Student research

Examples of student research in global health over the last few years are listed below. Epidemiology Health Behavior & Health Education Health Policy & Management   Matneral & Child Health Epidemiology Padmaja (Piku) Patnaik, (PhD '04) Piku began by working on an AIDS prevention project with MEASURE Evaluation in her first year at UNC. She spent her first summer in India where she implemented a novel community-based method for identifying locations where transmission of HIV may be high and AIDS prevention should be targeted. She continued to work on this study, and completed a third round of data collection. During her second summer, Piku assisted with the implementation of a similar study in Burkina Faso. Through her training with MEASURE Evaluation, Piku gained substantial experience in questionnaire development, questionnaire adaptation, training of fieldworkers, datacollection, collaboration with local health organizations, field supervision, and overall study coordination. Additionally, the training provided her with opportunities to conduct data analysis, write reports, and present results at international conferences. For her dissertation, Piku analyzed data on malaria and HIV that was collected prospectively in Malawi. Using epidemiological analytic methods, she examined the reciprocal effects of HIV and Plasmodium falciparum on a cohort of adults in Malawi. Though this project, Piku gained experience in data management, data analysis, and manuscript preparation for submission to peer-reviewed journals. For students seeking international internships or research opportunities, Piku's advice is to be proactive in searching for relevant international projects. You can use the UNC funding database to search for funding opportunities. Back to top  Health Behavior & Health Education Corrina Moucheraud (MPH '05) Corrina Moucheraud, the Graduate Research Assistant in the Office of Global Health 2004-2006 spent a summer in Nigeria working for Catholic Relief Services. Using this experience to fulfill both her HBHE field placement requirement and her Global Health Certificate internship requirement, she spent ten weeks working on a large community-based HIV/AIDS care and support project. Corrina spoke with project coordinators, volunteers, and people living with HIV/AIDS who participate in the program activities in order to develop a monitoring and evaluation plan for the project. Her work has culminated in the development of a 75-page handbook of information, tools, and instructions to be used by project partners. Back to top  Amy Corneli (PhD '04) "Development and Evaluation of a Context-Specific Informed Consent Process for a U.S.-Funded Clinical Trial in Lilongwe, Malawi" Obtaining informed consent in U.S.-funded international research is a challenge. Two areas of concern include participant understanding and individual consent. In 2002, a formative research study was conducted in Lilongwe, Malawi, to gather data from the community on issues surrounding study participation to inform a clinical trial on the safety and efficacy of antiretroviral and nutrition interventions to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV during breastfeeding. These data suggested the community had limited understanding of research such that they believed all medicines provided would have already been tested to be safe and efficacious; participants would be assigned to a study arm based on their individual health needs, not based on chance; and the clinical trial was designed to benefit enrolled participants. Several participants also suggested the inclusion of husbands in the decision-making process of potential study participants, thus revealing the complexity of decision-making when women are considering research participation. Given these findings, additional investigation was necessary in order to further explore participant understanding of research and the social context in which participants make decisions about participation in research.  Consequently, in May 2003, we conducted additional formative research on participant understanding of consent information, specifically focusing on how we can best explain research concepts and study procedures to potential study participants. We also explored the social context in which potential study participants make decisions regarding participation in medical research. Findings from both formative studies were used to modify the informed consent process specifically for the Malawian context. Additional research was carried out from October throughDecember 2003 to evaluate the standard-of-care consent form for the clinical trial, a context-specific consent form, and counseling cards that incorporate context-specific text with drawings. My dissertation involved the development and evaluation of the consent processes. (Pictures are from our training for the 2002 formative research study for the clinical trial) Back to top  Yvonne Owens Ferguson, (MPH '99) Yvonne spent the summer of 2002 in South Africa. Below is her report on her summer experiences as well as her current work and future plan. "South Africa Summer Experience" I met Zuma, a refugee woman from Uganda, during my summer in Cape Town, South Africa. Zuma looked in excellent health and high spirits even though she had been living with HIV for the past 11 years. She shared that she contracted the virus from her husband in Uganda and had not tested her youngest child for the virus. We talked for about an hour, but the impact she had on my life will last a lifetime. I spent the summer of 2002 in South Africa conducting a qualitative research analysis with the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) in