Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons^™

Understanding The Dynamics Of Hiv Testing Services In South African Primary Care Facilities, Tonderai Mabuto, Bhakti Hansoti, Salome Charalambous, Christopher Hoffmann

HIV and AIDS

Facility-based HIV testing services remains underutilized in many settings, including South Africa—even in the context of opt-out testing. Additionally, linkages to care are often not made in a timely manner after an HIV diagnosis, limiting access to ART and the possibility of viral suppression. This brief summarizes findings from formative research conducted by Project SOAR and The Aurum Institute to understand the dynamics of HIV testing services and the key constraints to its optimal delivery.

What Do We Know About The Hiv Risk Characteristics Of Adolescent Girls And Young Women In Kenya? Findings From Dreams Implementation Science Research, Population Council

HIV and AIDS

The Population Council is conducting implementation science research in Kenya to build needed evidence to inform community-based, girl-centered interventions. DREAMS programs in Kenya are implementing a core package of interventions in the highest HIV-burden areas to address HIV risk among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW)—a population in which AIDS is the leading cause of death in the region. This brief summarizes key findings from a survey of 1,778 AGYW, more than half of whom are enrolled in DREAMS programming.

What Do We Know About The Hiv Risk Characteristics Of Adolescent Girls And Young Women In Zambia? Findings From Dreams Implementation Science Research, Population Council

HIV and AIDS

The Population Council is conducting implementation science research in Zambia and other countries across sub-Saharan Africa to build needed evidence to inform community-based, girl-centered HIV-prevention programming. Critical to this process is understanding adolescent girls’ and young women’s (AGYWs’) knowledge, attitudes, sexual behaviors, and characteristics of their sexual partnerships that may put them at risk of HIV acquisition. This results brief summarizes key findings from a cross-sectional survey of 1,915 AGYW, half of whom were 15–19 years old and the other half 20–24 years old, residing in urban districts of Lusaka and Ndola. The findings in this brief were shared at …

Preparing For A Northwest Passage: A Workshop On The Role Of New England In Navigating The New Arctic, Katharine A. Duderstadt, Catherine M. Ashcraft, Jennifer F. Brewer, Elizabeth Burakowski, Jaed M. Coffin, Jack E. Dibb, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Nancy E. Kinner, Larry A. Mayer, Jennifer L. Miksis-Olds, Joseph Salisbury, Kerri D. Seger, Ruth K. Varner, Cameron P. Wake

All Materials

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic (March 25 - 27, 2018 -- The University of New Hampshire) paired two of NSF's 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic and Growing Convergence Research at NSF. During this event, participants assessed economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and established convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and respond to these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt …

Early Results Demonstrate The Importance Of Early Treatment Of Hiv And The Feasibility And Acceptability Of Community-Based Antiretroviral Treatment Delivery For Female Sex Workers In Tanzania, Project Soar

HIV and AIDS

Project SOAR in collaboration with the National AIDS Control Program of the government of Tanzania, National Institute of Medical Research, and Jhpiego’s Sauti Program, is conducting implementation science research to investigate the delivery of community-based antiretroviral treatment (ART) services to female sex workers (FSWs) in Tanzania. This brief summarizes key findings from a baseline survey administered to a cohort of FSWs enrolled in the study, qualitative interviews with FSWs conducted three months after the start of the community-based ART services, and routine monitoring data. Early findings support the feasibility and acceptability of Sauti’s community-based antiretroviral treatment model—important first steps in …

From Bison To Cattle: The Ecology Of The Southern Plains 1500-1750, Jenni Tifft-Ochoa

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Bison made their home on the Southern Plains for millennia. However, their migratory patterns began to shift in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. My research investigated what caused this drastic shift and how it had far reaching effects on the ecology of the Southern Plains. Using archives from two prominent Catholic priests, I began to piece together why the bison left the Southern Plains. Rather than focus on the Europeans as the main players, I instead focused on the Indigenous peoples, the animals, and the land as the centralized actors in this project. I discovered that the introduction …

