Monday, May 18
Students endeavor to cross gulf between study,
implementation
Community contribution tough goal for academics to reachBy
Audrey BeckDaily Bruin ContributorAt a recent forum, graduate and
post-doctoral students got a taste of the ongoing controversy over
the practical use of social science research on HIV.Students
presented their research Thursday to professionals in the field of
HIV research and treatment, sparking a dialogue on the problems
faced when transforming research into implementation."Students need
to work with community programs to plan research from the
beginning, to help them decide what the important research
questions are for the community," said Lynda Doll, chief of
Behavioral Intervention with the Center for Disease Control
(CDC).Students from the sociology, epidemiology, health sciences
and psychology departments presented a range of global and local
HIV-related studies. The research presented primarily focused on
how to achieve optimal patient health care, how risk behavior
correlates to infection rates and what behaviors are typical of
infected individuals.One such project by epidemiology student Leng
Bun Hor targets Cambodia as a country on the verge of an HIV
epidemic. He projects that, by the year 2000, around 12,000 people
will be diagnosed annually with AIDS. Her six target groups from
antenatal clinics included police and military servicemen.While
many who attended found the research engaging and educational, the
students soon found they needed to take their research a step
further to make it digestible for those who work day to day with
HIV patients.Doll pointed out the incomplete bridge between science
and practice, citing barriers within the community programs as part
of the problem.Nina Harawa, an epidemiology student, said she has
often received a luke-warm response from community programs. She
attributes this to the fact that the programs are constantly
receiving requests from researchers to fill out questionnaires and
surveys.Harawa suggested that community programs are often too
overburdened and understaffed to receive studies with as much
enthusiasm as researchers might like.Part of the problem also lies
within the research itself. Old, irrelevant or contradictory data
is often common within the research community, Doll said.Ana
Rodriguez of Project New Hope said there is insufficient data on
the Latino community in Los Angeles, which make up a large portion
of the people she deals with.Rodriguez also said in the past she
has found it difficult to work with researchers because they did
not provide any links from their research to the community.There
are also some problems inherent in the academic system. Some
students adopt the attitude that, "I am going to get my honors, my
degree or my tenure and I’ll think about the application later,"
said Fernando Argosino, a community organizer with the Asian
American Drug Abuse Program.Trista Bingham, who researched Los
Angeles middle school students, said it has always been a battle to
connect research to the community needs. She was surprised to have
that acknowledged by the CDC.Community program professionals came
forward with their own frustrations following Doll’s speech.After
hearing the discussion, Bingham said she is much more aware of the
magnitude of the struggle between research and
implementation.Professor of sociology Oscar Grusky reemphasized the
need for researchers to make a contribution to the community."The
real world doesn’t care whether its sociology, epidemiology or
psychology, as long as it works," he said.