Poor Ethnic Minorities Research Articles

Managing Oral Health: Knowledge and Perceptions of California Advanced Practice Registered Nurses

In 2000, the United States (U.S.) Surgeon General's Report identified dental disease as a silent epidemic and linked an individual's oral health to their overall health and well-being [1]. Shortly thereafter, a public-private partnership, A National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health, was developed for the purpose of integrating efforts to facilitate improvement of the nation's health through oral health activities [2]. Subsequent reports, as well as the inclusion of oral health as one of the Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators continue to affirm the significance of oral health as an important population health matter [3-5]. Although oral health has improved for many over the past decade, oral diseases remain prevalent across the country, particularly among vulnerable and underserved populations, including poor children, racial and ethnic minorities, and older adults.

Barriers to Hospital Deliveries among Ethnic Minority Women with Religious Beliefs in China: A Descriptive Study Using Interviews and Survey Data

Background: China has made great progress in improving hospital delivery-the coverage of hospital delivery has increased to above 95% in most regions- some regions lag behind owing to geographic and economic inequality, particularly the poor ethnic minority areas of the Sichuan Province. This study explores factors which may influence hospital delivery from multiple perspectives, with implications for practice and policy. Methods: A framework analysis approach was used to identify and categorize the main barriers and levers to hospital delivery. Our analysis draws on basic information from the sampled counties (Butuo and Daofu). Results: The hospital delivery rate was below 50% in the two sampled areas. In both areas, the “New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme” and “Rural hospital delivery subsidy” were introduced, but only Butuo county had a transportation subsidy policy. Socioeconomically disadvantaged women in both counties who delivered their babies in hospitals could also apply for financial assistance. A lack of transport was among the main reasons for low hospital delivery rates in these two counties. Furthermore, while the hospital delivery costs could be mostly covered by “New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme” or “Rural Hospital Delivery Subsidy”, reimbursement was not guaranteed. People in Daofu county might be affected by their Buddhism religion for hospital delivery. Women in Butuo following the Animism religion would refuse delivery in hospitals because of language barriers. Traditional lay beliefs were the main factor that influenced hospital delivery; their understandings of reproductive health varied, and many believed that childbirth should not be watched by strangers and that a home delivery was safe. Conclusions: This study has highlighted a number of barriers and levers to hospital delivery in rural poor ethnic minority areas which could inform and improve the access and rate of hospital delivery rate; thereby reducing health inequalities in maternal and child health in China.

CULTURAL PRACTICES ON TEMPERATE FRUITS GROWING IN TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL ZONES

Fruit production regions around the world are now experiencing significant changes in their growing conditions. Farmers already face greater challenges growing temperate fruits in subtropical and tropical regions compared to temperate regions, but time of production provides substantial farm gate returns. Climate variability is impacting on profitability, yields, fruit quality and phenological performance. Breeding of new low-chill cultivars and selection of new rootstocks have assisted farmers to negate some effects of climate variability. New cultivars have also allowed new growing regions to be developed. Market niches that were not previously considered accessible are now being targeted with temperate fruit from subtropical and tropical regions. New training systems that improving light penetration into the canopy and canopy management practices to control vegetative growth have substantially increased fruit size and enhanced fruit quality, providing consumers with a highly consistent product. Crop manipulation practices to enhance and concentrate flowering periods, decrease harvesting costs, improve fruit quality and increased the profitability of growing temperate fruits in subtropical and tropical regions. Furthermore, cultural practices, such as the use of new fertiliser and irrigation management practices and crop manipulators to delay fruit maturation have also significantly enhance fruit size and quality. The growing temperate fruits in subtropical and tropical of regions of Asia has significantly improve the socioeconomic status of poor ethnic minority groups living in areas where low-chill temperate fruits can be successfully grown.

Do the poorest ethnic minorities benefit from a large-scale poverty reduction program? Evidence from Vietnam

To increase the opportunities for poor ethnic minorities to benefit from economic growth the government of Vietnam implemented a program entitled ‘Socio-economic Development for the Communes Facing Greatest Hardships in the Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas’ during 2006 - 2010. This paper provides empirical evidence of this program’s impacts on households in the project areas. We find that the program had positive impacts on several important outcomes of the ethnic minority households, including productive asset ownership, household durables ownership, and rice productivity. Among higher-order outcomes, they enjoyed positive impacts in income from agriculture, household total income, and household per-capita income. A particularly important result is that poverty among minority households in treatment communes declined significantly more than it declined in comparison communes. Finally, ethnic minority households enjoyed a reduction in travel time to health facilities, relative to households in control communes.

A Review of Swidden Agriculture in Southeast Asia

Swidden agriculture is by far the dominant land use system in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia (SEA). It provides various valuable subsistence products to local farmers, mostly the poor ethnic minority groups. Controversially, it is also closely connected with a number of environmental issues. With the strengthening regional economic cooperation in SEA, swidden agriculture has experienced drastic transformations into other diverse market-oriented land use types since the 1990s. However, there is very limited information on the basic geographical and demographic data of swidden agriculture and the socio-economic and biophysical effects of the transformations. International programs, such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), underscore the importance of monitoring and evaluating swidden agriculture and its transition to reduce carbon emission due to deforestation and forest degradation. In this context, along with the accessibility of Landsat historical imagery, remote sensing based techniques will offer an effective way to detect and monitor the locations and extent of swidden agriculture. Many approaches for investigating fire occurrence and burned area can be introduced for swidden agriculture mapping due to the common feature of fire relatedness. In this review paper, four broad approaches involving spectral signatures, phenological characteristics, statistical theory and landscape ecology were summarized for swidden agriculture delineation. Five research priorities about swidden agriculture involving remote sensing techniques, spatial pattern, change, drivers and impacts were proposed accordingly. To our knowledge, a synthesis review on the remote sensing and outlook on swidden agriculture has not been reported yet. This review paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of swidden agriculture studies in the domains of debated definition, trends, remote sensing methods and outlook research in SEA undertaken in the past two decades.

