Current Projects, University of Florida

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Dissertation Research: Culture, Change and Chronic Stress in Lowland Bolivia (funded by NSF #1154738) – January 2012-July 2013

ABSTRACT

University of Florida doctoral candidate, Alan Schultz, supervised by Dr. Clarence Gravlee, will undertake research on the relationship between stress and socio-cultural change. The research will be carried out among a group of foraging-farmers, the Tsimane’ of lowland Bolivia, who are at an early stage of exposure to markets and non-traditional cultures. The researcher will try to solve the puzzle of why Tsimane’ have some of the lowest known rates of short-term stress biomarkers and related adverse health outcomes despite two decades of increasing market exposure, which is usually associated with increased stress and worsening health.

The study will take up these topics using a variety of social science methods, including long-term participant observation focused on local experiences and interpretations of market exposure and social stratification. Key points of focus are the psychosocial stress pathway and culture’s role in shifts of the balance between stressors and resistive resources. Structured ethnography will be used to isolate cultural models of social status, social relations and material lifestyle. The project culminates in an epidemiologic survey that tests individual beliefs and behavior against shared ideals linking these to the stress process and outcomes such as blood pressure and a retrospective stress biomarker, hair cortisol. The project also includes an innovative investigation of the impact of local ontology on the effects of market integration and an examination of the impacts of the local research economy that has resulted from the fact that as one of the world’s last relatively isolated populations, the Tsimane’ have hosted researchers for decades.

The research is innovative because it links culture and meaning to individual biological and health outcomes in a population that has so far remained resistant to chronic stress and related poor health. More generally, isolation of the roles that culture and meaning have played in limiting chronic stress during market exposure will suggest alternative areas of inquiry on chronic stress in other populations. Supporting the research also supports the education of a graduate student.

Pre-Dissertation Project (funded by TAPS and an NSF REG) – Summer 2010

The Social Network Analysis of a Tsimane’ Village, Summer 2010, Bolivia

The purpose of this study is to characterize aspects of the social structure of all adult residents of a Tsimane’ village in Beni Department, Bolivia. The two major aims of the project are, (1) to answer several questions regarding the application of social network analysis in this novel environment and, (2) to map pilot social networks that will include both egocentric (personal) and sociocentric (whole) network data.

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Work as a Graduate Research Assistant

Social and cultural context of racial inequalities in health

This project focuses on how social and cultural factors shape the experience of racism and other social stressors that contribute to poor health. (Clarence Gravlee and Chris McCarty, PIs)

For the qualitative data analysis we are using MAXQDA. For geographic mapping we are using ArcMap from ESRI.

Some examples of GIS used for sampling:

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Past Projects, Cal-EIS

Fellow, California Epidemiologic Investigation Service, UC Berkeley and Office of AIDS, California Department of Public Health

Studying Youth in Northern California

A public health research study assessing narcotic and stimulant use among 14-25 year-olds in five Northern California counties with an emphasis on how such factors and forces place this population at risk for HIV and related health problems. The SYNC Study is a multidisciplinary collaboration of researchers and public health experts from SFSU, UCSF, & the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Joaquin and San Mateo funded by the California Department of Health Services/Office of AIDS (CDHS/OA).

HEYMAN

A Survey of HIV Seroprevalence, Markers for Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and Assessment of Associated Risk Behaviors in Young Men Residing in Low-Income Neighborhoods in Five Northern California Counties is a sequel to the Young Women’s Survey (YWS) which was conducted between the period of 1996- 1998. Just like YWS, HEYMAN is a collaboration of the California Department of Health Services, Office of AIDS and Center for AIDS Prevention Studies.

CDC’s Medical Monitoring Project

The primary objectives of MMP are to obtain data from a probability sample of HIV-infected persons receiving care in California in order to:

• describe HIV care and support services being received and the quality of such services;describe the prevalence and occurrence of co-morbidities related to HIV disease;
• determine prevalence of ongoing risk behaviors and access to and use of prevention service among persons living with HIV;
• and identify met and unmet needs for HIV care and prevention services in order to inform community and care planning groups, health care providers, and other stakeholders