Community-Based Research Commons^™

Motivating Factors For Young Adults In The Brattleboro Area To Start In Organic Agriculture For Their Career, Tomokazu Utsugi

Capstone Collection

Despite a worldwide push for the conversion of conventional agriculture to organic agriculture, organic farming itself is not a very popular vocational choice for young people. Brattleboro, one of the towns in Vermont, is no exception. Although several local organizations are promoting local agriculture and food security, in reality, not many young people in Brattleboro want to choose organic agriculture as their career.

With a total of 17 in-depth qualitative interviews with young adults in the Brattleboro area, this inquiry sought to identify a range of factors that would motivate them to choose organic agriculture as their career. The results …

The Leadership Of Sustainable Cities: A Multiple-Case Study Of Two Oregon Cities, Kenneth L. Weaver

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In order for cities to become more sustainable it is necessary for the leaders of the efforts to change the organizations and governments so that they understand and embrace what it means to be more sustainable. This study examined the change processes of two Oregon Cities, Corvallis and Eugene, that had made the choice to become more sustainable as a community. The approaches that the participant leaders used demonstrated the use of different ways of thinking about the leadership of change. The ways of thinking of the community leaders were formed by their unique personal backgrounds, knowledge, skills, and abilities. …

Building Trust And Collaboration With Rural Minorities: Experiences With Minority Farmers In The Mississippi Delta, Ari Mwachofi

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The paper focuses on the question “What research approach is effective in building trust with minority farmers?” The question is answered through a documentation of researchers’ experiences building trust and collaboration with minority farmers in the lower Mississippi Delta. The researchers applied two research paradigms -logical positivism and paradigm of praxis. The logical positivism research approach was met with mistrust and open animosity and had to be abandoned for one based on the paradigm of praxis. Through this approach, and cognizant of the historical-social-political context, the researchers included insiders from the focus population as collaborators and researchers and succeeded in …

An Innovative Approach For Community Engagement: Using An Audience Response System, Jenna L. Davis, Kara E. Mcginnis, Margaret L. Walsh, Coni Williams, Kevin B. Sneed, Julie A. Baldwin, B. Lee Green

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Community-based participatory research methods allow for community engagement in the effort to reduce cancer health disparities. Community engagement involves health professionals becoming a part of the community in order to build trust, learn from the community and empower them to reduce disparities through their own initiatives and ideas. Audience Response Systems (ARS) are an innovative and engaging way to involve the community and obtain data for research purposes using keypads to report results via power point. The use of ARS within communities is very limited and serves to widen the disparity gap by not delivering new advances in medical knowledge …

Predictive Policing: A Review Of The Literature, Portland State University. Criminology And Criminal Justice Senior Capstone

Criminology and Criminal Justice Senior Capstone Project

Improving knowledge of crime and crime causation is an important focus for many law enforcement agencies. Many believe such knowledge can be used to predict crime and criminal behavior. Predictive policing is one of a variety of strategies developed by law enforcement personnel and researchers. The practice of law enforcement is frequently reactive, in nature, where police officers respond to crimes after they have been committed. In an effort to prevent future crimes, however, those with an interest in prevention have also added the strategy of proactive policing, where information and advanced analyses are added to their repertoire of approaches. …

Asian American We: Civic Engagement Among Low-Income Young Adults, Michael Liu, Star Wang, Janice Wong, Loan Dao

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

This report describes a study of the civic participation of low-income Asian American adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five in the Boston area. It is based upon a mail survey with 100 respondents, focus groups, and organization interviews.

The study found that over 60% of the study population engaged in some form of civic participation, most commonly through fundraising or volunteer activities. Other activities included arts and culture with a social message, issues work, and electoral involvement. The area of greatest involvement was education. From the survey, civic engagement is correlated with female gender, higher education, and a …

Pioneers Of Youth Justice Reform: Achieving System Change Using Resolution, Reinvestment, And Realignment Strategies, Douglas N. Evans

Publications and Research

In the past three decades, state and local governments implemented various reform strategies to reduce the youth justice system’s reliance on confinement facilities and serve as many youths as possible in their own homes or at least in their own communities when removal from the home is warranted. The various reform strategies may be conceptualized as relying on three distinct but interrelated mechanisms: resolution, reinvestment, and realignment (Butts and Evans 2011). Resolution refers to the use of managerial authority and administrative directives to influence system change; reinvestment entails using financial incentives to encourage system change, and realignment employs organizational and …

Emerging Disparities Among Self-Pay Trauma Patients, Michelle Chino Dr, Deborah A. Kuhls, Mark K. Markarian, Sam Holland, John J. Fildes

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Preliminary results from a study of trauma patients in Southern Nevada are yielding some unexpected findings with implications for both trauma centers and the growing Hispanic population. Hispanic patients are more likely to be self pay irrespective of income level and employment status when compared to non-Hispanic patient groups. Further, self pay Hispanics, unlike their non-Hispanic, self pay counterparts, tend to be employed, have families, and report stable living conditions. The implication is that the financial and social cost of traumatic injury may place a significant burden on trauma centers, patients, their families and the community.

