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BMC Genetics Jun 2010There is a lack of knowledge regarding the frequency of disease associated polymorphisms in populations and population attributable risk for many populations remains... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
BACKGROUND
There is a lack of knowledge regarding the frequency of disease associated polymorphisms in populations and population attributable risk for many populations remains unknown. Factors that could affect the association of the allele with disease, either positively or negatively, such as race, ethnicity, and gender, may not be possible to determine without population based allele frequencies.Here we used a panel of 51 polymorphisms previously associated with at least one disease and determined the allele frequencies within the entire Personalized Medicine Research Project population based cohort. We compared these allele frequencies to those in dbSNP and other data sources stratified by race. Differences in allele frequencies between self reported race, region of origin, and sex were determined.
RESULTS
There were 19544 individuals who self reported a single racial category, 19027 or (97.4%) self reported white Caucasian, and 11205 (57.3%) individuals were female. Of the 11,208 (57%) individuals with an identifiable region of origin 8337 or (74.4%) were German.41 polymorphisms were significantly different between self reported race at the 0.05 level. Stratification of our Caucasian population by self reported region of origin revealed 19 polymorphisms that were significantly different (p = 0.05) between individuals of different origins. Further stratification of the population by gender revealed few significant differences in allele frequencies between the genders.
CONCLUSIONS
This represents one of the largest population based allele frequency studies to date. Stratification by self reported race and region of origin revealed wide differences in allele frequencies not only by race but also by region of origin within a single racial group. We report allele frequencies for our Asian/Hmong and American Indian populations; these two minority groups are not typically selected for population allele frequency detection. Population wide allele frequencies are important for the design and implementation of studies and for determining the relevance of a disease associated polymorphism for a given population.
Topics: Ethnicity; Gene Frequency; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Humans; Polymorphism, Genetic; Population Groups; Sex Factors
PubMed: 20565774
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2156-11-51 -
International Journal For Equity in... Mar 2012Addressing the underrepresentation of indigenous health professionals is recognised internationally as being integral to overcoming indigenous health inequities. This... (Review)
Review
INTRODUCTION
Addressing the underrepresentation of indigenous health professionals is recognised internationally as being integral to overcoming indigenous health inequities. This literature review aims to identify 'best practice' for recruitment of indigenous secondary school students into tertiary health programmes with particular relevance to recruitment of Māori within a New Zealand context. METHODOLOGY/METHODS: A Kaupapa Māori Research (KMR) methodological approach was utilised to review literature and categorise content via: country; population group; health profession focus; research methods; evidence of effectiveness; and discussion of barriers. Recruitment activities are described within five broad contexts associated with the recruitment pipeline: Early Exposure, Transitioning, Retention/Completion, Professional Workforce Development, and Across the total pipeline.
RESULTS
A total of 70 articles were included. There is a lack of published literature specific to Māori recruitment and a limited, but growing, body of literature focused on other indigenous and underrepresented minority populations.The literature is primarily descriptive in nature with few articles providing evidence of effectiveness. However, the literature clearly frames recruitment activity as occurring across a pipeline that extends from secondary through to tertiary education contexts and in some instances vocational (post-graduate) training. Early exposure activities encourage students to achieve success in appropriate school subjects, address deficiencies in careers advice and offer tertiary enrichment opportunities. Support for students to transition into and within health professional programmes is required including bridging/foundation programmes, admission policies/quotas and institutional mission statements demonstrating a commitment to achieving equity. Retention/completion support includes academic and pastoral interventions and institutional changes to ensure safer environments for indigenous students. Overall, recruitment should reflect a comprehensive, integrated pipeline approach that includes secondary, tertiary, community and workforce stakeholders.
CONCLUSIONS
Although the current literature is less able to identify 'best practice', six broad principles to achieve success for indigenous health workforce development include: 1) Framing initiatives within indigenous worldviews 2) Demonstrating a tangible institutional commitment to equity 3) Framing interventions to address barriers to indigenous health workforce development 4) Incorporating a comprehensive pipeline model 5) Increasing family and community engagement and 6) Incorporating quality data tracking and evaluation. Achieving equity in health workforce representation should remain both a political and ethical priority.
