Health Resources

"Nowhere are the divisions of race, ethnicity and culture more sharply drawn that in the health of the people in the United States. Despite recent progress in overall national health, there are continuing disparities in the incidence of illness and death among African Americans, Latino/Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives and Pacific Islanders as compared with the US population as a whole." --National Center for Cultural Competence.

General/Cultural Competency

Coughlan, Jacquelyn. CulturedMed.
(http://www.sunyit.edu/library/html/culturedmed/)
This website compiled by a librarian at SUNY Institute of Technology, promotes culturally-competent health care for refugees and immigrants and cross-cultural understanding, especially as it impacts provision of health care services. It contains bibligraphies of print and online resources on a variety of topic, including individual immigrant groups, culturally competant health care, death and dying in multicultural perspective, dental care, culture and domestic violence, food, nutrition, and culture, international nursing, culturally competent mental health care, transcultural nursing, and Culturally Competent Health Care for Women and Children.

DiversityRX
(http://www.diversityrx.org)
This graphically interesting site is aimed at educating health care providers and other about how language and culture affect the delivery of quality health services to ethnically diverse populations. Offers model programs, policy information, best practices, and news related to culturally competent health care.

World Health Organization
(http://www.who.int/en/)
Offers resources, information and additional links related to health and disease, with an international perspective.

AIDS Education Global Information System
(http://www.aegis.com)
Click on the site navigator on the left to locate documents covering a broad range of AIDS-related topics.

AMA's Cultural Competence Compendium
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/4848.html
This website for medical professionals includes links to documents emphasizing communication skills, complementary and spiritual practices and their impact on effective care, materials from nursing and other health professions, and patient support materials. Other related cultural competence links are also listed.

National Center for Cultural Competence
(http://data.georgetown.edu/research/gucchd/nccc/)
Based at Georgetown, this website provides a database of cultural and linguistic competence resources, an extensive list of web links, and tools for use in assessing and teaching cultural competence.

Multicultural Palliative Care Guidelines
http://www.pallcare.asn.au/mc/mccontents.html
Produced by the Palliative Care Council of Southeast Australia, this page provides a discussion of palliative care in the context of cultural diversity. Although distinctly Australian in perspective, much of the information is applicable internationally.

Office of Minority Health
http://www.omhrc.gov/omhrc/
Provides a wide variety of information on minority health in the U.S., including a minority health publications and programs database, a database of funding resources for minority health projects, a "knowledge center" (a.k.a, a library!), and lists of links to various health sites, included those specifically about African Americans, Asian American Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and American Indians. The Office also supports the minority HIV/AIDS initiative, and the Closing the Gap newsletter.

Alternative Medicine

The Alternative Medicine Homepage
(http:// www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html)
This page is created and maintained Charles B. Wessel, health sciences librarian at University of Pittsburgh. It contains links to resources on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). The resources chosen are from authorized bodies of the CAM system that provide quality information provided objectively. The pages link to resources for locating quality CAM literature, and sites to help individuals make informed decisions when selecting CAM modalities or therapies.

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(http://nccam.nih.gov/)

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports rigorous research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), trains researchers in CAM, and disseminates information to the public and professionals on which CAM modalities work, which do not, and why. (Source: http://nccam.nih.gov/about/)

Dental

Women as Dental Patients: Are there Gender Differences? Zakrzewska, J.M. International Dental Journal 46: 548-57.

This review looks at gender differences as they pertain to the mouth. Pregnancy, the menstrual cycle and the menopause affect the oral tissues, and care must be taken in prescribing drugs during pregnancy, lactation, and when women are taking oral contraceptives. There are also gender differences in regard to patterns of dental disease as women access dental care differently and react to health promotion in a more positive manner. Because women live longer, they are more likely to be on drugs which complicate treatment. Diseases which are particularly common in women, or which are rising in frequency for women, are also discussed. (Source: Aidsline, NLM: http://www.aegis.com/pubs/aidsline/1997/jun/M9761148.html)

Oral Health
(http://www.thebody.com/treat/oral.html)
This page provides information about oral health and HIV, including links to a variety of journal articles about the topic and specific conditions that occur.

