The concept of culture: A core issue in health disparities

Contemporary discourse contains numerous examples of use of the concept of culture by social and behavioral scientists. Simple reification, where the speaker makes culture into a thing capable of action exemplifies one usage in public discourse. Some quantitative social scientists attempt to characterize people’s cultural identities by means of a single categorical variable, which often “lumps” people into categories such as “Hispanic” or “Black” that in fact have numerous culturally bounded subcategories. Approaches that emphasize cultural process are preferable to those who attempt to categorize; more complex measures of acculturation help investigators to make convincing analyses of circumstances in which health disparities occur. Examples in which investigators make appropriate use of cultural characterizations demonstrate their utility in investigating health disparities in Haitian American women, injecting and noninjecting drug users, Hispanic youth, and adult Hispanics at risk of HIV infection. Focus on culture in the study of health disparities can identify entanglements between structural factors such as poverty and lack of education and cultural factors such as beliefs about health. Qualitative methods coupled with quantitative methods have great potential to improve investigators’ grasp of cultural nuance while capturing the distribution of qualitatively derived behaviors.     

按阴阳辨证分类组方联合拉米夫定治疗慢性乙型肝炎临床研究

目的:观察按阴阳辨证分类组方联合拉米夫定治疗慢性乙型肝炎(CHB)的临床疗效。方法:90例CHB患者,随机分治疗组及对照组各45例,对照组除一般保肝、对症治疗外,加用拉米夫定抗病毒治疗,疗程6个月。治疗组在对照组用药基础上,按阴阳辨证法则分类组方治疗。口苦、便干、尿黄、苔黄腻、舌尖红、脉弦数或滑数均为有热属阳,用肝炎I号方治疗(茵陈,栀子,滑石,公英,二花,连翘,贯众,虎杖,柴胡,赤芍,郁金,当归,川芎,枳壳,甘草),无阳热征象即按阴湿类用肝炎II号方治疗(党参,白术,茯芩,黄芪,仙灵脾,山药,熟地,山萸肉,柴胡,升麻,干姜,甘草,虎杖),疗程与对照组相同,前3个月每天1剂,后3个月隔日1剂,水煎2次取汁400ml,分早晚服。疗程结束时,观察两组患者肝功能、乙肝病毒标志物及HBVDNA的变化。结果:治疗组与对照组患者血清谷丙转氨酶(ALT)正常率分别为91%与75.5%,两组相比,差异有显著性(P<0.05);HBeAg、HBVDNA阴转率分别为29%、14%及31%、21%,两组相比差异有显著性(P<0.01或P<0.05);未见明显不良反应。结论:按阴阳辨证分类组方联合拉米夫定治疗CHB有改善肝功能和抑制乙肝病毒复制的功效,且辨证指标明确,易于在临床推广。     

Prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and relation to glycemic control therapies at baseline in the BARI 2D cohort

Abstract   We evaluated the associations between glycemic therapies and prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) at baseline among participants in the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation 2 Diabetes (BARI 2D) trial on medical and revascularization therapies for coronary artery disease (CAD) and on insulin-sensitizing vs. insulin-providing treatments for diabetes. A total of 2,368 patients with type 2 diabetes and CAD was evaluated. DPN was defined as clinical examination score >2 using the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI). DPN odds ratios across different groups of glycemic therapy were evaluated by multiple logistic regression adjusted for multiple covariates including age, sex, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and diabetes duration. Fifty-one percent of BARI 2D subjects with valid baseline characteristics and MNSI scores had DPN. After adjusting for all variables, use of insulin was significantly associated with DPN (OR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.15–2.13). Patients on sulfonylurea (SU) or combination of SU/metformin (Met)/thiazolidinediones (TZD) had marginally higher rates of DPN than the Met/TZD group. This cross-sectional study in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes and CAD showed association of insulin use with higher DPN prevalence, independent of disease duration, glycemic control, and other characteristics. The causality between a glycemic control strategy and DPN cannot be evaluated in this cross-sectional study, but continued assessment of DPN and randomized therapies in BARI 2D trial may provide further explanations on the development of DPN.