Topics: Health Workforce; Healthcare Disparities; Humans; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; New Zealand; Personnel Selection; Population Groups; Tertiary Healthcare
PubMed: 22416784
DOI: 10.1186/1475-9276-11-13 -
Systematic Reviews Apr 2021Appropriate search strategies are essential to ensure the integrity and reproducibility of systematic and scoping reviews, as researchers seek to capture as many...
BACKGROUND
Appropriate search strategies are essential to ensure the integrity and reproducibility of systematic and scoping reviews, as researchers seek to capture as many relevant resources as possible. In the case of Indigenous health reviews, researchers are met with the special challenge of creating a search strategy that can encompass this large, diverse population group with no universally agreed upon identification criteria.
MAIN BODY
With an aim to promote improved review methodologies that uphold standards of justice, autonomy, and equity for Indigenous peoples and other heterogeneous populations, we describe critical gaps and approaches to close them. We report organizational and transparency issues around how Indigenous populations are indexed in several major databases, and draw on examples of published reviews and protocols to demonstrate the challenges inherent to creating a comprehensive search strategy.
CONCLUSIONS
The conduct and communication of results from health literature research on global Indigenous populations are compromised by challenges of methodology that are rooted in the complexities inherent to defining Indigenous peoples. These challenges must be urgently addressed to improve this important field of inquiry moving forward.
Topics: Humans; Indigenous Peoples; Population Groups; Reproducibility of Results; Review Literature as Topic
PubMed: 33874997
DOI: 10.1186/s13643-021-01664-y -
Leprosy Review Dec 2015Tribal populations are an underserved population group and access to health services is a major challenge for them. Since leprosy treatment is integrated with the...
BACKGROUND
Tribal populations are an underserved population group and access to health services is a major challenge for them. Since leprosy treatment is integrated with the general health services, identifying leprosy cases is not be easy in these settings and they remain as endemic reservoirs, unless greater efforts are made to reach them.
METHODOLOGY
An active search operation was conducted in the tribal colonies in four pre-identified Health & Nutrition Clusters, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, India, in 2013. After a brief training, village health nurses and selected volunteers covered all the households, showing flash cards with photos of leprosy cases and enquiring if there was any resident with a similar condition. Suspects were listed and examined by the district leprosy supervisor and field coordinators from Damien Foundation. Follow up interviews were done after one year to assess the treatment completion rate.
RESULTS
Village health workers covered 47,574 people living in the tribal colonies and identified 325 leprosy suspects. Among them, 70 were confirmed as new leprosy cases. The prevalence of previously undetected leprosy cases was found to be 14.7/10,000. Out of 70 cases, 19 (27%) were children, 35 (50%) were female, 32 (45.7%) were classified as MB leprosy, 6 (8.6%) had a leprosy reaction and 11 (15.7%) persons had Grade 2 disability at the time of diagnosis. The treatment completion rate was found to be 74% at the end of one year.
CONCLUSION
The study reveals a very high burden of leprosy among the tribal population and demonstrates how resources can be mobilized from government, NGO and local community sources to promote early case detection among underserved population groups.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; India; Leprosy; Male; Middle Aged; Population Groups; Rural Population; Young Adult
PubMed: 26964428
DOI: No ID Found -
Behavior Research Methods Jun 2015This article introduces five methods that take a multiple-group analysis approach to testing a group difference in indirect effects. Unlike the general frameworks for...
This article introduces five methods that take a multiple-group analysis approach to testing a group difference in indirect effects. Unlike the general frameworks for testing moderated indirect effects, the five methods provide direct tests for equality of indirect effects between groups. A simulation study was conducted to examine the performance of the methods in terms of the empirical type I error rate, statistical power, and coverage of 95 % confidence intervals. The likelihood ratio test and percentile bootstrap confidence intervals are recommended. The methods are illustrated using an empirical data set.
Topics: Computer Simulation; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Humans; Models, Statistical; Multivariate Analysis; Population Groups; Psychology, Experimental
PubMed: 24907002
DOI: 10.3758/s13428-014-0485-8 -
Daedalus 2011This essay explores come of the reasons for the continuing power of racial categorization in our era, and thus offers some friendly amendments to the more optimistic...
