Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Decolonize Your Diet, Jasmine A. Deras

Master's Projects and Capstones

With the industrialization of the food system in past decades, convenience foods have become the cornerstone of the standard American diet. This spike in obesity rates has been more impactful for some populations than for others. In low-income communities of color, fast and processed foods are often the most accessible and affordable source of sustenance. Critical indicators of status and well-being, health disparities are one example of the social barriers faced by predominately low-income people of color.

The Decolonize Your Diet project channels principles of resistance into its mission to improve the health of people of color in Oakland, California. …

Stigmatization Fo Hiv/Aids: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Jamie Doctrow

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the cause of a public health epidemic that has impacted millions of individuals worldwide. Though medical advances have decreased the number of AIDS related deaths by 42% since the peak year of 2004 (UNAIDS, 2015), many individuals with HIV/AIDS are unaware of their status and are not currently receiving antiretroviral treatment. Many experts have suggested that a significant barrier to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment is the social stigma that has become attached to the disease. No single cause of this stigmatization has been identified, but a variety of influences may play a role. To …

Beyond The Millennium Development Goals: An Evaluation Of The War On Hiv / Aids In Kenya, Robert G. Nyaga

Theses and Dissertations

HIV/AIDS remains a threat to Kenya and other developing nations. This thesis aimed at assessing the HIV/AIDS situation in Kenya by examining the knowledge of Kenyans towards infection and spread HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS, involvement of community opinion leaders in the HIV/AIDS campaigns, sharing of HIV/AIDS information, and government efforts to control HIV/AIDS. A sample of Kenyans (N= 103) was surveyed and asked to respond to several scales assessing each of the above items. Quantitative and qualitative methods reveal the knowledge and attitudes portrayed by Kenyans and show that, although much has been achieved, there is need …

Rural Obese African American Women And Depression, Food Culture, And Binge Eating, Tracee Tamiko Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The rural African American population has a high incidence of severe psychosocial problems and a skewed perception of obesity, despite obesity's extremely high prevalence rate in this population. Despite the acknowledgements of these problems, there is a gap in literature relative to the effective treatments for obese African Americans diagnosed with depression. This study measured correlations between obesity and depression, binge eating, and food culture amongst African American women residing in Jefferson County, MS. The health belief model was used to guide an assessment of beliefs, perceptions, susceptibility, cues to action, and self-efficacy. A cross-sectional design was used based on …

A Concurrent Mixed Method Study Exploring Iraqi Immigrants' Views Of Michigan, Kerry Luise Chamberlain

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Failure of emergency response personnel to communicate effectively with different cultures can have dire consequences during an emergency, including loss of lives and litigation costs. For emergency response personnel to communicate the risk of an emergency, it is important to understand how different groups, especially newly arrived foreign immigrants, perceive warnings and related messages. This study addressed how one of the largest category of immigrants in Michigan perceived severe tornados, influenza pandemics, power outages, severe floods, and snowstorms. The research question examined the degree to which the equation, Risk = Hazard + Outrage, explained perceptions of these hazards in Michigan …