Project Name: ENDS (Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems)
Institution: Nuevos Rumbos Corporation (Bogotá, Colombia)
Mentor: Dr. Augusto Pêrez Gómez
The acronym ENDS is not used because many devices do not include nicotine. In Spanish, Vapes are more commonly known as CEV (Cigarrillos Electrónicos y Vapeadores). This study has colected so far 6,000 surveys in 15 schools all around the country, and has the goal to reach more places and collect 15,000 additional surveys. The survey includes questions regarding tobacco use, age at onset for tobacco and CEV, reasons of use, literacy about CEV, parents support for using CEVs and other variables.
Initial results show that adolescents are using CEV at least twice as frequently as tobacco. The selected student would participate in the analysis of data and the production of papers comparing regions of Colombia, focus groups aimed at gathering qualitative information, the analysis of such information and other related research activities.
Project Name: Impact of drug abuse on family life
Institution: Nuevos Rumbos Corporation (Bogotá, Colombia)
Mentor: Dr. Augusto Pêrez Gómez
This is a very original project, without precedents in the scientific literature. The aim is to understand what is called in the field of health economy “intangible costs”: in this case, the suffering, emotional distress, conflict and communicational disturbances associated with the fact of having a member of the family involved in drug problems. So far 400 families have been interviewed and 31 hypothesis have been formulated, making this project a very rich and promising source of knowledge.
Project Name: The Behavioral Health of Venezuelan Families in Diaspora: A Cross-National Study of Migration-Related Stress and Resilience
Institution: Nuevos Rumbos Corporation (Bogotá, Colombia)
Mentor: Dr. Augusto Pêrez Gómez
Venezuelans are among the fastest-growing immigrant groups in the United States and the largest group of migrants in Colombia, filing two times the number of US asylum applications annually in comparison to citizens from any other country. Our preliminary research— coupled with surveillance statistics and front-line journalism—suggests that depression and alcohol misuse are significant challenges for this population, and that many Venezuelan crisis migrants are exposed to high levels of stress before and after migrating. This research will provide us vital knowledge to address the needs of Venezuelan crisis migrant families, and well as a way to respond to future crisis migrations. The aim of the research is: Identify pre and post-migration risk and protective factors related to depression and alcohol misuse among Venezuelan crisis migrant youth and their parents. Determine the mechanisms by which pre-migration factor (e.g. chronic hunger) and post-migration cultural stress impact depression and alcohol misuse among Venezuelan crisis migrants. Disseminate findings to accelerate efforts to support Venezuelan crisis migrant families. In order to reach the goals of the longitudinal study, we are going to obtain quantitative and qualitative information including surveys and interviews at different points of the 4-year project that will be administered to the same migrant population. Measures include: behavioral health outcomes, depressive symptoms, alcohol misuse, crisis migration factors (pre-migration), migration-related Cultural Stress (post-migration), protective factors, family functioning, and sociodemographic measures.
Project Name: Social networks and sentimental relationships
Institution: Nuevos Rumbos Corporation (Bogotá, Colombia)
Mentor: Dr. Augusto Pêrez Gómez
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, among others, are social networks used by millions of people in every Western country. This project is aimed at identifying their influence on the development of sentimental relationships and their evolution and termination. People of different age groups will be interviewed individually, in couples and in small groups. Mentees will participate in data collection and in all phases of the analyses and paper production.
Project Name: Pan-American Data Initiative for the Analysis of Population’s Racial/Ethnic Health Inequalities (Pan-Diaspora)
Institution: Universidad de los Andes
Mentor: Dr. Diego Lucumi
This research project examines the availability, quality and scope of data collected and used on race/ethnicity in urban areas in the Pan-American region. Our assessment focuses on national census data, health surveys and health surveillance systems (HS/HSS) and vital statistics registries (VSR). These data sources have critical implications for the accurate documentation of racial health inequities, the creation of measures designed to describe the social conditions in which marginalized racial/ethnic groups are embedded (e.g. racial residential segregation), and the development of policy action designed to mitigate and eliminate racial health inequities. Our research focuses on Black and Afro-descendants in major urban areas in Brazil and Colombia, and on Black, Afro-diasporic and Latinx populations in Canada and the United States, examining health and social inequities related principally to infectious and noncommunicable diseases, and maternal and infant mortality. Specifically, our project aims to:
1. Examine the current data collection practices on race/ethnicity in the region
2. Evaluate the use and scope of population-based race/ethnicity data in the context of major health outcomes inequalities in the region
3. Generate practical and technical guidelines for the collection, utilization, analysis, and interpretation of race/ethnic data in the Pan-American region.
This project includes a thorough review of data collection instruments and the application of descriptive statistics to identify the presence, frequency and distribution of race/ethnicity population based data (aim 1). We integrate an intersectionality lens with a mixed-methods approach for the assessment of the use and interpretation of the data (aims 1, 2 and 3). Recommendations for policy action to decision makers and other stakeholders will be produced through policy and data briefs (aim 3).
This work has critical implications for the accurate documentation of racial health inequities, the creation of measures designed to describe the social conditions in which marginalized racial/ethnic groups are embedded (e.g., racial residential segregation), and the development of policy action designed to mitigate and eliminate racial health inequities. This project is conducted by multidisciplinary group of researchers from Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, and the US.
