structure and socio-ecological experience.

Creating Greeks and Greek-Americans: Geographic and Educational Identity Constructions at the Socrates and Koraes Greek-American Schools

This paper reveals the complex intersectionalities of immigrant identity construction, nationalisms (and national exceptionalisms), and how Greek culture/language schools in the United States significantly influenced and created a Greek and Greek-American Identity. Drawing on the Chicago experience and the Socrates and Koraes Greek-American Schools, this paper interrogates the collaborative relationship between the Greek state, the Greek community in the United States and Greek culture/language schools. Part I of this paper discusses the spatial/scalar character of the construction of the Greek culture/language school phenomenon, and the role of the Greek state played in fixing the definition of “Greekness” by establishing a normative historiography and national identity for the homeland. Also considered in this part is the complex relationship of immigrant identity construction, nationalisms and the construction of Greek national identity using geography and history. Part II surveys the empirical dimension of the phenomenon of Greek culture/language education in the United States. Early Greek immigrant efforts sought to preserve a Greek cultural identity through the Greek culture/language schools. Over time questions arose on what type of Greek identity would be (or could be) preserved in the United States.

Transforming City Streets To Promote Physical Activity And Health Equity.

Most US cities lack built environments that support physical activity, which is a key determinant of health. Making permanent changes to the physical environment to promote physical activity is not always feasible. Play Streets is a place-based intervention that is typically organized by local governments or community organizations and involves temporarily closing streets to create safe places and free opportunities for physical activity. In this descriptive study we examined 162 of Chicago's PlayStreets, held in the summer of 2018, to assess the volume and type of physical activity among youth participants and the variety of services provided to residents. We analyzed implementation data and forms completed after PlayStreets, and we conducted systematic observations at a purposeful sample of PlayStreets. We found that PlayStreets provides opportunities for youth physical activity in areas where opportunities do not otherwise always exist. PlayStreets also provides an avenue for residents to access community resources. This research on Chicago's experience with PlayStreets showed how one city is temporarily turning streets into places for youth physical activity to advance health equity. Local policies that facilitate temporarily closing streets and that provide resources to support opportunities for physical activity and access to community resources can advance health equity in cities nationwide.

10 Year Follow-Up of a Large, Single Institution Prospective Low Dose Rate Prostate Cancer Brachytherapy Series: The Chicago Experience

Beginning in 1997, a dedicated prostate brachytherapy center initiated a prospective data collection intended to evaluate outcomes following low dose rate brachytherapy. The goal of this report is to estimate 10-year biochemical outcomes in a large, closely followed prospective series.

(Re)Producing and challenging gender in and through urban space: women bicyclists’ experiences in Chicago

This research, which uses an intersectional feminist methodological approach, explores the relationships and intersections among women, public urban space, and bicycling, and the gendered processes through which the use of space is claimed, negotiated, and constrained. It builds on the existing scholarship on the gendered nature of public space, and uniquely uses bicycling as the site of inquiry. Drawing primarily from interviews with women cyclists in Chicago, this article explores how gender and other social identities are constructed, challenged, and constituted through an interaction with public space, urban processes and structures, and societal expectations and attitudes. It brings to the forefront and centers these narratives and empirically contextualizes them by linking the scholarship on the gendered (and raced, classed, and sexualized) nature of public space with the scholarship on women’s participation rates and barriers to bicycling. This research examines, through the everyday lived experiences of bicyclists and their multiple subject positions and privileges, how the gendered nature of public space affects the participation and experiences of women cyclists; how public space is negotiated and constrained; and how gender can be both (re)produced and challenged in and through urban space via women bicyclists’ actions. In particular, the research findings explore how women bicyclists must demand and negotiate public space; how their movement and activities are constrained in public space; how gender roles and social reproduction issues intersect with bicycling; and how social, quasi-advocacy group bicycle rides are used as a strategy, with mixed results, to address barriers to women bicyclists’ mobility.

High-accuracy HPV testing versus p16 IHC using multiple clinically relevant outcomes: The University of Chicago Experience.

6020Background: The current most widely used standard for HPV status testing in head & neck cancer is p16 IHC. However, p16 IHC is a surrogate method which does not test directly for HPV genetic ma...

Ben Hecht's Hard-Boiled Decadence: The Flaneur as Reporter

This essay illustrates how Ben Hecht's short stories in The Little Review and the Chicago Daily News crucially expand the scope of burgeoning research into post-Wildean, American Decadence. These works (written between 1915 and 1921) have been over-shadowed by Hecht's later Hollywood career to the point where they have all-but eluded scholarly commentary. However, attention to these vignettes of sensual experience in downtown Chicago reveals that they develop Decadence in a unique direction, which fuses the backstreet Decadence of Arthur Machen and Arthur Symons with the pulp fiction published by Hecht's mentor, H. L. Mencken, in The Black Mask. The result, I argue, is that Hecht's short stories create a hard-boiled Decadence: a new form which uses Decadent language to explore the continuity of Decadent sensuality in the unlikely setting downtown Chicago, at the same time as it uses the emerging tropes of hard-boiled fiction to define the impediments to having a Decadent sensibility in such circumstances.

Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis of Germline Predisposition to Hematopoietic Malignancies: The University of Chicago Experience.