Cape Town, South Africa. As a Graduate Student Fellow in the National Institutes of Health Minority International Research Traineeship Program, my project consisted of reading and analyzing over 50 focus groups and key informant interviews from various racial/ethnic groups and religious affiliations from all nine South African provinces. These transcripts detailed what the various communities thought about HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support efforts, but only through face-to-face interactions with South Africans did I see the transcripts come to life. Zuma was only one of many people in South Africa living with HIV. Currently, among the sub-Saharan countries, South Africa is experiencing HIV/AIDS in pandemic proportions and the incidence rates continue to increase. With a population of 39.8 million in 2001, about 1 in 9 South Africans (or 4.7 million people) are living with HIV/AIDS. (UNAIDS, 2001). During my everyday interactions with the HIV/AIDS researchers I worked with, friends, shop vendors and taxi drivers, I would conduct informal interviews to get their thoughts on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Most of my interactions were consistent with the transcripts in that everyone acknowledged HIV/AIDS as a major problem and stressed that something needs to be done about it. Although the "something" to address the problem was vague or abstract, everyone seemed very concerned about the epidemic. From this summer experience, I have continued working on this qualitative project with the HSRC and hope to publish a manuscript about this research. Additionally, I want to continue working on the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic by creating interventions to address the various HIV/AIDS-related issues. Overall, experiencing South Africa was incredible and I would encourage any student interested in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa to travel and stay in the country for a long period of time. You won't regret it. Back to top  Health Policy & Administration Jipan Xie, (PhD student) Jipan focused her research on Asia -- mostly in China, where she is from. She did a paper with Professor William Dow in the department of Health Policy and Management on childhood immunization in China. The paper examined whether household wealth, urbanicity, and gender affected childhood immunization. It found that household wealth and gender are not very significant in this relationship but that urbanicity is a significant predictor. Right now, she is exploring another topic: son preference in China, funded by a small grant from the Carolina Population Center. She wrote a paper with Dr. Dongbao Yu from China CDC, Professor William Dow, Professors Myron Cohen and Gail Henderson from the School of Medicine on "Assessing China's Health Infrastructure for AIDS prevention and Treatment."  Her disseration focused on issues of aging in China. Melanie Wasserman (PhD '04) As a doctoral student Melanie focused on Latino origin, migration, and the use of preventive maternal and child health services in North Carolina for her dissertation project. The purpose of her study was to examine the relationship between rural origin and various forms of social support on Latina immigrant women's use of preventive maternal and child health services. She conducted interviews of approximately 200 Latina immigrant women in churches in 4 North Carolina counties: Orange, Durham, Chatham, and Alamance. The study used a combined qualitative and quantitative approach. Funding was provided by the Carolina Population Center, UNC Center for Health Statistics Research, and Mellon Foundation. Back to top  Maternal & Child Health Rebecca Giguere (MPH '07) Rebecca Giguere worked closely with the Latino Campaign Coordinator of the North Carolina Folic Acid Council.  Under her guidance, she researched and developed a manual for use by NCFAC Regional Coordinators and others entitled “Educating Healthcare Providers about their Latino Patients.”  This manual was then used by Rebecca and the Latino Campaign Coordinator for a training given at the end of the summer for the Regional Coordinators, including activities to promote cultural competency.  In addition, Rebecca accompanied the Latino Campaign Coordinator to a training of Latina lay health advisors, as well as a filming of a commercial for the NCFAC with a Latino family whose child has spina bifida.  Rebecca gave another training in Wake County later that year using the health care provider manual she helped to create .  Janine Barden-Ofallon (PhD '04) Dr. Barden-Ofallon spent a summer in Malawi conducting research. The objective of her project was to conduct in-depth interviews on the topic of fertility impairment and infertility in a village in rural Malawi. The information will be used to understand the meaning and context of fertility impairment in this population and to generate theory on how fertility desires can influence perceptions of fertility status. She stayed in the Mangochi district, located in the eastern region of Lake Malawi, for approximately one month in June. Funding Sources were from the Carolina Population Center and the Paul Humphrey Award. Her project was in collaboration with Save the Children Federation/USA and CPC. This project was for her dissertation and the rest of the data for her dissertation came from the survey study, "Pregnancy and STI Avoidance Study" conducted by MEASURE Evaluation and Save the Children U.S. between the period of 2000-2002 in Mangochi. This is the first time that she went to Malawi, although she had worked on the project off and on for about more than three years. Back to top

Last updated August 05, 2008