Although American Indian (AI) women continue to experience cancer at higher rates and have not seen the same decline in cancer prevalence as the general U.S. population, little research examines how interactions with health care providers may influence and exacerbate these health disparities. The purpose of the study was to understand the experiences of AI women who receive cancer treatment, which is integral for eradication of AI cancer disparities among women. A qualitative descriptive methodology was used with a sample of 43 AI women with breast, cervical, colon, and other types of cancer from the Northern Plains region of South Dakota. Interviews were conducted from June 2014 to February 2015. Qualitative content analysis revealed that women experienced: (a) health concerns being ignored or overlooked; (b) lack of consistent and qualified providers; (c) inadequate healthcare infrastructure; (d) sub-optimal patient-healthcare provider relationships; (e) positive experiences with healthcare providers; and (f) pressure and misinformation about treatment. Results indicate the types of support AI women may need when accessing healthcare. Culturally informed trainings for healthcare professionals may be needed to provide high-quality and sensitive care for AI women who have cancer, and to support those providers already providing proper care.
Environmental reproductive justice is increasingly being utilized as a framework for exploring how environmental exploitation and pollution contribute to reproductive health and reproductive injustices. However, little research explores how settler colonialism and historical oppression contribute to the physical transformation of land, and how this undermines tribal members’ health. Even less research explores the intersection of environmental justice and reproductive justice among Indigenous groups, especially in the Gulf South, who are especially vulnerable to environmental justice issues due to climate change, land loss, and oil company exploitation, and for tribes that are non-federally recognized. A qualitative description research methodology was used to conduct 31 life-history interviews with women from a Gulf Coast Indigenous tribe. Findings of this study reveal that central components of reproductive justice, including the ability to have children and the ability to raise children in safe and healthy environments, are undermined by environmental justice issues in the community. Among concerns raised by women were high rates of chronic healthcare issues among community members, and issues with infertility. Recognizing Indigenous sovereignty is central to addressing these environmental reproductive justice issues. This research is unique in exploring the topic of environmental reproductive justice among a state-recognized Gulf Coast tribe.
Purpose:The purpose of this systematic review is to examine mental, sociocultural, behavioral, and physical risk and protective factors related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related outcomes among U.S. Indigenous peoples.Methods: A total of 51 articles met the inclusion criteria of research focusing factors for CVD among U.S. Indigenous peoples (Mental n= 15; Sociocultural, n =17; Behavioral/Physical, n =19).Results: This review reveals clear risks for CVD, which tended to be elevated for females. Mental health problems (depression, anxiety, PTSD/trauma, alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse) were clearly associated with CVD, along with enculturation, social support, and the social environment-including discrimination and trauma. Poor diet and obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol were behavioral or physical factors.Discussion: Overall, identified research was limited and in beginning stages, lacking more information on etiology of the interconnections across sex and the mental, sociocultural, and behavioral determinants of CVD.
Support in childbirth is a complex concept with multiple dimensions that matter for women's birth evaluations. Support from nursing staff, doctors, and doulas is important for enabling positive evaluations while support from partners is more complexly related to women's evaluations. Research on support for laboring women should more extensively address the division of labor between different sources of support.
There is a current gap in research on culturally-informed substance abuse interventions for Indigenous youth, which this review begins to address. Promising areas of future research and interventions include bringing communities and families into treatment and prevention.
Reproductive rights and justice frameworks, which take an intersectional and social justice approach to reproductive health, are compatible with social work's philosophical and theoretical foundations and its practical goals of advocating and promoting social justice. However, reproductive rights and justice are not frequently addressed in social work publications, an important gap that should be addressed. The search term "reproductive justice" was used to identify 10 articles published between 1994 and 2018 among the top 50 social work journals (using SCImago Journal and Country rankings). Only 3 of these 10 articles focused substantively on reproductive justice. By comparison, 55 article were identified with the search term "reproductive rights." An analysis of the reproductive justice articles was conducted for purpose and topic, location, study population, year, journal, key findings, and implications for the social work profession. All articles called for an increase in research on reproductive justice topics. Encouragingly, these articles also included an analysis of the role of the social work profession with these frameworks. However, there is a lack of articles on reproductive justice, and the range of topics, and the methodological approaches, covered are limited. Although the increase in reproductive rights literature is heartening, there is a need for reproductive justice framings in social work practice and research.
This research provides practitioners with the knowledge they need to focus their interventions on the areas where it is most needed to empower resilient individuals. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;page 1 of 9).
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