Population Of New Orleans Research Articles

The Jarring Reality: Adolescent and Pediatric Gunshot Trauma on the Rise in a Major Urban Institution.

Firearms are the leading cause of death in the pediatric population, and the incidence of firearm injury is on the rise in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence of pediatric gunshot wounds (GSWs) in New Orleans from 2012 to 2023 and evaluate factors that contribute to mortality. A retrospective analysis of pediatric GSWs was conducted using the trauma database at a Level I trauma center in New Orleans, Louisiana. All patients aged 0 to 18 years with a GSW between January 1, 2012, and January 1, 2023, were evaluated. Demographic data, Injury Severity Score (ISS), hospital length of stay (LOS), discharge disposition, intent of injury, mortality, firearm type, orthopaedic injuries, and related surgical procedures were extracted from the database. Linear regression was used to assess the trend of GSWs over time, and logistic regression was used to identify variables that predicted mortality. Statistical significance was defined as α = 0.05. Geographic information system (GIS) mapping was conducted using the ZIP code location of injury to identify geographic areas with the greatest number of GSWs. A significant increasing trend was observed in the number of pediatric GSWs when adjusted for changes in population ( P = 0.014), and the number of GSWs increased 43.2% over the duration of the study. Higher ISS, shorter length of stay, and self-inflicted intent of injury were notable predictors of mortality. Three hundred fifty-four patients (31.4%) had at least one orthopaedic injury, and of the survivors, 365 patients (35.6%) required at least one surgical procedure in the operating room during their admission. The number of GSWs in the pediatric population in New Orleans presenting at a large level 1 trauma center demonstrated a statistically significant increasing trend over the past 11 years. ISS and self-inflicted intent were predictive of mortality within this pediatric patient population.

From Slavery to Civil Rights: On the Streetcars of New Orleans, 1830s–Present

In From Slavery to Civil Rights, Hilary McLaughlin-Stonham promises to offer at heart a political history of the rise and decline of Jim Crow in Louisiana. She focuses on how politicians developed segregationist legislation and whether the laws were in lockstep with the state's white population. The streetcars of New Orleans serve as the site for this political history because of the city's primary importance in the state and because over many decades conflicts over racial hierarchy often played out on streetcars. The book's strongest sections cover the era from 1890 to 1930. In this period the streetcar system expanded as the population of New Orleans grew. Racial hierarchy and the enabling legislation of segregationist laws solidified across the South. In 1890 Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which helped pave the way for laws that prohibited miscegenation and disfranchised Black voters. McLaughlin-Stonham analyzes not just how the Separate...

Blood Type Does Not Affect Morbidity or Mortality in COVID-19 Infections, As Assessed By a Clinical Severity Scoring System

Introduction:Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the novel coronavirus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to lead to worldwide morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to determine if there was an association between blood type and clinical outcomes measured by a calculated morbidity score and mortality rates in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at our institution. The secondary aim was to investigate the association between patient characteristics (specifically age, gender, comorbid conditions, and race) and clinical outcomes and mortality in patients with confirmed SARS-COV-2 infection.Methods:Logistic regression was used to determine what factors were associated with death. A total morbidity score was constructed based on overall patient's COVID-19 clinical course. This score was modeled using Quasi-Poisson regression. Bayesian variable selection was used for the logistic regression to obtain a posterior probability that blood type is important in predicting worsened clinical outcomes and death.Results:Patients with blood type B were more likely to be African American, and patients with blood type AB were less likely to be male. Neither Blood type nor Rh+ status was a significant moderator of death or total morbidity score in regression analyses. Deviance based tests showed that blood type and Rh+ status could be omitted from each regression without a significant decrease in prediction accuracy. Bayesian variable selection showed that the posterior probability that any blood type related covariates were important in predicting death was .10. Increased age (aOR = 3.37, 95% CI = 2.44 - 4.67), male gender (aOR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.08-1.69), and number of comorbid conditions (aOR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.01-1.63) were the only covariates that were significantly associated with death. The only significant factors in predicting total morbidity score were age (aOR = 1.45; 95% CI = 1.349-1.555) and gender (aOR = 1.17; 95% CI = 1.109-1.243).Conclusion:In a large cohort of COVID-19 positive patients treated at a tertiary care hospital serving a low income population in New Orleans, there is strong evidence that blood type was not a significant predictor of clinical course or death in patients hospitalized with COVID 19. Older age and male gender led to worse clinical outcomes and higher rates of death; whereas older age, male gender, and comorbidities predicted a worse clinical course and higher morbidity score. Race was not a predictor of clinical course or death. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Flint Goodridge Hospital and Black Health Care in Twentieth-Century New Orleans

