COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Cultural Beliefs and Health Status in Type 2 Diabetics

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This collaborative project (with 0108228) studies a core issue in medical anthropology, the relationship between cultural beliefs and health status. The project investigates patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to understand what strategies people use to successfully manage the disease, and whether these strategies differ by ethnic group. Three groups will be studied, Mexican, African- and European-American diabetic patients in Galveston, Texas, as well as Mexican patients in Guadalajara, Mexico (studied with Mexican colleagues). The project will also analyze whether patients whose cultural models of diabetes agree more closely with the understanding of providers enjoy better health status than patients whose understanding is more variant. The project will also study whether the co-occurrence of the folk illness "susto" with diabetes is associated with a generally poorer health status. Methods include ethnographic interviewing, consensus analysis, the measure of hemoglobinA1c to assess health status, standard self-report scales available in Spanish which focus on depression and stress and formal interviews about social support. The results from this research will advance our understanding of the role of cultural and individual belief systems in a person's health status; will advance the use of consensus analysis in ethnographic research; and will contribute valuable new knowledge to health professionals dealing with diabetes to help advise patients on treatment regimes.