Racism triggers smoking in British ethnic minority adolescents: evidence from the determinants of young adult social wellbeing and health (DASH) longitudinal study

OBJECTIVE: Racism may have a negative impact on the health behaviours in adolescence, however there were few longitudinal studies. We examined the impact of perceived racism on smoking in an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents in the UK, and potential modifying factors. DESIGN AND METHODS: In 2002/03, 6643 11-13 year olds in London, ~80% ethnic minorities, participated in the baseline survey. In 2005/06 4,782 were followed-up. In 2012-14 665 took part in a pilot follow-up aged 21-23y, including 42 qualitative interviews. Measures of socio- economic and psychosocial factors and health were collected. RESULTS: Ethnic minority adolescents were more likely to report racism compared with White British, but smoking was generally lower. Reported racism in adolescence was associated with having ever smoked (e.g. males Odds Ratio 2.20, 95% CI 1.59-3.02), and with smoking initiation (males 4.09, 2.45-6.83). Smoking initiation was greatest among Black Caribbeans. Attendance to a place of worship, being a Muslim and a good parent-child relationship were independent protective factors. Qualitative interviews supported evidence for reported racism as well as protective factors including increasing ethnic diversity, a sense of identity and belonging, supportive parenting, high aspirations, and religious faith. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first UK study to show the negative impact of racism on smoking in adolescence, regardless of ethnic origin. Religious involvement and parenting may provide social support and reinforce cultural and religious values which may prevent the uptake of harmful health behaviours such as smoking. This has implications for health promotion among young people of all ethnicities.

Race, politics and behavior in Trinidad and Tobago

Racism is a loaded word with too much surplus meaning. Its contemporary common usage encompasses every aspect of human and social sciences. It is an emotive word that is often avoided since it also defines the unconscious processes of the commentators whose creations are invariably within their own experiences rather than the spoken context. Regardless of which Government is in power, the stereotypes associated with whether the party is Indo or Afro-dominated add fuel to the phenomenon of racism, with each race fighting for eventual control. Whether this is a historical or evolutional instinct, the political parties employ means to get their supporters aroused and incensed, tugging at their emotions, a psychological display to secure party votes. This phenomenon sows the seed for human destructiveness and crime that is now rampant in the twin island states. The simple solution to this complex problem is power sharing, but the sociopathic leaders obsessed with power and control will have none of it.

Internalizing stigma associated with mental illness: findings from a general population survey in Jamaica

OBJECTIVES. The culture of stigma associated with mental illness is particularly intense when persons who are normally victims of that stigmatization (mentally ill persons and their family members) themselves act negatively toward others whom they associate with mental illness. We attempt to determine the extent of this internalization and assimilation of stigmatizing attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors in persons who are at risk for such stigmatization in Jamaica. METHODS. Data from a 2006 national survey on mental health were analyzed. Demographic variables, the presence or absence of mental illness in respondents and in their family members, and responses pertaining to behaviors and attitudes toward mentally ill persons were examined. Subsamples (respondents with mental illness, respondents with a family member with mental illness, respondents with neither) were compared using the chi-square test. RESULTS. Respondents with family members with mental illness were less likely to demonstrate a number of different manifestations of stigmatization than others (P = 0.009–0.019). Respondents with mental illness showed no difference in the demonstration of a number of different manifestations of stigmatization from other respondents (P = 0.069–0.515). CONCLUSIONS. The small number of mentally ill respondents resulted in low statistical power for demonstrating differences between that subgroup and other respondents. The significantly more positive attitudes and behavior of respondents with family members with mental illness suggest that some benefit may be gained by creating more opportunities for the general public to interact with persons with mental illness.

Medical education, women's status, and medical issues' effect on women's health in the Caribbean

At an international conference in 1992 on women and health, an attempt was made to redefine health concerns for women of the English-speaking Caribbean in the 1990s. Medical practices in developing countries change as advances are made in public health; clinical issues on the islands now resemble those in the United States (e.g hypertension, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence, and abortion). In the Caribbean, however, these problems exist in a unique socioeconomic context, and women's health there suffers indirectly because of cultural mores. Gender bias in medical education and practice influence treatment of women and obstructs their advancement to policy-making levels in the design and delivery of programs that bear on maternal and child health, among others. The effect of local cultural beliefs and practices on women's health must be considered when setting goals and direction of health policy if aid or educational programs are to be effective.(AU)

Life events and perceptions of racism in patients with diagnoses of psychotic illness