The Convergence Of Science And Culture: Developing A Framework For Diabetes Education In Tribal Communities, Michelle Chino Dr, Carolee Dodge Francis, Lemyra Debruyn, Lynn Short, Dawn Satterfield

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

In an unprecedented effort to address the epidemic of diabetes in tribal communities, the Diabetes Education in Tribal Schools project brought together a group of individuals from eight tribal colleges and three federal agencies to develop a diabetes prevention curriculum for American Indian and Alaska Native school children. The curriculum incorporates Western and Native science with culturally responsive teaching techniques. Both the project and its evaluation process have reached beyond conventional bounds to acknowledge fundamental issues of tribal culture, history and health and the integration of science, culture, and community. This article will discuss the challenges and rewards of the …

Racial Inequality In The Valuation Of Health Outcomes Expressed By The 1992 Acs Guidelines For Prostate Cancer Screening, C. A. Beam

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

In 1992, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommended annual screening for prostate cancer for men 50 and older using PSA. In this article, I introduce a method to use race and age-specific PSA accuracy data to evaluate differences in the valuation of outcomes by race and age that were expressed by the ACS guidelines. Using this new method, it can be concluded that the guidelines implied a 4-fold greater valuation was assigned to screening young white males with prostate cancer than the value that was assigned to young black males with cancer. Future implementation of guidelines for screening and testing …

Disparities In Mental Health Utilization Among Persons With Chronic Diseases, Saundra Glover, Keith Elder, Sudha Xirasagar, Jong-Deuk Baek, Crystal Piper, Dayna Campbell

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

This study used Aday and Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to examine the role of chronic disease and the joint impact of race and chronic disease type on mental health utilization. Using data from Community Tracking Survey Household Survey, we tested the assumption that chronic disease, chronic disease type, and race are related to lower rates of mental health visits when adjusted for predisposing, enabling, and need factors. After adjusting for population characteristics, we found that race significantly moderated the impact of chronic disease type on mental health utilization, showing that African Americans with cardiovascular disease were half …

Assessing Behavioral Health Risks, Health Conditions, And Preventive Health Practices Among American Indians/Alaska Natives In Nevada, Gwen Hosey, Shirley A. Llorens-Chen, Fares Qeadan, Daryl Crawford, Charlton Wilson, Wei Yang

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey was administered to American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) adults in Nevada to determine whether health disparities exist between AI/ANs and the state’s general population. Results showed AI/ANs were 1.5 times more likely to smoke cigarettes, 3.5 times more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke, 3.2 times more likely to lack leisure-time physical activity, 9.7 times more likely to report fair/poor health status, and 7.7 times more likely to have a disability. In addition, AI/ANs were more likely to have current asthma (OR=5.0) and diabetes (OR=1.8). AI/AN women were 4.8 times as …

Hispanic Ethnicity, Male Gender And Age Predict Restraint Use And Hospital Resource Utilization In Pediatric Trauma, Deborah A. Kuhls, Lynne Fullerton-Gleason, Virginia A. Landry, Julie A. Rabeau, Elizabeth Snavely, John J. Fildes

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Child restraint reduces the severity of injuries in motor vehicle crashes. Racial/ethnic groups appear to have differing restraint use rates. The objective of this study was to identify restraint use differences between ethnic and other demographic subgroups of pediatric trauma patients. Prospective data were analyzed for 1072 consecutive pediatric patients aged 19 or less who were involved in motor vehicle crashes and brought to our Trauma Center over a 42 month period. The demographic breakdown of this study cohort was 55.3% male, 21.4% Hispanic, 9.7% African American, 64.5% Caucasian, 2.2% Asian and 2.2% other. The highest rates of restraint use …

The Hiv/Aids Pandemic In African American Msm: Targets For Intervention, Kelly Neff

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in 2005 that 46% of African American men who have sex with men (MSM) are HIV positive. This review explores the unique factors that contribute to risky sexual behavior and the spread of HIV within this population, suggesting that the disparate prevalence of HIV among African American MSM is rooted in experiences of stigmatization from multiple sources and lack of social support from society at large as well as from within the African American community. Beliefs in HIV conspiracy myths are also thought to hinder HIV education, awareness and prevention for African …

