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Tissues from deceased donors provide important data for genomic research and Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) play a significant role. To understand the decisions of families who donated for transplantation and made decisions about donation to the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project (GTEx), we examined donation decisions of family decision makers (FDMs). 413 families were interviewed by telephone. The OPO staff who made the transplant and research requests completed self-administered surveys; a total of 309 matching surveys from 99 OPO staff were obtained. 76.8% of families donated to the GTEx project. Logistic regression analysis found that FDM consent to GTEx donation was associated with endorsement of policies to promote biobanking (OR = 1.35), positive attitudes about medical research (OR = 1.1), lack of concern regarding a breach of confidentiality (OR = 1.54), comfort with tissue donation (OR = 1.24), and prior authorization to solid organ donation (OR = 3.17). OPO staff characteristics associated with GTEx donation included being female (OR = 3.57), White (OR = 4.97), comfort with hospital staff role in donation (OR = 1.61), and number of topics discussed with families (OR = 57.9). Donor type, FDM attitudes, OPO staff sociodemographics, OPO comfort with the GTEx authorization process, and intensity of discussing research-specific issues were significantly associated with GTEx donation decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Positive deviant individuals practice beneficial behaviors in spite of having qualities characterizing them as high risk for unhealthy behaviors. Objective: This study aimed to identify and understand factors distinguishing low-income African American women who breastfeed the longest (positive deviants) from those who breastfeed for a shorter duration or do not breastfeed. Methods: Seven mini-focus groups on infant-feeding attitudes and experiences were conducted with 25 low-income African American women, grouped by infant-feeding practice. Positive deviants, who had breastfed for 4 months or more, were compared with formula-feeding participants who had only formula fed their babies and short-term breastfeeding participants who had breastfed for 3 months or less. Results: Positive deviant women had more schooling, higher income, breastfeeding intention, positive breastfeeding and unfavorable formula-feeding attitudes, higher self-efficacy, positive hospital and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children experiences, more exclusive breastfeeding, and greater comfort breastfeeding in public. Short-term breastfeeding women varied in breastfeeding intention and self-efficacy, seemed to receive insufficient professional breastfeeding support, and supplemented breastfeeding with formula. Some showed ambivalence, concern with unhealthy behaviors, and discomfort with breastfeeding in public. Formula-feeding women intended to formula feed, feared breastfeeding, thought their behaviors were incompatible with breastfeeding, were comfortable with and found formula convenient, and received strong support to formula feed. Conclusion: Tapping into the strengths of positive deviants; tailoring interventions to levels of general and breastfeeding self-efficacy; increasing social, institutional, and community supports; and removing inappropriate formula promotion may offer promising strategies to increase breastfeeding among low-income African American women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scalable, integrative methods to understand mechanisms that link genetic variants with phenotypes are needed. Here we derive a mathematical expression to compute PrediXcan (a gene mapping approach) results using summary data (S-PrediXcan) and show its accuracy and general robustness to misspecified reference sets. We apply this framework to 44 GTEx tissues and 100+ phenotypes from GWAS and meta-analysis studies, creating a growing public catalog of associations that seeks to capture the effects of gene expression variation on human phenotypes. Replication in an independent cohort is shown. Most of the associations are tissue specific, suggesting context specificity of the trait etiology. Colocalized significant associations in unexpected tissues underscore the need for an agnostic scanning of multiple contexts to improve our ability to detect causal regulatory mechanisms. Monogenic disease genes are enriched among significant associations for related traits, suggesting that smaller alterations of these genes may cause a spectrum of milder phenotypes.

The influence of intersectional identities on social experiences is most often explored within research on minority populations (e.g. LGBT, African American women, etc.). However few, if any, studies have extended the subject of intersectionality to address the intersectional identities of researchers or their influence on the conduct of qualitative research in international settings. Through reflexive memoirs offered from student researchers that engaged in an international collaborative research project, this article highlights the challenges intersectional identities posed while conducting community-engaged qualitative research in Durban, South Africa. Within each memoir, particular attention is paid to (a) how the intersection of the student researchers’ perceived and actual racial, gendered, class, and national identities determined or obfuscated their statuses as ‘outsiders’ or ‘insiders’, (b) the influential nature of these mutually constitutive identities on the interview process, and (c) how the student researchers successfully or unsuccessfully negotiated the collective impact of their intersecting positions and identities in the field. By critically examining the complex and interdependent influence of race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and class on researchers’ collection and interpretation of qualitative data, this article extends the application and relevance of the intersectionality framework to an international context and to the experiences of the interviewer/researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African youth in low-income, urbanised communities are exposed to high levels of daily stressors, which increase their risk to negative outcomes. Resiliency can provide avenues for youth to transcend adversity and may contribute to their positive development. To provide a deeper understanding of the pathways that adolescents use to overcome adversity, this paper examined future aspirations of South African youth and how these aspirations were connected to resiliency factors framed by their lived context. A phenomenological approach was used to explore the perceptions of high school students. Fourteen focus groups with girls and boys (N = 112) were conducted. Data were analysed using a thematic approach. Discussions of the harsh conditions undermining the community's future highlighted opportunities for improvement. Community connectedness, hope and altruism were prevalent in youth's responses and could be used to facilitate community and individual resiliency. Our overall findings have important implications for positive youth development efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Marginalized communities need to be heard and validated within their local context, so that individual and community support can be garnered and ownership of the concerns can be embraced. This article reports on three modalities that were used in the community outreach activities of Project REECH. The goal of Project REECH is to engage residents in low-income neighborhoods in a dialogue with researchers to identify the major health concerns in their community. With the aid of these community conversations, the goal is to identify and train community residents to conduct such community-identified research in their neighborhoods. This article primarily explores and evaluates the use and effectiveness of an arts modality called Playback Theatre. Also, it briefly reports on the use of Readers' Theatre and graphic facilitation to aid in the dissemination of the data collected from these community conversations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substance abuse is a chronic, potentially life threatening condition that affects at least 10 percent of American adults and approximately three percent of adolescents. On a national level, about $11.9 billion dollars was spent in 1997 on substance abuse treatment directly, while for the same year, the total social costs related to alcohol and drug problems were estimated to be around $294 billion. Each year, the country loses millions of dollars when individuals are in non-compliance with their substance abuse treatment plans. The longer someone is engaged in their outpatient treatment program and uses outpatient substance abuse treatment services, the higher his or her chances of recovery. This research examined whether there is a significant relationship between use of the Connect System, a telephone-based information and support system, and the use of substance abuse treatment services. Less than 50 percent of those who seek substance abuse treatment and are assessed by intake actually show up for treatment.

Marginalized communities need to be heard and validated within their local context, so that individual and community support can be garnered and ownership of the concerns can be embraced. This article reports on three modalities that were used in the community outreach activities of Project REECH. The goal of Project REECH is to engage residents in low-income neighborhoods in a dialogue with researchers to identify the major health concerns in their community. With the aid of these community conversations, the goal is to identify and train community residents to conduct such community-identified research in their neighborhoods. This article primarily explores and evaluates the use and effectiveness of an arts modality called Playback Theatre. Also, it briefly reports on the use of Readers' Theatre and graphic facilitation to aid in the dissemination of the data collected from these community conversations.