Commentary on Genberg et al. (2011): The structural vulnerability imposed by hypersegregated US inner-city neighborhoods - a theoretical and practical challenge for substance abuse research

Commentary on Genberg et al. (2011): The structural vulnerability imposed by hypersegregated US inner-city neighborhoods - a theoretical and practical challenge for substance abuse research

Use of School Nurse Services Among Poor Ethnic Minority Students in the Urban Pacific Northwest

To determine whether patterns in student use of school nurse services existed according to poverty, race, and ethnicity. Cross-sectional descriptive study of 51,767 visits to school nurses made by 12,797 middle and high school students was conducted. Data were collected and analyzed by race, ethnicity, and poverty. Individual-level quantitative data on student visits to school nurses were collected via the School Nurse Entry Database. Numbers and types of student visits were measured, along with the demographic characteristics of student visitors. Poverty was the largest driver of visits to school nurses among all racial and ethnic groups. Poverty was a larger influence on White students' use of services, suggesting that factors related to race, ethnicity, or culture may have larger effects on promoting visits to school nurses by students of color. Subethnic Asian and Hispanic groups showed visit patterns that deviated from aggregated visit rates. Knowledge of visit patterns among poor, ethnic, and subethnic populations is important-and particularly urgent with the advent of national health reform-in informing and improving public health and school nursing policy and practice.

Ethnic differences in geoscience attitudes of college students

While a gender balance remains elusive in the geosciences [de Wet et al., 2002], the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in these fields is at least as great a concern.A number of cultural and social factors have been proposed to explain the poor ethnic minority representation in the geosciences, including limited exposure to nature, deficient academic preparation, inadequate financial resources to pursue higher education, ignorance of career opportunities in the geosciences, insufficient family support, and misconceptions of the field.

''Black'' Cultural Capital, Status Positioning, and Schooling Conflicts for Low-Income African American Youth

Previous literature has failed to empirically demonstrate the conceptual distinction that social scientists make between "dominant" and "non-dominant" cultural capital. This article provides evidence of the coexistence of these two forms of capital within the social and academic lives of poor ethnic minority students. Using in-depth interviews with 44 low-income African American youth, I illustrate how these students negotiate their perceptions of the differential values placed by educators on these two forms of capital. Often, scholars research the effects of (dominant) cultural capital in social reproduction across various social classes, but not the influence of (non-dominant) cultural capital on status relations within socially marginalized communities. By taking into account the interplay between these two forms of capital in the lives of low-income minority students, researchers might develop a more complete and nuanced understanding of how culture ultimately affects the prospects of mobility for lower status social groups.

Awards Honor Psychiatrists Who Confront Obstacles to Patient Care

Awards Honor Psychiatrists Who Confront Obstacles to Patient Care

Alcohol and spouse abuse ethnic differences.

This chapter examines theoretical and empirical evidence on the interplay between ethnicity, structural and cultural factors, and alcohol-related assaults against wives and considers whether there is a differential vulnerability to such assaults among varying ethnic groups. Our review demonstrated that structural factors emerged as dominant in their influence on alcohol-related wife assaults in varying ethnic groups. The empirical evidence, though limited, showed that the linkages between drinking and wife beating are not just a problem of poor ethnic minorities. Heavy drinking per se is associated similarly in Hispanic-American and Anglo-American families. However, we also identified differences among Hispanic subgroups, as well as cultural variations in drinking patterns that differentially affected wife assaults. Although data on alcohol-wife assault relationships among African Americans are extremely limited, the available evidence indicates little or no effect of drinking by African-American men on wife assaults, after taking other socioeconomic variables into account. Empirical evidence did not support the saliency of particular cultural beliefs favoring violence toward women as intrinsic to any one ethnic group. The major cultural differences in alcohol-related cognitions are consistent with the greater legitimation of alcohol-related misbehavior and the acceptance of "machismo" drinking by Hispanic Americans compared to Anglo-Americans.

Poverty and Inequality in Bosnia and Herzegovina After the Civil War

By taking advantage of new data we provide the first overview on poverty and inequality in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war. We use a household survey commissioned by the World Bank which, despite limitations, helps shed some light on poverty risk and distribution of income in the country with respect to three issues: regional variation, ethnic differences, and household characteristics. We find large contrasts between the two entities in the country, the Federation and Republika Srpska. Ethnic cleansing may have exacerbated the differences among regions, as those poor ethnic minorities with the lowest opportunity cost migrated to regions where they were the ethnic majority. Remittances appear to play a role in ameliorating poverty. Inaddition, there are some signs that education may be a factor in preventing poverty.

A Sociolinguistic View of the Mexican-American Speech Community: A Review of the Literature

Sociolinguistics, itself a relatively young field of scholarly endeavor, more and more has been reflecting an interest in Mexican Americans insofar as they, like blacks and American Indians, constitute a distinct linguistic-social group that is grappling with the problems common to poor ethnic minorities in the United States. This paper intends to survey the literature existing to date on the Chicano speech community as viewed from a sociocultural vantage point.