Adding a One Health approach to a research framework for minority health and health disparities.

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) has developed a framework to guide and orient research into health disparities and minority health. The framework depicts different domains of influence (such as biological and behavioral) and different levels of influence (such as individual and interpersonal). Here, influenced by the "One Health" approach, we propose adding two new levels of influence - interspecies and planetary - to this framework to reflect the interconnected nature of human, animal, and environmental health. Extending the framework in this way will help researchers to create new avenues of inquiry and encourage multidisciplinary collaborations. We then use the One Health approach to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated health disparities, and show how the expanded framework can be applied to research into health disparities related to antimicrobial resistance and obesity.

Breast Cancer Disparities Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose of Review: The emergency medicine and critical care needs of the COVID-19 pandemic forced a sudden and dramatic disruption of cancer screening and treatment programs in the USA during the winter and spring of 2020. This review commentary addresses the impact of the pandemic on racial/ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Hispanic-Latina Americans, with a focus on factors related to breast cancer. Recent Findings: African Americans and Hispanic-Latina Americans experienced disproportionately higher morbidity and mortality from COVID-19; many of the same socioeconomic and tumor biology/genetic factors that explain breast cancer disparities are likely to account for COVID-19 outcome disparities. Summary: The breast cancer clinical and research community should partner with public health experts to ensure participation of diverse patients in COVID-19 treatment trials and vaccine programs and to overcome COVID-19-related breast health management delays that are likely to have been magnified among African Americans and Hispanic-Latina Americans.