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2005

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Articles 1 - 20 of 20

Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Cover - Front Matter - Table Of Contents Jan 2005

Cover - Front Matter - Table Of Contents

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

No abstract provided.


Information For Authors Jan 2005

Information For Authors

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

No abstract provided.


The Role Of The Insecticide Ddt In Breast Cancer, Jared D. Taylor Jan 2005

The Role Of The Insecticide Ddt In Breast Cancer, Jared D. Taylor

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer among black and white females, with approximately 211,000 new cases expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2004 (1). More importantly, incidence has been increasing. Age-adjusted breast cancer incidence in U.S. females rose from the 88.6 per 100,000 in the early 1970s to 109.8 in the early 1990s (2). This represents a 24 percent increase over that time. This trend is only partially explained by the known risk factors for breast cancer, including advancing age, early menarche, late menopause, late age at first parturition and family history. Therefore, researchers have …


Cover - Front Matter - Table Of Contents Jan 2005

Cover - Front Matter - Table Of Contents

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

No abstract provided.


Reassessing War Making In Our Post 9/11 World: Perspectives From Medicine And Public Health, Maureen Mccue Jan 2005

Reassessing War Making In Our Post 9/11 World: Perspectives From Medicine And Public Health, Maureen Mccue

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Despite December's association with peace, military conflicts rage around the world. War making is a central element resulting from and contributing to the bleak status of global health, the environment, human rights and ultimately global survival. War is the ultimate form of terrorism and thus ultimately counter-productive to securing peace. To further the search for healthy, sustainable alternatives to war and terrorism, war-making's too often hidden or obscured costs to human and environmental health are reviewed. National priorities are reassessed from a risk/benefit approach utilizing prevention based, medical and public health analytic frameworks including occupational and environmental health, community and …


Barriers To Combating Infectious Disease Globally: A Look At Dengue Fever, Rob J. Fernandez Jan 2005

Barriers To Combating Infectious Disease Globally: A Look At Dengue Fever, Rob J. Fernandez

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Infectious disease remains one of the most important concerns in global health. Serious infectious diseases affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year. While attention is often focused on HIV/AIDS, malaria or TB, dengue fever and its more lethal variety dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are also a risk for the more than 2.5 billion people living in tropical and sub-tropical regions across the globe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Approximately 50 million cases, about 400,000 of which are DHF, are documented each year, with some countries reporting it as a leading cause of child mortality (1). Although …


Graduate Public Health Education In Africa: An Innovative Distance-Learning Model, Emmanuel Rudatsikira, Patricia Johnston, Richard Hart Jan 2005

Graduate Public Health Education In Africa: An Innovative Distance-Learning Model, Emmanuel Rudatsikira, Patricia Johnston, Richard Hart

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

This article describes the development and implementation of a distance graduate public health education program in Africa by Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, U.S.A. The program started in March 2000 and ended in September 2003 with formal teaching sessions on-site held twice a year at the University of Eastern Africa, Kenya. The instruction was given in English and French. Of the cohort of 67 students from 20 African countries who started the program, 57 received an M.P.H. degree and six received a certificate in public health. The experiential learning model allowed students to immediately put into practice what they …


Bush's Gag Rule And Africa: Impact On Reproductive Health, John Kemoli Sagala Jan 2005

Bush's Gag Rule And Africa: Impact On Reproductive Health, John Kemoli Sagala

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Throughout most of the 20th century, multilateral development partnership in the area of reproductive health was one of the few success stories in public health. Globally, by 1998, 58 percent of all married women had access to modern contraceptives and other family planning services. This represented 67 percent of married women in developed countries and 54 percent in developing countries. Since taking office in 2001, President George W. Bush has sought to undo these achievements through the global gag rule. On January 20, 2001, President Bush reinstated the 1984 Reagan Mexico City Policy or global gag rule. The global gag …


