The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority groups, with high rates of death in African American, Native American, and LatinX communities. While the mechanisms of these disparities are being investigated, they can be conceived as arising from biomedical factors as well as social determinants of health. Minority groups are disproportionately affected by chronic medical conditions and lower access to healthcare that may portend worse COVID-19 outcomes. Furthermore, minority communities are more likely to experience living and working conditions that predispose them to worse outcomes. Underpinning these disparities are long-standing structural and societal factors that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed. Clinicians can partner with patients and communities to reduce the short-term impact of COVID-19 disparities while advocating for structural change.

BACKGROUND Immigrants and refugees to the United States exhibit relatively low levels of physical activity, but reasons for this disparity are poorly understood. METHODS 16 gender and age-stratified focus groups were conducted among 127 participants from heterogenous immigrant and refugee groups (Cambodian, Mexican, Somali, Sudanese) in a small Minnesota urban community. RESULTS We found many similarities in perceived barriers and facilitators to physical activity between heterogeneous immigrant and refugee groups. While the benefits of physical activity were widely acknowledged, lack of familiarity and comfort with taking the first steps towards being physically active were the most significant barriers to physical activity. Participants described being motivated by social support from family, friends, and communities to be physically active. DISCUSSION Our findings suggest that shared experiences of immigration and associated social, economic, and linguistic factors influence how physical activity is understood, conceptualized and practiced.

BackgroundImmigrants and refugees to the United States exhibit lower dietary quality than the general population, but reasons for this disparity are poorly understood. In this study, we describe the meanings of food, health and wellbeing through the reported dietary preferences, beliefs, and practices of adults and adolescents from four immigrant and refugee communities in the Midwestern United States.MethodsUsing a community based participatory research approach, we conducted a qualitative research study with 16 audio-recorded focus groups with adults and adolescents who self-identified as Mexican, Somali, Cambodian, and Sudanese. Focus group topics were eating patterns, perceptions of healthy eating in the country of origin and in the U.S., how food decisions are made and who in the family is involved in food preparation and decisions, barriers and facilitators to healthy eating, and gender and generational differences in eating practices. A team of investigators and community research partners analyzed all transcripts in full before reducing data to codes through consensus. Broader themes were created to encompass multiple codes.ResultsResults show that participants have similar perspectives about the barriers (personal, environmental, structural) and benefits of healthy eating (e.g., ‘junk food is bad’). We identified four themes consistent across all four communities: Ways of Knowing about Healthy Eating (‘Meanings;’ ‘Motivations;’ ‘Knowledge Sources’), Eating Practices (‘Family Practices;’ ‘Americanized Eating Practices’ ‘Eating What’s Easy’), Barriers (‘Taste and Cravings;’ ‘Easy Access to Junk Food;’ ‘Role of Family;’ Cultural Foods and Traditions;’ ‘Time;’ ‘Finances’), and Preferences for Intervention (‘Family Counseling;’ Community Education;’ and ‘Healthier Traditional Meals.’). Some generational (adult vs. adolescents) and gender differences were observed.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates how personal, structural, and societal/cultural factors influence meanings of food and dietary practices across immigrant and refugee populations. We conclude that cultural factors are not fixed variables that occur independently from the contexts in which they are embedded.

E ffective medical therapy for tuberculosis (TB) has existed for more than half a century, yet TB remains among the most pressing public health issues of our day. Tuberculosis is, in part, a disease of poverty. 1 The fact that it remains the eighth leading cause of death in the world speaks to the challenges facing practitioners and public health officials as they try to control a disease that is so entwined in the cultural and economic fabric of society. Challenges to effective solutions include lack of access to diagnosis and treatment, the frequent coexistence of epidemics of TB and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and the Tuberculosis (TB) poses a serious threat to public health throughout the world but disproportionately afflicts low-income nations. Persons in close contact with a patient with active pulmonary TB and those from endemic regions of the world are at highest risk of primary infection, whereas patients with compromised immune systems are at highest risk of reactivation of latent TB infection (LTBI). Tuberculosis can affect any organ system. Clinical manifestations vary accordingly but often include fever, night sweats, and weight loss. Positive results on either a tuberculin skin test or an interferon-γ release assay in the absence of active TB establish a diagnosis of LTBI. A combination of epidemiological, clinical, radiographic, microbiological, and histopathologic features is used to establish the diagnosis of active TB. Patients with suspected active pulmonary TB should submit 3 sputum specimens for acidfast bacilli smears and culture, with nucleic acid amplification testing performed on at least 1 specimen. For patients with LTBI, treatment with isoniazid for 9 months is preferred. Patients with active TB should be treated with multiple agents to achieve bacterial clearance, to reduce the risk of transmission, and to prevent the emergence of drug resistance. Directly observed therapy is recommended for the treatment of active TB. Health care professionals should collaborate, when possible, with local and state public health departments to care for patients with TB. Patients with drug-resistant TB or coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus should be treated in collaboration with TB specialists. Public health measures to prevent the spread of TB include appropriate respiratory isolation of patients with active pulmonary TB, contact investigation, and reduction of the LTBI burden. Proc. 2011;86(4):348-361 AFB = acid-fast bacilli; BCG = bacille Calmette-Guérin; CFP-10 = culture filtrate protein 10; DOT = directly observed therapy; EMB = ethambutol; ESAT-6 = early-secreted antigenic target 6; HIV = human immuno deficiency virus; IFN-γ = interferon-γ; IGRA = IFN-γ release assay; INH = isoniazid; LTBI = latent TBI; MDR-TB = multidrug-resistant TB; NAA = nucleic acid amplification; PZA = pyrazinamide; RIF = rifampin; TB = tuberculosis; TBI = TB infection; TST = tuberculin skin test; XDR-TB = extensively drug-resistant TB Mayo Clin