With the increasing use of clinical genomics to guide cancer treatment and management, there is a rise in the identification of germline cancer predisposition syndromes and a critical need for patients with germline findings to be referred for surveillance and care. The University of Chicago Hematopoietic Malignancies Cancer Risk Team has established a unique approach to patient care for individuals with hereditary hematologic malignancies through close communication and coordination between our pediatric and adult programs. Dedicated program members, including physicians, nurses, genetic counselors, and clinical research assistants, screen individuals for cancer predisposition at initial diagnosis through survivorship, in addition to testing individuals with an established family history of a cancer predisposition syndrome. Sample procurement, such as a skin biopsy at the time of bone marrow aspirate/biopsy in individuals with a positive screen, has facilitated timely identification of clinical germline findings or has served as a pipeline for translational research. Our integrated translational research program has led to the identification of novel syndromes in collaboration with other investigators, which have been incorporated iteratively into our clinical pipeline. Individuals are referred for clinical assessment based on personal and family history, identification of variants in susceptibility genes via molecular tumor testing, and during evaluation for matched related allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Upon referral, genetic counseling incorporates education with mindfulness of the psychosocial issues surrounding germline testing at different ages. The training and role of genetic counselors continues to grow, with the discovery of new predisposition syndromes, in the age of improved molecular diagnostics and new models for service delivery, such as telemedicine. With the identification of new syndromes that may predispose individuals to hematologic malignancies, surveillance guidelines will continue to evolve and may differ between children and adults. Thus, utilizing a collaborative approach between the pediatric and adult oncology programs facilitates care within families and optimizes the diagnosis and care of individuals with cancer predisposition syndromes.

Neighbors but Not Classmates: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Local Violent Crime, and the Heterogeneity of Educational Experiences in Chicago

Large urban school districts are increasingly offering their students options that break the link between residential location and school attendance. Individual decisions are likely to aggregate in different ways across communities, leaving students in some neighborhoods with more varied educational experiences. In this paper, I explore these patterns using a complete cohort of Chicago Public School high school freshmen in 2009 (N = 24,019) and explore the characteristics of different schools that students living in the same neighborhood attend. Students in poor and violent neighborhoods attend schools that are more heterogeneous in terms of type, achievement, safety, and student demographics. Students from these neighborhoods also scatter geographically to schools across the city, many traveling quite long distances. In contrast, students from safe and affluent neighborhoods attend many fewer schools, are less likely to make long distance trips, and are more likely to attend school with a large proportion of their neighbors.

Controversies, Authority, and the Limits of Participation: Chicago's 49th Ward

AbstractThis article analyzes an innovative, and relatively successful, experience in Chicago: its participatory budgeting (PB) process. Treating it as process‐in‐the‐making, we are attentive to moments of uncertainty and controversy over the first year of its development. As a process of direct democracy, PB is profoundly ambiguous: it is, in principle, open to all, but it has no way to adjudicate between different ways of knowing and making claims by technical experts, democratically elected office holders, and newly established neighborhood leaders. Because it is a bottom‐up process that in principle does not privilege certain groups, it generates ambiguity over who gets to speak for and on behalf of the whole. In Chicago, each of these ambiguities generated controversies, which generated political talk that implied utopian alternatives that were then settled in ways that closed off these alternatives, in the end reinforcing the power of experts and revaluing the role of established community leaders against newcomers. We contend that the critical literature on participation should be more attentive to moments of conflict, ambiguity, and closure when the outlines of participatory processes are collectively produced.

Racial stratification in infertile men seeking reproductive care: the Chicago experience

We aim to investigate the racial discrepancy among infertile men seeking reproductive care compared to the racial distribution in the greater Chicago area. Retrospective cohort study. We randomly selected a cohort of 250 men presenting to a downtown-based tertiary referral fertility clinic servicing the greater Chicago area for problems related to male infertility. Of those men, a total of 222 patients completed demographic information allowing inclusion in the study. Data was reviewed and their racial distribution was calculated and stratified according to the following groups: White, Black, Hispanic or Others (Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian). Statistics were analyzed by χ2. The table below summarizes our results and shows the racial distribution of male infertile patients seeking reproductive care in greater Chicago compared to the racial distribution of the overall population in the same area.Tabled 1Distribution RacePatient race distributionGreater Chicago race distribution (US 2010 Census and Social Explorer data)P Value (Significance level at 0.05)White64%44%Less than 0.01Black13%24%Less than 0.01Hispanic5%24%Less than 0.01Others18%8%100%100% Open table in a new tab Given that there is no established race related risk for male factor infertility, our data suggests that in the greater Chicago area, patients belonging to the Black and Hispanic race are under-represented, while patients belonging to the White race are overrepresented in the overall studied population pool. Racially stratified reproductive care in the United States has been well established and studied in the infertile female population(1,2). Our findings are the first study proving a statistically significant difference in the race distribution of male patients seeking reproductive care compared to the racial distribution of the general population of the same geographic location. The geographic location of the clinic could affect the observed racial stratification. However, socio-economical differences, level of education, health awareness, and insurance policies and limitations should be considered as contributors and drivers of these differences. We have proven a clear racial discrepancy of male patients who sought reproductive care in an urban tertiary referral fertility clinic covering the greater area of Chicago. This observed disadvantage should be taken into consideration in future reproductive care planning and policies.

P619 Tofacitinib for the treatment of resistant ulcerative colitis: the University of Chicago experience

P619 Tofacitinib for the treatment of resistant ulcerative colitis: the University of Chicago experience

Increased access to care through creation of private foundations: the Chicago experience

Increased access to care through creation of private foundations: the Chicago experience