Environmental Illness May Have Contributed To The Origins Of Transylvanian Vampire Myths, Catherine L. Zeman, Ioan Seuleanu, Miheal Sinca, Alin Sinca, Daniella Moga, Mariana Vlad Jan 2005

Environmental Illness May Have Contributed To The Origins Of Transylvanian Vampire Myths, Catherine L. Zeman, Ioan Seuleanu, Miheal Sinca, Alin Sinca, Daniella Moga, Mariana Vlad

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Field and ethnographic data are utilized to illustrate that significant contamination of rural wells with nitrates, bacteria and protozoa both currently and in the past are fertile ground for the development of myths surrounding spirit and blood stealing mythical creatures. The very real problem of methemoglobinemia, an environmentally induced hypoxia, in rural Transylvania is an ideal situation for physiological confirmation of and, perhaps, cultural etiology determination of the myth of vampirism. Ethnographic accounts of vampire and werewolf myths are correlated with the field data.


Socioeconomic Status And Tobacco Use, Jennifer Cook Jan 2005

Socioeconomic Status And Tobacco Use, Jennifer Cook

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of illness, disability and death in the United States, and more than 400,000 premature deaths occur each year in this country from tobacco-related causes (1). More than 80 percent of adult smokers first become regular smokers by the age of 18, and casual experimentation with smoking by adolescents frequently develops into regular smoking and a strong addiction. Despite the growth in anti-tobacco campaigns, research has shown that socioeconomic status (SES) is still a major determinant as to whether or not teens begin smoking (2). A recent analysis of data from the 2000 National Health …


Women And Family Health: The Role Of Mothers In Promoting Family And Child Health, Paula Y. Goodwin, Dean A. Garrett, Osman Galal Jan 2005

Women And Family Health: The Role Of Mothers In Promoting Family And Child Health, Paula Y. Goodwin, Dean A. Garrett, Osman Galal

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

In many societies, women have been socialized to provide care and maintenance to the family unit by procuring and preparing food, giving care to dependent family members, and by socializing children to become productive adults. Thus, women's roles within families have positioned them to become health managers or promoters of overall family health, particularly for children in developing countries whose lives are directly linked to that of their mothers. The authors propose that efforts to improve the health of children should focus on the family unit as a whole, with a particular focus on the mother or mother figures of …


Respiratory Hazards In Animal Confinement, Mary Kay Nissen Jan 2005

Respiratory Hazards In Animal Confinement, Mary Kay Nissen

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Production methods in animal farming have changed dramatically over the past 20 years. An emphasis on cheaper, more efficient ways of production has provided the impetus for larger, more concentrated systems. Improvements in building construction, heating and ventilation have been developed that provide the opportunity to increase the number of anima ls that can be raised in confinement. Improvements in animal health have reduced the risk of loss from disease. Confinement of large numbers of animals can have adverse effects on the environment and upon the health of employees exposed to such environments. As the trend toward large scale animal …


Information For Authors Jan 2005

Information For Authors

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

No abstract provided.


Maternal Caffeine Intake And Low Birth Weight: Is There A Relationship?, Jessica Purcell Jan 2005

Maternal Caffeine Intake And Low Birth Weight: Is There A Relationship?, Jessica Purcell

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

In 1974, the first studies looking at the effect of caffeine use on pregnancy were published. These studies have continued, partly due to the conflicting nature of the results. Some have concluded that caffeine use in pregnancy is safe, while others believe caffeine use can increase risks for intrauterine growth retardation and low birth weight infants. The hypothesis that caffeine may affect a fetus is plausible, as caffeine crosses the placental barrier, increases maternal epinephrine and is metabolized more slowly by the mother during pregnancy. There has also been the suggestion that a relationship between caffeine use and fetal growth …


Colorectal Cancer And Meat Consumption: Recent Views From Epidemiology, Rachel Horner Jan 2005

Colorectal Cancer And Meat Consumption: Recent Views From Epidemiology, Rachel Horner