Flint Goodridge Hospital and Black Health Care in Twentieth-Century New Orleans

Difference in SVR12 Outcomes in the HIV/HCV Co-Infected Population in New Orleans, Louisiana

While historically, African American (AA) patients chronically infected with hepatitis C (HCV) have had lower rates of response to interferon-based therapy, recent studies show that rates of sustained viral response at 12 weeks (SVR12) receiving ledipasvir-sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) for 8–12 weeks are comparable to those for non-AAs. Data from the ION-4 study demonstrated overall similar SVR12 rates for patients co-infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and HCV, but significantly reduced SVR12 observed in the AA population (11% vs 0% in non-AAs). The purpose of this study was to determine SVR12 outcomes of the AA population with HIV/HCV co-infection in New Orleans, Louisiana. We conducted a retrospective chart review at Ochsner Medical Center (OMC) and Louisiana State University’s HIV Outpatient Program (LSU-HOP) using EPIC-CLARITY from 01/2014 to 02/2017. Specific inclusion criteria included: age 18 or older, and co-infection with HIV and chronic HCV. Exclusion criteria included: pregnancy, acute HCV infection, and chronic HBV infection. The primary outcome was proportion of AA patients achieving SVR12. Secondary outcome was proportion of all patients achieving SVR12. A retrospective record review was performed on a total of 228 patients, yielding 188 patients that met inclusion criteria. Our population demographics included 139 AA (73.9%), 45 Caucasian (23.9%), and 4 other (2.1%). 64/188 (34.0%) patients received active therapy against HCV [45 AA (70.3%), 17 Caucasian (26.6%)]. Of those, 41/64 (64.1%) achieved SVR12; when further analyzed by race 28/41 (68.3%) were AA and 12/41 (29.3%) were Caucasian (P = 0.65). 8/64 (12.5%) were lost to follow up and SVR status was unknown. At the time of collection 5/64 (7.8%) patients had pending SVR12 results. While the literature demonstrates that patients of AA background have lower rates of SVR12, our data states that there was no statistical difference when looking at race and outcome. Limitations in our study included a smaller population, as well as a significant population that was lost to follow up. Y. Bennani, Gilead: Investigator, Grant recipient; G. Therapondos, Gilead: Investigator and Scientific Advisor, Consulting fee and Research support; C. Parsons, Gilead: Investigator, Grant recipient

The Relationship Between the Social Environment and Lifestyle-Related Physical Activity in a Low-Income African American Inner-City Southern Neighborhood.

The social ecological model was used to examine individual, interpersonal, and neighborhood characteristics related to lifestyle-related physical activity (PA) in a low-income African American (AA) population in New Orleans, Louisiana. Interviewers administered surveys to randomly-sampled household participants from three low-income, AA neighborhoods in New Orleans, Louisiana. Questions included the social and physical environment, physical activity, interpersonal factors, demographics, height and weight. Logistic regression multivariable models were built predicting whether the respondent met PA guidelines, controlling for neighborhood. Females were less as likely to engage in lifestyle-related PA compared to males (OR 0.46, CI 0.30-0.70). Support specific for PA was correlated with engaging in lifestyle-related PA (OR 1.45, CI 1.14-1.83). The individual and social environment should be considered for increasing PA in AA. Interventions targeting the AA population could consider ways of enhancing social support for PA.

Relationship between invasion success and colony breeding structure in a subterranean termite.

