Exploring lived experiences of gunshot wound survivors: A key to ethnographically informed public health interventions for curbing firearm violence.

Intro: The high rates of gun violence in the United States are a recognized public health concern with increased attention since the 1990's. The predominant studies used in gun violence research have been epidemiological approaches and quantitative analyses. This study, instead, examines lived experiences of gunshot wound survivors to better understand their situations.

The Understanding and Impact of COVID-19 and Pandemic Policies on Syrian and Other Arabic-Speaking Refugees in Tampa, Florida.

 Vulnerable communities around the world, such as Syrian refugees, faced increased social and financial strain due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We evaluated the underlying issues and inequities of Arabic-speaking refugees during the pandemic.  Data were collected from Arabic-speaking refugees (  = 20) in July 2020, using an online 97-item questionnaire, in short response and multiple-choice formats.

Patient Shadowing: A Useful Research Method, Teaching Tool, and Approach to Student Professional Development for Premedical Undergraduates.

Problem: Questions have been raised about whether undergraduate institutions are effectively preparing premedical students in the sociobehavioral and cognitive reasoning content found on the revised Medical College Admission Test, providing opportunities to understand and apply these sociobehavioral and cognitive reasoning concepts in real-world scenarios, and offering career exploration opportunities.

Approach: The Research in Physician-Patient Interactions course is a 15-week course designed for premedical students and taught through the collaboration of an emergency medicine physician and an applied medical anthropologist. As of January 2016, the course is offered each spring at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.

Can Sanitation Technology Play a Role in User Perceptions of Resource Recovery? An Evaluation of Composting Latrine Use in Developing World Communities in Panama.

There remains a large unmet need for sanitation access throughout the world that compromises both human and environmental health. Opportunities exist to employ sanitation systems that better utilize and recover scarce resources from excreta such as water, energy, and nutrients. However, technologies such as a composting latrine may require more maintenance and close handling of feces compared to other sanitation technologies.

Discovering successful strategies for diabetic self-management: a qualitative comparative study.

Objective: This project explored lifestyles of patients in good and poor control to identify naturally occurring practices and strategies that result in successful diabetes management.

Research Design And Methods: Semistructured interviews with adult patients with type 2 diabetes explored diet, food preparation, physical activity, medication use and glucose monitoring. Patients (n=56) were classified into good (A1C <7.

Culture and Dehydration: A Comparative Study of Caída de la Mollera (Fallen Fontanel) in Three Latino Populations.

A sunken soft-spot or fontanel is a sign for dehydration in infants. Around the world, folk illnesses, such as caída de la mollera in some Latin American cultures, often incorporate this sign as a hallmark of illness, but may or may not incorporate re-hydration therapies in treatment strategies. This report describes a study of lay descriptions of causes, symptoms, and treatments for caída de la mollera in three diverse Latin American populations.

Are differences between patient and provider explanatory models of diabetes associated with patient self-management and glycemic control?

In this study we test whether differences between patient and provider explanatory models of diabetes affect self-management and glucose control in type 2 diabetes patients. Diabetic patients (n=60) and family practice physicians (n=39) in Guadalajara, Mexico, responded to a structured explanatory model interview (130 questions on causes, symptoms, and treatments). A cultural consensus analysis indicated a widely shared model among physicians and provided a single shared set of answers to the questions.

Concepts of race and ethnicity among health researchers: patterns and implications.

Objectives: This study adds to the discussion of appropriate categories of analysis in health research. We contribute data based on actual interviews about the concepts of race and ethnicity, conducted among a broad range of US health researchers.

Design: In-person qualitative interviews were conducted with 73 scientists at two health research institutions, one that focused on public health research, and one that focused on research about a specific disease.

Explanatory models of diabetes in the U.S. and Mexico: the patient-provider gap and cultural competence.

Successful management of type 2 diabetes requires support and collaboration between diabetic patients, their health care providers, family and community. Using data collected in 1994-2001, we describe illness beliefs of physicians, patients, and representative samples of community members in the US and Mexico. We test whether differences in conceptualizations of diabetes are greater across national and linguistic boundaries or between physicians and lay groups.

