Dissertation Research: Socioecology of Mother and Infant Health Among the Panare

该项目调查了社会和生态压力对委内瑞拉东帕纳雷地区母婴健康的影响程度。这个社区的人是寡居的园艺师，他们无法获得机构医疗保健，很少与外来者建立社会或经济联系，他们的日常活动反映了传统的生存和社会组织模式。这种社会生态环境为纵向调查社会紧张和居住迁移对母婴健康的影响提供了极好的机会。这项研究的中心假设是，社会压力对健康有负面影响，与营养无关。关于唾液免疫因素、牛奶能量、健康、人体测量学、母亲压力和家庭流动性的数据将从一系列母婴配对中收集，以测试压力较大母亲的婴儿是否表现出较差的健康和生长障碍的证据。虽然营养对儿童早期幸福感的影响已经被广泛研究，但这将是第一次结合人种学、心理神经免疫学和能量学方法纵向跟踪母婴健康的研究。因此，这项工作将为我们提供更丰富的理解，了解社会和生态因素如何影响母亲的福祉，从而塑造婴儿的健康状况。

This project examines the extent to which social and ecological stressors influence mother and infant health among the Eastern Panare of Venezuela. The people of this community are swidden horticulturists who have no access to institutional healthcare, few social or economic ties with outsiders, and whose daily activities reflect traditional patterns of subsistence and social organization. This socio-ecological environment provides an excellent opportunity for a longitudinal investigation of the effects of social tension and residential movement on mother-infant health. The central hypothesis of this study is that social stressors have a negative effect on health, independent of nutrition. Data on salivary immune factors, milk energy, health, anthropometrics, maternal stress, and family mobility will be collected from a series of mother-infant pairs to test whether infants of more highly stressed mothers exhibit evidence of poorer health and growth disruptions. While the influence of nutrition on early childhood well-being has been extensively studied, this will be the first study to combine ethnographic, psychoneuroimmunological, and energetic methods to longitudinally track mother and infant health. Consequently, this work will provide us with a much richer understanding of how both social and ecological factors influence maternal well-being and thus shape infant health status.