Objectives This paper aims to describe low-income recipients of a community-based diaper bank and the multiple daily challenges they face. Our paper seeks to document the health, social, and financial outcomes recipients experienced after receiving assistance. Methods We surveyed families (n = 150) about their experiences receiving diapers from a diaper bank in the southeastern United States. Additionally, we conducted short, focused interviews with families (n = 15) about outcomes after receiving diapers. Results Families experience regularly a range of challenges meeting basic needs. These difficulties include high unmet needs for transportation, food, and nonfood essentials such as personal hygiene items. Families experiencing the greatest difficulty in paying utility or medical bills were significantly more likely to have a high level of diaper need compared to families facing these challenges less often (AORs ranging from 3.40 to 9.39). As a result of receiving diapers, families reported positive health, social, and economic outcomes. Families reported positive changes in parental mood; improved child health and happiness; increased opportunities for childcare, work, and school attendance; and the ability to divert household finances toward other basic needs, including utilities and medical care. Conclusions for Practice The monetary value of the supplemental provision of diapers is a small investment in affected families' economic, social, and health outcomes. The positive effects continue far longer than the diapers provided. We demonstrate the social value of such an operation, and recommend the expansion of federal, state, and local safety net programs to help low-income families secure a steady supply of diapers.
Despite extensive anecdotal evidence on US long-haul truckers' risk interactions on the road, links between their sexual mixing and drug exchanges and their potential risk for STI/BBI acquisition and dissemination remain insufficiently documented. Grounded in social ecological theories and multi method ethnographic data, this paper examines the sexual transactions and drug exchanges of key members of US trucker risk networks within diverse trucking milieux. Research has uncovered four key trucker-centered populations and their diverse risk exchanges: (a) straight male truckers who engage in casual sex with women; (b) female sexworkers (known as "lot lizards") who solicit truckers; (c) intermediaries who broker sex and drug exchanges between truckers, drug dealers and sexworkers; and (d) male truckchasers who cruise for truckers in physical and virtual milieux to engage in sex. Concurrent sexual partnerships of truckers have the potential to amplify initial infections by linking individuals of disparate epidemiological settings, thereby enabling pathogens to travel rapidly and efficiently to disparate regions. The comprehensive delineation of the role of long-haul trucking in potential disease spread is required for the development of effective STI/HIV prevention programs for populations of interest.
Objectives. To document the collective effort of diaper banks in the United States and to estimate the percentage of low-income children whose diaper need is met through these efforts. Methods. For each state, we compared the number of children younger than 4 years in families living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level with the number of children served by diaper banks in each state. We collected data reporting all 2016 activities from diaper banks (n = 262) via survey from January to March 2017. Results. In each state, the percentage of children experiencing diaper need that received assistance from a diaper bank ranged from 0% to 16% per month. Conclusions. The findings from this study highlight that a small proportion of low-income families accessed diapers through the existing community-based safety net provided by a national network of nonprofit diaper banks. Public Health Implications. Policies at the federal, state, and municipal level are needed to alleviate this consequence of poverty for children and their families.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.