Cross-cultural perspectives on physician and lay models of the common cold.

We compare physicians and laypeople within and across cultures, focusing on similarities and differences across samples, to determine whether cultural differences or lay-professional differences have a greater effect on explanatory models of the common cold. Data on explanatory models for the common cold were collected from physicians and laypeople in South Texas and Guadalajara, Mexico. Structured interview materials were developed on the basis of open-ended interviews with samples of lay informants at each locale.

Susto and nervios: expressions for stress and depression.

Folk illnesses that are cultural constructions of psychological distress offer a vehicle for the cross-cultural study of stress and stress-related morbidity. This study explores the relationship between the Latin American folk illnesses susto and nervios and mental health. We hypothesize that these folk illnesses are distinct and that there is a stronger association between current levels of stress and depressive symptoms with past experience of nervios than with susto, because the cultural constructions of these folk illnesses reflect chronic and acute concepts of distress, respectively.

"Diabetes is my companion": lifestyle and self-management among good and poor control Mexican diabetic patients.

This paper identifies naturally occurring lifestyle and self-care practices in managing type 2 diabetes mellitus that are associated with good glycemic control. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted in Guadalajara, Mexico, with 31 matched pairs of good and poor control diabetic patients (n=62), who were matched on their duration of disease and use of medications. While many themes were listed by both groups, a comparison of the responses indicated that themes of daily exercise with a preference for walking, eating beef and milk rather than chicken and fish, economic issues, and emotional issues distinguished poor-control patients.

The relative effect of self-management practices on glycaemic control in type 2 diabetic patients in Mexico.

Objective: In this study, we examined the relative impact of self-management activities on glycaemic control in a population at high risk for developing complications.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus of at least 1 year in duration at 30 years of age or older were sampled from the Instituto de Mexico Seguro Social (IMSS) Family Medicine Clinics in Guadalajara, Mexico (n=800). Demographic, clinical and health behaviour variables were used to predict good/poor glycaemic control, as measured by haemoglobin Alc (A1C).

A comparison of community and physician explanatory models of AIDS in Mexico and the United States.

The goal of this research was to explore differences between lay and professional explanatory models both within and between two countries. We test which effect is stronger, country of residence or professional/lay status, in determining similarities and differences of explanatory models of AIDS. Interviews conducted in Guadalajara, Jalisco (Mexico) and the Edinburg-McAllen area of south Texas (United States) elicited explanatory models of AIDS.

Focus groups in the design of prostate cancer screening information for Hispanic farmworkers and African American men.

Purpose/objectives: To gain a better understanding of men's everyday concerns as part of formative research for creating relevant prostate cancer screening education; to describe methods and processes used to conduct community-based focus groups.

Setting: Community-based settings in catchment areas surrounding Tampa, FL.

Sample: 8 community-based focus groups: a total of 71 Hispanic farmworkers and African American men.

A cross-cultural approach to the study of the folk illness nervios.

To systematically study and document regional variations in descriptions of nervios, we undertook a multisite comparative study of the illness among Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Guatemalans. We also conducted a parallel study on susto (Weller et al. 2002, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 26(4): 449-472), which allows for a systematic comparison of these illnesses across sites.

Regional variation in Latino descriptions of susto.

Susto, a folk illness not recognized by biomedical practitioners as a disease, is now formally part of the diagnostic classification system in psychiatry as a "culture-bound syndrome." Susto has been reported among diverse groups of Latin Americans, but most of those reports are several decades old and many were conducted in Indian communities. This study focuses on contemporary descriptions of susto and uses a cross-cultural, comparative design to describe susto in three diverse Latino populations.

Variation in asthma beliefs and practices among mainland Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans, Mexicans, and Guatemalans.

This study reports on community surveys of 160 representative Latino adults in Hartford, CT, Edinburg, TX, Guadalajara, Mexico; and in rural Guatemala. A 142-item questionnaire covered asthma beliefs and practices (e.g.