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the third most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in men and women (CDC 2003). The risk for developing colorectal cancer increases with age (90 percent of cases occur in individuals over 50) and with personal or familial predisposition to cancer. Numerous studies over the years also show connections between lifestyle factors-such as eating a diet high in saturated fat and low in fruits and vegetables, smoking and not exercising regularly-and the incidence of this cancer. However, the links between certain dietary factors and the risk …


Childhood Cancer Rates And Exposure To Vehicle Pollutants, Sara Jo Hill Jan 2005

Childhood Cancer Rates And Exposure To Vehicle Pollutants, Sara Jo Hill

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among children ages zero to 15 in the United States (Gouveia-Vigeant & Tickner, 2003, p. 1). Rates for childhood cancer have increased nearly 21 percent between 1975 and 1998 (Gouveia-Vigeant & Tickner, p. 1). Multiple factors can be attributed to this increase. Possible explanations include: increased surveillance, changes in diagnostic criteria, improvements in medical imaging and diagnostic techniques, genetic predisposition as well as environmental factors. Experts recently concluded that genetic predisposition accounts for no more than 20 percent of all childhood cancers (Gouveia-Vigeant & Tickner, p. 1). While this demonstrates a significant …


Psychological Distress And Back Pain, Richard Strunk Jan 2005

Psychological Distress And Back Pain, Richard Strunk

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Chronic low back pain has become a major health problem in today's society. Low back pain disability is the most expensive benign condition in industrialized countries and is the number one cause of disability in people less than 45 years old (1). Low back pain lasting for longer than one day affects 40 percent of adults in any one-year period (2). In addition, there still is a lot uncertainty as to how structural or morphologic changes in the lumbar spine relate to a patient's clinical symptoms as seen on special imaging studies (3). Further investigations have showed this relationship to …


Massage Therapy For People With Hiv, Karen T. Boulanger Jan 2005

Massage Therapy For People With Hiv, Karen T. Boulanger

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Massage therapists celebrated along with other complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners at the release of Eisenberg et al.'s follow-up of a national survey on the trends in the use of CAM in the United States from 1990-1997. Not only did the use of CAM increase from 33.8 percent to 42.1 percent, massage was one of the therapies that increased the most (Eisenberg et al., 1998). In addition, although 71.5 percent of the visits were not covered by any insurance, massage therapy was the second most popular CAM therapy used, accounting for 18.1 percent of the 628.8 million total visits …


Prenatal Malnutrition And Risk Of Schizophrenia, Andria Timmer Jan 2005

Prenatal Malnutrition And Risk Of Schizophrenia, Andria Timmer

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that is estimated to have a lifetime risk of one percent (Liu et al., Allen 2002). Prevalence rates in different countries range from 0.2-2.0 percent with an average incidence rate of 28.1 per 100,000 remaining stable across a wide range of cultures, climates and ethnic groups (Thomas 2000). In the United States, at any given time there may be two to three million people who either have schizophrenia or are at risk of developing it (Allen 2002). The disease usually manifests itself in late …


Latinas And Breast Cancer In The Midwest: Factors Influencing Survivorship, M. Elise Radina, Daniel R. Longo, Jane M. Armer Jan 2005

Latinas And Breast Cancer In The Midwest: Factors Influencing Survivorship, M. Elise Radina, Daniel R. Longo, Jane M. Armer

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Latinos are the largest ethnic minority group in the U.S. and the Midwest is experiencing the fastest growth in residents of Hispanic descent. Rural health care delivery systems in these areas must therefore respond to changing demographics and provide culturally appropriate service delivery. The incidence rate of breast cancer among Latinas is lower than that among non-Hispanic women; however an increasing number of Latinas are being diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite higher mortality rates from cancer than non-Hispanic women, more Latinas are being treated for breast cancer and are now facing their own unique survivorship experiences This paper addresses factors …