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K-State Research and Extension
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Manhattan, KS 66506-3401
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November 10, 2015

Article Review on Health, Well-being, and Social Connectedness

Submitted by Debra Bolton

I’ve been reading a series of articles regarding health, well-being, and social connectedness of people living in rural areas. Since I live, work, and play in Southwest Kansas, I am especially interested in this geographical region, because it’s unique. Our three major population centers (counties) are Minority-majority. In research, there tends to be a focus on what others, mostly in professional positions, think of the targeted populations because of language barriers between researchers and their subjects. That is how we “learn” about families. We know how the English speaking populations are faring (in terms of need), and we are able to address those issues around health, nutrition, physical activity, social engagement, and a variety of other human interactions. Because of language barriers in multi-lingual communities, we struggle to get a clear picture of respondents’ lives. I would like to offer, for the next few weeks, a series of reviews on existing research and subsequent literature on topics related to the aforementioned populations.

Why should we care about the health, well-being, and social connectedness of the people living with and among us? We know that socially, physically, and emotionally healthy families are part of socially cohesive communities, and those families raise our future leaders. To save me from having to pull out Bronfenbrenner’s Social Ecological Framework illustration here, please look it up. It is a great tool for understanding how humans are shaped. It is from the concepts of Bronfenbrenner’s Framework that I have looked for articles in reviewing literature specific to my topic of health, well-being, and social connectedness in rural communities. I am especially interested when the research for those articles comes from areas like Southwest Kansas with similar population demographics. Here’s the first article for review.

An article called, A Contextual Approach to Understanding Breast Cancer Survivorship Among Latinas (Lopez-Class, Gomez-Duarte, Graves, and Ashing-Giwa, 2012) described empirical literature on health related qualities of life (HRQOL) of Latina breast cancer survivors. While I am not studying cancer specifically, it had information that we can apply to reaching or understanding Latino populations. The authors, as suspected, said that little data has been gathered and analyzed on the subject. Out of the 244 studies retrieved, which met minimal criteria; only 37 met the entire criteria and went on to be analyzed for the purposes of overall study. Health related qualities of life status for any population is important to know for educators and practitioners. The HRQOL is defined as a person’s sense of well-being in response to major illness or other life-changing events. The HRQOL construct encompasses spiritual, functional, cognitive, emotional/psychological, physical, and social well-being. Understanding a person’s HRQOL helps to shine a light on how he or she will handle those catastrophic conditions like cancer. The concept of HRQOL helps medical researchers to understand health disparities among underserved populations.

The authors of the article (2012) point out that Latinos constitute the largest and the fastest-growing ethnic minority group. There are things to consider about this largest and fastest growing group: 1) Country of origin, 2) Acculturation status, 3) Legal status, 4) New language acquisition, 5) Loss of social capital, 6) Economic difficulties, and 7) Isolation from resources. Lopez-Class, et al. (2012) emphasized when evaluating (study) and/or educating new populations, it is best to meet them in their own environments and to observe their interactions within those spaces, which is an ecological approach. The model of HRQOL incorporates socio-ecological, cultural, demographics, health-care access, medical factors, general health practices, and psychological status to determine a person’s well-being. These are steps to understanding new and/or underserved populations. The better we understand those who are underserved, the more likely we can help meet those needs. Drs. Lopez-Class, Gomez-Duarte, Graves, and Ashing-Giwa (2012) article is what makes me advocate for more multi-lingual studies. We are beginning to see more multi-lingual (at least bilingual) studies emerging in the social sciences. They are important to help us explore unasked questions when we are working with new and unfamiliar audiences. We are invited to read the existing data and/or to “mine” new data for application in our work as Extension professionals.