Doctoral Dissertation Research: Origins of Diabetes Concepts in an Urban American Indian Community

威斯康星大学博士候选人Margaret Pollak将在Claire Wendland博士的指导下，对人们形成疾病概念的过程进行研究。她特别关注的是参与慢性疾病护理的多个参与者如何发展和协商他们对疾病的理解。这项研究将在伊利诺斯州的芝加哥进行，参与者包括美国印第安糖尿病患者、非正式护理人员和生物医学提供者。美洲印第安人的糖尿病发病率是世界上最高的。虽然超过60%的美国印第安人生活在城市地区，但大多数关于美国印第安人糖尿病流行的研究都集中在保留地。研究方法将包括参与者观察、参与者跟踪、半结构化访谈以及研究参与者使用的糖尿病相关文献的收集和分析。该项目旨在满足三个总体研究目标：(1)记录形成患者和提供者糖尿病概念的因素，(2)追踪这些概念的运动，以便了解患者知识在多大程度上受到生物医学模型的影响，以及患者知识在多大程度上影响生物医学模型，以及(3)调查这些糖尿病概念在美国印第安人城市社区的构成中所起的作用。这项研究具有政策和理论建设的重要性。它将通过调查疾病概念如何通过社会互动以及通过生物医学证据形成，扩大人类学和科学技术研究方面的奖学金。这项研究的结果也将为公共卫生工作者制定糖尿病预防和护理计划提供见解，以便在城市和多元文化医疗保健环境中实施。此外，该研究将通过调查当地卫生和社会机构传播的糖尿病和疾病概念在整合来自不同部落和个人背景的个人方面所起的作用，为美洲印第安人城市生活的人类学研究作出贡献。支持这项研究也支持了研究生的教育。

University of Wisconsin doctoral candidate Margaret Pollak, with the guidance of Dr. Claire Wendland, will undertake research on the processes through which people form concepts of disease. Her particular focus will be on how multiple actors involved in chronic condition care develop and negotiate their understandings of disease. The research will be conducted in Chicago, Illinois, with American Indian diabetics, informal caregivers, and biomedical providers. American Indians have some of the highest rates of diabetes worldwide. While more than sixty percent of American Indians live in urban areas, the majority of studies on the American Indian diabetes epidemic are centered on reservations. Research methods will include a combination of participant observation, participant shadowing, semi-structured interviews, and the collection and analysis of diabetes-related literature utilized by research participants. The project seeks to meet three overarching research objectives: (1) document the factors that shape patient and provider concepts of diabetes, (2) trace the movement of these concepts in order to understand the extent to which patient knowledge is shaped by biomedical models, as well as the extent to which patient knowledge influences biomedical models, and (3) investigate what role these diabetes concepts play in the constitution of an urban American Indian community. The research has both policy and theory-building importance. It will extend scholarship in anthropology and science and technology studies by investigating how disease concepts are formed through social interactions as well as through biomedical evidence. Findings from this research also will offer insight to public health workers developing diabetes prevention and care programs to be implemented in urban and multicultural healthcare settings. In addition, the research will contribute to anthropological studies of urban American Indian life by investigating what role diabetes and concepts of the condition disseminated by local health and social institutions play in integrating individuals from varied tribal and personal backgrounds. Supporting this research also supports the education of a graduate student.