University of Connecticut graduate student Lara Watkins, supervised by Dr. Roy G. D'Andrade, will investigate the relationship between social and cultural factors and health. The focus of her research will be on culturally mediated risk factors for type 2 diabetes within Cambodian American communities in Connecticut.
Watkins' research will engage both established risk factors for diabetes and also sociocultural factors, including "status syndrome" (those with lower status are at risk due to limited control and decreased social participation) and cultural consonance (the ability to live according to the standards of a culture). She will use a multi-methods approach. She will undertake participant observation and semi-structured interviews to produce an ethnographic description of how diabetes is culturally situated in a population that has a history of trauma, starvation, and migration. She will use structured interviews to collect quantitative measures of established (BMI, blood pressure, family history, nutrition, cholesterol, and physical activity) and culturally mediated factors, including mental health, perceived control, social participation, and cultural consonance.
These data will allow Watkins to do a comparative assessement of the explanatory power of both established risk factors and status syndrome and cultural consonance measures, for diabetes risk within Cambodian American communities. This will be the first time such a comparison has been done for this community. By applying anthropological theory and methods to an escalating public health threat, the research will contribute to an understanding of socio-cultural factors in chronic disease and health disparities. It will contribute to a better understanding of biocultural factors that may place anyone at increased risk for diabetes. This research is a partnership between academia and community, ensuring that the research is both theoretically and practically grounded from the development of the research topic to the dissemination of findings. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.