Factors promoting the establishment and colonization success of introduced populations in new environments constitute an important issue in biological invasions. In this context, the respective role of pre-adaptation and evolutionary changes during the invasion process is a key question that requires particular attention. This study compared the colony breeding structure (i.e. number and relatedness among reproductives within colonies) in native and introduced populations of the subterranean pest termite, Reticulitermes flavipes. We generated and analysed a data set of both microsatellite and mtDNA loci on termite samples collected in three introduced populations, one in France and two in Chile, and in the putative source population of French and Chilean infestations that has recently been identified in New Orleans, LA. We also provided a synthesis combining our results with those of previous studies to obtain a global picture of the variation in breeding structure in this species. Whereas most native US populations are mainly composed of colonies headed by monogamous pairs of primary reproductives, all introduced populations exhibit a particular colony breeding structure that is characterized by hundreds of inbreeding reproductives (neotenics) and by a propensity of colonies to fuse, a pattern shared uniquely with the population of New Orleans. These characteristics are comparable to those of many invasive ants and are discussed to play an important role during the invasion process. Our finding that the New Orleans population exhibits the same breeding structure as its related introduced populations suggests that this native population is pre-adapted to invade new ranges.

The Drama of History in Francophone New Orleans

On January 1, 1824, English-speaking population of New Orleans celebrated grand opening of Theatre, lauding advent of Bards own and rise of our Drama in Crescent City (qtd. in Smither 41). For city's francophone residents, this event marked a new stage in ongoing battle for survival. Until opening of Theatre, French drama and opera had dominated city. Beginning in 1792, when Louisiana was still under Spanish rule, French theatricals were regularly performed at Theatre de la Rue St. Pierre, Theatre St. Philippe, and Theatre d'Orleans. After Louisiana Purchase, more and more Anglo-Americans settled permanently in New Orleans and began to compete with city's established French-speaking population for political, economic, and sway. The growing influence of anglophone newcomers alarmed francophone residents, who feared for continued existence of their community. Over time, tensions between two populations turned open hostility and came, according to historian Joseph Tregle, perilously close to armed violence (153). In 1836, city of New Orleans was formally divided along ethnic lines to prevent such an escalation. This article examines how anglophone and francophone struggles for political influence and sovereignty in New Orleans were transported local playhouses. Following Elizabeth Maddock Dillon's conceptualization of early playhouse as a cultural site at which dynamics of political belonging, modern sovereignty, and aesthetics [were] coarticulated (21), I consider how drama native to Crescent City and performed at local theaters at once reflected and helped negotiate continuing tensions between city's multiple linguistic communities. I focus in particular on how Louisiana's French-speaking community used theater as a powerful weapon in battle for survival. On stage and in auditorium, Louisiana's francophone population defined, defended, and disseminated its French while simultaneously negotiating its place in city of New Orleans and broader nation. Conceiving of French-language theater as a site of affirmation, this article explores relationship between institution of theater, written drama, and ethnic in antebellum Louisiana. The correlation between theater and formation has been studied extensively in recent scholarship on early theater. Jeffrey H. Richards, for example, has described theater as [o]ne of registers and molders of identity (17). Heather S. Nathans, Jason Shaffer, and S. E. Wilmer, among others, have specifically linked emergence of theater as an institution to formation of a national American (1,13,1). In her most recent study, Dillon has pointed to limitations of using the familiar narrative of nationalism to examine early theater. Instead, she proposes the study of theatre in Atlantic rather than national terms as a way to throw into relief vitality of theatre as a form in colonial Americas and early national United States (20). While fully agreeing with necessity to expand any investigation of early theater beyond national boundaries of United States, I turn to a multilingual rather than an Atlantic paradigm in order to tease out complexities and multifaceted relations of early stage. (1) Taking as an example theatrical scene of antebellum New Orleans, this article focuses on ways in which drama native to Louisiana and its production in local theater expressed and shaped local concerns of Crescent City's transnational, polyglot communities. In doing so, I build on work of scholars such as Werner Sollors, who has highlighted importance of multilingual sources to creation of literature and culture. …

The Haitian Revolution in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and George Washington Cable’s The Grandissimes

