Graduate student, Toni Copeland, supervised by Dr. Kathryn S. Oths, will use cognitive anthropological methods to explore a shared cultural model of self-managing HIV/AIDS among extremely poor HIV-positive women who are not receiving biomedical treatment in Nairobi, Kenya. Cultural consensus analysis will be used to statistically determine if the length of time women have lived in Nairobi is associated with their knowledge of the model of managing their illness. Women's knowledge will also be compared to their level of NGO involvement, reported perceived stress, depressive symptoms, locus of control, and recent illness symptoms, or overall health.
Kenya is an ideal place to investigate social and cultural factors in the lives of HIV-positive women because of the ethnic diversity, high rates of unemployment and poverty, HIV/AIDS prevalence, gender inequalities, and growth of urban areas due to rural to urban migration. Poor, HIV-positive women in Nairobi face many problems, especially in dealing with their illness in the absence of biomedical treatment. Many of these women have migrated to the city from rural areas. As they adjust to changes, they may be unable to access social resources that are culturally defined, resulting in increased difficulty in managing their illness and in poorer health outcomes.
This project will add to the medical anthropology literature on the relation between culture and disease by providing a description of a cultural model of managing HIV/AIDS, as well as insight into the effect of sociocultural change on women's knowledge of cultural models of self-management of HIV/AIDS and their ability to access resources. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.
