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Research
Projects
International Projects
Cognitive Models of HIV Decision Making
in East Indian Young Adults
(Funding Pending. PI: Vimla
L. Patel, NYS Psychiatric Institute)
 This is a continuation study, extending our
previous research studying sexual decision making of young adults in New York City. We are
extending our cognitive modeling framework to a rural and urban population in
India,
which will provide a robust test of the generalizability
of the theory and method. We will focus on populations that are not
traditionally viewed as being high risk (e.g. Monogamous women), but have
rapidly rising rates of infection. The primary aims of this research are: 1)
To develop and refine cognitive models of young Indian adults’
decision-making processes in response to situations that involve sexual risk
taking. 2) To investigate cognitive and socio-cultural factors that influence
or protect against risky sexual behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. As an example,
we will contrast urban and rural Indian populations where we may expect that
education and socio-cultural factors may exert a profound effect in
differentially shaping risk-taking behavior. 3) To conduct qualitative
research using in-depth interviews to characterize situations in which young
Indian men and women (18-24) make risky behavioral choices in their
heterosexual encounters.
Team: Vimla Patel, David
Kaufman, Nicole Yoskowitz, Kelley Urry, Lily Gutnik, Neeti Doshi
INFORM: An informatics driven - HIV/AIDS
surveillance system for Afghanistan
(Forogh
Hakimzada MA
Project)
The
menace of HIV/AIDS is continuously finding new niches in previously unharmed
regions of the world. This fact is evident from the rapid spread of the
disease in many developing and underdeveloped countries. In this project, we
study Afghanistan
as a case in point. Presently Afghanistan
faces an impending HIV/AIDS epidemic with disastrous consequences to its slow
and fledgling walk towards democracy and statehood. We examine several risk
factors that together could lead to a potentially devastating epidemic in Afghanistan and central Asia.
Despite a realistic threat of the epidemic, there is little systematic
approach available to combat the disease. A critical factor responsible for
this situation is the paucity of information about the spread, prevalence or
geographic and ethnographic patterns of the dissemination of the disease in
these countries. The lack of information stems from the absence of any
functional information gathering system that is compatible with and easily
implemented in these countries. We examine the conceptual framework of a
low-cost, information gathering system, called INFORM. INFORM will greatly
improve the process of collecting, analyzing and synthesizing information
about HIV/AIDS, even in rural areas. Our system combines innovative uses of
emerging Information and Communication Technologies and offers a simple,
functional, secure, reliable, low-cost and easy to implement system.
Furthermore, many of the problems faced by Afghanistan can be generalized to
represent those of other developing and underdeveloped countries in their
fight against HIV/AIDS and form a high leverage field where implementation of
informatics tools will produce very high yield.
Team:
Forogh Hakimzada, Sharib Khan, Vimla Patel
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