Sociological Orientations and Clinical Trials Research: Community-Based Participatory Research with the Fort Peck Tribes

• In Event: 1523 - Practice Symposium Roundtables
  In Informal Discussion Roundtable: Table 2: Working with and for Communities in Practice Settings

Abstract

Sociologists might not consider their work applicable to clinical trials research and implementing health care interventions, yet sociology and public health have much to enrich the other as we attempt to solve complex social problems. Interdisciplinary solutions-based work in the field with complex health disparities requires more than just multidisciplinary reference lists and intended good will. In particular, sociologists could benefit from utilizing the methodology of Community-Based Participatory Research, especially in research with American Indians. Similarly, public health can benefit from the macro-level thinking intrinsic to sociological theories and orientations.

Large sexual health disparities exist when comparing American Indians with white populations. The rate for gonorrhea is 4.2 times the rate among whites, the rate of chlamydia is 3.7 times the rate, syphilis is 2.2 times higher, and in 2014 American Indians/Alaska Natives had the highest rate of any group for hepatitis C (CDC, 2014). A history of colonization, historical trauma, and social and physical isolation exacerbate existing social problems and health care disparities on Indian Reservations in the United States. We present lessons learned from the first two years of a five-year Community-Based Participatory Research project entitled “We Are Here Now.” This multidisciplinary project tests the efficacy of a multi-level, multi-component intervention to increase condom and birth control use and decrease sexual risk behaviors in AI youth. The research is funded by an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health. Lessons learned that will be discussed include 1) understanding the gap between the theory and practice of a multi-systems approach to intervention implementation; 2) difficulties navigating centuries of colonialism and their effects in the modern day context; 3) differences of best practices with Indigenous populations in the United States and the CBPR partnership model; and 4) navigating the inter-racial, inter-tribal, and interdisciplinary landscape in a reality-based context.

Authors

• Genevieve Cox, Montana State University

• Ramey Escarcega-Growing Thunder, Fort Peck Tribes Language and Culture Department

• Paula Firemoon, Fort Peck Community College

• Adriann Ricker, Community Advisory Board Member

• Paige Lisowski, Montana State University

• Elizabeth Rink, Montana State University