Racial and Ethnic Makeup in Hospital's Social Media and Online Platforms: Visual Representation of Diversity in Images and Videos of Washington, D.C. Hospitals.

While hospitals' health promotion via social media has the potential to be a critical source of health information, research shows racial and ethnic disparities exist in health-related knowledge that may be, in part, related to media representation. The purpose of this study is to examine the racial and ethnic representation of people featured in Washington, D.C. hospitals' social media platforms to understand how hospitals embed cultural competency into their health communication. By comparing the diversity of images on hospitals' social media platforms with the demographics of hospitals' neighboring communities, the researchers intend to highlight opportunities to improve targeted health messaging to underserved communities, particularly Black and Hispanic communities. By analyzing the images and videos posted on the three most popular social media platforms - Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube - for a one-month period, the researchers found that Whites and Asians were over-represented while Hispanics were severely under-represented in hospitals' social media representation as compared to the community demographics. Increasing the diversity of minority representation on hospitals' social media-based health promotion may contribute to addressing the social disparities in healthcare.

Place of birth, cancer beliefs and being current with colon cancer screening among US adults.

BACKGROUND: Historically, studies suggested that immigrants acquire the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) as US-born persons within the same generation. CRC risk of immigrants is largely unknown in this era of cancer screening and widespread immigration. We investigated the association of place of birth and cancer beliefs with uptake of CRC screening. METHODS: The 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey was used and 4,299 respondents (weighted population size=81,896,392) who were 50 years and older (3,960 US-born and 339 foreign-born) were identified. We defined being current with CRC screening guidelines as the use of fecal occult blood test within 1 year, sigmoidoscopy within 5 years, or colonoscopy within 10 years. We compared being up-to-date with CRC screening among foreign-born versus US-born respondents. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Overall, 2,594 (63.3%) US-born and 208 (52.8%) foreign-born respondents were current with CRC screening. Foreign-born respondents were less current in unadjusted model (OR 0.65; 95% CI: 0.50-0.85) but became non-statistically significant after adjustment (OR 0.79; 95% CI: 0.51-1.24). Respondents who believed that screening finds cancer when it is easy to treat (OR 2.85; 95% CI: 1.44-3.61), those who believed that cancer can be cured when detected early (OR 1.56; 95% CI: 1.20-2.00), and those who worry about getting cancer (OR 1.34; 95% CI: 1.10-1.61) were likely to be current with CRC screening. However, respondents with fatalistic beliefs were borderline less likely to be current (OR 0.82; 95% CI: 0.65-1.04). CONCLUSION: There is a need to improve education on CRC screening, particularly among foreign-born adults.

Family history of cancer associated with breast tumor clinicopathological features.

Hereditary breast cancers have unique clinicopathological characteristics. Therefore, the objective of this study was to establish the relationship between self-reported family history of cancer and clinicopathological features in breast cancer patients from Washington, DC. Data on incident breast cancer cases from 2000 to 2010 were obtained from the Washington, DC Cancer Registry. Variables such as estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR), and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) receptor status, as well as stage and grade, were analyzed in those that self-reported with (n = 1,734) and without a family history of cancer (n = 1,712). The breast cancer molecular subtypes were compared when ER, PR, and HER2 statuses were available. Furthermore, tumor characteristics were compared by race/ethnicity. Regression and chi-square analyses were performed. A report of family history was associated with age (OR = 1.27 95 % CI: 1.09-1.48; p < 0.0001), high grade tumors (OR = 1.29 95 % CI: 1.05-1.58; p = 0.02), and having ER and PR negative breast cancer (OR = 1.26 95 % CI: 1.02-1.57; p = 0.029). When tumor characteristics were compared by race/ethnicity, those that self-reported as African American with a family history had a higher frequency of ER negative tumors (OR = 1.51 95 % CI: 1.09-2.08; p = 0.008), PR negative tumors (OR = 1.46 95 % CI: 1.09-1.94; p = 0.028), grade 3 tumors (OR = 1.42 95 % CI: 1.05-1.93; p < 0.0001), and ER/PR negative tumors (OR = 1.5 95 % CI: 1.088-2.064; p = 0.01). These results suggest that a positive family history of cancer in African Americans should increase suspicions of hereditary cancer. Therefore, behavioral risk reduction activities, such as collecting a family history, may reduce late stage diagnosis and cancer mortality.

Evaluation findings from genetics and family health history community-based workshops for African Americans.

The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation and effectiveness of community education workshops to change genetics and health-related knowledge, intentions, and behavior of urban African Americans. Eight workshops were held and 183 participants consented to participate in the study. A majority of the participants were African American (97%) and female (84%) and just over half were 65 years and older (60%), and had some high school or were high school graduates (52%). The community-based workshops were standardized and comprised a 45-min PowerPoint presentation that included group discussions and interactive activities. The evaluation used a pre-post design with a 2-month follow-up. The group as a whole (and the subgroups by age and education level) significantly improved their knowledge of race and genetics from pretest to posttest as measured by their scores on the "Race", Genetics, and Health knowledge questions. Findings around intentions showed that the largest number of participants pledged to collect family health history information from family members. Findings around behavior changes showed that, along the stages of change continuum, there were more participants at maintenance (stage 5) at the 2-month follow-up than at the pre-workshop for three health-related activities. Feedback was positive as participants indicated they appreciated the information they received and audience involvement. The article discusses local and global implications for practice and research among community health educators.