Landmarks in Afro-American Dentistry
(http://www.lib.umich.edu/dentlib/about/exhibits/afam/)
The text of this page is derived from an exhibit at the University of Michigan's Dental Library. The exhibit showcases African American individuals in dental history. It also includes a list of links to other web pages related to African American History.

Closing the Gap – Making Oral Health a Priority
(http://www.omhrc.gov/ctg/ctgOH.pdf)
This issue of the Closing the Gap newsletter from the Office of Minority Health focuses on issues of dental health for individuals from minority groups.

Diet/Nutrition

Women and Nutrition: A Menu of Special Needs
(http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-wmnnu.html)
This page from the US Food and Drug Administration discusses the specific dietary needs of women and how women can maintain good nutrition throughout their lifetimes. Other nutrition resources for women published by the FDA are linked from http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-nutr.html.

Nutrition Education for New Americans Project
(http://monarch.gsu.edu/multiculturalhealth)

The Nutrition Education for New Americans Project is a program in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Georgia State University. It is sponsored by USDA to assist low income immigrants, refugees, and children to learn about healthy eating practices. Using the USDA food pyramid as the focus, materials and programs are designed to include both traditional foods as well as American foods. In addition to other instructional materials, the site provides handouts in more than 30 languages related to culture and nutrition.

FNIC Ethnic and Cultural Resources
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/etext/000010.html

The Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) is located at the National Agricultural Library (NAL), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The FNIC's collects and disseminates information about food and human nutrition. This excellent collection of informational materials covers specific diseases as well as nutritional concerns for particular ethnic and cultural groups. Also see the FNIC's collection of food pyramids based on the traditional healthy eating patterns of a variety of cultures.

Native American

Native American Ethnobotany
(http://herb.umd.umich.edu/)
A database of foods, drugs, dyes, and fibers derived from plants and used by Native American Peoples includes many references to medicinal uses of plants. The database contains over 44,000 items, representing use by 291 Native American groups. Each database entry contains information about how and by whom the plant was used, a reference citing the source of information, and a link from the plant name to the USDA database where you can see a photograph of the plant and a broad range of botanical information about it. It was compiled by Daniel E. Moerman, and is maintained at the University of Michigan at Deerborn.

Incorporating Tradition into Mainstream Medicine. Lamberg, Lynne. JAMA 284:1370;
(http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/284/11/1370)
This article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association discusses the benefits of incorporating Native American traditions into mainstream medicine, citing the work of Robert Palmer, MD, a psychiatrist practicing in San Luis Obispo, California.

If You Knew the Conditions: Health Care to Native Americans.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/if_you_knew/if_you_knew_04.html
Based on an exhibition at the National Library of Medicine, this site gives an historical account of the administration of health care to Native American recipients by the United States Government. It examines the evolution of government responsibility and its transfer through the Departments of War, the Interior, and Health, Education, and Welfare, now the Department of Health and Human Services.

Public and Allied Health

Radiographic Assessment of HIV-Related Diseases

http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite.jsp?doc=kb-04-01-16 This chapter from the HIV InSite Knowledge Base summarizes the main uses and findings of imaging for HIV-related disease. The role of imaging methods in the diagnosis of diseases associated with HIV infection depends on such factors as cost, availability, and expertise of the clinician or radiologist interpreting the study. For example, nuclear radiology scanning with gallium or high resolution computed tomography (CT) are used in some medical centers to evaluate patients with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), whereas in others, plain chest radiography is the method of choice and more advanced imaging is rarely, if ever, requested. (Source: Chapter Introduction)

Risk for rheumatic disease in relation to ethnicity and admixture, Mariam Molokhia and Paul McKeigue, Arthritis Research 2: 115-125.

