Research News at DGHI

research

Published December 10, 2013, last updated on April 9, 2018 under Research News

The more than 100 faculty researchers affiliated with DGHI are conducting hundreds of projects around the world that span all of global health. The results from their work have the potential to make an impact extending far beyond the countries where they work. Our latest research news involves faculty members from psychiatry, cardiology, psychology, nursing and medicine, as well as recent alumni of the Duke Master of Science in Global Health:

Closer to developing a potential HIV vaccine
Duke has received a grant of up to $2.9 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce an HIV vaccine candidate that will be tested in humans. Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and faculty member at DGHI, leads this work at Duke. The investigational vaccine is the product of recent research focused on designing HIV outer coat molecules that selectively bind to the right kind of antibodies to create a more lasting immune response. Learn more.

Negative effects of methamphetamine on South African families
With the rise of methamphetamine use in South Africa’s Western Cape come the negative effects on individuals, households and the community. In a new study in International Journal of Drug Policy, DGHI faculty members Melissa Watt, Kathleen Sikkema, and Master of Science in Global Health (MSc-GH) student Steve Kimani and others, found that the drug was linked with adverse effects on mental, physical and economic well-being, as well as higher levels of incarceration and dropping out of school. Methamphetamine use was also closely associated with physical and sexual violence, transactional sex, poor birth outcomes, household conflict, and higher rates of crime and corruption. Researchers suggest more programs to address these problems and help prevent drug use in South Africa.

HPV more common in Haiti than neighboring countries
Human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the cause of cervical cancer, is found to be much more prevalent among women living in Haiti compared with other Latin American countries, according to a new study published in PLoS One. The research was led by David Walmer, adjunct associate professor of global health and Jackie Ndirangu, an alumna of the MSc-GH. Nineteen percent of the women screened tested positive for carcinogenic HPV.  The risk for HPV was twice as high for women with three or more sexual partners and those who started having sex before age 18. 

Expanding rapid diagnostic testing for malaria
A new study in Malaria Research and Treatment by MSc-GH alumna Andria Rusk and DGHI faculty member Wendy O’Meara highlights the viability of making rapid diagnostic testing for malaria more accessible at Kenyan retail shops. The research team held focus groups with shop owners in Western Kenya to understand their perceptions about the benefits and challenges of selling rapid diagnostic tests. Shop owners believed the tests would be beneficial and were eager to sell them, but they also mentioned potential challenges like cost, fear of the tests, ricks of self-treatment and regulatory concerns.

Oral health and cognitive function in older adults
New research by DGHI and Nursing faculty member Bei Wu found links between oral health and cognitive functioning in older adults living in West Virginia. Of more than 200 adults, Wu and her colleagues found better self-report oral health among older adults with normal cognitive functioning, compared with those who had cognitive impairment and mild dementia.  They suggest that primary care physicians have the opportunity to address oftentimes undetected problems by evaluating a patient’s oral health. Findings were published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Cardiovascular health in Kenya
DGHI faculty member and cardiologist Gerald Bloomfield published new research in Heart that explores multiple cardiovascular risk factors in Kenya.  He and his colleagues found the most common cardiovascular risk factors in peri-urban western Kenya are tobacco use, alcohol use, and low consumption of fruits and vegetables. Their findings reveal locally -relevant subgroup differences that could inform future prevention efforts. As the disease burden continues to transition mostly from infectious diseases to chronic diseases, researchers say this study helps fill a gap in community-based cardiovascular risk factor data.

HIV testing low for children in East Africa
New research by faculty members at the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research (CHPIR) highlights low rates of child testing for HIV in high-risk areas of East Africa. Despite a global commitment to reducing the burden of HIV/AIDS globally, the research team found that children are largely not tested for HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. They believe barriers to testing could include accessibility and acceptability. Of those children getting tested, they typically lived urban areas, had parents or caregivers with HIV or had caregivers already enrolled in a related CHPIR HIV study.  Researchers include Karen O’Donnell, Jan Ostermann, Nathan Thielman, Elizabeth Reddy, Rachel Whetten and Kathryn Whetten, as well as MSc-GH alumna Dorothy Dow.

Social support for PTSD
A new study by DGHI faculty member Brandon Kohrt found that peer support improved the mental health of child soldiers once they return from war.  Published in Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, the results show that children who received social support had more hope and showed fewer signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When there were problems between peers, the former child soldiers in Nepal had less hope and showed more symptoms of PTSD. Kohrt and colleagues suggest that maximizing peer support and minimizing stigma from peers should be prioritized within psychosocial reintegration programs, especially among former child soldiers.

In related research, Kohrt also published an editorial in The British Journal of Psychiatry exploring how we might improve mental health services based on previous research of child soldiers.  Studies show a decline of PTSD among the children who had family and community support. Kohrt argues these positive results can inform mental health treatment for adult soldiers and other trauma survivors in high-income countries, but there’s a disconnect between what’s proven to work and how people get treated. He says PTSD treatment guidelines largely recommend integrating family, spirituality and counseling, but most treatments tend to focus on the individual only. Kohrt argues more research is necessary to target interventions beyond the individual.

mHealth as a health systems strengthening tool
In the Global Health Journal: Science and Practice, DGHI Visiting Scholar Lavanya Vasudevan and colleagues argue that mHealth should be integrated into existing health system functions, rather than as stand-alone solutions. The paper  lays out a new framework for describing 12 commonly used mHealth applications in reproductive health in which mobile health technologies have been broadly implemented. Researchers say the framework is a shared tool for articulating mHealth strategies that can also help identify gaps in innovation.