Faulkner Journal Adam Long The Haitian Revolution in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom; and George Washington Cable’s The Grandissimes I n his 2014 study The Haitian Revolution in the Literary Imagination: Radi­ cal Horizons, Conservative Constraints, Philip Kaisary argues that since the 1930s black writers in both the United States and the Caribbean have found that “the recuperation and representation ofthe events of 1791 -1804 offered the opportunity to articulate a narrative ofemancipation in which black agency and universal intent were central” (1-2). For these writers, “one of the major attractions of recuperating the narrative of the Haitian Revolution . . . is that radical reconfigurations of the Haitian Revolution directly undermines the hegemony of the still massively influential cultural and historical body of works where the values ofthe slave society have been romantically condoned or sanitized” (12). On the other hand, for white writers, who remain largely com­ mitted to this hegemony, the Haitian Revolution has remained a silent influ­ ence. Because of this, it sometimes appears in surprising ways. George Wash­ ington Cable sets his novel The Grandissimes in the period ofthe revolution and makes a fugitive slave (an embodiment of the fear that the Revolution created in slave owners in the United States) central to the novel’s plot. Similarly, the narrators ofWilliam Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! create a Creole past, tied to the Haitian Revolution, for the character Charles Bon. Though both Cable and Faulkner include Haiti in important ways, they do so for different purposes. While Cable is able to use the Haitian Revolution to re-imagine the Creole and make assimilation possible, Faulkner’s narrators, particularly Quentin Comp­ son, remain incapable of accepting such assimilation. Though both Faulkner and Cable use Haiti as a narrative trope, like other Southern writers, they erase large elements of the actual history, turning Haiti into a literary landscape on which they can write their own narratives of as­ similation. As Edward E. Baptist notes, “Haiti’s relationship to US History re­ mains . . . invisible in American discussions of the Carribean nation’s” history (16). The actual history ofthe Haitian Revolution, when not erased, is strongly tied to the history of the United States. Not only did the Revolution happen geographically near the American South, there was also tremendous cultural exchange between displaced Haitians and Southerners. Nathalie Dessens cites the large change in the population of New Orleans as an example: “There is 79 80 Adam Long The Haitian Revolution in Faulkner and Cable no doubt that these ten thousand new arrivals [Haitian refugees] had an enor­ mous influence on a city whose population in 1805 was only eight thousand” (29). This “enabled it to resist much longer the Americanization that followed the Louisiana Purchase” (35). Thus, New Orleans became connected with the Haitian Revolution in the Southern mind, becoming a place of the Other, a place that resists assimilation. Hegemonic US identity has, in turn, attempted to erase this Otherness, to assimilate it. Michael Kreyling summarizes: “We can’t let any thing, any place be the sovereign Other, beyond the hegemonic reach of our modes of knowing, of gridding and ordering both factual and symbolic orders. We always send in the marines, or Fred and Ginger, or a com­ pany of literary and cultural critics” (120-21). In this case, Faulkner and Cable are the cultural critics. Both transform the details of the Haitian Revolution in order to turn the Haitian into a blank slate on which they can examine the dif­ fering narratives of American assimilation. Their narratives of assimilation are explored on an individual level. Nei­ ther Cable nor Faulkner portrays a migration, a mass arrival of Haitian ref­ ugees doubling the population of a US city and thus changing its character. Instead, both authors conceive of a character of mixed race possibly upsetting the hierarchy of two single families, the Grandissimes and the Sutpens. The character ofmixed blood is perceived as a threat to the assimilation ofthe fam­ ily in much the same way that the presence of Haitian refugees is perceived as a threat to the nation. Barbara Ladd argues that the character of mixed race carries “within himself or herself, the repressed history associated with...

The virtuous circle in disaster recovery: who returns and stays in town after disaster evacuation?

Given the importance of encouraging residents of a disaster-stricken community to remain there during the recovery process, this paper examines the determinants of disaster evacuee decisions to return to their communities, and if they return, to stay in the community where they lived before the disaster. The data come from two panel surveys of Hurricane Katrina survivors. The surveys were taken in 2005, just after Katrina, and again in 2006, a year after the disaster. Although the study sample is not indicative of the pre-Katrina population of New Orleans, it is of great value in allowing us to understand the behaviors of disaster survivors and in helping to design disaster recovery plans. Analytical results show that government performance in initial disaster recovery and individual perceptions of future lives in the community play an important role in evacuees’ decisions of whether to stay in the pre-Katrina communities. Race, risk, and damage done are also valid predictors of return decisions. This finding emphasizes the importance of both governmental initial response to the disaster and effective communication of a clear vision toward a fully recovered community.

