Impoverished Urban Areas Research Articles

The environmental burden of diarrhea in young children attributable to inadequate sanitation in Brazil

The Global Burden of Disease is the official metrics of World Health Organization in use to support public health evidence-based decision-making. It has been systematically used to assess environmental risk factors such as unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), as part of the measurement of Environmental Burden (EB). This article reports on the first study in Brazil that estimates the EB attributable to unsafe WASH associated with diarrhea for children under five years old for the country and macro-regions for 1998. The EB of diarrhea for this subgroup was estimated using the population attributable fraction (PAF) method for four scenarios of exposition to unsafe WASH. Results of PAF were multiplied by the EB obtained from the 1998 Brazilian GDB Study. The regions with higher EB for children below five years old were north and northeast, both predominantly rural. The EB attributable to unsafe WASH was 15% in 1998. The estimation of the EB of diarrhea contributes to the re-assessment of Brazil's attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in both health and environmental dimensions. Results obtained indicated that the country's precarious conditions of WASH in rural areas are below the goals of MDG, as well as in impoverished urban areas.

Citizenshit: The Right to Flush and the Urban Sanitation Imaginary

For many in the Global North, urban life means that your shit is not your problem. We postulate that a possible reason for the global sanitation failure in urban areas is a disconnect between sanitation expectations—what we term the urban sanitation imaginary—and the practices required by proposed sanitation solutions. The case study presented here is based on interviews with residents of Villa Lamadrid, a marginalized neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which faces significant public health impacts from an inadequate sewage management system. We solicited feedback regarding specific sanitation technologies frequently prescribed for poor urban communities—among them a urine diversion dry toilet with dehydration vaults. Even as this system is posited as ‘sustainable’ for the context of Villa Lamadrid in terms of ecological and economic factors, conversations with residents revealed why this option might not be sustainable in terms of social expectations. On the basis of interviews with community members we have defined four aspects of residents' urban sanitation imaginaries that we consider highly relevant for any consideration of sanitation solutions in this context: (1) an urban citizen does not engage physically or mentally with their shit or its management; (2) an appropriate urban sanitation system requires flushing; (3) systems that require user's engagement with their shit and its management signify rural, underdeveloped, and backward lifestyles; and (4) urban sanitation is a state responsibility, not a local one. Highlighting the urban sanitation imaginary methodologically and analytically goes beyond a discussion of culturally and contextually appropriate technologies. It examines linkages between user expectations and notions of urban citizenship and modernity. Ultimately it also draws attention to the sociopolitical dynamics and environmental justice issues embedded in discussions of sanitation and hygiene. While some of our results are specific to the Villa Lamadrid context, our research more generally suggests the need to consider sanitation imaginaries to reframe the discussion on sanitation interventions, particularly in underserved and impoverished urban areas.

Teach for America... et contre le syndicat ?

Teach for America (TFA) was created in 1990 by a young Princeton Graduate. It seeks to recruit and train graduates from the best universities in the country and send them as teachers in the most impoverished urban areas. Through a sociological analysis of TFA, this article shows how this “civic” program challenges the power of teachers’ unions.

Anal Intercourse and HIV Risk Among Low-Income Heterosexual Women: Findings from Chicago HIV Behavioral Surveillance

Background:Anal intercourse (AI) is a highly efficient route for HIV transmission and has not been well elucidated among heterosexual (HET) women. Heterosexual women living in impoverished urban areas in the US are at increased risk for HIV acquisition. We aim to describe rates of AI and characteristics associated with AI among heterosexual women at increased risk for HIV acquisition living in Chicago.Methods:The Chicago Department of Public Health conducted a survey of HET during 2007 as part of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System. Venue-based, time-location sampling was used to select participants from venues in high-risk areas (census tracts with concurrently high rates of heterosexual AIDS and household poverty). Eligible participants were interviewed anonymously and offered a HIV test.Results:In total, 407 heterosexual women were interviewed. Seventy-one (17%) women reported having AI in the past 12 months, with 61 of the 71 (86%) reporting unprotected AI. In multivariate analysis, women who engaged in AI were more than three times as likely to have three or more sex partners in the past 12 months (OR=3.27, 95% CI 1.53-6.99). AI was also independently associated with STI diagnosis in the past 12 months (2.13, 95% CI 1.06-4.26), and having sexual intercourse for the first time before the age of 15 years (2.23, 95% CI 1.28-3.89).Conclusion:AI was associated with multiple high risk behaviors including a greater number of sexual partners, STI diagnosis, and earlier age at first sex. The combination of risk factors found to be associated with AI call for new HIV prevention services tailored to the needs of women and young girls living in poverty.

