Translational Research.ppt

Steps toward a Transdisciplinary and Community-Based Approach To Health Disparity Mark Nichter, University of Arizona, April 2003 Five Objectives Propose ways of thinking about culture and ethnicity productive to a health disparity agenda. Make a case for transdisciplinary research involving the health and social sciences contributing to a eco-social epidemiological understanding of health problems attentive to nested contexts and syndemic patterns of ill health Describe cross disciplinary research as a continuum and transdisciplinary research as a process Objectives: Provide an overview of two broad areas of transdisciplinary research essential to a health disparity agenda Translational research Formative research process Participatory research Cultural competency training Moving beyond first steps on a cultural competence continuum Using anthropologists as facilitators Objectives Revisit transdisciplinary research Identify challenges and stumbling blocks Objective one Propose ways of thinking about culture and ethnicity productive to a health disparity agenda. Ethnicity When ethnicity is employed as a category in public health and medicine, it is important to be clear about one’s assumptions (and intentions) How is ethnic designation going to be used in data analysis and how will this frame thinking about interventions? Ethnicity Is an ethnic label being used to examine the possible role of biological differences? Is ethnicity a proxy for a whole bundle of social and economic factors associated with the position a group of people has been forced to assume as a result of a history of discrimination or oppression As a marker of social inequity and structural violence Ethnicity Is ethnicity being examined to determine whether the distinctive characteristics of an ethnic groups’ “culture” are protecting or exposing this group to particular types of risk? How should we think about culture? Culture is commonly thought of as an enduring set of social