North Carolina
Russell is enrolled in a research study about interventions for people living with AIDS in the American South. “At this point, it doesn’t really matter how I got infected, because I am gonna have to live with it either way for the rest of my life,” he says. “I got it, and I won’t let HIV run my life, because I run my life.”
Health disparities are increasingly evident around the globe, including within our own region and state. In North Carolina, for example, African-Americans are at least twice as likely as whites to die of diabetes, kidney disease, AIDS or homicide; women of color are more likely to be poor, with more than one-fourth of African-American and Hispanic women living below poverty level.
The Duke Global Health Institute encourages interdisciplinary research to contribute to a better understanding of the intersections of the social, economic, political, clinical and biological sources of poor health in North Carolina and the U.S. as well as overseas.
Research in some of these areas is being conducted by faculty in the Divinity and Nursing Schools, Nicholas School of the Environment, Sanford School of Public Policy, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and the History of Medicine, the Center for Health Policy, and the Departments of Biology, Cultural Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Women’s Studies, and the Duke University Health System (particularly within Obstetrics and Gynecology and Community and Family Medicine).
Examples of global health research in North Carolina include:
- Piedmont HIV Integrated Community Access System: A network of providers through a six-county region links and coordinates services for HIV-infected people with or at high risk of contracting Hepatitis C.
- Children's Environmental Health Initiative: A collection of research projects looking at children’s vulnerabilities such as lead exposure, indoor air quality and neonatal conditions.
- Reducing Diabetes-Related Health Disparities in African-Americans: Research on the social determinants of racial and ethnic health inequalities and community-based and public policy interventions.