This essay explores come of the reasons for the continuing power of racial categorization in our era, and thus offers some friendly amendments to the more optimistic renderings of the term post-racial. Focusing mainly on the relationship between black and white Americans, it argues that the widespread embrace of universal values of freedom and equality, which most regard as antidotes to racial exclusion, actually reinforce it. The internal logic of these categories requires the construction of the "other." In America, where freedom and equality still stand at the contested center of collective identity, a history of racial oppression informs the very meaning of these terms. Thus the irony: much of the effort exerted to transcend race tends to fuel continuing division.
Topics: Black or African American; Civil Rights; Classification; Freedom; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Population Groups; Prejudice; Race Relations; Social Alienation; Social Behavior; Social Conditions; Social Identification; Social Problems; United States
PubMed: 21469393
DOI: 10.1162/daed_a_00057 -
PloS One 2021This study investigates the oral health-seeking behaviour of households and its influence on demand for dental caries treatment services in Enugu state Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION
This study investigates the oral health-seeking behaviour of households and its influence on demand for dental caries treatment services in Enugu state Nigeria.
METHODS
A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study was used to explore the oral health seeking pattern of 378 urban and 348 rural household respondents in Enugu state Nigeria. The study explored dental caries treatment-seeking, oral health behavior of respondents using the three dynamics of the Andersen and Newman health utilization model; predisposing, enabling and need factors.
FINDINGS
Recommendations from community members (48.9%), severity of disease (22.1%), and cost of treatment (19.4%) all influenced where oral healthcare was first sought. Gender and type of occupation, influenced positive oral health-seeking behavior (p<0.05). The least poor socioeconomic status (SES) group, sought dental treatment in the private dental clinics, while the very poor and most poor SES groups used traditional healers, home treatment and patent medicine dealers more. Dental fillings and extractions were generally the most accessed treatment options for dental caries. The tendency for all the SES groups (especially the least poor), to choose tooth extraction more as a treatment option for dental caries was influenced by the oral health awareness level of respondents and the cost of dental fillings. (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
The findings suggest that interventions to create increased oral health awareness targeted at education on preventive strategies, appropriate time and place to seek oral health care and dental caries treatment, as well devising and implementing health financing options such as dental insurance would enable individuals to seek appropriate treatment for dental caries on time. In addition, it will reduce the proportion of people visiting unorthodox healthcare providers for their oral health problems or choosing cheaper but inappropriate treatment options.
Topics: Adult; Female; Health Behavior; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Nigeria; Oral Health; Population Groups; Young Adult
PubMed: 33524044
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246164 -
Forensic Science International May 2006To date, there are no metric standards for differentiating between population groups from measurements of the calcaneus in South Africa. Previously, some of the...
To date, there are no metric standards for differentiating between population groups from measurements of the calcaneus in South Africa. Previously, some of the measurements of the calcaneus have been used for sex determination in Americans, Europeans, Italians and South Africans. However, the variations in the number of articular facet present on the superior surface of the calcaneus have been observed in different population groups. This study aims at investigating the potentials of measurements of the calcaneus in diagnosing population affinity and observes population variations of the number of articular facet present on its superior surface in indigenous South Africans and those of European descent. Nine measurements were taken from 180 non-pathological left calcanei in a sample of known sex and population affinity obtained from the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons. Three articular facet types were observed. A significantly higher incidence of type A was observed in South Africans of European descent (SAED) population group while type B predominated in the indigenous South African (ISA) population group. Type C even though rare was found only in ISA group. The metrical data were subjected to discriminant function analyses. The average accuracy in correct classification (81-89%) obtained for the discriminant function equations derived in this study may assist in the determination of population affinity when the calcaneus is present for analysis in forensic cases.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Anthropometry; Black People; Calcaneus; Female; Forensic Anthropology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Reference Values; Sex Determination Analysis; South Africa
PubMed: 16051455
DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2005.06.005 -
Human Genetics Sep 2014Peninsular Malaysia is a strategic region which might have played an important role in the initial peopling and subsequent human migrations in Asia. However, the genetic...