http://arthritis-research.com/content/pdf/ar76.pdf

Risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is high in west Africans compared with Europeans, and risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is high in Native Americans compared with Europeans. These differences are not accounted for by differences in allele or haplotype frequencies in the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) region or any other loci known to influence risk of rheumatic disease. Where there has been admixture between two or more ethnic groups that differ in risk of disease, studies of the relationship of disease risk to proportionate admixture can help to distinguish between genetic and environmental explanations for ethnic differences in disease risk and to map the genes underlying these differences. (Source: PubMed Abstract)

R.T.s and Cultural Competency: Quality Care Hinges On Respect and Knowledge

http://www.asrt.org/foundation/workforce_jun6_00.htm

This article from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists discusses the importance of cultural competency in this field.

Rural

Rural Center for AIDS / STD Prevention
www.indiana.edu/~aids/whatsnew.html

The major focus of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (RCAP) is the promotion of HIV/STD prevention in rural America, with the goal of reducing HIV/STD incidence. The RCAP develops and evaluates educational materials and approaches, examines the behavioral and social barriers to HIV/STD prevention which can be applied to prevention programming and provides prevention resources to professionals and the public. Their website includes project information, fact sheets, newsletters, and excellent links to other Internet resources.

Variations in rural AIDS epidemiology and service delivery in the United States Journal of Rural Health, McKinney, Martha. 2002 Summer, 18(3):455-66 PMID: 12186320 (PubMed)

This article reviews AIDS surveillance data and the rural health literature to summarize what is known about the rural AIDS epidemic, characteristics of rural environments that affect HIV service delivery, and approaches that rural areas are using to address the health and support service needs of HIV-positive residents. During 1999, nonmetropolitan (non-MSA) adult/adolescent AIDS rates were highest in the South (11 per 100,000) and Northeast (9 per 100,000). The South had the highest non-MSA proportion of adult/adolescent AIDS cases (12 percent), followed by the North Central region (9 percent), the West (4 percent), and the Northeast (3 percent). Variations in rural HIV/AIDS epidemiologic patterns and the demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural characteristics of rural environments are likely to require different levels of resource investment and different methods of organizing and delivering HIV services. Currently, many HIV-positive rural residents are traveling to metropolitan areas for medical care because of concerns about confidentiality and/or a lack of confidence in the HIV management capabilities of local physicians. Rural communities are attempting to address these problems by developing the HIV care capacity of existing clinics, building local networks of physicians with HIV management experience, and cultivating "shared care" arrangements with urban-based specialists. (Source: Journal Abstract)

Women’s Health

Information for Women on Food Safety, Nutrition, and Cosmetics. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-toc.html

This page from the US Food & Drug Administration links to information for women. Links by age, children's age, for women with health conditions such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, osteoporosis. Unique to this page are the links to information about dietary supplements, food allergens, food preparation and foodborne illness, health fraud, infant formula, losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight, and nutrition.

National Women's Health Information Center

(http://www.4woman.gov/)

This website provides free reliable health information for women. The Center also offers a call center for toll-free assistance at 1-800-994-9662. The site includes special sections on topic areas like heart disease, disabilities and pregnancy, each with a rich offering of resources. Of note is the Women's Body Image page which discusses nutrition, mind/body wellness, and eating disorders. Pages like the one on environmental health and women provide information about some of the initiatives of the National Women's Health Information Center.

American Medical Women's Association

http://www.amwa-doc.org/

The AMWA educates physicians and consumers in order to improve the health of women. Current issues include reproductive health, arthritis, breast cancer, coronary heart disease in women, domestic violence, overactive bladder and tobacco control. Curriculum materials and other useful teaching tools are included for many of these issues. Notable among these is the Domestic Violence Education Course developed by the American Medical Women's Association based on the manuals of the Family Violence Prevention Fund. The course is designed for physicians, residents in all specialities, medical students, and other health care professionals.