Feasibility And Acceptability Of Hiv Self-Testing Among Men Who Have Sex With Men In Nigeria, Population Council

HIV and AIDS

HIV self-testing (HIVST) provides an alternative to facility-based HIV testing services, particularly for key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM), who face barriers to testing due to stigma, discrimination, and criminalization. This brief reports on a study in Nigeria that demonstrates high acceptability for HIVST among MSM. Lessons learned from this study indicate that the scale-up of HIVST in Nigeria must include provision of adequate pre- and post-test counseling information, as well as the availability of helpline support to improve linkage to care for those who test positive. Future research should explore how HIV retesting can …

Evaluating A Multidisciplinary Integrated Management Team Intervention To Improve Maternal And Child Outcomes And Hiv Service Uptake And Retention In Lesotho, Project Soar

HIV and AIDS

Pregnant and postpartum HIV-positive women face a particularly complex set of barriers to prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) uptake at the policy, health facility, community, and individual levels. They are vulnerable to poor retention in care and adherence to treatment, especially in the first three months after initiation of treatment and the postpartum period. In addition, counseling and support for primary prevention among HIV-negative pregnant women is almost nonexistent in PMTCT programs. This brief describes the IMPROVE study—a multidisciplinary integrated management team intervention to increase maternal and child health and HIV service uptake and retention—that Project SOAR is …

Modeling The Expected Cost-Effectiveness And Impact Of Oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis In Uganda And Swaziland, Project Soar

HIV and AIDS

Clinical trials have shown that oral antiretrovirals (ARVs) containing tenofovir/emtricitabine used by HIV-negative individuals to prevent HIV acquisition, called oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), are safe and effective in several populations. Prior modeling work has demonstrated that oral PrEP is most cost effective when targeted to populations at very high risk of infection, with risk dependent on a combination of individual behavior and epidemic contexts. This brief describes a study Project SOAR is conducting to assist Uganda and Swaziland in making critical decisions about oral PrEP introduction and scale up by modeling the expected cost effectiveness and impact of oral PrEP …

Proposed Metrics To Measure Quality: Overview, Anrudh K. Jain, John Townsend, Saumya Ramarao

Reproductive Health

The first quality-of-care framework in family planning was articulated over 25 years ago and a considerable amount of work has been done since then to measure quality in the context of routine service delivery, yet, we do not have agreed-upon indicators to measure quality that can be applied uniformly across different health systems and social contexts. This paper takes a slightly different approach and uses a common definition of quality from the outset. Indicators of quality are required for describing the nature of family planning services and quality of care offered by a health service delivery program, and for improving …

“It Ruined My Life”: The Effects Of The War On Drugs On People Who Inject Drugs (Pwid) In Rural Puerto Rico, Roberto Abadie, C. Gelpi-Acosta, C. Davila, A. Rivera, Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background—The War on Drugs has raised the incarceration rates of racial minorities for non-violent drug-related crimes, profoundly stigmatized drug users, and redirected resources from drug prevention and treatment to militarizing federal and local law enforcement. Yet, while some states consider shifting their punitive approach to drug use, to one based on drug treatment and rehabilitation, nothing suggests that these policy shifts are being replicated in Puerto Rico.

Methods—This paper utilizes data from 360 PWID residing in four rural towns in the mountainous area of central Puerto Rico. We initially recruited 315 PWID using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and collected data about …

Ancestry Rates Among The Latino Population In New York City, 1980-2015, Sebastián Villamizar-Santamaría

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report investigates the trends in ancestry rates among the Latino population between 1980 and 2015 in New York City.

