1. After reading the article by Thomas et al., comment on where your research, or your research interests, fit into the generational framework for health disparities research. If your work is 1st or 2nd generation, comment on how your work could lead in the future to 3rd or 4th generation work. If your work is 3rd or 4th generation, comment on what 1st and 2nd generation work was necessary as a foundation for your current work (or current interests).
Answer:
My research interest (NCAA Division I student-athlete access to health and wellness resources) is a 1st generation research topic; there is little to no prior research on the topic, and my first goal is a descriptive one (what’s the prevalence of access to these resources per problem in the student-athlete population compared with the non-student-athlete population).
In the event that my results suggest that there is a statistically significant difference between how the two populations access these resources, 2nd generation research would involve understanding why that is the case. 3rd generation research would focus on fixing the problem (through implementation science, for example). In my current implementation science class, I’ve been designing a theoretical intervention wherein an institution’s athletics department staff learns to share information on accessing these resources in a helpful and supportive way (the hypothesis here is that this behavior is an important predictor of the problem). Fourth generation research would then look at this intervention and examine how it varies in effectiveness by race/ethnicity and SES, for example, to see if there are ways to make it more effective for our different sub-groups.
2. The barbershop hypertension intervention, while essentially a clinical services intervention operating at either the fence or safety-net level as described by Jones, has some engagement with the social determinants of health. Interventions like that described in the Gottleib article are designed to mitigate the impact of social determinants. How could you apply one of these two types of interventions to your area of research? Propose one or two interventions that engage with social determinants on some level.
Answer:
I believe that some social determinants related to my area of research are race/ethnicity and SES. In order for an intervention to mitigate the effects of either of these two social determinants, I think that the intervention would need to specifically target certain population sub-group(s) related to these social determinants. One possible idea would be to engage with student-athlete groups that have a cultural affinity. For example, some schools have Black Student-Athlete groups. Should my research find that access to health and well-being resources varies by race/ethnicity, I wonder if it would be helpful to modify the intervention for this group (White/non-Black students wouldn’t get separate interventions, too; rather, student-athletes would all receive the intervention in the same way, and then the intervention would be presented again, albeit in a slightly different way, to one or all of the cultural affinity groups).