Sinophobic Stigma Going Viral: Addressing the Social Impact of COVID-19 in a Globalized World.

This article critically examines the recent literature on stigma that addresses the overspread association among the COVID-19 pandemic and racial and ethnic groups (i.e., mainland Chinese and East Asian populations) assumed to be the source of the virus.The analysis begins by reviewing the way in which infectious diseases have historically been associated with developing countries and their citizens, which, in turn, are supposed to become prime vectors of contagion. The latter extends to the current labeling of COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus," that-along with a number of other terms-has fueled race-based stigma against Asian groups in the United States and overseas. This review further discusses the limitations of current COVID-19 antistigma initiatives that mostly focus on individual-based education campaigns as opposed to multisectorial programs informed by human rights and intersectional perspectives.Finally, the article ends with a call to the international public health community toward addressing the most recent outbreak of stigma, one that has revealed the enormous impact of words in amplifying racial bias against particular minority populations in the developed world.

"We Cannot Let Them Die": Undocumented Immigrants and Media Framing of Health Deservingness in the United States.

Based on a systematic qualitative analysis of articles published by The New York Times (2009-2017), this article presents the main media frames that support the access to government-sponsored health care by undocumented immigrants, just before and after passage of the U.S. Affordable Care Act in 2010. Under the umbrella of "selective inclusion," this study highlights a "compassionate frame" that conveys sympathy toward severely ill, undocumented immigrants. This approach is reinforced by a "cost-control" frame that underlines the economic benefits of providing health care to the undocumented immigrant population in the United States. Supported by both humane and market-based approaches, these frames make a compelling case for the inclusion of particular groups into the U.S. health care safety net. Ultimately, these findings contribute to our understanding of the media framing of undocumented immigrants' right to health care on the basis of deservingness.

Picking fruit from our backyard's trees: The meaning of nostalgia in shaping Latinas' eating practices in the United States.

Based on a focus group study conducted in New York City (NYC), this paper examines the traditional staples (i.e., nostalgic foods) that Latinas regularly consume in the U.S., along with their beliefs regarding the impact of such foods on weight gain and related body image. Our research findings highlight the "double-bind" of nostalgic foods, defined by Latinas' retention of highly caloric familiar items along with their progressive abandonment of fresh produce and fruits. Despite participants' efforts to eat healthy staples from their homelands, they mostly kept foods perceived as unhealthy (e.g., fatty meats, fried foods). This phenomenon was informed by the "same-food paradox," represented by Latinas' beliefs that the same traditional foods that would make them lose weight in their native countries would lead them to gain weight in the U.S. Our qualitative data show that participants' concerns about their weight gain in the U.S. is in tune with their general body dissatisfaction, as indicated by our quantitative results. Finally, our findings reveal the role of stress in promoting Latinas' deleterious daily habits, including their consumption of fat-saturated snacks. Overall, these results speak to the cultural and structural barriers to healthy eating that financially strapped study participants experienced in NYC. In order to design successful public health interventions targeting Latinas, the nostalgic aspects of food preferences should be considered in conjunction with the barriers that keep them from engaging with healthier lifestyles in the U.S.

Beyond welfare reform: reframing undocumented immigrants' entitlement to health care in the United States, a critical review.

This article addresses the main scholarly frames that supported the deservingness of unauthorized immigrants to health benefits in the United States (U.S.) following the passage of the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), known as the Welfare Reform bill, in 1996. Based on a critical literature review, conducted between January 1997 and March 2011, this article begins with an analysis of the public health rhetorics that endorsed immigrants' inclusion into the U.S. health safety net. In this vein, the "cost-saving" and "the effortful immigrant" frames underscore immigrants' contributions to society vis-à-vis their low utilization of health services. These are complemented by a "surveillance" account that claims to protect the American public from communicable diseases. A "maternalistic" frame is also discussed as a tool to safeguard families, and particularly immigrant mothers, in their roles as bearers and caretakers of their American-born children. The analyses of the "chilling" and the "injustice" frames are then introduced to underscore major anthropological contributions to the formulation of counter-mainstream discourses on immigrants' selective inclusion into the U.S. health care system. First, the "chilling effect," defined as the voluntary withdrawal from health benefits, is examined in light of unauthorized immigrants' internalized feelings of undeservingness. Second, an "injustice" narrative highlights both the contributions and the limitations of a social justice paradigm, which advocated for the restoration of government benefits to elderly immigrants and refugees after the passage of PRWORA. By analyzing the contradictions among all these diverse frames, this paper finally reflects on the conceptual challenges faced by medical anthropology, and the social sciences at large, in advancing health equity and human rights paradigms.

Validity of a competing food choice construct regarding fruit and vegetable consumption among urban college freshmen.

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents the reliability and validity of a "competing food choice" construct designed to assess whether factors related to consumption of less-healthful food were perceived to be barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption in college freshmen. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, self-administered survey. SETTING: An urban public college with a large, diverse student population. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 408 college freshmen. VARIABLES MEASURED: A "competing food choice" construct and fruit and vegetable intake. ANALYSES: Factor analysis, Cronbach α, and correlation coefficients were used to determine the reliability and validity of the construct. RESULTS: Three factors were produced from the factor analysis of the 11-item competing food choice construct: "competitive food" barriers (Cronbach alpha = 0.73), fruit and vegetable-related "time" barriers (Cronbach alpha = 0.67), and "quality" barriers (Cronbach alpha = 0.64). Construct validity assessments revealed significant inverse correlations between fruit and vegetable consumption and competitive food barriers (r = -0.15, P < .01 current and r = -0.25, P < .01 prior) and time barriers (r = -0.12, P < .05 current and r = -0.10, P < .05 prior). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This "competing food choice" construct demonstrated satisfactory reliability and construct validity among college freshmen.

