Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Culture Change, Women, and Diabetes in the United Arab Emirates

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University of Arizona graduate student, Sarah Trainer, with guidance from Dr. Ivy Pike, will undertake anthropological research on the relationship between culture change, weight, and disease. Her reseach will be carried out among Emirati women in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a focus on type 2 diabetes. The researcher will take a context-driven approach to understanding how social change can affect biology. She will employ mixed methods, including focus-groups, structured and semi-structured interviews, and anthropometric measurements. The goal is to obtain anthropologically grounded information regarding recent shifts in behavior related to the emergence of obesity and associated health problems. Particular areas of interest include how urban women in Dubai cope with local gender role ideals; the increased availability of non-traditional, "fast" foods; changing work patterns; evolving ideas about body image, risk, and health; and conflicting messages about Emirati identity. The meshing of the biological and cultural is a pivotal aspect of the study and will provide a unique perspective on obesity and diabetes in the UAE, as well as on the impact of the globalizing and local processes occurring there.The research is important because the World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, seventy percent of all deaths globally will be the result of chronic disease. Many countries remain ill-equipped to face the social, political, and economic repercussions of these increases in chronic disease. Although this study focuses on the local context of these processes, its methods and perspectives can be used to consider the effects of development-driven changes in other populations around the world. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.