Rheumatic and Autoimmune Diseases in Minority Communities

该项目研究了华盛顿特区服务不足的主要少数民族社区中风湿性疾病的表达。通过NIAMS社区健康中心，对风湿病依从性受试者进行评估，并为研究人员提供了解护理障碍的第一手经验。该项目支持了以下方面的研究：理解标准化自我报告结果评估工具的文化差异、风湿病症状患者使用补充和替代医学、了解研究过程和少数民族知情同意，以及用西班牙语和英语验证用于流行病学研究的类风湿关节炎病例调查问卷。此外，研究人员还研究了干预措施，以改善初级保健提供者和专科医生之间的转诊过程。

This project studies the expression of rheumatic diseases in an underserved, largely ethnic minority community in Washington, DC. Through the NIAMS Community Health Center, subjects with rheumatic compliants are evaluated and provide researchers with first-hand experience in understanding barriers to care. This project has supported research on cultural differences in understanding standardized self-report outcome assessment tools, use of complementary and alternative medicine in patients with rheumatic symptoms, understanding of the research process and informed consent among ethnic minorities, and validation in Spanish and English of a rheumatoid arthritis case-finding questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies. In addition, researchers have examined interventions to improve the referral process between primary care providers and subspecialists.