Fatalism or destiny? A qualitative study and interpretative framework on Dominican women's breast cancer beliefs.

BACKGROUND: A growing literature on Latino's beliefs about cancer focuses on the concept of fatalismo (fatalism), despite numerous conceptual ambiguities concerning its meaning, definition, and measurement. This study explored Latina women's views on breast cancer and screening within a cultural framework of destino ("destiny"), or the notion that both personal agency and external forces can influence health and life events. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 Latinas from the Dominican Republic aged 40 or over. RESULTS: Respondents reported complex notions of health locus of control that encompassed both internal (e.g., individual action) and external (e.g., the will of God) forces shaping breast cancer prevention efforts. Furthermore, women actively participated in screening because they believed that cancer could become a death sentence if diagnosed late or left untreated. DISCUSSION: In contrast to simplistic notions of "fatalism", our analysis suggests complex strategies and beliefs regarding breast cancer and cancer screening that speak of resiliency rather than hopelessness.

"Do Real Women Have Curves?" Paradoxical body images among Latinas in New York City.

This paper examines Latinas' assessments of their individual body shape and weight vis-à-vis their beliefs and attitudes regarding mainstream and alternative body images. A mixed method data collection system was used based on individual instruments and focus group guidelines. While individual measures revealed participants' preference for thinner body types than what they actually considered themselves to be, group data underscore contradictory body paradigms, defined as Latinas' Paradoxical Body Images (LAPABI). Findings suggest the prevalence of a mainstream stereotype represented by the fit/thin White woman as the ultimate body ideal, along with the Latina curvy shape as its counter-image. The paper further discusses the importance of the media, and of divergent cultural values, in supporting these co-existing body ideals, as well as the need for more studies addressing their combined effect on Latinas' obesity patterns and their weight-control efforts.

Determinants of Latina obesity in the United States: the role of selective acculturation.

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Hispanic American women in particular have higher rates of obesity than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. In this article, the authors review the existing literature on acculturation as it relates to obesity and health behaviors among U.S. Hispanic women. In addition, a conceptual framework is proposed to examine factors contributing to obesity through "selective acculturation." This concept challenges traditionally held unilateral assumptions that underscore Hispanic women's unhealthful behavioral patterns by explaining a process whereby Hispanic women both maintain some older health-related behaviors and acquire new ones once they settle in a new culture.

From "shrinks" to "urban shamans": Argentine immigrants' therapeutic eclecticism in New York City.

This article examines Argentine immigrants' reliance on informal networks of care that enable their access to a variety of health providers in New York City (NYC). These providers range from health brokers (doctors known on a personal basis) to urban shamans, including folk healers and fortunetellers of various disciplines. A conceptual framework, based on analysis of social capital categories, is proposed for the examination of immigrants' access to valuable health resources, which are based on relationships of reciprocity and trust among parties. Results revealed immigrants' diverse patterns of health-seeking practices, most importantly their reliance on health brokers, epitomized by Argentine and Latino doctors who provide informal health assistance on the basis of sharing immigrants' social fields and ethnic interests. While mental health providers constitute a health resource shared by Argentines' social webs, urban shamans represent a trigger for the activation of women's emotional support webs. Contrary to the familiar assumption that dense and homogenous networks are more beneficial to their members, this article underscores the advantages of heterogeneous and fluid social webs that connect immigrants to a variety of resources, including referrals to diverse health practitioners.

Commentary: fatalismo reconsidered: a cautionary note for health-related research and practice with Latino populations.

Over recent years, interest has grown in studying whether fatalismo (fatalism) deters Latinos from engaging in various health promotion and disease detection behaviors, especially with regard to cancer screening. This commentary presents problematic issues posed by the concept of fatalism, focusing on research on Latinos and cancer screening. We discuss key findings in the literature, analyze methodologic and conceptual problems, and highlight structural contexts and other barriers to health care as critical to the fatalism concept. Although the need to better understand the role of fatalistic beliefs on health is great, we discuss the public health implications of reaching premature conclusions concerning the effect of fatalism on Latinos' cancer screening behaviors.

Abortos hospitalizados: entrada y salida de emergencia / Abortions hospital entrance and exit of emergency

Este documento presenta los resultados del proyecto Abortos hospitalizados: un estudio exploratorio realizado por un equipo interdisciplinario. Se presenta el análisis cualitativo del material relevado en base a observaciones realizadas en el servicio de salud y a entrevistas a mujeres internadas por complicaciones de abortos. Se incluyen también algunas reflexiones sobre los problemas metodológicos de una investigación que aborda un tema de compleja significación ética y emocional en el marco de la práctica hospitalaria. Con esta investigación se pretende dar a conocer una realidad poco explorada en nuestro país, y lograr una mejora en la calidad de los servicios y con ello, el bienestar y la dignidad de las mujeres.