One hundred and forty nine patients (35 white British, 114 non-white or non British) with at least a two year history of psychotic illness, were recruited into a project designed to compare different levels of community care interventions. Patients were interviewed at recruitment into the study (baseline), 12 months later (Year 1) and 24 months after recruitment (Year 2). All patients were administered a Racial Life Event Questionnaire (RLEQ) as part of their assessment. The RLEQ lists 72 events divided into twelve sections covering different areas of life, eg. financial, health, employment. Each event was read aloud to the patient and s/he was asked to indicate whether they had experienced the event in the last three months. At the end of each section if the patients had responded positively to an event having occurred, they were asked whether they believed their ethnicity played a part in the occurrence of the event, ie. whether the event happened because of racial prejudice or discrimination. Results indicate that at baseline non-white and non-British patients believed assault, and housing events were significantly related to racial prejudice and at Year 1 assault and financial events were significantly related to racial prejudices. At Year 2 patients were asked whether "generally speaking" they believed members of their ethnic group were discriminated against and likely to have problems in the areas covered. Results indicate that non-white or non-British patients believe people from their own ethnic group are likely to be discriminated against in the areas of finance, assault, health, housing and legal events. (AU)

Many voices: sociocultural results of the ethnocultural communities facing AIDS study in Canada

This paper presents the results of Phase 11 of the Ethnocultural Communities facing AIDS Study, the sociocultural investigation of factors contributing to risk behaviour associated wih HIV/AIDS in six ethnocultural communities in Canada in three urban sites. In Vancouver, the South Asian and Chinese communities were studied, the Horn of Africa and English-speaking Caribbean communities in Toronto and the Latin American and Arab-speaking communities in Montreal. Results demonstrated that there are common elements across these ethnocultural communities that increase the risk for HIV transmission. HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in ethnocultural communities must address sociocultural differences, particularly sex role differences between men and women in terms of power within relationships to negotiate for safer sexual practices (AU).

Gender in the consultation room: Do physicians gender differentiate?

Looks at some of the documented facts on gender differentiation in the consultation room

AIDS and the Third World

As figures and graphs throughout this dossier indicate, new AIDS cases continue to rise more steeply, and only among homosexual men in the United States and a few European countries are there signs of a slowdown in the growth of HIV infection. The first major change in the AIDS situation since 1986 has been the insiduous entry of HIV to virtually every corner of the globe. Then, the first edition of this dossier concentrated heavily on Africa, because little data was available from other parts of the Third World. This third edition is much more truly global. While AIDS is only starting to gain a foothold in Asia, the Middle East and East Europe, there are now epidemics in Latin America and the Caribbean as severe as-and in many cases more severe than-those in North America, West Europe and Australasia. Previous claims that religion, culture or ideology afford effective protection from the AIDS virus have proved unfounded (Intro).

Blaming others: prejudice, race and worldwide AIDS

AIDS is overwhelmingly a sexually transmitted disease, although the virus which causes it can also be transferred through contaminated blood and from mother to child before, during, and possibly after birth. We have as yet no vaccine to protect ourselves against HIV, and there is no effective treatment for the illness once it develops. Although some therapies can slow down the process, people with AIDS usually die within a few years of developing sypmtoms... To understand how HIV spreads we need to know much more about sexual habits in different countries and communities. And the best way to slow the momentum of the virus in the community is sex education: persuading people to change the sexual habits which place them at risk (AU)

Psychiatric disorder in the children of West Indian immigrants

The clinical characteristics of fifty-five children, born of West Indian parents, who had been referred to a Child Guidance Clinic over a period of three years, are described. The children are compared with fifty-five other children matched for age and sex. Roughly equal numbers of West Indian boys and girls were referred, although there is a considerable preponderance of boys in the rest of the clinic population. The two groups did not differ in social class or family size, nor was there a high rate of current separation amongst the parents of West Indian children. However, the West Indian children had suffered more separations from parent figures in their early years. West Indian boys showed less neurotic disorder and West Indian girls more antisocial disorder than the controls. All groups showed a severe degree of reading retardation. Caution is expressed about generalizing these findings to the population from which the children are drawn, but there is felt to be a clear cause for concern in the frequent and sometimes traumatic separations that the current migration imposes on West Indian family life (Summary)

Intelligence tests of white and colored school children in Grand Cayman

In this study the commonly found black inferiority on intelligence tests ocurred only in tests for younger children which did not show the advance in age expected of a good test, and in the most academic tests for older children. On three out of five performance tests there were no significant color differences among juniors. The same dark-colored seniors who were inferior to whites in verbal classification, opposites and analogies, did well in all the non-language tests, including pictorial classification. The older colored pupils also did as well as the whites in the test involving number relationships and in the final reasoning test which called for certain symbolic operations such as characterize the thinking we call reasoning. It is significant that this last test did not employ very uncommon words and did deal with subject matter, such as family relationships and proverbs, with which colored pupils were probably as familiar as the more cultivated white pupils. The present study, then, does not lend support to the conclusion that colored inferiority in intelligence tests has a racial basis (Summary)

Blame and prejudice

Two parts of the developing world, Haiti and Africa, have received widespread publicity as the possible birthplace of AIDS. Haiti, a Caribbean nation whose people are racially of African descent, was singled out first (AU).