The effect of Hurricane Katrina on the prevalence of health impairments and disability among adults in New Orleans: Differences by age, race, and sex

We examined the effects of Hurricane Katrina on disability-related measures of health among adults from New Orleans, U.S.A., in the year after the hurricane, with a focus on differences by age, race, and sex. Our analysis used data from the American Community Survey to compare disability rates between the pre-Katrina population of New Orleans with the same population in the year after Katrina (individuals were interviewed for the study even if they relocated away from the city). The comparability between the pre- and post-Katrina samples was enhanced by using propensity weights. We found a significant decline in health for the adult population from New Orleans in the year after the hurricane, with the disability rate rising from 20.6% to 24.6%. This increase in disability reflected a large rise in mental impairments and, to a lesser extent, in physical impairments. These increases were, in turn, concentrated among young and middle-aged black females. Stress-related factors likely explain why young and middle-aged black women experienced worse health outcomes, including living in dwellings and communities that suffered the most damage from the hurricane, household breakup, adverse outcomes for their children, and higher susceptibility.

The urban rise and fall of air lead (Pb) and the latent surge and retreat of societal violence

We evaluate air Pb emissions and latent aggravated assault behavior at the scale of the city. We accomplish this by regressing annual Federal Bureau of Investigation aggravated assault rate records against the rise and fall of annual vehicle Pb emissions in Chicago (Illinois), Indianapolis (Indiana), Minneapolis (Minnesota), San Diego (California), Atlanta (Georgia), and New Orleans (Louisiana). Other things held equal, a 1% increase in tonnages of air Pb released 22years prior raises the present period aggravated assault rate by 0.46% (95% CI, 0.28 to 0.64). Overall our model explains 90% of the variation in aggravated assault across the cities examined. In the case of New Orleans, 85% of temporal variation in the aggravated assault rate is explained by the annual rise and fall of air Pb (total=10,179metric tons) released on the population of New Orleans 22years earlier. For every metric ton of Pb released 22years prior, a latent increase of 1.59 (95% CI, 1.36 to 1.83, p<0.001) aggravated assaults per 100,000 were reported. Vehicles consuming fuel containing Pb additives contributed much larger quantities of Pb dust than generally recognized. Our findings along with others predict that prevention of children's lead exposure from lead dust now will realize numerous societal benefits two decades into the future, including lower rates of aggravated assault.

Paper Thin: Freedom and Re-enslavement in the Diaspora of the Haitian Revolution

In the summer of 1809 a flotilla of boats arrived in New Orleans carrying more than 9,000 Saint-Domingue refugees recently expelled from the Spanish colony of Cuba. These migrants nearly doubled the population of New Orleans, renewing its Francophone character and populating the neighborhoods of the Vieux Carré and Faubourg Marigny. At the heart of the story of their disembarkation, however, is a legal puzzle. Historians generally tell us that the arriving refugees numbered 2,731 whites, 3,102 free people of color, and 3,226 slaves. But slavery had been abolished in Saint-Domingue by decree in 1793, and abolition had been ratified by the French National Convention in 1794. In what sense and by what right, then, were thousands of men, women, and children once again to be held to be “slaves”?

“Strangers are Flocking Here”: Identity and Anonymity in New Orleans, 1810–1860

When the population of New Orleans increased dramatically during the nineteenth century, it became a place of strangers. While historians have documented the experiences of different groups in the city, the nineteenth‐century urban world was defined largely by those unknown, by the strangers one passed in the streets. The present study explores how residents of the city coped with this change by analyzing the meanings they ascribed to strangers. It also illustrates why the ability of a stranger to legitimize his/her identity became a crucial means of escaping scrutiny and obtaining acceptance by society. The essay examines the reception of two groups of strangers: elite travelers who sought to read and interpret the city and its subjects and new residents who sought opportunity and adventure, but instead became alienated from society and castigated as vagrants and suspicious people. Although city residents largely came to terms with the anonymity of city life by the 1850s, this essay explores the preceding decades when strangers invoked both fear and excitement.

