PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM (DISABILITY)

这项研究调查了导致使用替代医学来管理艾滋病毒疾病的社会过程。拟议研究的具体目的是：(1)对艾滋病毒感染者使用各种替代药物治疗艾滋病毒疾病的社会过程进行定性研究（例如，服用营养补充剂或进行冥想等自我保健，以及接受针灸师或草药医生的护理等正式护理）；(2)调查社会网络、健康信仰和意识形态、分层（即种族）、阶级和性别)，以及其他社会文化特征影响使用（或不使用）替代医学的决策，以及(3)通过记录艾滋病毒感染者在使用替代医学时的健康实践、关注点和经验，增加我们对他们如何使用替代医学来满足其健康需求的理解。将对艾滋病毒感染者进行60至80次访谈。这些数据将使用内容和接地理论分析的公认技术进行分析。这些发现将帮助我们理解和解释为什么人们使用替代医学，在健康实践中更广泛的变化，以及推进对疾病行为和寻求健康过程的社会学理解。

This research investigates the social processes that lead to the use of alternative medicine to manage HIV disease. The specific aims of the proposed research are (1) to conduct a qualitative study of the social processes by which persons with HIV disease become users of different kinds of alternative medicine for the management of HIV disease (e.g., self care such as taking nutritional supplements or engaging in meditation, and formal care such as receiving care from an acupuncturist or herbalist), (2) to investigate how social networks, health beliefs and ideologies, stratification, (i.e., race, class and gender), and other socio-cultural characteristics influence decision making about using (and not using) alternative medicine, and (3) to increase our understanding of how persons with HIV disease use alternative medicine to meet their health needs by documenting their health practices, concerns, and experiences while using alternative medicine. Between sixty and eighty interviews will be conducted with persons with HIV disease. These data will be analyzed using accepted techniques for content and grounded theory analysis. The findings will help us understand and explain why people use alternative medicine, broader changes in health practices, as well as advance sociological understandings of illness behavior and the health seeking process.