Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Culturally Situating Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes within Cambodian American Communities

康涅狄格大学的研究生劳拉·沃特金斯将在罗伊·G·D‘安德拉德博士的指导下，研究社会和文化因素与健康之间的关系。她的研究重点将是康涅狄格州柬埔寨裔美国人社区内文化中介的2型糖尿病风险因素。沃特金斯的研究将既包括糖尿病的既定风险因素，也包括社会文化因素，包括“地位综合症”(由于控制有限和社会参与减少，地位较低的人处于危险之中)和文化和谐(根据文化标准生活的能力)。她将使用多种方法。她将进行参与者观察和半结构化访谈，以产生一份关于糖尿病是如何在一个有创伤、饥饿和迁徙历史的人口中处于文化位置的人种学描述。她将使用结构化访谈来收集既定因素(BMI、血压、家族史、营养、胆固醇和体力活动)和文化中介因素的量化指标，包括心理健康、感知控制、社会参与和文化和谐。这些数据将使沃特金斯能够对柬埔寨裔美国人社区内糖尿病风险的既定风险因素和身份综合征和文化和谐指标的解释能力进行比较评估。这将是第一次对这个社区进行这样的比较。通过将人类学理论和方法应用于不断升级的公共健康威胁，这项研究将有助于理解慢性病和健康差距中的社会文化因素。这将有助于更好地了解生物文化因素，这些因素可能会增加任何人患糖尿病的风险。这项研究是学术界和社区之间的合作伙伴关系，确保研究从研究主题的发展到研究结果的传播在理论和实践上都有基础。这项研究还将有助于社会科学家的教育。

University of Connecticut graduate student Lara Watkins, supervised by Dr. Roy G. D'Andrade, will investigate the relationship between social and cultural factors and health. The focus of her research will be on culturally mediated risk factors for type 2 diabetes within Cambodian American communities in Connecticut. Watkins' research will engage both established risk factors for diabetes and also sociocultural factors, including "status syndrome" (those with lower status are at risk due to limited control and decreased social participation) and cultural consonance (the ability to live according to the standards of a culture). She will use a multi-methods approach. She will undertake participant observation and semi-structured interviews to produce an ethnographic description of how diabetes is culturally situated in a population that has a history of trauma, starvation, and migration. She will use structured interviews to collect quantitative measures of established (BMI, blood pressure, family history, nutrition, cholesterol, and physical activity) and culturally mediated factors, including mental health, perceived control, social participation, and cultural consonance.These data will allow Watkins to do a comparative assessement of the explanatory power of both established risk factors and status syndrome and cultural consonance measures, for diabetes risk within Cambodian American communities. This will be the first time such a comparison has been done for this community. By applying anthropological theory and methods to an escalating public health threat, the research will contribute to an understanding of socio-cultural factors in chronic disease and health disparities. It will contribute to a better understanding of biocultural factors that may place anyone at increased risk for diabetes. This research is a partnership between academia and community, ensuring that the research is both theoretically and practically grounded from the development of the research topic to the dissemination of findings. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.