Post-Katrina New Orleans as a New Migrant Destination

The Latino immigrants arriving in New Orleans immediately after Katrina showed that they are often the first to respond to new labor demand for low-skill occupations. Using a convenience sample of this population collected between 5 and 7 months after Katrina, I investigated the sociodemographic and migratory characteristics of the “rapid response labor force” at a time when very little reliable population data were available. Whereas other articles in this issue expose the exploitative conditions that immigrants labored under during this time, this article focuses on how the Latino immigrant population in New Orleans differs from a national sample of immigrants and how national-origin groups within New Orleans differ from each other. I find that immigrants in New Orleans are younger, more often single, and less embedded in a social network than other immigrants. Within the New Orleans sample, I find that Central Americans have moved less often, less recently, and have more connections to established immigrants in the area than the Brazilians and Mexicans. The Central Americans also earn far less on average than the other two national-origin groups. The weaker and more mobile ties of the Brazilians and Mexicans may not only create greater earnings opportunities but also reinforce a practice of moving on to new destinations in search of better opportunities and more wages. In this way, recently arrived and weakly connected immigrants are predisposed to form a rapid response labor force.

A Culture of Neglect: Climate Discourse and Disabled People

A Culture of Neglect: Climate Discourse and Disabled People

Tracing the Effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Population of New Orleans

The Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Study was designed to examine the current location, well-being, and plans of people who lived in the City of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck on 29 August 2005. The study is based on a representative sample of pre-Katrina dwellings in the city. Respondents were administered a short paper-and-pencil interview by mail, by telephone, or in person. The pilot study was fielded in the fall of 2006, approximately one year after Hurricane Katrina. In this paper, we describe the motivation for the pilot study, outline its design, and describe the fieldwork results using a set of fieldwork outcome rates and multivariate logistic models. We end with a discussion of the lessons learned from the pilot study for future studies of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the population of New Orleans. The results point to the challenges and opportunities of studying this unique population.

Hurricane Katrina's Impact on Gifted Programs in Louisiana, 2005–2007

Hurricane Katrina had, and continues to have, a devastating effect on every student who was living in the southeastern quadrant of Louisiana at the beginning of the 2005–2006 school term. African American public school students who were enrolled in gifted and talented programs were particularly impacted by the storm, although they comprised a healthy proportion of gifted and talented students statewide before Katrina struck. Following the hurricane, 20% of all of the gifted and talented students in Louisiana were displaced. Because the majority of that displacement occurred among the predominantly African American public school population in New Orleans, gifted and talented program enrollment among African American students was reduced by 47%. This article examines the circumstances in 4 Southeastern Louisiana parishes before and after Hurricane Katrina that contributed to the drastic reduction in gifted and talented African American participants. Included are suggestions for recovering this population of students, and for increasing proportional distribution of identified gifted and talented students statewide.

The Long Road Home: Rebuilding Public Inpatient Psychiatric Services in Post-Katrina New Orleans

In August 2006, a year after Hurricane Katrina, the first acute inpatient public psychiatric unit for adults was opened in New Orleans to serve patients referred from local emergency departments. This article describes the clinical and administrative experiences of providing inpatient care in post-Katrina New Orleans, including the increased demand for programs to treat patients with co-occurring disorders, the expanded scope of practice for psychiatrists to include primary care, and ongoing staff shortages in a traumatized and displaced workforce. Lessons learned in regard to disaster planning and recovery are also discussed.

Debris and Immobility

A ticker tape of statistical figures races to keep pace with the cataclysms pulsing nonstop through the landscape, through its inhabitants. A sharp rise in the number of limbs lost by soldiers this month. The population of New Orleans cut in half nearly overnight. “That city could be bulldozed,” responds the leader of the US Congress. Roll titles: Extreme Makeover, Shock and Awe Edition. Tah-dum! After twenty years, suddenly a white majority presides over the city council.