Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Altruism in the Face of Stigmatization: Volunteering to Provide Home-Based Care for People Living with AIDS in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

研究生肯尼斯·C。Maes在Peter J. Brown博士的监督下工作，将研究志愿艾滋病毒/艾滋病护理人员的利他主义，利己主义和宗教动机与他们在埃塞俄比亚阿迪斯工作过程中的心理健康之间的关系。 在过去十年中，非洲社区卫生保健中的社区卫生服务大幅度增加。 在阿迪斯，数百名贫穷的非亲属照顾者与政府卫生系统合作，自愿参加以家庭为基础的艾滋病毒/艾滋病护理方案。本研究的发现将适用于建立跨文化理论的认知和文化的理解人类利他主义，关系和心理健康。该项目的直接研究目标是：（1）记录志愿者照顾者对志愿服务的动机，成本和回报的描述，以及（2）了解在不同的贫困和粮食不安全经历中，如何保持和重视不同的动机，随着时间的推移，影响与亲密患者和照顾者自己的心理健康的照顾关系。目标1将在24个月的过程中通过民族志和认知方法完成。目标2将通过进行为期18个月的志愿者居家养老的动机、社会经济和心理健康方面的纵向调查来实现。 创新和本地验证的数据收集方法将揭示并解释认知（动机），社会（患者-患者关系）和健康相关变量之间的方向性影响。 这个项目很重要，因为它将产生对非洲公共卫生项目有用的知识，这些项目面临着严重的人力资源短缺。 由阿迪斯大学社区卫生系成员在同一地点（ALERT医院ART诊所）进行的平行研究将涉及对患者生存率和发病率的纵向分析。该项目的结果将引起生物文化人类学家、卫生工作者和人口卫生政策制定者的兴趣。 该项目还将加强埃默里大学和阿迪斯大学之间的合作研究和教学关系，并为美国研究生的教育做出贡献。

Graduate student Kenneth C. Maes, working under the supervision of Dr. Peter J. Brown, will study the relationship between altruistic, self-interested, and religious motivations of volunteer HIV/AIDS caregivers and their mental health over the course of their work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Volunteerism in community health care has grown substantially over the past decade in Africa. In Addis Ababa, hundreds of poor, non-kin caregivers are volunteering with home-based HIV/AIDS care programs, in cooperation with the government health system. The findings of this research will apply to building cross-cultural theory about cognitive and cultural understandings of human altruism, relationships, and mental health. The immediate research objectives of this project are: (1) to document volunteer caregiver descriptions of the motivations, costs, and rewards involved in volunteering, and (2) to understand how holding and valuing different motivations amidst varying experiences of poverty and food insecurity influence care relationships with close patients and caregivers' own mental health over time. Objective 1 will be accomplished with ethnographic and cognitive methods over the course of 24 months. Objective 2 will be accomplished by carrying out an 18-month longitudinal survey of the motivational, socioeconomic and mental health aspects of volunteer home-based caregiving. Innovative and locally validated data collection methods will reveal and allow interpretation of the directional effects among cognitive (motivational), social (caregiver-patient relationships) and health-related variables. This project is important because it will generate knowledge useful to public health programs in Africa that are facing a serious lack of human resources. Parallel research at the same site (ALERT Hospital ART clinic), conducted by members of Addis Ababa University's Department of Community Health, will involve a longitudinal analysis of patient survival and morbidity. The results of this project will be of interest to bio-cultural anthropologists, health practitioners, and population health policy makers. This project will also bolster collaborative research and teaching relationships between Emory University and Addis Ababa University, and contribute to the education of an American graduate student.