Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Culture Change, Women, and Diabetes in the United Arab Emirates

亚利桑那大学的研究生Sarah Trainer将在Ivy Pike博士的指导下，对文化变迁、体重和疾病之间的关系进行人类学研究。她的研究将在阿拉伯联合酋长国（UAE）迪拜的阿联酋妇女中进行，重点是2型糖尿病。研究人员将采用情境驱动的方法来理解社会变化如何影响生物学。她将采用混合方法，包括焦点小组，结构化和半结构化访谈，以及人体测量。我们的目标是获得与肥胖和相关健康问题的出现有关的近期行为变化的人类学基础信息。特别感兴趣的领域包括迪拜的城市妇女如何应对当地的性别角色理想；非传统的“快餐”食品越来越多；改变工作模式；关于身体形象、风险和健康观念的演变；以及关于阿联酋身份的相互矛盾的信息。生物和文化的结合是这项研究的一个关键方面，它将为阿联酋的肥胖和糖尿病以及全球化和当地进程的影响提供一个独特的视角。这项研究很重要，因为世界卫生组织估计，到2030年，全球70%的死亡将是慢性病造成的。许多国家仍然缺乏应对慢性病增加所带来的社会、政治和经济影响的能力。虽然本研究侧重于这些过程的当地背景，但其方法和观点可用于考虑发展驱动的变化对世界各地其他人群的影响。这项研究也将有助于社会科学家的教育。

University of Arizona graduate student, Sarah Trainer, with guidance from Dr. Ivy Pike, will undertake anthropological research on the relationship between culture change, weight, and disease. Her reseach will be carried out among Emirati women in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a focus on type 2 diabetes. The researcher will take a context-driven approach to understanding how social change can affect biology. She will employ mixed methods, including focus-groups, structured and semi-structured interviews, and anthropometric measurements. The goal is to obtain anthropologically grounded information regarding recent shifts in behavior related to the emergence of obesity and associated health problems. Particular areas of interest include how urban women in Dubai cope with local gender role ideals; the increased availability of non-traditional, "fast" foods; changing work patterns; evolving ideas about body image, risk, and health; and conflicting messages about Emirati identity. The meshing of the biological and cultural is a pivotal aspect of the study and will provide a unique perspective on obesity and diabetes in the UAE, as well as on the impact of the globalizing and local processes occurring there.The research is important because the World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, seventy percent of all deaths globally will be the result of chronic disease. Many countries remain ill-equipped to face the social, political, and economic repercussions of these increases in chronic disease. Although this study focuses on the local context of these processes, its methods and perspectives can be used to consider the effects of development-driven changes in other populations around the world. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.