Racial Differences In Preventive And Complementary Health Behaviors And Attitudes, Steven E. Shive, Grace X. Ma, Yin Tan, Jamil I. Toubbeh, Lalitha Parameswaran, Lalitha Parameswaran, Joe Halowich

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Screening tests have been developed for many diseases—the presence of cancer, especially—but are differentially utilized among racial/ethnic groups. In addition to standard medical screening techniques, some patients opt to use Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for prevention and treatment. The purpose of the current study is to examine racial/ethnic disparities in primary and secondary preventive health behaviors, determine differences in use of complementary and alternative health regimens, and determine which health attitudes and health self-management factors are associated with use of complementary alternative medicine. If differences among ethnic/racial groups in perceived health status, preventive health care behaviors, and use of …

Equal Care, Unequal Outcomes: Experiences Of A Reach 2010 Community, Diane Neal, Barbara Carlson, Carolyn Jenkins, Gayenell Magwood

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Diabetes is growing in prevalence and costs. Guidelines for care have been available since 1983, yet diabetes care and outcomes remain less than ideal. CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health 2010 (REACH 2010) identified diabetes in African Americans as a priority for action. This article documents the activities, interventions, and current progress of the REACH 2010 diabetes coalition formed in Charleston and Georgetown counties, South Carolina, in reducing health care disparities and describes next steps for improving outcomes. The Chronic Care Model guided many of the implementation activities, and chart audits were used to document outcomes. Ambulatory care …

Transdisciplinary Approaches To Ameliorating Racial Disparities In Prostate Cancer Outcomes, Chanita H. Halbert, Katrina Armstrong, John Holmes, David Fenstermacher, Janet Weiner, Carmen Guerra, J. S. Schwartz, Jerry C. Johnson, Edmund Weisberg, Chantal Montagnet, Benita Weathers, Charnita Zeigler-Johnson, Ernestine Delmoor, Timothy R. Rebbeck

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Though prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cause cancer deaths among men in the US, it ranks first among African American men in terms of incidence, morbidity, and mortality. To address this and other complex health issues, some researchers advocate transdisciplinary research as a framework for analysis; however, few examples exist that indicate how the framework should be applied. This report uses prostate cancer outcomes as a paradigm to describe how such a framework can be used to identify determinants of racial disparities. By integrating diverse scientific disciplines, methods, and analytic approaches from psychology, sociology, epidemiology and genetics, …

A Pilot Self-Care Group Intervention For Low-Income Hiv-Positive Women, Maithe Enriquez, Margaret S. Miles, Jacki Witt, Paul Gore, Nancy Lackey

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

This article describes the development of a self-care intervention and examines its efficacy with low-income HIV-positive women (n=34) in the Midwestern United States. Adapted from an individual nurse-led intervention, this effort focused on increasing self-care behaviors through enhancing self-esteem and social support. The investigators used a community-based participatory approach and partnered with three HIV-positive women to adapt and pilot test the new group intervention. A within-group, repeated-measures, pre-/post-test design, together with participant interviews, was used to evaluate the intervention. Mean scores on measures of self-care behaviors, self-esteem, social support and depressive symptoms all changed in the clinically desirable direction. Group …

The Influence Of Patient-Centeredness On Minority And Socioeconomically-Disadvantaged Patients’ Trust In Their Physicians: An Evidence-Based Structural Equation Modeling Investigation, Stephen J. Aragon, Sylvia A. Flack, Cecil A. Holland, Racquel R. Ingram, Michael L. Clements

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of physician patient-centeredness on patient trust across randomly selected groups of patients from an inner city medical practice serving a preponderance of minority and socioeconomically-disadvantaged patients.

METHODS: A two-factor multigroup structural equation modeling design was employed, with randomly selected test (N = 300) and cross-validation (N = 300) samples of medical practice patients. Equality constraints were established to test the invariance of effects across groups. The model was compared to its unconstrained counterpart to further test its trustworthiness. An additional 5,000 nonparametric bootstrapped samples for each group were generated to …

Self-Rated Health Status Comparing Pacific Islanders To Asians, Maile Taualii

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Disease reporting for Asians/Pacific Islanders often conflicts and is, many cases, inaccurate because of the aggregation of Asians and Pacific Islanders. An analysis of 2005 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System data was performed to examine health status of Asians compared to Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders. Findings show a significant difference between Asians and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders, with a greater likelihood for Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders to rate their health as poor. Conclusion: Asians and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders do not have the same health status. By aggregating these two distinctly different …