Evaluation of a Sexual Abuse Prevention Workshop in a Multicultural, Impoverished Urban Area

Participants in the ESPACE sexual abuse prevention workshop were in grades 1 through 4 and attended three Montreal, Canada, public schools in low socioeconomic areas. The sample was culturally diverse, with half born outside of Canada. An evaluation was conducted to explore the effects associated with participating in the workshop and the effects of booster sessions conducted two years later. Outcomes included knowledge gained, the ability to offer behavioral responses to abusive situations, peer victimization, sense of safety, empathy, self-efficacy, and support. Results revealed that participants in this sample obtained low scores on measures of sexual abuse knowledge and that short booster sessions that elicit children's recall of the learned material might produce greater improvements.

Inconsistent Access to Food and Cardiometabolic Disease: The Effect of Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is defined as limited or uncertain ability to acquire nutritionally adequate and safe foods in socially acceptable ways. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has divided food insecurity into two categories: low food security and very low food security. Low food security is characterized by irregular access to food, binge eating when food is available, overconsumption of energy-dense foods, obesity, and even type 2 diabetes. This type of food insecurity occurs in impoverished urban areas of high-income countries such as the United States. In contrast, very low food security is distinctly different from low food security and can lead to undernutrition and frank starvation. Very low food security is found in developing countries in both rural areas and urban slums. In these countries, food insecurity is often exacerbated by natural disasters and climate changes that compromise food availability. With a focus on the social, economic, and behavioral factors that promote obesity and cardiometabolic disease in food insecure households in the United States, this review will first define the key terms and concepts associated with food insecurity. Then, the characteristics of food insecure households and the relationship to cardiometabolic disease will be discussed. Finally, the cardiac consequences of food insecurity in developing countries will be briefly described.

Sleep disturbance and risk behaviors among inner-city African-American adolescents.

Adolescents tend to experience more problems with sleep loss as a natural consequence of puberty, whereas teens from impoverished urban areas are likely to witness neighborhood violence and/or engage in risk behaviors that may affect sleep. Data from the Mobile Youth Survey, a longitudinal study of impoverished inner-city African-American adolescents (1998-2005; N = 20,716; age range = 9.75-19.25 years), were used to compare paired years of annual surveys elicited by questions about how sleep was affected when bad things happen to friends or family. Using a cross-lagged panel multivariate approach comparing reports for two sequential years and controlling for age/gender plus exposure to traumatic stress and violence, prior sleep disturbance was associated with carrying a knife/gun, brandishing a knife/gun, using a knife/gun, quick temperedness, warmth toward mother, worry, and belief in the neighborhood street code in the latter year. Conversely, seeing someone cut, stabbed, or shot, using alcohol, worry, and internalized anger were associated with sleep disturbance in a latter year. Although a limited measure of sleep disturbance was used, these findings support further research to examine sleep disturbance and risk behaviors among low-income adolescents.

Black–Latino/a relations in Boston: Two trends of collective identification

This study compares and contrasts two ongoing and yet opposed socio-political trends that are symptomatic of today's situation in Boston in the area of Latino/a – Black relations. On the one hand we find the New Majority, a top-down movement that emerged shortly after Boston joined the growing number of American cities in which the non-White minority population has surpassed in numbers the aggregate population of all the White communities, and having the principal objective of building inter-minority-group consensus at the leadership level by issuing calls for the creation of a working coalition among the city's growing number of minority communities, and hoping ultimately to see a unified agenda for all of the city's people of color. On the other, the search for unifying plans of common action is being undercut by drastic and ongoing changes in demographics – particularly due to high levels of immigration in the past two decades – that have provided the background for the collision of interests in minority groups competing for greater access to the scarce federal, state and local resources assigned to Boston's impoverished urban areas. The example of this trend in this study is an English-only workplace policy at Boston's Whittier Street Health Center, implemented in 2003, that went on to have a divisive effect on relations between the city's Blacks and Latinos/as.

Pollution magnet: nano-magnetite for arsenic removal from drinking water

Arsenic contamination in groundwater is a severe global problem, most notably in Southeast Asia where millions suffer from acute and chronic arsenic poisoning. Removing arsenic from groundwater in impoverished rural or urban areas without electricity and with no manufacturing infrastructure remains a significant challenge. Magnetite nanocrystals have proven to be useful in arsenic remediation and could feasibly be synthesized by a thermal decomposition method that employs refluxing of FeOOH and oleic acid in 1-octadecene in a laboratory setup. To reduce the initial cost of production, $US 2600/kg, and make this nanomaterial widely available, we suggest that inexpensive and accessible "everyday" chemicals be used. Here we show that it is possible to create functional and high-quality nanocrystals using methods appropriate for manufacturing in diverse and minimal infrastructure, even those without electricity. We suggest that the transfer of this knowledge is best achieved using an open source concept.

