Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating Attitudes On Health-Seeking Behavior Among A Network Of People Who Inject Drugs, Ayako Shimada, Ashley Buchanan, Natallia Katenka, Benjamin Skov, Gabrielle Lemire, Stephen Kogut, Samuel Friedman

Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

People who inject drugs (PWID) are often members of HIV/AIDS risk networks, where individuals engage in sexual and injection risk behavior. Engagement in HIV care is important for this population. Low socioeconomic status, stigmatization, and lack of access to medical care often complicate successful engagement in the HIV cascade of care for PWID. This study investigates how individual’s attitudes about how much control they have over HIV/AIDS risk in their life (i.e., locus of control and self-blame) affect health-seeking behavior in PWID participants and their community members. We applied causal inference methodology to PWID HIV risk networks ascertained from the …

“I Can’T See How People Could Walk Through That Exhibit And Not Be Forever Changed”: A Qualitative Analysis Exploring The Use Of Art In Research Dissemination, Vincent M. Pepe, Allison Sowers, Michelle Pimentel, Alexa Hoffman, Cierrah Doran, Amanda Guth, Sameer Khan, Willie Baronet, Rosemary Frasso

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Background: Art can be a strong advocacy tool; it can be used to amplify the voices of marginalized communities and can change people’s perceptions of the world and others in it. In 2018, an art exhibit at Jefferson University included the cardboard signs of people who panhandle in Philadelphia as well as excerpts from in-depth interviews with those who panhandle to highlight their lived experiences. While the team published an article about this work, the purpose of this follow-up study is to explore the lasting impact of the exhibit experience on attendees’ perceptions of people who panhandle.

Methods: Fourteen attendees …