Latinos

Acculturation has been associated with numerous health and social outcomes among Hispanic/Latino adolescents. Various self-report scales have been used to measure acculturation, making comparisons of results across studies difficult. This study administered several commonly-used acculturation scales to 221 Hispanic/Latino 9th grade students in Los Angeles. Although all of these scales purport to measure acculturation, the correlations among the scales, and their correlations with language usage measures, were modest. As expected, higher scores on Hispanic/Latino orientation scales (or lower scores on U.S./White orientation scales) were associated with higher levels of ethnic identity formation. Results indicate that these acculturation scales may measure different aspects of the complex phenomenon of acculturation. For example, purely language-based measures shared only small amounts of variance with more comprehensive measures. Additional research is needed to create and validate acculturation measures for adolescents.

"Live music political events thrived during the year 2000 as marketers praised their ability
to animate “ethnic” publics.  I analyze one such effort, jointly hosted by the Democratic
National Committee and the Hidalgo County Democratic Party, with contradictory
assessments on its function and capacity.  In this article, I show how central the
segmentation of national and local politics are to these contrasting visions democracy.
The local-national disconnect underscores the operation of a model of democracy as
consumer choice and its implications for democratic participation."

"Objective. Chronic pain is one of the most frequent complaints of patients in primary care, yet both patients and providers report low satisfaction with chronic pain care. This study was designed to explore the views held by a diverse sample of patients with chronic pain complaints about their care experiences to identify ways to improve care.
Design. Qualitative analysis of 17 patient focus groups (size 3–7 participants). Groups used struc- tured questions and were tape recorded, tran- scribed, and coded using qualitative software. Eleven groups were conducted in English, six groups in Spanish.
Patients. Convenience sample of 72 adult patients (68% female, 44% Latino, mean age = 48.1 years)
recruited from four diverse primary care practices in Central Massachusetts.
Results. Across all 17 groups, and all gender, ethnicity, and age groups, most patients reported suboptimal interactions with their providers when seeking care for chronic pain. Subjects acknowl- edged feeling disrespected and distrusted, sus- pected of drug-seeking, and having their symptoms dismissed as trivial and/or not warranting medical care. Patients reported more satisfaction when they felt a provider listened to them, trusted them, was accessible to address pain concerns between visits, and used patient-centered approaches to establish goals and treatment plans. Patients also recom- mended some management techniques related to the chronic disease management model to improve pain care.
Conclusions. Implementingpatient-centeredappro- aches in caring for individuals with chronic pain and using principles drawn from the chronic disease management model to improve care systems may improve both patient and provider satisfaction with chronic pain care.
Key Words. Chronic Pain; Patient Views; Primary Care; Pain Management; Qualitative Methods; Focus Groups"