Living in a Mixed-Income Development: Resident Perceptions of the Benefits and Disadvantages of Two Developments in Chicago

Policy-makers in several countries are turning to income- and tenure-mixing strategies in an attempt to reverse decades of social and economic isolation in impoverished urban areas. In the US city of Chicago, all high-rise public housing developments across the city are being demolished, public housing residents are being dispersed throughout the metropolitan area and 10 new mixed-income developments are being created on the footprint of former public housing complexes. Findings are presented from in-depth interviews with residents across income levels and tenures at two mixed-income developments and the paper explores residents' perceptions of the physical, psychological and social impacts of the mixed-income setting on their lives.

The prevalence and health implications of violence in impoverished communities in Johannesburg

The experience of violent crime can have a significant impact on the physical and psychological well-being of victims and their families. This paper looks at household experience of violence in five impoverished sites in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Five sites were purposefully selected to reflect the prevailing housing profiles in settings of relative impoverishment in Johannesburg. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on demographic profiles, socioeconomic data, environmental conditions and health status. Bivariate analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between household experience of violence, and potential risk factors and health/social outcomes. Overall, members of 28% of households had been a victim of violence in the year preceding the study. Across sites, experience of violence within households ranged from 21% to 36%. Perceptions of drug abuse (p=0.01) and drug peddling (p=0.03) as being major problems in the neighbourhood, and living in a house of poor quality (p=0.01), were significantly associated with household experience of crime. In households with experience of violence, fear of crime (p=0.03) and depression (p<0.001) were elevated, and levels of exercise in men were decreased (p=0.05). This paper highlights the high prevalence of violence in impoverished urban areas in South Africa, and contributes to existing evidence regarding the associations between experience of violent crime and psychological ill health in affected communities. The high prevalence of violent crime, and the resultant health and social effects, demand a cross-sectoral intervention to reduce violence, with the health and social sectors playing key roles.

Responses to Violence Related Questionnaires by Delinquent, Truant and State-dependent Boys Receiving Treatment in an Extended Day Program

ABSTRACT Violence among adolescent boys in impoverished urban areas is a major public health problem. We assessed violence-related attitudes and beliefs and exposures among 29 delinquent, 22 truant and 12 dependent of the state adolescent boys who attended an urban publicly funded extended day program. One purpose of this study was to assess violence related factors among truant boys as much is unknown about violence in this population. Another objective was to compare truant and dependent boys with delinquent boys to identify violence-related factors distinguishing aggressive/destructive boys from boys with social adjustment problems but who are not aggressive/destructive. All three groups of boys had high exposure to community violence, delinquent friends and anti-social attitudes and beliefs about violence with the highest levels found among delinquents. Absence of a caring adult was pervasive among all groups and highest among delinquents (91% vs. 83%, p = .04), and urgently needs to be addressed.

Immunity against HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis during Co-Infections with Neglected Infectious Diseases: Recommendations for the European Union Research Priorities

Author SummaryInfectious diseases remain a major health and socioeconomic problem in many low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. For many years, the three most devastating diseases, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) have received most of the world's attention. However, in rural and impoverished urban areas, a number of infectious diseases remain neglected and cause massive suffering. It has been calculated that a group of 13 neglected infectious diseases affects over one billion people, corresponding to a sixth of the world's population. These diseases include infections with different types of worms and parasites, cholera, and sleeping sickness, and can cause significant mortality and severe disabilities in low-income countries. For most of these diseases, vaccines are either not available, poorly effective, or too expensive. Moreover, these neglected diseases often occur in individuals who are also affected by HIV/AIDS, malaria, or TB, making the problem even more serious and indicating that co-infections are the rule rather than the exception in many geographical areas. To address the importance of combating co-infections, scientists from 14 different countries in Africa and Europe met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on September 9–11, 2007. The message coming from these scientists is that the only possibility for winning the fight against infections in low-income countries is by studying, in the most global way possible, the complex interaction between different infections and conditions of malnourishment. The new scientific and technical tools of the post-genomic era can allow us to reach this goal. However, a concomitant effort in improving education and social conditions will be needed to make the scientific findings effective.

The limits to local participation and deliberation in the French ‘politique de la ville’

Abstract. Over the past twenty years in France, the politique de la ville (a public policy initiative targeting impoverished urban areas) has constituted one of the main sources of renewal of the discourse concerning social participation. This article looks at whether it has led to a genuine democratisation of policy making. The following four questions are discussed: Have participatory procedures improved the efficiency of public policy? Have they fostered the strengthening of the social bond? Has setting up new procedures improved deliberation between political and nonpolitical actors? And has this new policy generated a renewal of local elites and modified the decision‐making process? The authors conclude that these different attempts have had only a very limited impact.