Methods: This study uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) of 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2015, released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (http://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). In this report, ancestry is defined by the respondent’s self-reported ancestry and Latino group. For example, when someone reported they were Puerto Rican and their ancestry as a single category (“Puerto Rican”), they were classified as Puerto Rican-Only ancestry. …

Extending The Utility Of Public Use Microdata, Eric A. Guthrie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Applied demography employs population studies in the effort to answer real world questions and provide insights for the problems that business and civic leaders face on an ongoing basis. To answer these questions the applied demographer sometimes performs primary research, but more often they attempt to leverage and extend the use of publicly available data to answer the questions presented in an efficient and timeconstrained manner. The work described here looks at a problem presented by the Michigan Department of Education and the solution presented by the Michigan State Demographer. The problem required estimates for a single-year age group at …

Namibia Has A Strong Foundation For Implementing The Treat All Guidelines And Reaching The Unaids 90-90-90 Targets, Project Soar

HIV and AIDS

In late 2015, the World Health Organization announced new treatment guidelines recommending that anyone who has tested positive for HIV should begin antiretroviral therapy (ART) as soon as possible. In light of this policy, the Government of Namibia included “treat all” in the 2016 National Guidelines for ART, and began nationwide implementation in April 2017. Project SOAR is generating evidence on how the national rollout of the treat all guidelines and decentralization of ART services affect client-level treatment outcomes, quality of ART services, and treatment costs in Namibia. This brief highlights baseline findings that provide a snapshot of ART services …

“The Problem With The Haitians Is Their Language”: Language As Color-Blind Racism, Ruthie Wienk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the mechanisms of exclusion and oppression of a Haitian population in a rural community in South West Florida. The analytical approach taken is an analysis of the social field and habitus as dispositions and embodied culture. Language has been identified as a tool to marginalize the population in the general social order. Through this process, language operates as a form of color-blind racism which justifies the exclusion of the Haitian community but is insufficient in explaining their overall social outcomes. Qualitative data were collected for this project in the form of unstructured interviews, focus groups, photographs of …

Current Trends In Same-Sex Couples In The United States: How Race And Gender Affect Education, Income Levels, And Urban Living, Emily Lane Haley

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Socioeconomic Achievements Of Asian Americans In The 21st Century, Bo Zhou

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation research is a comprehensive study of Asian Americans' socioeconomic achievements. It aims to measure changes of Asian Americans' socioeconomic achievements between 2005 and 2015, to examine the glass ceiling facing Asian Americans, and to evaluate the impacts of the Great Recession and concentration on occupational attainments of Asian Americans.

Three Methodological Innovations In Race And Ethnicity Research, Jeffrey Napierala

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines topics related to racial and ethnic diversity through three essays. Each essay takes a new perspective on a current issue in the literature and utilizes a unique statistical methodology to address that issue. The first essay uses the Monte Carlo Simulation Method to develop a measure of segregation for the ACS and uses it to assess whether the ACS is useful for measuring segregation in places with different sizes. The second essay considers whether a relatively unexplored factor, genetics, is correlated with migration. This perspective broadens our understanding of why migration occurs and is perpetuated over time. …

Beyond The Parental Generation : The Influences Of Grandparents' Socioeconomic Status On Grandchildren's Wellbeing, Ying Huang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Health disparities in relation to socioeconomic status are persistent and pervasive in the United States. My dissertation investigates the intergenerational determinants of child wellbeing. Driven by several life course models as well as the cumulative (dis)advantage theory, this dissertation examines whether and how grandparental socioeconomic status (SES) shapes the health and cognitive skills of their grandchildren, paying special attention to identifying direct and indirect processes, and assesses the heterogeneous effects by child race. Analyses are based on longitudinal data from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the supplemental studies of Child Development Supplement (CDS). I use multivariate …

Indigenous Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Network (Imagen): Adapting The Girl Roster™ For Lakota Communities, Kelly Hallman, Stephanie Martinez

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief reports on a first-of-a-kind meeting between the Population Council’s GIRLCenter and organizations such as the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society (WBCWS) that work locally with Native American communities to understand the specific needs of adolescent girls in Indian Country. This followed an inaugural meeting of the Indigenous Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Network (IMAGEN) with its wealth of insight concerning the needs of the Native communities they serve, and the GIRL Center’s myriad programmatic tools and resources that have been tried and tested in global settings for several decades. The IMAGEN Approach is an adaptable process that links these two …