Peninsular Malaysia is a strategic region which might have played an important role in the initial peopling and subsequent human migrations in Asia. However, the genetic diversity and history of human populations--especially indigenous populations--inhabiting this area remain poorly understood. Here, we conducted a genome-wide study using over 900,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in four major Malaysian ethnic groups (MEGs; Malay, Proto-Malay, Senoi and Negrito), and made comparisons of 17 world-wide populations. Our data revealed that Peninsular Malaysia has greater genetic diversity corresponding to its role as a contact zone of both early and recent human migrations in Asia. However, each single Orang Asli (indigenous) group was less diverse with a smaller effective population size (N(e)) than a European or an East Asian population, indicating a substantial isolation of some duration for these groups. All four MEGs were genetically more similar to Asian populations than to other continental groups, and the divergence time between MEGs and East Asian populations (12,000--6,000 years ago) was also much shorter than that between East Asians and Europeans. Thus, Malaysian Orang Asli groups, despite their significantly different features, may share a common origin with the other Asian groups. Nevertheless, we identified traces of recent gene flow from non-Asians to MEGs. Finally, natural selection signatures were detected in a batch of genes associated with immune response, human height, skin pigmentation, hair and facial morphology and blood pressure in MEGs. Notable examples include SYN3 which is associated with human height in all Orang Asli groups, a height-related gene (PNPT1) and two blood pressure-related genes (CDH13 and PAX5) in Negritos. We conclude that a long isolation period, subsequent gene flow and local adaptations have jointly shaped the genetic architectures of MEGs, and this study provides insight into the peopling and human migration history in Southeast Asia.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Asian People; Evolution, Molecular; Genetic Structures; Genetic Variation; Genetics, Population; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genotype; Haplotypes; Heterozygote; Humans; Malaysia; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Population Groups; Time Factors
PubMed: 24916469
DOI: 10.1007/s00439-014-1459-8 -
Forensic Science International Jul 1999Data from 1393 unrelated individuals have been compiled from eight population groups: African Americans, Africans (Sierra Leone), U.S. Caucasians, Austrians, French,... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
Data from 1393 unrelated individuals have been compiled from eight population groups: African Americans, Africans (Sierra Leone), U.S. Caucasians, Austrians, French, Hispanics, Japanese, and Asian Americans. The majority of the mtDNA sequences were observed only once within each population group (i.e., ranging from a low of 60.3% (35/58) of the Asian American sequences to a high of 85.3% (93/109) of the French sequences). Genetic diversity ranged from 0.990 in the African sample to 0.998 in African Americans. Random match probability ranged from 2.50% in the Asian American sample to 0.52% in U.S. Caucasians. The average number of nucleotide differences between individuals in a database is greatest for the African American and African samples (14.1 and 13.1, respectively), and the least variable are the Caucasians (ranging from 7.2 to 8.4). Substitutions are the predominate polymorphism, and at least 92% of the substitutions are transitions. The most prevalent transversions are As substituted for Cs and Cs substituted for As. For most population groups these transversions occurred predominately in the HVI region; however, the African, African American, and Hispanic samples also demonstrated a large portion of their C to A and A to C transversions in the HVII region (at sites 186 and/or 189). Most insertions occur in the HVII region at sites 309.1 and 315.1, within a stretch of C's. Insertions of an additional C are common in all population groups. The sequence data were converted to SSO mtDNA types and compared with population data on Caucasians, Africans, Asians, Japanese, and Mexicans described by Stoneking et al. [M. Stoneking, D. Hedgecock, R.G. Higuchi, L. Vigilant, H.A. Erlich, Population variation of human mtDNA control region sequences detected by enzymatic amplification and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes, Am. J. Hum. Genet. 48 (1991) 370-382] using an R x C contingency table test. Differences between major population groups (i.e., between African, Caucasian, and Asian) are quite evident, and similar ethnic population groups carried similar SSO polymorphism frequencies. There were only a few SSO types that showed significant differences between subpopulation groups. The SSO data alone can not be used to describe the population genetics with complete sequence data. However, the results of the SSO comparisons are similar to other analyses, and differences in sequence data in regions HVI and HVII are greater between major population groups than between subgroups.
Topics: DNA, Mitochondrial; Databases, Factual; Ethnicity; Genetic Variation; Genetics, Population; Haplotypes; Humans; Racial Groups
PubMed: 10464936
DOI: 10.1016/s0379-0738(99)00042-0