Debates

While the economic potential of privatizing small‐scale properties in impoverished urban areas of the developing world is receiving a good deal of attention, in reality the potential only applies to a segment of the urban poor. ‘Informally occupied property’, instead of existing as a category, in reality operates as a broad continuum of tenure security. Toward the secure end informal occupation can contain the ingredients that facilitate titling and access to capital via title. But toward the other end, acute tenure insecurity meshes with severe forms of personal, food and livelihood insecurity. This paper discusses the relevancy of the poverty–property rights–capital argument to the segment of the urban poor that is acutely tenure insecure.

Circo social e práticas educacionais não governamentais

A pesquisa qualitativa em tela tenta analisar o circo social cujo objetivo refere-se à inclusão social de jovens das periferias através das artes do circo. Algumas práticas desenvolvidas por organizações educacionais não governamentais no contexto das políticas públicas neoliberais serviram-nos de recorte. Para tal selecionamos como referências teóricas a genealogia de Michel Foucault, o conceito nietzscheano de arte trágica, de cultura cômica popular em Bakhtin e de circo através de seus pesquisadores no Brasil. Indagamos: como vem se dando a aliança, não mais da filantropia com a ciência, mas atualmente com as artes, particularmente o circo? Estaria a arte sob o domínio de uma nova tecnologia?

Becoming Custodial Dads: Exploring Parenting Among Low‐Income and Working‐Class African American Fathers

The authors use an ecological framework and grounded theoretical analysis to explore the circumstances in which working‐class and low‐income custodial African American fathers gain custody of their children, their transition from part‐time to full‐time parents, and the role of support networks in enhancing or inhibiting these men's parenting. Twenty‐four men from an impoverished Midwestern urban area participated in the study. The findings suggest that these men, and perhaps others sharing their demographic profiles, generally become parents by default and are often reluctant to take on a full‐time, single parenting role. Adaptation to the role seems to be enhanced by these men's use of extended kin support networks and shared living arrangements. However, low wages, a lack of sufficient assistance from public assistance programs, and informal custody arrangements often inhibit their fathering.

The Premise and Promise of Citizenship and Civil Society for Renewing Democracies and Empowering Sustainable Communities

State regimes have launched policies to “reinvent” government and “regenerate” communities in peripheral impoverished rural and urban areas to build sustainable communities and reduce poverty. We investigate the impact of policy concepts–the empowerment paradigm, citizenship as citizen participation and inclusion, and associations between the state and civil society–on local areas' success in leveraging dollars to foster sustainable economic and community development in persistently poor rural areas of the U.S. The thirty‐three rural sites of the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities Initiative of the Clinton‐Gore Administration comprise our database. We find that empowering area‐based, low‐income residents through the election mechanism to choose their representatives on the local sites' governing board is strongly and significantly related to both inclusion and citizen participation. Also, the presence of elected citizens with connections to civil society on the governing body contributes strongly to later success in leveraging dollars.

Protective Factors Associated with Children's Emotional Responses to Chronic Community Violence Exposure

The goal of this literature review is to identify protective factors associated with children's emotional responses to chronic community violence exposure for purposes of designing preventive interventions. After a brief description of the prevalence and impact of children's exposure to chronic community violence, protective factors are identified. Community violence is then conceptualized as one of many cumulative environmental risk factors to which children living in impoverished urban areas are likely to be exposed. Examples of how various aspects of social support and coping, the protective factors associated with exposure to community violence and neighborhood disadvantage, might be integrated into preventive intervention are presented. Finally, suggestions are made with regard to future research efforts, which might address some of the methodological problems that are evident in the present literature.

To mitigate, resist, or undo: addressing structural influences on the health of urban populations.

Young to middle-aged residents of impoverished urban areas suffer extra-ordinary rates of excess mortality, to which deaths from chronic disease contribute heavily. Understanding of urban health disadvantages and attempts to reverse them will be incomplete if the structural factors that produced modern minority ghettos in central cities are not taken into account. Dynamic conceptions of the role of race/ethnicity in producing health inequalities must encompass (1) social relationship between majority and minority populations that privilege the majority population and (2) the autonomous institutions within minority populations that members develop and sustain to mitigate, resist, or undo the adverse effects of discrimination. Broad social and economic policies that intensify poverty or undermine autonomous protections can reap dire consequences for health. Following from this structural analysis and previous research, guiding principles for action and suggestions for continued research are proposed. Without taking poverty and race/ethnicity into account, public health professionals who hope to redress the health problems of urban life risk exaggerating the returns that can be expected of public health campaigns or overlooking important approaches for mounting successful interventions.