Doctoral Dissertation Social Categories and Health Care Outcomes

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Graduate student Alyson Anthony, guided by Dr. Mary Anglin of the University of Texas, will investigate whether social categories mediate health care outcomes. Earlier research has found that social inequalities affect Black women's chances for diagnosis with AIDS and for receiving medical care. However, such studies typically focus on health care access barriers faced by women who do not regularly participate in medical care and support services. In contrast, Anthony will focus on minority women who are receiving regular care but who nevertheless are at increased risk for HIV-related mortality compared to other women. Anthony will examine the relationship between historically-driven conditions of inequality, the care women receive, and women's own understandings of themselves and their disease course. The researcher will carry out the research in an urban center in the American south. She will conduct semi-structured interviews with Black women and women of other racial and ethnic backgrounds who are receiving health-related support services. She also will interview employees of a federally-funded care service coalition. Additional data will be gathered by participant-observation in women's daily lives and social networks to illuminate the daily life and personal contexts in which women grapple with health and survival. Finally, the researcher will carry out participant-observation at the service coalition in order to examine practical concerns and the logistics of programs targeted to research participants. By examining the daily lives of both women receiving care and of their caregivers, this research will contribute to the broader social science literature on the relationship between contemporary forms of racial, gendered, and class-based differentiations and inequalities in North America. The research also will contribute to the education of a graduate student.