COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Cultural Beliefs and Health Status in Type 2 Diabetics

这个合作项目（与0108228）研究医学人类学的一个核心问题，文化信仰和健康状况之间的关系。 该项目调查了2型糖尿病患者，以了解人们使用什么策略来成功地控制疾病，以及这些策略是否因种族而异。 将对三组患者进行研究，分别为德克萨斯州加尔维斯顿的墨西哥、非洲和欧美糖尿病患者，以及墨西哥瓜达拉哈拉的墨西哥患者（与墨西哥同事一起研究）。 该项目还将分析糖尿病的文化模式与供应商的理解更接近的患者是否比理解更多样的患者享有更好的健康状况。该项目还将研究民间疾病“susto”与糖尿病的共同发生是否与普遍较差的健康状况有关。方法包括民族志访谈，共识分析，血红蛋白A1 c的措施，以评估健康状况，标准的自我报告量表，在西班牙语，重点是抑郁症和压力和正式的社会支持访谈。这项研究的结果将促进我们对文化和个人信仰体系在个人健康状况中的作用的理解;将促进民族志研究中共识分析的使用;并将为处理糖尿病的卫生专业人员提供宝贵的新知识，以帮助为患者提供治疗方案。

This collaborative project (with 0108228) studies a core issue in medical anthropology, the relationship between cultural beliefs and health status. The project investigates patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to understand what strategies people use to successfully manage the disease, and whether these strategies differ by ethnic group. Three groups will be studied, Mexican, African- and European-American diabetic patients in Galveston, Texas, as well as Mexican patients in Guadalajara, Mexico (studied with Mexican colleagues). The project will also analyze whether patients whose cultural models of diabetes agree more closely with the understanding of providers enjoy better health status than patients whose understanding is more variant. The project will also study whether the co-occurrence of the folk illness "susto" with diabetes is associated with a generally poorer health status. Methods include ethnographic interviewing, consensus analysis, the measure of hemoglobinA1c to assess health status, standard self-report scales available in Spanish which focus on depression and stress and formal interviews about social support. The results from this research will advance our understanding of the role of cultural and individual belief systems in a person's health status; will advance the use of consensus analysis in ethnographic research; and will contribute valuable new knowledge to health professionals dealing with diabetes to help advise patients on treatment regimes.