Collaborative: Intercultural Variation in Illness Beliefs

这个项目（包括两个合作奖，这个和9807373给南佛罗里达大学的Roberta Baer）继续使用文化共识模型进行研究，这是一种统计技术，用于评估来自当地社区或文化人群的受访者的潜在模型的同质性程度，在这种情况下，拉丁美洲受访者使用的特定疾病（糖尿病，艾滋病，普通感冒）。研究将集中于系统地检查文化内变异的来源，特别是对特定疾病的专业知识或个人经验的影响。本研究通过收集新样本与先前收集的样本进行比较，建立并扩展了先前对9204555所做的工作。有了这些新数据，就有可能探索不同群体在不同地点内和不同地点之间的信仰差异。将测试三个假设：信念的差异是由于“经验”或在一般社区中接触疾病的差异；关于疾病的信念会因被调查者是否患病而有所不同；并且专业训练的被调查者和非专业的被调查者在信念结构上的差异将大于国籍或文化的差异。该项目将从危地马拉、墨西哥和德克萨斯州南部的六个样本人群，以及墨西哥瓜达拉哈拉和德克萨斯州南部的糖尿病患者和医生那里收集有关艾滋病和普通感冒的新数据。此外，还将进行一些模拟工作，以评估反应偏差和倾斜的答案键对共识估计的影响。共识模型通过评估被调查者对一系列相关问题的回答的一致性或同质性，并证明对规范答案的估计，从而为社区信念的描述带来了严谨性，类似于心理测量学家可能应用于分析测试项目的可靠性。

This project (consisting of two collaborative awards, this and 9807373 to Roberta Baer at the University of South Florida) continues a line of research using the cultural consensus model, a statistical technique for assessing the degree of homogeneity in the underlying models of respondents from a local community or cultural population, in this case of specific illnesses (diabetes, AIDS, the common cold) used by Latin American respondents. The research will focus on the systematic examination of sources of intracultural variation, in particular on the effect of specialized knowledge or personal experience of a specific disease. This research builds on and expands earlier work done on 9204555 by collecting new samples for comparison to previously collected samples. With this new data it will be possible to explore variation in beliefs across diverse groups within and across sites. Three hypotheses will be tested: that differences in beliefs are due to differences in `experience` or exposure to the illness in the general community; that beliefs about illness will vary by whether the individual respondent has had the illness; and that the differences in belief structure between professionally trained and lay respondents will be greater than differences from nationality or culture. The project will collect new data about AIDS and the common cold from six sample populations in Guatemala, Mexico and south Texas, and from diabetics and physicians in Guadalajara, Mexico and south Texas. In addition some simulation work will be done to assess the effects of response bias and skewed answer keys on consensus estimates. The consensus model brings rigor to the description of community beliefs by assessing the concordance or homogeneity across informant' responses to a series of related questions and proving estimates of normative answers, similar to that which a psychometrician might apply to analyzing the reliability of test items.