SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON AFRICAN AMERICAN LONGEVITY

拟议的研究将检验文化信仰的假设 非裔美国老人的行为和做法有助于他们的健康 和长寿。本研究将集中于四个文化因素：（一） 对老龄化的积极看法; 2）宗教信仰; 3）扩展的支持网络; （4）民间医药。这些信念和做法更为普遍 非裔美国人比白色老年人，似乎增加与 年龄拟议的研究将集中在这四个因素如何相互作用 以及它们是否会影响某些与 中心blog 该项目的前九个月将包括研究培训 与老年健康研究、医学人类学和非洲 美国研究。 然后两项对非裔美国人的纵向研究 老年人，一个质量和一个数量，将开始。在 定性研究15名非裔美国老年人将被 在过去的两年里，我们经常进行访问和观察。定量 研究、关于健康功能和特定文化的信息 信仰和实践将在两年内收集三次， 80位美国老人 预计质量和 定量研究将相互促进。拟议研究 旨在制定一个老龄化模型，考虑到一些 非洲裔美国人的土著资源，并为一项研究收集数据， 这将在博士后奖学金之后进行， 研究文化因素是否有助于种族交叉 现象

The proposed research will examine the hypothesis that cultural beliefs and practices of African American elderly contribute to their health and longevity. The research will focus on four cultural factors: I) positive views of aging; 2) religiosity; 3) extended support networks; and 4) folk medicine. These beliefs and practices are more prevalent among African American than White elderly and seem to increase with age. The proposed study will focus on how these four factors interact and whether they influence certain health factors associated with longevity. The first nine months of the project will consist of research training related to geriatric health research, medical anthropology and African American studies. Then two longitudinal studies of African American elderly, one qualitative and one quantitative, will begin. In the qualitative study 15 African American elderly informants will be visited and observed regularly over two years. In the quantitative study, information about health functioning and specific cultural beliefs and practices will be gathered three times over two years from 80 African American elderly. It is expected that the qualitative and quantitative research will inform each other. The proposed research aims to formulate a model of aging that considers some of the indigenous resources of African Americans and gather data for a study, which would be conducted after the post-doctoral fellowship, that examines whether cultural factors contribute to the racial crossover phenomenon.