Doctoral Dissertation Research: Origins of Diabetes Concepts in an Urban American Indian Community

威斯康星州大学博士候选人玛格丽特·波拉克在克莱尔·温德兰博士的指导下，将对人们形成疾病概念的过程进行研究。她特别关注的是参与慢性病护理的多个参与者如何发展和谈判他们对疾病的理解。这项研究将在伊利诺斯州的芝加哥进行，研究对象包括美国印第安人糖尿病患者、非正式护理人员和生物医学提供者。 美洲印第安人是世界上糖尿病发病率最高的人群之一。 虽然超过60%的美洲印第安人生活在城市地区，但大多数关于美洲印第安人糖尿病流行的研究都集中在保留地。 研究方法将包括参与者观察，参与者阴影，半结构化访谈，以及研究参与者使用的糖尿病相关文献的收集和分析。该项目旨在实现三个总体研究目标：（1）记录形成患者和提供者的糖尿病概念的因素，（2）追踪这些概念的运动，以便理解患者知识被生物医学模型形成的程度，以及患者知识影响生物医学模型的程度，以及（3）调查这些糖尿病概念在美国城市印第安社区的构成中起什么作用。该研究具有政策和理论建设的重要性。它将通过调查疾病概念是如何通过社会互动以及通过生物医学证据形成的，扩大人类学和科学技术研究的奖学金。这项研究的结果也将为公共卫生工作者提供深入了解，制定在城市和多元文化医疗环境中实施的糖尿病预防和护理计划。 此外，该研究将有助于城市美国印第安人生活的人类学研究，通过调查糖尿病和当地卫生和社会机构传播的疾病概念在整合来自不同部落和个人背景的个人方面发挥的作用。 支持这项研究也支持研究生的教育。

University of Wisconsin doctoral candidate Margaret Pollak, with the guidance of Dr. Claire Wendland, will undertake research on the processes through which people form concepts of disease. Her particular focus will be on how multiple actors involved in chronic condition care develop and negotiate their understandings of disease. The research will be conducted in Chicago, Illinois, with American Indian diabetics, informal caregivers, and biomedical providers. American Indians have some of the highest rates of diabetes worldwide. While more than sixty percent of American Indians live in urban areas, the majority of studies on the American Indian diabetes epidemic are centered on reservations. Research methods will include a combination of participant observation, participant shadowing, semi-structured interviews, and the collection and analysis of diabetes-related literature utilized by research participants. The project seeks to meet three overarching research objectives: (1) document the factors that shape patient and provider concepts of diabetes, (2) trace the movement of these concepts in order to understand the extent to which patient knowledge is shaped by biomedical models, as well as the extent to which patient knowledge influences biomedical models, and (3) investigate what role these diabetes concepts play in the constitution of an urban American Indian community. The research has both policy and theory-building importance. It will extend scholarship in anthropology and science and technology studies by investigating how disease concepts are formed through social interactions as well as through biomedical evidence. Findings from this research also will offer insight to public health workers developing diabetes prevention and care programs to be implemented in urban and multicultural healthcare settings. In addition, the research will contribute to anthropological studies of urban American Indian life by investigating what role diabetes and concepts of the condition disseminated by local health and social institutions play in integrating individuals from varied tribal and personal backgrounds. Supporting this research also supports the education of a graduate student.